‘”But what is your purpose, Lady?” I was curious -terrified, but curious. “I know you wish nothing to do with these Lords. I know that you are . . . not like them. Could you not refuse them outright? Is there no other place suitable for them to hold their meeting?”
‘”Most of these men,” she answered thoughtfully, “have never before set foot in Dramal Doombody’s aerie – my aerie, now. I think Shaithis was a visitor, once or twice, in Dramal’s youth when they had something in common. They used to hunt women together at sundown on Sunside, just the two of them. Not so much a friendship as a rivalry. But for the others it’s an opportunity to see what I’ve got here. I know that they’d use the visit to study my defences against some future invasion. But if I turned down their request, refused to offer them my … hospitality, that would only provoke them, unite them against me.”
“You said you might even profit from their coming,” I reminded her. “In what way, profit?”
“Ah, yes. And that’s where you come in,” she answered. “We Wamphyri have powers, Zekintha. You are not alone; I, too, have the ability to steal the thoughts of others. It is of course a talent of my vampire, transferring to me. As yet, however, the art is undeveloped, dubious at best. I can’t always be sure that I read aright, and over any great distance it is not worth the effort. Also, because I am Wamphyri, they would know if I probed too deeply. Our vampire minds are similar, do you see? But you are not Wamphyri …”
“You want me to listen to their thoughts? And if they should discover me?”
“They will expect to discover you! What profit in owning a thought-stealer and letting her talent go to waste? But the trick is this: to sneak into their minds without them knowing, with your guard up lest they read yours! Discover you mentally? Possibly; but no real danger, as I’ve said, for they’d expect as much. But they will not discover you physically for we shall hide you in a secure place. And these are the things I shall desire to know:
“Their thoughts and plans concerning myself; whether their meeting here is entirely genuine or simply a ploy to seek out my weaknesses; their weaknesses, their uncertainties, if they have any. Look into each of their minds in turn, and see what you can see. Except I’d caution you: don’t bother with Lesk the Glut. His brain is addled. His vampire is itself mad. How may one discover truth in a mind as mercurial as that? What? – he cannot make sense of his own thoughts, not from one moment to the next! But he has a strong aerie, and his strength is prodigious, else the others would have dealt with him long ago.”
‘ “I shall do my best,” I told her. “But as yet you haven’t explained the point of this meeting. What is it that brings them together like this?”
‘ “The one they call The-Dweller-in-His-Garden-in-the-West,” she answered. “They fear him. Him and his alchemies, his magics. And because they fear him they hate him! He dares set up his home there in the western peaks, midway between Star- and Sunside, without so much as a by-your-leave! He harbours Travellers, too, and instructs them in his weird ways. And any who dare go against him … ah, but they have tales to tell!”
‘”And shall you, too, set yourself against this Dweller?” I asked her.
‘She looked at me with those blood-hued eyes of hers. “We shall see what we shall see,” she said. “Now go, sleep, rest your mind. Prepare yourself. When it is time I shall come for you, show you your hiding place. Do well, and I shall keep my promise.”
‘”I won’t fail you,” I told her, and went off to my bedchamber. But sleep was a long time in coming . . .’
‘Then it was sundown. I started awake, heard Karen’s footsteps. And she was hurrying!
“Come!” she said, taking my hand. That unnatural strength was in her fingers where they drew me up from my bed. “Dress – and quickly! The first of them comes.”