Hmmm! Faéthor mused. So you’ll return to Starside, build yourself an aerie there, and if necessary do battle with your son for a piece of his territory. Is that it?
Possibly.
So why have you come to see me? What have I to do with it? If this is your plan, then go to it.
For long moments Harry was silent; finally he answered: But it was my thought that. . . you might like to come with me?
Faéthor’s gasp – and the ensuing silence – was of stunned disbelief. Until, eventually: That I might like . . .?
To come with me, Harry said it again.
But: No, said Faéthor in a while, and Harry sensed the unbodied shake of his head. I can’t credit this. It is – can only be – a trick! You who once fought so long and hard to keep me out, now invite me in? To be one with you in your new Wamphyri mind, body and –
Don’t say soul! said Harry. Also, you have it wrong.
Eh? Faéthor was at once on his guard. But how can I have it wrong? To go with you from this . . . this hellish no-place into Starside is out of the question, unless it is as part of you. Here I am nothing, but if of your own free will you’re now inviting my mind into yours . . .?
Initially, yes, said Harry. But this time you must agree to move out when I desire it. And without a struggle, without that I must use trickery, as last time.
Faéthor was flabbergasted. Move out to where?
Into the mind and body of some lesser man, some Traveller king or such, in Starside.
And finally Faéthor understood, or thought he did, and his deadspeak thoughts turned sour as vinegar. And so you are unworthy after all, he said then. And have been from the start. I used to lie in the earth in my place in Ploiesti and think: ‘The Necroscope can have it all, everything, the world! Thibor was a ruffian, unworthy, but not so Harry. Janos was the scummy froth of my loins, beside which Harry has the consistency, the purity – or if not that, then at least the homogeneity – of cream. I shall make Harry my third and last son!’ Yes, these were my thoughts, of which you were unworthy.
How come? said Harry. I mean, why do you insult me?
What? (astonishment, disbelief). Surely you mean why do I sorrow! But you could have been – could still be – the most powerful creature of all time: The Master Vampire! The Great Plague Bearer! Because I, Faéthor Ferenczy, willed it, you are Wamphyri! You have admitted as much yourself. And yet now you would throw it all away. Does it mean nothing to you, to be Wamphyri? What of the passion, the power, the glory?
What of me? Harry answered. The real me, before my adulteration?
The new you is greater!
I don’t resent the greatness. Harry shook his head. Only that it was not on my terms. But now I’m offering you terms, and no more time to waste. Can you help me … or can’t you?
Cards on the table, then, said Faéthor. You will take me into your mind, transfer or transport me to Starside – which after all is or should have been my natural place – and there pass me on to some other to guide him as I would have guided you. In return for which, you desire to know if there’s a way you may rid yourself of the thing growing within you. Now, do I have it right?
And if there is a way – Harry qualified the deal – you’ll describe it in detail, a fool’s guide, so that I may be my own man again.
Following which, you’ll return to your own world, leaving me, embodied once more, in Starside?
That’s the plan.
And if there is no way to free you?
Harry shrugged. A deal is a deal. You’ll be a power on Starside anyway, as stated.
Eventually to become your rival? And your son’s rival?