“You offer me a way out of this place?” I answered. “Only tell me what I have to do.”
“There’s a truce,” she said. “The Wamphyri have called a meeting. All the Lords shall gather in one place, under their many banners, to see if they can find common ground in a certain cause. Now, can you guess where they’ll gather?”
‘”Here?”
‘”Indeed! In the aerie of Karen. That in itself- that they wish to hold their talks here – seems to me a highly suspicious thing. A very inauspicious thing. However, I shall make provisions. Now, what are your thoughts so far?”
‘”I know only what you have told me of these Lords, Lady,” I answered. “Which is to say that I fear them greatly! I think that if you let the Lords Shaithis, Lesk, Lascula and the others into your castle, then you’ll lose it. Of all the stacks, this one of yours holds a prime position, Karen, and they covet it. They know, too, that you have me here, and that I have magic. I am therefore desirable. Your warrior creatures would pass down to him who killed you, and they are the finest warriors of all, for none could make warriors like Dramal Doombody. These are your own words, which I repeat to you. But if your castle and your beasts and I myself am desirable, you are more desirable still, Karen. They would make fine sport with you – with both of us – before making an end of it. But you are Wamphyri! You would last so much longer than me, and suffer so much more.”
‘”Are you finished?”
‘”For now.”
“Normally I would agree with you in everything you’ve said, but there are always two ways of looking at things. For instance, perhaps there is nothing inimical in this -not immediately, anyway. At least admit this: that if the Lords are to meet, then they need neutral ground on which to do it, even if it is only to agree to disagree! This would be the ideal spot, for they don’t consider me their equal; I am merely renting them a room. Also, I said I would make conditions; by which I meant that I will take precautions against treachery. One: they must come alone, without their lieutenants. That shall be the first proviso. Two: no gauntlets.”
‘”What?” I was amazed. “But, Lady, will they heed you? I mean, you really intend to order them to leave their battle-gauntlets behind?”
‘”For their own protection!” she smiled her half-human smile. “So that they will not be tempted to brawl among themselves if their talks get heated. So … no gauntlets -or no admittance. Oh, they’ll agree, for they’re eager to get this thing underway.
‘”And finally, three: the meeting shall be right here in these chambers – this very hall – with one of my own warrior creatures in each corner. Stalemate! if they attempt any . . . act, against me, then my creatures will attack! Remember, Zekintha, that for all his strength and his powers, a vampire is only flesh and blood. He will die in the right circumstances, under the correct conditions. And melting in the stomach-acids of a warrior is one such condition. On the other hand, the Lords will know that if I call upon my creatures without provocation, then they shall have the right to deal with me in their way: a stave through my body, decapitation, a bath full of blazing oil! As I said: stalemate. Now what do you say?”
“I still find it fraught.”
“So do I, but it’s done. And I may even profit from it. Now look there – ”
‘Through a window the mountains were blackly silhouetted where a fan of golden sunlight faded behind them in the southern sky. “Sundown,” I said. “Soon . . .”
“Aye, soon,” she echoed me. “When there’s a pink rim all along those peaks, then they stir, mount their beasts, glide from stack to stack. They land in the launching levels below, proceed on foot upward through the body of the stack. One at a time, they shall come. My table shall bear . . . unconventional dishes. Suckling wolf in pepper, hearts of great bats floating in their blood, but blackened by the use of herbs, grassland game from Sunside, and weak mushroom ales from the trog caverns. Nothing to inflame their passions.”