'Ben, David!' he called to them. 'Out here, to me. Out in the open.' And he worked frantically to reload his crossbow.
Then, as a pair of the bats swooped chattering on him, he ducked down and glanced skywards . .. and glimpsed what he had known must be up there. Just a glimpse, for the thing was still high overhead, and there was already more than enough happening on the ground to keep Nathan occupied. But the throb of propulsors was louder now, and the first faint reminder of that nightmare stench from the past was falling like some vile rotting rain all about.
Momentarily distracted, at last Nathan finished reloading. Then, scanning the boulder-strewn landscape all around, he saw:
A flyer, coming in low; the biggest so far and armoured. And its rider, vulture-like, hunched forward in the saddle; a weird scarecrow figure with eyes so deeply sunken under jutting black brows they were little more than a crimson glimmer. Angular and deathly corpse-like in his figure and riding posture - yet radiating power, a devious strength - it was perfectly obvious that this one was no mere lieutenant. No indeed, for he was a Lord of vampires. Wamphyri!
It was the first time Nathan had laid eyes on Gorvi the Guile, one of the renegade Lords who had fled Turgosheim with Wratha the Risen; nevertheless, he knew him from a description he'd had from Maglore in Runemanse:
The dome of his head, kept shaven save for a single central lock, with a knot hanging to the rear. His sallow, parchment features (again Nathan was reminded of a leprous vulture) and shifty sunken eyes; and hands Jike skinny claws, but full of a true Lord's strength. And dressed in black, head to toe, always, with his black cloak flapping like tattered wings .. .
Oh yes, Gorvi the Guile. Definitely.
Braver now that their vampire master was here, the great bats formed a cloud, came shrilling in a flurry of thrumming wings. Nathan's crossbow would be worse than useless, wasted against them. Doubly frustrating, their buffeting made it impossible to set his sights on the larger, higher targets.
But the riderless flyer was also back, appearing as from nowhere, hovering into view over the tops of nearby boulders. Nathan kneeled, took aim ... and the great bats at once struck against him, knocking him off-balance. As he sprawled, so the rest of the flock fell towards him -
- And Ben Trask, seeing his chance as the bats crowded together, opened up with his machine-pistol. Three of the six literally exploded in mid-air, torn into bloody fragments by the ferocity of Trask's firepower. And the rest of them scattered in disarray, shrilling their alarm as they swerved left and right, and made off into the maze of leaning rocks.
Why do you wait? Nathan heard Gorvi's furious mind-shout, which the vampire Lord directed at the riderless flyer. Finish it! Settle on them! Smother them with your bulk and drive your thrusters down between the rocks to crush them!
The thing came, arching its wings, gentling to earth. And between the segments of its underbelly, rubbery landing appendages uncoiling like quivering nests of sentient worms! Nathan knew he couldn't miss; he simply raised his gun-hand, aimed at the juncture of neck and body above the slit of the pouch, and squeezed the trigger. And as the flyer came drifting towards the clump of boulders, so the bolt flew home.
Nathan turned his face away; it seemed a long time;
perhaps the detonator was faulty, the bolt a dud? But then a dull crump! As if a boulder had toppled and fallen to earth. Nathan looked:
Not six feet away, the flyer's huge but patently human face at the end of its ten-foot neck gazed at him in vast amaze - a sort of vacant astonishment - in the moment before it twisted into an agonized mask, threshed left and right, opened its jaws and emitted an ear-piercing shriek! Then...