Looking up at the rock as they followed flowing contours to its flank, Jazz asked Zek: ‘Have you been here before?’
‘No, but I’ve been told about it,’ she answered. ‘It’s wormy as some vast blue cheese, left forgotten on a shelf. There are tunnels and caves right through it, enough room for Lardis’s entire tribe and twice as many Travellers again. You could hide a small army in there!’ They paused fifty yards from the boulder’s base where the hillside fell away and a great cave opened, watched the stream of Travellers entering, taking travois, caravans, wolves and all with them. In a little while orange lights became flickeringly visible (and were quickly hooded) in ‘window’ holes higher up, where lamps or torches were lighted; and still Jazz and Zek stood there in the gathering gloom.
Lardis came looking for them, said: ‘Give them a little longer to settle in and choose their places, then I’ll meet you in there – ‘ he pointed, ‘ – just inside the main entrance, which we call the hall. But if you like your air fresh, best get your share of it now. It gets smoky later. By the time you see sunup again, you’ll be ready to barter your eyes for one good deep breath of clean mountain air!’ He took up the handles of Jazz’s travois. ‘Here, I’ll take this the rest of the way.’
‘Wait!’ said Jazz. He dipped into an easily accessible bundle, came out with two full magazines for his gun. ‘Just in case,’ he said.
Lardis made no comment, went off toward the cavern entrance where now moving lights flickered here and there.
‘Lardis is right,’ Zek said. They’ll take some time to get themselves settled in and the place fortified. Let’s climb up, behind the rock. We might still be able to see the rim of the sun from up there. I don’t like it when the sun goes down.’
‘Are you sure you’re not just putting something off?’ Jazz answered. ‘Zek, I’ll not hold you to any promises. I mean, I know you’re right: this isn’t our world, and so we’re drawn together.’
She linked arms with him. ‘Actually,’ she tossed back her hair, ‘I think I’d be drawn to you in any world. No, it’s just a feeling, that’s all. Those caves look totally uninviting to me. See, even Wolf would prefer to stay out here with us.’
The great wolf padded along behind them where they climbed through trees along the steeply sloping base of the rock. For fifteen minutes they climbed, until Jazz said: ‘Far enough, I think. It’ll take us just as long to get down again. This rock’s bigger than it looks. Come sunup, then maybe we’ll climb it to the top.’
They found a ledge in the rock and sat there close together, Jazz with his arm around her. She leaned back against the coarse sandstone and toward him, sighed tiredly. ‘Why do they call you Jazz?’
‘Because my middle name is Jason,’ he said. ‘And I hate it! Don’t make any cracks about the golden fleece, for God’s sake!’
‘Jason is a hero of my homeland,’ she told him. ‘I wouldn’t joke about him.’
Wolf whined a little where he sat at their feet looking up at them. Zek snuggled closer.
Conscious of her warmth, and of her shape against him, Jazz said: ‘Zek, finish your story.’ It sounded abrupt, but he knew it wouldn’t do to get caught up in something he couldn’t control. Not now, up here with night settling fast.
‘What?’ she said, her tone surprised. Then . . . perhaps she sensed, or read, his thoughts. ‘Oh, that! It was almost finished anyway. But. . . where was I?’
A little angry with himself, angry with everything, Jazz reminded her . . .
‘I’ll make it short,’ Zek said, her voice a little cooler now. ‘Then we can get on back down.
‘The Wamphyri Lords were there in Karen’s aerie to talk about The Dweller. But Karen had been right: it wasn’t only The Dweller that concerned them. They wanted Karen’s stack. Shaithis wanted me, too, for my magic – God knows for what else! The rest of the bunch would dice for Karen; the winner would put her to whatever use; afterwards … she would be burned. They feared that her vampire was a Mother. If it was and if she should vampirize her entire aerie – give all of her lieutenants eggs, and others to freshly selected, stolen Travellers – why then, with all of her “children” in thrall to her, there’d be no stopping her! She had to go before things went that far.