Necroscope: The Lost Years by Brian Lumley

Author:Brian Lumley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: England, Vampires, Mystery & Detective, Horror, Keogh, Harry (Fictitious Character), General, Horror Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780812553635
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 1986-01-02T02:00:00+00:00

PART FOUR:

WAMPHYRI: ANCIENT AND MODERN

I

MORE OF RADU'S STORY. BONNIE JEAN: SHE VISITS HER MASTER

In those days if you would live, the high mountains were most probably the safest place to do it. And for the time being the werewolf Radu Lykan had had his fil of war. In the last quarter of the year 467 AD, he and his small pack wintered down in what was to be their lair for the next sixty years.

The place was a great cavern in the mountains of western Moldavia, not far from a scrabbled-together 'town' or village, more properly a makeshift encampment of refugees, caled Krawlau by its one hundred and fifteen polyglot inhabitants.

As to why he chose this place: Radu's reasons were several. For one, the heights were inhospitable and almost inaccessible. To gradually establish oneself there would be one thing, but for any would-be invader to launch an attack, or even want to? . . . That seemed unlikely. Two: being simply a holow crag, the redoubt would not invite attack in the manner of an 'aerie' or castle; and at its rear, its lowest crevice exits opened on the shore of a broad, bitterly cold lake.

In the event that he was attacked, Radu could easily slip away by boat to the far shore. For while it was a time of relative quiet, there would continue to be sporadic invasions from the east (Radu's dreams were full of them) . . .

Three: while a true aerie would be his first choice for a permanent dweling place, its construction would prove prohibitively expensive. The cavern on the other hand required no actual or external building as such but only some interior works, and what monies Radu had amassed were better put aside against the vagaries of an uncertain future - his precognition was by no means infallible. Four: an entire work-force, with which to make the crag habitable, was immediately to hand in the shape of the folk of Krawlau. These former farmers -driven into the mountains by war and the collapse of the Eastern Empire's borders in the face of invading Asiatics - had no work. Like

Brian Lumley

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Necroscope: The Lost Years - Vol. I

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Radu, they were simply wintering out the bad times. In order to survive they'd become scavengers, hunting the land and fishing the lake for food. Which was why, when first Radu found them, they saw him as a godsend. •

At first, aye . . .

And when he was established . . . then they saw him almost as a god! Oh, it was in his bearing when he walked among them: his penetrating gaze and lordly mode of speech, his attire and generosity. Obviously, with his dark, wolfish good looks - standing tall and lean as a tree, and equally strong - this was no ignorant, guttural farmer born in the fields but a gentleman landowner, a boyar removed from his own place by those same savage forces that had removed them. And he had gold, and the

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