The Source by Brian Lumley

‘As for her aerie: Fess Ferenc, Volse Pinescu and one of the lesser Lords were of a mind to produce their own eggs. With Karen out of the way they would do so; their “progeny” would fight it out and the winner become Lord of Karen’s aerie. The losers would remain in thrall to their masters until new opportunities presented themselves. Wamphyri “children” in thrall, by the way, don’t have an easy time of it; there’s nothing a Lord enjoys more than using his own child, male or female, for his own satisfaction. The blood of one’s own kin, especially of the vampire in him, is the greatest delicacy of all! If Dramal Doombody hadn’t been done for, Karen’s life would have been an unending nightmare.

The deed itself – the taking of Karen and her properties – that was to come before her vampire reached full maturity and took ascendancy. Patently it was a slow developer, but the Lords knew from their history and legends that Ladies were hard to get rid of once they achieved full flower. The “female of the species”, so to speak. So … she would be invited to join with the Wamphyri Lords in their attack upon The Dweller. Her forces would be used as cannon-fodder; when the battle was over, and without pause, her depleted units would be crushed in their turn, wiped out, and Karen herself taken.

‘If she refused to join in the attack on The Dweller, that would be seen as a rebuke, an insult; it would warrant a full-scale, subsequent attack on her stack. But it was hoped she would join in, for if her aerie could be taken intact, undamaged – simply walked into – so much the better.

‘All of this I got in bits and pieces from the minds of Shaithis, Volse, Menor Maimbite and one or two others. I dared not stay with any mind too long, in case they should become aware of me. But Karen had been quite right: in protecting themselves against her probing, they had left themselves wide open to me. I can tell you now, Jazz, that there are many hells. And if one of them is that place we were told about as children, where if we’re not careful we go for our sins, then be sure that the others are the minds of Wamphyri Lords! There’s little enough to distinguish between them . . .

‘Anyway, finally the meeting was over and Shaithis stood and made a closing speech. As best I can remember it went like this:

‘”Lords, and Lady:

‘”With one exception – the exception of one vote, that of our . . . charming hostess, who will, she assures us, give the matter her most earnest consideration – we are all agreed on a punitive expedition against The Dweller. The hour of that effort against our great and mutual enemy is still to be set, but until it is decided, all are to stand forewarned and prepared. We all have valid reasons to wish to be rid of him. Apart from the fact that he has set up house in our territory – I take it we are agreed that the mountains are ours? – very well; apart from that fact, and that he gives succor to Travellers, who are our traditional prey, some of us have more personal grievances.

‘”Some hundred sundowns past, Lesk sent one of his men to parley with The Dweller. Only to parley, mind you, as we have heard from the lips of Lesk himself, most lucid of Lords. The man did not return. Angered (quite rightly), Lesk sent a warrior to test The Dweller’s mettle. The Dweller contrived to trap rays of the recently sunken sun in mirrors, with which he burned Lesk’s warrior to a crisp! Lesk, whose reasoning occasionally differs from that of, er, less sensitive minds, sent a second warrior -but not directly against The Dweller. For Lesk had determined that The Dweller was a hell-lander, sent here to spy on us and provoke us, perhaps preparing the way for large-scale invasion. The idea became obsessive – that is, he was convinced of its logic – especially so considering that immediately after Lesk’s initial attacks upon The Dweller, the gate to the hell-lands was seen to rise up into the very mouth of its crater! Surely as preamble to the feared attack? And so he sent the second warrior directly into the hell-lands, through the gate, to let any would-be invaders see for themselves something of the might of the Wamphyri. Needless to say, the second warrior did not return. But then, no one ever has . . .

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