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Harry and ’Friends’ - The Second Gate

Harry had slept the clock round, and toward the end he drea he dreamed, it seehtless limbo, and that now someone called to him from far, far away

Harry! Harry! You’re asleep, Harry Keogh - but the dead are awake! They’ve begged a boon of reed to talk to you; but when I sought you out, I discovered only a sleeping mind Jumbled memories and dreams and intricate mind-puzzles Pictures of an existence beyond existence! A strange thing, your sleeping mind, Harry, and not one hich I may readily converse So stir yourself! Faethor Ferenczy offers his services

Faethor? Harry snapped awake, sat bolt upright in his bed Cold sweat drenched his brow, slihtmare, yes: he’d dreamed that Faethor Ferenczy called to him in his sleep A man shouldn’t dream about creatures like Faethor, not even when they were dead and no longer capable of mischief A dream like that was the worst possible oain in Harry’s Mobius-orientated , Harry! And Faethor’s ancient, dead-undead mental chuckle ca at the edges of Harry’s still sluggish perceptions But he ake now, and the thing was no longer nightmare but reality It was his business; it hat a Necroscope is all about; and now that he kneas real it was no longer frightening His li and he peered about the rooht made faded bands on the wall opposite the s An electric bedside clock said that the time was three in the afternoon

’Faethor?’ Harry said ’The last time I spoke to you was at your old place under the Moldavian Alps At that tiot the ied that? Anyway, I’?’

What? the other’s dark chuckle was sly now, insinuating So you can do for me? That’s a fine macabre sense of hu you can do for1 can do for you Didn’t you hear what I said? Were you that deeply asleep? I said that the teereed to help -if I can

’Eh? The dead, talking to you?’ Harry slowly shook his head in astonish they want pretty badly’

Aye, but not for themselves, Harry - for you! They’ve spoken to uidance And in this they’ve shown a deal more wisdom than you For ould know better the secret source of vampires than an ex-member of the Wamphyri himself, eh?

Harry gaped The source of vainated! The world in which they were spawned, to coh into this world - as they had now started to coate in Perchorsk!

’And do you know this secret source?’ Harry couldn’t conceal the eagerness in his voice and thoughts ’Did you yourself come from that place?’

Myself? Was I once an inhabitant of that world of varandfather was

’Your grandfather? Do you knohere he lies, where his remains are buried?’

Buried? Old Belos Pheropzis? Alas, no, Harry The Romans crucified and burned him a hundred years before your Christ And my father: the last word I had of him was that he was lost at sea, somewhere off the mouths of the Danube in the Black Sea, in the Year 547 He was a ainst Justinian, but of course he was on the wrong side Ah, we Wa to be made, if you’d the stomach for it

Then how can you help me?’ Harry was perplexed ’It seerandfather’s era and yours Whatever he knew about his origins - about this source world - ends, Harry! There are memories, stories Old Belos told his son Waldemar, which he in turn passed down to me They are as fresh now in my mind as they were the day I heard them I kept them fresh, for they were the only Wamphyri history I was ever likely to knoas still in thrall to rate, had ever spent his apprenticeship with ends down to him But of course he never did Now, if you in your turn would learn these things - which ht well provide the clues you need to complete your quest - then come to me in my place and talk to me, as we talked once before

Faethor’s voice was faint now Killed in a bo raid in World War II and burned to ashes, as left of him had seeped into the earth where once stood his house on the outskirts of Ploiesti toward Bucharest It must be an effort for one such as he to speak across all these miles, after all this time On the other hand, Harry ell aware of the devious nature of the vae they rarely did anything which was not of benefit to theain, in the past Faethor had not been orthodox Harry could never ’like’ or ever really ’trust’ his?’ he said

Strings? I’ remains of me but my voice And only you can hear it - and the dead, of course, when they choose to listen Evenwith the years But (Harry sensed his shrug) do as you will I a the wishes of the dead

Harry would have to be satisfied with that ’I’ll cory for knowledge, I’ry too! Give me an hour and I’ll be there’

Take your time, Faethor answered I’ve plenty of it But do you re into deep distances of h!’

Then I’ll wait for you And then, perhaps, the Great Majority will see fit to leave e of clothes, ’breakfasted’ and contacted E-Branch He quickly told Darcy Clarke what he’d done, and what he was about to do Clarke offered a cautionary ’take care’ and Harry was ready

He used the Mobius Continuum and went to Ploiesti

The scene was ht years earlier: Faethor’s house on the outskirts of the toas one of several burned-out shells lying half-buried in heaps of overgrown rubble, stony corpses in as otherwise open countryside It was dark here, around 6:50 pht for Harry to find himself a tumbled wall and take a seat And he had re like a shroud on the place, albeit one which was slowly returning to dust A very faint nilowed on the western horizon, beyond the Carpathians in the direction of home

All around Harry was desolation, made worse by the feel of winter in the air He shivered, but entirely because of the chill he could feel sloorking its way into his bones In summer this place would have a certain wild beauty, when the old bomb craters would be masked by flowers and unchecked brambles, and the skeletal walls covered with lush ivy In the winter, however, the snoould bring the perspective back to gaunt, monochrome reality The devastation would be obvious, incapable of disguise It would always be a reminder, and that was probably why the Romanians would never rebuild here

One of the reasons, anyway, Faethor agreed But I have always liked to believe that I was thehere Since Thibor destroyed my old place I’ve had several homes, but this was the last of them This is where I a around and I feel their footfalls -

’ - You sort of gloom over the place You exert an influence, your aura’ You’ve noticed

Harry shivered again, but still only froends, Faethor?’ he said ’I don’t like to rush you, but I’ve never yet spoken to one of your sort who told e! And time is precious It could be that lives are at stake’

At ’stake’? An unfortunate choice of words Do you mean human lives? In that other world? Ah, but they always have been!

’I mean lives which are important to me You see, I think people have found a way into that place, that source world Some of whom are, or were, very dear to me’

He sensed Faethor’s nod (for the fact is that people nod 417

with their minds as well as their heads) So I have been inforends:

’Wait,’ said Harry ’First tell me, what’s in this for you? Oh, I know you’ve said there are no strings attached, but still I can’t ioodness of your heart’

Faethor’s chuckle grew into a laugh Not a pleasant thing Ah! - but you knoell, Harry Keogh Very well, I’ll tell you:

My grandfather, Belos, was exiled froe, by the Wahtily, and when their chance came they tricked, entrapped, expelled him His lands and properties were stolen and he found himself here, in this world He wasn’t the first or the last, and if things don’t change there may well be others still to come Now I never knew Belos, as dead before Walde to me, but I do know that if he had not been so badly treated then I would now be one of the Wahtful place - in the source world! When they expelled hie but denied Waldemar his after him and also mine For that reason, and despite the years flown in between, Belos is worth avenging

’You’re going to help e?’ Harry frowned ’I don’t intend to look anyone up for you, Faethor As I see it, it will be a case of in, rescue, retreat I won’t be staying there long enough to write off any old scores’

Oh? And you know all about this place you’re searching for, do you? (A certain amusement in Faethor’s tone) Get in, rescue your loved ones, or whatever, and get out again As si like that, yes’ But Harry was less certain now

Again Faethor’s shrug Well possibly But I see it differently For after all, you are Harry Keogh! And the fact is that in your use of your special talents you have been a dire force against vampires in this world You’ve dealt with osani, Yulian Bodescu - the list is i is that when you enter into the source world, then things are almost bound to happen I believe that you are the catalyst which will change, perhaps even destroy, the old balance So all I require of you is this: that if the time should come and someone should ask you, ’Who are you?’ - then you will answer him that Belos sent you Is that too reed ’So now tell me what you know First about Perchorsk’ Eh? (Surprise) I never heard of it Harry quickly explained

That may well be one way into, or out of, the source world, Faethor answered, but it is not the old route Now listen: this is what Old Belos told my father, which he in turn told me The Wah a shining white door in the shape of a sphere Yes, the very duplicate of this sphere you’ve mentioned at Perchorsk But Perchorsk is in the upper Urals, and Belos’s exit-point was far removed from there ’So where did Belos surface?’

’Surface’ is the wrong word Rather he ’descended’ Inside the sphere he fell He are of falling - as if into hell! It was as if he plunged down the throat of a great white luminous shaft whose walls were so far distant he could not see thereat speed, or so he believed And he ed he was still falling! He fell out of the sphere - the gate of entry - into this world ’Where?’ Harry was eager again

Underground!

’Like at Perchorsk?’

Unlike Perchorsk Belos gathered his senses, looked all around The sphere he had fallen through was ereat horizontal borehole, over a ledge of surgling river Belos knew not where it came fro suspended, great holes were apparent in the ceiling - like these e where Belos had landed The extent of the cave, and its ledge, was not great Where the river rushed fro and water cah for a man to walk maybe ten paces this way, ten paces that, before it narrowed down and s wall of the bore There was no way out Or there was, if a man had the stomach for it

’A subterranean suht run for ht never surface at all! That was Belos’s predicament

Others had been there before him, and some of thes he called ’trogs’, and ’Travellers’, even the skulls and mummified ree and wither rather than risk the unknown But Belos’s heart was bigger than that

’He dared the river?’ Harry was fascinated

Faethor’s shrug What else could he do? First he tried to re-enter the sphere, of course, but it rejected hiht, they were repelled The Gate into the hell-lands had closed on him But to sit here with these others and stiffen into stone was not his way He would go nohile he still had all of his great strength

Now, Harry, I suppose you have heard thiswater?

’Next to you,’ said Harry, Treatest expert on vampires! Or asto tell round river, which the Wamphyri had to overcoht?’

Correct

Thibor had a different explanation’

Faethor sighed Thibor didn’t know, as I’ve explained He could have learned so , he obviously invented an explanation Devious, as you’ve said

’I’ve said that of all of you,’ Harry reminded ’But you’ve side-tracked Get back to the point’

Very well, but the underground river is the source of that particular myth A vampire is flesh and blood and bone, Harry Iet on:

Belos braved the river, ashed along downstream At times his head was above water, but there were other desperate , so that he was pushed under It seeht returned, glience, into a basin, which eish river But this tiled and a little battered, coughing up the river water until he thought he’d dislodge his lungs, at last Old Belos was in this world!

The time - the era - was some three hundred years before your Christ And the place

’Yes?’ Harry could scarcely contain himself

As the crow flies: one hundred and seventy miles from the very spot where you now stand!

And indeed Harry was on his feet ’Where, exactly?’ he asked

Near Radujevac, on the Dunarea, Faethor told hiht be better known to you That’s where you’ll find this resurgence It is the source of the legend, and the legend is the source of the Wao there now, at once?

’Now? No,’ Harry shook his head ’Tonight I plan I go there tohed

A weight off your shoulders, Harry?

’Perhaps - or maybe it’s just one ain

’And I’ll keep mine, if the time should come Meanwhile, you havedead Hah! Talk about legends! But your own legend is spreading, Harry And soon to spread much farther, I think I bid you farewell

Harry beat his ar the stiffness in his joints and driving out the cold Then:

’Goodbye, Faethor,’ he said And as always, the Mobius Continuu to welcome him

Harry’s plans and preparations were the sis, easily carried out Back at E-Branch HQ he told Darcy Clarke what he required, and while the iteht Clarke up to date and went a little deeper into detailing what the boss of E-Branch already knew

When he’d finished Clarke said: ’Let’s get this right You’re going to Romania, the Danube in the vicinity of Radujevac, where you’ll travel upstreaht?’

’That’s right’

’Somewhere up there you expect to find a Gate like the one at Perchorsk, except there won’t be anyone who’ll shoot you dead on sight’

There ht well be people there,’ said Harry ’A handful, maybe, but they won’t shoot at me They won’t be able to If I know my business they’ll welcome me; they may even have valuable inforht: Dear God! - he’s human but he’s so bloody inhuht?’

’Corpses, yes Maybe not even that Maybe justand visibly and violently He was re the Bodescu affair, a time when he’d witnessed with his own eyes the unbelievable extent of Harry’s power over the dead Or rather, the result of their respect for him In fact it hadn’t been Harry who called up the dead that time but his son, the then infant Harry Jnr But Harry could do it too, when he had the need

Finally Clarke steadied hi found this Gate, then you’ll use it to gowherever! To another world, the place where your wife and son are And presumably Jazz Simmons, too’

Harry nodded ’And Zek Foener, and maybe one or two others If they’re still alive, and you know I believe they are, then I should have some friends there -1 think But Icalled Karl Vyotsky’

’But assu works out OK, then you’ll speak to Brenda, Harry Jnr, and when that’s done you’ll see ants to co like that, except I still don’t know if there’s a way back Reot back here, and I know that nothing that’s coo back there! Does that make sense? Anyway, that’s the way it is’

’In short, you’re risking your life’

’Do you want it done or don’t you?’

’I want it done, yes; inI want is to see Perchorsk closed down Even if they don’t s there, still it’s a time-bomb’

Harry nodded ’I feel the same way about it - but I have Viktor Luchov’s word that nothing will ever escape froh for ood enough forwheel I don’t suppose that anyone is going to take preeainst Perchorsk Especially not now, in this new cli else does escape’ He threw up his hands

’Then it would be right out of your hands, I know,’ Harry answered

Again Clarke’s snort ’Right out of control is more like it!’ he answered

’Well, and that’s another reason forin,’ Harry was al we can do about it - which is maybe better done from the other side’

The tere silent a while, then Clarke said: ’Harry, the rest of your gear will take a little ti done It’s very late now and I’m overdue for my bed I’ll catch a couple of hours and be here to see you off in theelse I can do for you? And ill you do with yourself for the rest of the night?’

Harry shrugged ’Oh, I’et some sleep later It’s silly, I know, but I’d rather tackle that underground river during the daylight hours I ht, but I don’t fancy that’