Shaitan, he eventually, cautiously answered, I’m putting my trust in you. It seems my future is now in your hands.
And mine in yours, said the other. Now continue to guard your thoughts and concentrate on your climbing.
And he was gone again.
Shaithis suddenly found himself wondering at the wisdom of this dark liaison. Indeed there seemed little of wisdom in it; it was mainly a matter of instinct, and of course necessity. But any advantage was Shaitan’s. This was his territory and he knew it well, and he was not without resources. Shaithis could only hope that the ancient’s plans for the Ferenc and Arkis Leperson did not extend to him also. But he sensed that they did not. Not for now, anyway.
His Wamphyri instinct again, which had seldom let him down. But there’s always a first time. And a last . . .
He avoided morbid conjecture and looked for brighter omens. Of course there was always his dream: that first dream of the Lady Karen’s aerie, where he had been returned to power after some fabulous conquest of Star-side and the destruction of The Dweller’s garden. He had the feeling that as dreams go there had been an element of foretokening to it. Except there was an old Wamphyri maxim that men should never read the future too closely, for to do so is to tempt destiny. And anyway, the dream had ended in disaster and ruin – but at least it had hinted that there was in fact a future to look forward to. How much of a one was anyone’s guess.
‘A ledge,’ Fess Ferenc grunted, dragging himself up ahead of Shaithis. As Shaithis’s face appeared level with the rim, the giant reached down a huge, taloned hand; Shaithis looked at it for several long moments, then took it. And the Ferenc hauled him easily up on to the level surface.
‘Last time you had the chance you threw me down,’ Shaithis reminded him.
‘Last time you were reaching for your gauntlet!’ the giant replied.
Then Arkis came up and joined them. ‘You and your premonitions!’ he grumbled. ‘I still say I sensed nothing harmful. Also, I believe I was almost into some sort of cave. It might well have been a tunnel.’
But Shaithis said, ‘Oh? An empty cave, d’you think? Or did it perhaps contain one of Fess’s sword-snouts?’
‘Wouldn’t I have sensed it?’ Arkis frowned.
Fess Ferenc scowled. ‘Volse didn’t,’ he said. ‘Nor did I, until it was too late.’ And turning to Shaithis, ‘What now?’
Shaithis narrowed his scarlet eyes and made a small show of sniffing the air with his flattened, convoluted snout. ‘The area to the right still feels dangerous to me,’ he said. ‘So I vote we follow this rim to the left a while, out of the suspect region. We’ll see where it leads. At least it will give us a breather from all this climbing.’
The Ferenc nodded his grotesque head. ‘Suits me. But how we’ve come down in the world, eh?’
As they set off along the ledge, Arkis said, ‘Come down? How so?’
The Ferenc shrugged. ‘Just look at us. Three Lords – or ex-Lords – of the Wamphyri, stripped of most of our powers, going like frightened children in a huddled group to explore strange new regions. And afraid of what might jump out on us!’
‘Afraid?’ Arkis puffed himself up. ‘Speak for yourself!’
The Ferenc sighed and said simply, ‘But I saw the thing that lanced the Great Boil, remember?’
At that moment it grew darker and the three paused to glance speculatively, apprehensively at each other. A thin cloud layer had drifted in to cover the higher reaches of the cone. The first small flakes of snow began to drift down and coat the ledge.
Arkis looked at the sky all about. ‘One cloud?’ He voiced his thoughts out loud. ‘Which just happened to form here? A vampire mist, d’you think?’
‘Obviously,’ said the Ferenc. ‘Whoever dwells here, he’s sensed us coming and seeks to make it harder for us. He makes his lair more obscure, and the way to it more difficult.’
‘Which means we’re on the right track,’ Shaithis added. He set off again along the ledge, and behind him the others almost automatically followed on.