Now, Harry, I suppose you have heard this myth, how vampires fear running water?
‘Next to you,’ said Harry, Tm the world’s greatest expert on vampires! Or as much of one as you’ll find, anyway. You’re going to tell me the myth stems from this underground river, which the Wamphyri had to overcome to make their way to the surface of this world, right?’
Correct.
Thibor had a different explanation.’
Faethor sighed. Thibor didn’t know, as I’ve explained. He could have learned so much from me, that one. But not knowing, he obviously invented an explanation. Devious, as you’ve said.
‘I’ve said that of all of you,’ Harry reminded. ‘But you’ve side-tracked. Get back to the point.’
Very well, but the underground river is the source of that particular myth. A vampire is flesh and blood and bone, Harry. Immerse him in water long enough and he will die. Now let me get on:
Belos braved the river, was washed along downstream. At times his head was above water, but there were other desperate moments when the gap narrowed to nothing, so that he was pushed under. It seemed a long time before the ceiling receded, before natural light returned, glimmering at the end of the watercourse. Then came the resurgence, into a basin, which emptied itself into a sluggish river. But this time, as I’ve said, on the surface. Bedraggled and a little battered, coughing up the river water until he thought he’d dislodge his lungs, at last Old Belos was in this world!
The time – the era – was some three hundred years before your Christ. And the place . . .
‘Yes?’ Harry could scarcely contain himself.
As the crow flies: one hundred and seventy miles from the very spot where you now stand!
And indeed Harry was on his feet. ‘Where, exactly?’ he asked.
Near Radujevac, on the Dunarea, Faethor told him. Or on the banks of the Danube, as it might be better known to you. That’s where you’ll find this resurgence. It is the source of the legend, and the legend is the source of the Wamphyri! Will you go there now, at once?
‘Now? No,’ Harry shook his head. ‘Tonight I plan. I go there tomorrow.’ He stood there in the darkness and sighed.
A weight off your shoulders, Harry?
‘Perhaps – or maybe it’s just one more burden.’
/ have kept my part of the bargain.
‘And I’ll keep mine, if the time should come. Meanwhile, you have my thanks.’
Aye, and those of the teeming dead. Hah! Talk about legends! But your own legend is spreading, Harry. And soon to spread much farther, I think. I bid you farewell
Harry beat his arms across his body, loosening the stiffness in his joints and driving out the cold. Then:
‘Goodbye, Faethor,’ he said. And as always, the Mobius Continuum was waiting to welcome him . . .
Harry’s plans and preparations were the simplest of things, easily carried out. Back at E-Branch HQ he told Darcy Clarke what he required, and while the items were being assembled he brought Clarke up to date and went a little deeper into detailing what the boss of E-Branch already knew.
When he’d finished Clarke said: ‘Let’s get this right. You’re going to Romania, the Danube in the vicinity of Radujevac, where you’ll travel upstream along the course of an underground river, right?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Somewhere up there you expect to find a Gate like the one at Perchorsk, except there won’t be anyone who’ll shoot you dead on sight.’
There might well be people there,’ said Harry. ‘A handful, maybe, but they won’t shoot at me. They won’t be able to. If I know my business they’ll welcome me; they may even have valuable information for me.’
Clarke looked at him and thought: Dear God! – he’s human but he’s so bloody inhuman! Out loud, quietly, he said: ‘Dead people, right?’
‘Corpses, yes. Maybe not even that. Maybe just memories of people.’
Now Clarke shuddered, long and visibly and violently. He was remembering the Bodescu affair, a time when he’d witnessed with his own eyes the unbelievable extent of Harry’s power over the dead. Or rather, the result of their respect for him. In fact it hadn’t been Harry who called up the dead that time but his son, the then infant Harry Jnr. But Harry could do it too, when he had the need.