Page 18 (1/2)

PART FOUR:

WAMPHYRI: ANCIENT AND MODERN

I

MORE OF RADU&039;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 ti the olf 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 as to be their lair for the next sixty years

The place was a great cavern in the ether &039;town&039; or village, ees, caled Krawlau by its one hundred and fifteen polyglot inhabitants

As to why he chose this place: Radu&039;s reasons were several For one, the heights were inhospitable and alradually establish oneself there would be one thing, but for any would-be invader to launch an attack, or even want to?That see, the redoubt would not invite attack in the manner of an &039;aerie&039; 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&039;s dreams were full of them)

Three: while a true aerie would be his first choice for a per 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 aries of an uncertain future - his precognition was by no means infallible Four: an entire work-force, hich tohabitable, 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 E Asiatics - had no work Like

Radu, they were si out the bad tiers, hunting the land and fishing the lake for food Which hen first Radu found theodsend ·

At first, aye

And when he was establishedthen they saw hi when he walked aaze and lordly enerosity Obviously, with his dark, wolfish good looks - standing tall and lean as a tree, and equally strong - this was no ignorant, guttural farentleman landowner, a boyar ree forces that had reold, and the wit to fashion hi! His money was of little value now - not in these nakedto buy - but it would be when the land was quiet again As for Radu&039;s cavern: when all of the as finished and if the winters were hard, then it would provide refuge for all of them This was his pro hihts that was in any case a near-impossibility

Who was there to see him or his, or knohat they were about? No one but these low persons in their sod-roofed, timber huts Radu hired them by the dozen, and chose reat cavern into a lair When a es and proo his oay, perhaps back down to his ruined fields to start again

In that first winter, when the snow lay deep, a good many of them did just that: approached Radu and told him they&039;d left families in Moldavia, and would now return to see if they survivedand if so provide for them out of the monies Radu had paid them, and the bonus he stil owed them For his part, he would always require one last day&039;s work of the theht he would sendafter them, to make certain no word of him and his works - and none of his money - found its way down out of theday after day, and others trying to leave, there was a steady turnover of workers and no lack of provisions (Likewise, there was no gradual trickling away of Radu&039;s funds)

The keep took shape He would go a then (even as it had been in Wolfsden in Starside in another world) Massive timber lintels for the several &039;doors&039; that he left open, and piled boulders in other holes that Radu desired closed; archith keystones to bolster the dripstone ceilings where they were eaten with rot, and stone staircases leading to ledges, lesser caves or high &039;&039; observation ports in the rough outer walls; the levelling of various floors, and laying of an uneven but serviceable paving of slate slabs And so to the fireplaces and ovens, and the flues to channel s, there to drift with theoff the lake

And while all such works were in progress to make the cavern liveable if not &039;co to its defences:

Outside, between the natural spurs of the crag, he built awesoh, he piled rocks behind logs stopped with chocks that were easily knocked away in the event of an invasion And at last Radu saw that his lair was safe But in any case these were no puny castle&039;s wals to fal to the first assault of an ene rams - they were the wals of the mountain itself! And as each external as co rock, in i foric places Radu buttressed certain works of stone with good timber; which would seem odd to some, for obviously the wood could not outlast the stone But Radu reasoned that when the tihting a handful of fires behind hiinal shell Waht of another dweling in a place that his hands had wrought! But by the same token he also knew that if ever he desired to return, then that he had the knowledge and skill to put the place back to rights

Radu&039;s &039;pups&039; worked side by side with the n of their lupine natures except perhaps in their silence and the feral intelligence of their eyes The ex-far peculiar in it; they&039;d seen wave after wave of slant-eyes (and of yellow-eyes, and -skins, too) long before Radu can parts, that was al Plainly this rangy boyar in his fur boots and jacket, with his long, grey-to-white hair faling on his colar, and golden crescent moons in his fleshy ears, was some rich expatriate Certainly he was &039;Lord&039; Radu to his men!

And he was fair to a fault When his hunters went out and kiled a pig in the night (though where they were able to find such game up here in the mountains was a mystery) then there&039;d be meat off the bone for the co with the flesh

Radu &039;recruited&039; the strongest of theht of a full moon, and not as workers! For while earlier he&039;d determined to &039;make no more olves,&039; still he was on the lookout for men of quality The ones he chose from these ex-farmers were hard as men come; they&039;d make superb lieutenants when next he went out into the world

So the dog-Lord proceeded

A long, hard winter came and went, and several &039; was finished to Radu&039;s satisfaction But only Radu himself, and those ere his, knehat he&039;d named it

By then the men of Kraere much reduced in numbers; they worried about the fact that of all their felloho had left Radu&039;s employ, not a one had been known to return to it They went down froedly - but they never came back! Not a one? And this so-called &039;Lord&039; in his lair of a cavern: why, his looks were more wolfish than ever! And his s!

As for the three or four ex-Krawlau men who had actually joined Radu and dwelled with hied! As quickly as that, they had beco, long-haired and wildtheir eyes were feral in the night and when they grinned their upper lips wrinkled back, curling like the ends that were already one hundred years old - which had been alotten - were re-born and lived anew

Radu heard their whispers where thethe final touches to his den Well, let them whisper; he had other problems The sixth winter was on its way, provisions were low, and the dog-Lord had no more use for clods such as these

No, not so: there was one more use for them, yes!

As to why they&039;d so suddenly becoer: Radu had relaxed certain strictures on himself and his pups both, until they went about more nearly as &039;nature&039; intended Noas plain to see that nature had not intended, that these were by no means natural men Yet in some respects they were all too natural

For years now they had gone without good wine and woman-flesh, and all the other srow accustomed to when they are not about their business Radu was scarcely ignorant of his men&039;s needs, for he felt them, too But now that he was set up

Earlier in the year, aware that the Huns had had the run of the Moldavian steppe for decades and wondering if their supre, Radu had dispatched scouts east to discover the state of things He had also sentthe twin spurs of the horseshoe range, and a spy into a handful of villages where they clung to the flanks of theThese latter places were s townships But if Radu&039;s long-terht also support him Noaited for his scouts to return and report to him

When the first snows came, Radu went down into Krawlau personally, to invite the last half-dozen of his forreat cave for the winter They thanked hie of his offerperhaps toh that they noted the red cores of his eyes, and his talon hands which he rew silent he left

But within the hour, panting as they dragged their scant belongings behind theed survivors of Kraere off down the ot to the first passwhere they found Radu and the pack waiting for thefor the next week or so, at least

One by one as winter laid its white cloak on the land, Radu&039;s scouts returned Utterly in thrall to their dog-Lord, they had given hiht home to him various items of information and al manner of rumours

Information:

There were trappers, at least four tea the river where it wound to lasi in the east These were good clean, hardy folk; they&039;d , whichever They&039;d made their winter camps, and because the Moldavian steppe was still volatile they had brought their families - and more especially their women -with them!

There was a hter, too Another couple had two grown girls, who helped out with the skinning, curing and what all Oh, and there were others, eating good redRadu&039;s informant had seen these people from the tree-line over the river He had noted their locations, discovered their rude lodges in the rocks, but done nothing to alert them to his presence They were only a few uess Why, he could lead a party back there this very night

Radu hi party, and at last there o-Lord&039;s cavern manse Naturally, he took &039;first fruits&039; of the wo, kept the one he considered best for himself -the only one who&039;d tried to have his eyes out at first, anyway - and gave the rest to his ht over them, he knew that, but it was only to be expected Indeed, Radu watched the rough-and-tureat interest, in order to discover the hters These were his lieutenants, after all

Another scout caone into the ar (but in fact as a spy) and seen how they were ripe for conquest and destruction Why, the people were so soft he had no doubt they could even be herded, like so many cattle! Isolationists, pacifists, they had cut themselves off co war-torn regions of Dacia and the great battlefields under the mountains

Radu couldn&039;t really say he blamed them, and in any case it wasn&039;t conquest that was on his mind; or perhapsa very subtle conquest? No, these people didn&039;t need a conqueror but a saviour! He would not kill them, not yet, but instead offer theainst who or whatever rand sche-Lord had been right and the nable What? But only thirty years earlier Attila himself had had his headquarters at the foot of these very mountains - but even he had skirted them to continue his assault on the west!

And since Radu first co here? Six years sped by, and not a single invader had ventured into these heights Or perhapscould it be that the threat fronitive dreams told him &039;no, not yet!&039; But Radu&039;s dreaht Or they were, but rarely worked out the way he thought they would The future see was the future, anyway?

Finaly al of Radu&039;s scouts returned, including the s stood And noas known for a fact: the last of the Huns had either retreated back into the east or settled the plains to the north For the ti was over Wherefore it seeood time for expansion Now Radu&039;s Wamphyri territorialised to no one They ht be temporarily &039;annexed&039; now and then, by this or that regime, but no one held physical sway over thears, the Romans, whoever; but as there here to protect them? No manexcept Radu Lykan And what is a mountain if not an aerie? And these horseshoe ainst the east?

Inhospitable, were they? What, like the colossal stacks of Starside? Ah, but there&039;s inhospitable and there&039;s inhospitable! By comparison, these mountains were sheerest luxury And inaccessible? Aye, to an invader - but not to a man already in residence And Radu was that e, town by town, these unconquered Dacian mountains would come under his control At first he&039;d be the Voevod Radu, then a princeling, finaly a king of his own land - this land! It er, but as that to Radu? Wamphyri, he had hundreds of years behind hiinal h the Gate with hione up in smoke and reek on soest-lasting of the thirty; younger, if it so pleased him! Anonymity? Bah to anonymityfor now, anyway But insularity? Ah, yes! He would protect the mountains, and the mountains would protect him

So be it

Rumours One of Radu&039;s scouts had heard it that a Ferenczy was in league with the Vandals Hah! Wel good luck to him, whoever he was, be it Nonari the Gross -if in fact he still lived - or this son of his, this Belos Pheropzis For if that bastard Gaeseric dealt as badly with al of his mercenaries as he&039;d dealt with Radu

wel, that was one Ferenczy he needn&039;t hunt down!

As for the Drakuls:

They held fortress castles (&039;aeries,&039; of course) in the western reaches of Dacia: in the Zarundului Mountains and the northern Carpathians Perhaps they were enemies now; certainly they had put space between them! Al the beter when the time came for Radu to deal with them; he could take theht theends&039; - viesky or vrykoulakas, who descend like bats in the night, to drink their victim&039;s blood or steal his wife and children - it shouldn&039;t prove too hard to recruit an arainst their castles Oh, Radu looked forward to it! But al in good time

And meanwhile he had work to do

Radu had reckoned on fifty or &039; of the horseshoe mountains It took al of that and would have taken more, if ever he&039;d been able to complete the job But fate, history, and ancient enht himself into proet

Fifty years to spread out into al the es, towns A half-century to becoe - in its eastern reaches, anyway - during a period in history arlords or princelings were the last thing it needed He had olf lieutenants in every toith dozens of thralls to back theh the eastern heights, and could move his men with incredible speed from place to place Of course he could, for there was that of the wolf in al of them And indeed Radu and the pack were fearsome warriorsor would be But where was the war? Never up here

And Radu had been wrong, too, in his belief that the Drakuls would be hated They were, by those they wronged, but they orshipped by others! Indeed, in a hundred and fifty years they had infiltrated, corrupted and vampirized the populace of their oestern mountain areas to such an extent that entire townships were now in thrall to the all of the hamlets on the approaches to their aeries!

Moreover, the Drakuls had recruited and turned loose many thralls to become their &039;emissaries&039; or servants (or more properly their spies) abroad in the world These had become wanderers, Gypsies, and &039;Travellers&039; here no less than in Starside, in another world And the Drakuls had engineered all of this a hundred years ago, when the Empire held sway over these Dacian parts Why, men of the Drakuls had even crossed the borders to become true citizens of Rome -&039;sleepers,&039; as it were, in the so-called &039;civilized&039; regions of a barbaric world Romans, ayeor Roend

And so the Drakuls had become almost invulnerable, impervious to attack except perhaps in the drone of hot summer days when they slept in the deeps of their castles, in &039;native soil&039; brought with them out of Starside

But Radu knew none of that, not then

He knehere they were situated, but not their situation, hoerful they&039;d beco of it when, well past the fifty years of his earlier reckoning, he sent spies to map out the land in the heart of Drakul territoryand they never returned But Radu had groerful in his own right, until he believed that he was invulnerable And perhaps this had made him lax

Meanwhile, in the outside world beyond the mountains - beyond Dacia, beyond the Danube - history was passing hiothic kingdom had been established in Italy; only the Eastern, &039;Byzantine&039; Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, survived intact He knew of these things, for he was not without external inteligence; perhaps he even pined a little, for al the blood spiled on the reeking batlefields of the world

And al gone to waste, without that he&039;d been part of it

And Gaeseric the Vandal king: dead and gone these forty-odd years; and Radu&039;s Waone with him, for he&039;d not been a part of that either! Oh, it was ! Which hen he realized how bored he&039;d becoh of all that! And he prohout the mountains, and not just in the east, then he&039;d find tiain

But now, in order to bring that time forward - also as an exercise in preparation for it - noas surely tiainst the Drakuls!

Except the Drakuls s In retrospect, looking back on the far past -still drea his unquiet dreams in the semi-solid matrix of his resin &039;toh: that there had been unsettling occurrences in his s of the horseshoe range

In the northern Carpathians, the Voevod Radu (occasionally &039;the Wolf) held sway in villages as far removed as Rakhov, and in the south as far as Turnu Rosu, where the hurtling waters of the Oltul had long since carved a pass through the mountains on their way to the Danube more than a hundred miles farther south But many miles inside these far boundaries - deep in the Wolfs heartland - even there his outposts had had their probleuess what sort of problems

He prepared expeditions to lacobani in the north and Ruckar in the south, to see what could be done Radu himself would lead the southern expedition; it would consist of so the way Two of his bravest lieutenants -true olves or &039;pups&039; - would head north for lacobani, and likewise collect a small army en-route These detachments of Radu&039;s mainand the hamlets around, should suffice to sort out the probleers and their wives and children in Ruckar, lacobani and neighbouring toere being picked off by the viesky, the Drakul who fell upon his prey out of the night sky People - mainly women, but occasionally children - had vanished without trace; other victims had been found drained of their life&039;s blood Mumbled prayers were said over theroundbut they would not stay down! Those of Radu&039;s lieutenants ere perh how to deal with these undead &039;droppings&039; of the Drakuls - the stake, the sword, and the fire - but were at a loss as to what to do about the nightly attacks They olves and ran on the ground, while the Drakuls were flying creatures who struck out of the sky!

And so it was seen how the Drakuls&039; methods were the very opposite of Radu&039;s For despite that he was no longer &039;anonymous,&039; still he kept the facts of his vampirism - the fact that he was Wamphyri, and especially the fact of his lycanthropy - fairly wel hidden; whereas the Drakuls scathed openly abroad as vampires and revelled in their power

And where he used his ht rein on the peoples who came under his control and within his sphere of influence, they used fear pure and simple Also, where Radu recruited men only in such numbers as were sufficient to resupply or coers, wanderers, outsiders, and beasts of the wild for the provisioning - but never people under his