Necroscope #11 - E-Branch 1: Invaders by Brian Lumley

Author:Brian Lumley [Lumley, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-02-05T21:52:13+00:00

the peaks with its silvery-blue ice-chip gleaming. A fine night, aye, for some …

‘… As it might have been for me had it not been for my now barely-remembered love of Nadia Zetra. Still, I cannot blame her, for I am sure that Nadia knew nothing of her mother’s plan. If she had… it’s more than likely we would have fled from our fate, becoming loners; or we might have journeyed west and joined up with some band of true Travellers in their constant evasion of the Wamphyri; or perhaps we would have been happy simply to be free a while, together she and I, and let the future take care of itself. Oh, a great many possibilities, if Nadia had known.

‘As for my father: if he had so much as suspected … then Melana’s life were forfeit long before the first of Malinari’s flyers touched down on Vadastra soil. But of course none of us knew, except Melana herself.

‘And so to the preparations.

‘All was in order. As the dusk settled in, Dinu had called for the tributes (in fact the ransom, for the life of the clan Vadastra) to be displayed on trestle tables to one side of the clearing, where he had tallied them as was his wont. Six barrels of oil, six of white wine and six of red; six of good plum brandy (and all of it ^oo^ plum brandy, mind, because Malinari was coming) and six more of wild honey. A pair of young bull shads, freshly butchered, fifteen brace of pigeon, and five of wild boar; and a very special prize indeed: a live, caged wolf of the wild, a bitch at that, and pregnant to boot! The Wamphyri are especially fond of wolf cubs basted in their mother’s milk, and of heart-of-wolf and wolf meat generally, which they swear by as an aphrodisiac and positive aid to their longevity. As if they needed such!

‘And meanwhile Dinu’s specially chosen squad of bully boys was out and about, to ensure that certain other tributes — of the human variety — were not fled. For while the tithe-markers were already drawn, the unfortunate parties had not been named for fear that they would make off into the night. Thus, as the time drew nigh, the wailing of mothers and daughters, the curses of

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men and the sobbing of their sons could be heard in and around the camp, as one by one the various listed “names” were informed of their misfortune by Dinu’s tithe-takers.

‘Some were already known, of course: the troublemakers in their cages, and outsiders who had wandered inadvertently onto Vadastra territory. But the three males, three females, and six infants of the clan itself, their naming was left to last, for the reasons stated. Then they were gathered in by Dinu’s bully boys, chained and gagged before they could voice any great complaint or cause commotion, and tethered to await the coming of the tithesmen and their vampire master, Lord Nephran Malinari. As for the

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