‘He had asked the Lady Karen that she make him the aerie’s warlord. To which she’d replied that she had no need of a warlord, for there was no war. He had demanded rank and position above his fellows, only to be told he had no right to such honours. There was room for only one master (or mistress) in an aerie, and in this aerie that one was the Lady Karen herself. Then Corlis had offered himself as Karen’s consort and protector – at which she’d lost her temper and told him she’d rather sleep with a warrior! As for his protection: he should worry about protecting himself, especially if he intended to continue his current campaign of mischief and annoyance.
‘But Corlis wasn’t to be put off lightly. He’d argued heatedly that the other Wamphyri Lords were plotting for war, that now that Dramal was dead the aerie was vulnerable, and that Karen, a mere woman, could never hope to achieve any sort of effective command of her army in battle. She should choose her champion now, without delay, and the champion she chose had better be him!
‘At that Karen had ordered him out of her presence, Corlis and the other six with him. Four of them had made to obey her, but the others . . .
They had sided with Corlis. And warning off the four who remained half-loyal to her, Corlis and his two (for surely he’d suborned them) had surrounded her where she sat upon her throne of office, which had once been Dramal Doombody’s “bone-throne”, made of the curved, fossilized jaw of a vast cartilage creature. From under his jacket, one of these traitors produced a stake of wood, forbidden in every aerie since time immemorial, and sprang at her. The second produced chains of iron, to bind her. As for Corlis:
‘He stood, arms akimbo, and watched. His plan was this: to stake Karen through her vampire heart and then, when she lay helpless, to threaten her with decapitation and fire. This threat, he hoped, would drive her vampire to produce its egg, for even immature vampires will do this when true death seems imminent. The egg would be his, for he intended to be in such a position as to leave no alternative host. Namely: fused sexually with his victim!
‘But Karen had divined his purpose. Being Wamphyri, she’d been gifted with an element of telepathic talent. Now, in her hour of need, that talent worked for her not only in reading Corlis’s intentions, but also to call her warrior creature from its vigil at the top of the stairwell. The creature came – and swiftly!
‘Corlis and his two now held Karen down. She was not wearing her gauntlet, but still she put up a fight. She wouldn’t lie still long enough for the one with the chains to bind her; her nails opened up Corlis’s face; she kicked the one with the stake repeatedly in the groin! And the four who were half-faithful were torn two ways: they danced here and there, undecided, not knowing what to do for best. But then, when they saw Karen’s warrior coming . . . Ah! – but then they knew what to do for best!
Two of them leaped on the one with the stake and dragged him away. The enraged warrior took him from them and that was the end of him. He had no egg; he was just flesh, however vampirized; the warriors know how to deal with mere flesh. The other two more-or-less-faithful ones fell on Corlis where he tried in vain to rape Karen, and finally they pinned him down. That left the Lady herself to deal with the one who had tried to chain her. Unlike Corlis this one was small, and Karen’s full vampire fury had been roused!
‘She dragged him screaming to her throne and drove his face down on the jagged cartilage finial which formed the grip at the end of an arm rest. The finial was the eye-tooth of the creature whose massive jaw formed the throne; it entered the traitor’s mouth and came out at the base of his skull, so that he kneeled there and flopped about like a speared fish. He was taken to the refuse pit.