[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

had been at that time, so that Shaithis had wondered:
Are they lovers?
Well, perhaps they had been and perhaps not. It could be that they'd simply
been allies against Shaithis and his army of Wamphyri Lords, and as a reward
for her part in his defeat her aerie had been spared; but only to become
Shaithis's in the fullness of time, as
file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Luml...pe%205%20-%20Deadspawn%20V1.0%20(
html).htm (114 of 314) [2/13/2004 10:18:41 PM]
Page 111
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Brian Lumley - Necroscope 5 - Deadspeak everything else had become Shaithis's.
He supposed that one way or the other it made little difference, except that
for some ill-defined reason he really would like to know whether or not this
hell-lander had known Karen and been in her. Well, that was a question he
could resolve easily enough.
She sprawled beside the bone-throne where he had left her, and now he called
out: 'Karen, come to me.' She made to stand up but he added quickly: 'No,
crawl!'
Luscious body oiled and gleaming in the light of flaring flambeaux, with only
her golden bangles and rings to cover a figure which her vampire had made
irresistible, she obeyed.
Her great bush of pubic hair was a glistening copper tangle; the stains of her
aureoles and spiked nipples were dark as bruises against the pale loll of her
pendulous breasts; even proceeding in the undignified, animal fashion which
Shaithis demanded, still her lithe loveliness could not be disguised.
When she was close to him, then Shaithis reached down quickly and bunched the
mass of her red hair in his hand, jerking back her head and yanking her to her
feet. She made no sound, no protest, but The Dweller leaned forward a little -
a strange attitude or posture, like a dog balanced on its hind legs - and
Shaithis thought he heard a low growl rumbling behind the mask. Had he aroused
The Dweller's passions? And if so, what about those of his hell-lander father?
Now, still holding Karen upright, so that she stood upon her crimson-nailed
toes, Shaithis deliberately looked away from The Dweller and into the strange,
sad eyes of his puny-
looking father. He cocked his great head on one side enquiringly. 'And so
you're the hell-
lander who caused me so much trouble in the garden, eh? Well, little man, it
strikes me that you and your son were lucky that time, and that if you're the
best they have going for them beyond the sphere Gate, then it's high time the
Wamphyri went through into the hell-
lands and showed them what we can do! Except ... I have to admit there's
something I can't quite fathom. I mean, a creature like you - small, soft,
puny, with the pulpy parts of a virgin boy - and you'd have me believe you've
been into this?' He knotted Karen's hair that much tighter in his great fist,
lifting her higher, until she was obliged to dance on the very tips of her
toes. 'What, and lived to brag about it?' Shaithis's derisory laughter grated
like a hot iron in ashes.
The hell-lander stiffened and his scarlet eyes widened a very little; his
mouth twitched in one corner; his pale flesh turned paler yet. But he found
strength to suppress the cold fury which Shaithis's scorn had momentarily
induced in him. And finally, in a small, quiet voice he answered: 'You must
believe what you will. I neither confirm nor deny anything.'
Such negativity! Shaithis took it as a sign of the hell-lander's impotence.
For if he and
Karen had been lovers, then doubtless he'd delight in boasting how she was his
cast-off, which was the way of it with the Wamphyri; in payment for which
insolence Shaithis would have him gutted with middling sharp instruments, and
before his living eyes feed his smoking entrails to a warrior! But however
impotent he might or might not be, still the vampire Lord's question went
unanswered.
'Very well.' Shaithis shrugged. Then I shall assume she means nothing to you.
If I thought she did I would cut away your eyelids so that you couldn't close
them, and hang you in silver chains from the walls of my bedchamber where
you'd have no choice but to observe
file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Luml...pe%205%20-%20Deadspawn%20V1.0%20(
html).htm (115 of 314) [2/13/2004 10:18:41 PM]
Brian Lumley - Necroscope 5 - Deadspeak each smallest intricacy and nuance of
Page 112
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
our lovemaking - before she died from it!'
At which moment, even as he said this thing:
Don't!
The warning echoed like a gong struck in Shaithis's mind, and he knew its
source at once.
Glaring across the hall at the Dark Hooded Thing, he saw that where before the
interior of its hood had been black and impervious as granite, now the sulphur
orbits and scarlet pinpricks of eyes were visible, unblinking, burning their
message into his mind.
Don't drive them too far! I hold them enthralled, their powers suppressed, but
goading them is like thrusting sharp staves under a warrior's scales! It makes
them unstable, galvanizes them, weakens my hold upon them.
And Shaithis sent back:
But they're whelmed, conquered, whipped like dogs! Which no one knows better
than you; for you hold their minds like grapes in your hands, to peel or crush
as you will. But as well as this I have warriors here, and my many lieutenants
and thralls.
Aye, and all of my creatures without, thronging on the night wind. Now tell
me, pray: what have I to fear?
Only your greed, my son, and your pride, the other answered.
But did you say 'your'
warriors, lieutenants and thralls? Yours and not ours? Have I no part in your
triumph, then? There were two of us, Shaithis, remember? And yet now you talk
of T when you can only mean 'we'. A slip of the tongue, obviously. Ah, but [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]