Nathan also saw flyers down there on the ground, half a dozen of them at least, but they were all positioned well back from the forward edge of the battle area. Ideally situated for relaunching, facing downhill on the narrow trails leading to the Rock, they waited for further instructions. Their masters, lieutenants and senior thralls had dismounted and went afoot like infantrymen, shadowing and directing the battle-engines which were the warriors.
Other flyers and warriors were in the air, probably less than two dozen of them in all, but seeming to Nathan to swarm in their hundreds. They were not quite the height of the dome of the Rock, so that in fact he looked down on them, silhouetted against firelight and the flaring, multicoloured trails of rockets. Only a handful of the warriors were big ones, but the smaller variety was versatile and full of a terrible vitality. Nathan saw two of them go spiralling down, propulsors sputtering, thrusters uncoiling, to land near the base of the Rock on its western approaches. Well, they'd achieve very little there. Uninhabitable and therefore undefended on that flank, the Rock was solid and its face sheer; it sank straight into the stony ground. On the other hand, it wouldn't take long for the warriors to get airborne again and turn their monstrous energies to the eastern flank . ..
While overhead, maybe two hundred and fifty feet over the dome of the Rock and six hundred above the forest -circling like vultures over some soon-to-be corpse - the Wamphyri Generals themselves rode the night air, blotted out the stars in their wheeling, and gazed down through red and rapacious eyes on the efforts of their army. There were five of them mounted on armoured flyers, and five first-lieutenants in attendance on lesser beasts.
Aware of their presence from the moment he vacated the Mobius Continuum, Nathan had automatically taken cover in a clump of gorse growing in the scant soil of a deeply scarred depression. Now, having appraised himself of the situation, he looked skyward again to see what the Lords were up to -
- And none too soon, for they were spiralling down towards the dome of the Rock, approaching the flat, central area of its plateau as they prepared to land. This was to be their command position, from which they'd manoeuvre their men and monsters on the ground.
The entire scene had been stunning to Nathan's senses from the very first moment. The roaring of beasts and screams of men carried up from below on air warmed by fear, fire and fighting. The shrill whistle or occasional shriek of unreliable missiles, and the deafening blasts of sound and blinding explosions when they burst against vampire flesh, or, more frequently, empty air. The stench of sulphur and of warrior exhaust gases drifting in poisonous grey and yellow clouds through the night; and the mind-searing sight of nightmare shapes throbbing or undulating in the star-spattered sky. But over and above everything else, the knowledge that they were his people down there, fighting and dying for the Rock, and for human existence itself.
Stunning to Nathan's senses, yes ... but the vampire Lords would soon be landing!
For long moments frozen, at last Nathan was galvanized into frantic activity. Shaking out some of the arms from his bundle, he saw what he'd got there. Fragmentation grenades; a 30mm twin rocket-launcher, fully loaded; a light-weight flame-thrower, and a machine-pistol and ammo. He yanked the rocket-launcher free, stuffed grenades into his pockets, crammed what he could of the rest of the stuff back into the bundle and shoved it deep into the roots of the gorse.
The first flyer was coming in for a landing. It was one of the lesser beasts, commanded by a lieutenant. Nathan stood up and came head and shoulders above the gorse. He'd gone entirely unnoticed so far (or so he thought), but for some little time had been shielding his mind while intercepting the telepathic messages of the Wamphyri Lords - and those of one Lady, their leader!
Safety down on this great boulder, we'll see so much more clearly, she was saying. But it seems to me our forces on the ground are already costing the Lidescis dear, and pushing them back into their holes. By the time we send down another three or four warriors, we'll have them in full rout. After that, if we can only get a beast inside the Rock . ...' She left the rest of it unthought.
The Lady Wratha's great mount was coming in immediately behind her lieutenant's lesser beast; the rest of the Wamphyri Lords followed on behind, descending in a loose 'V formation. But next in line after Wratha the Risen was one whose thoughts grew more anxious and confused moment to moment, who now sent her this urgent message:
Wratha! Back off! Don't land! There's someone there! An enemy - even a Great Enemy! Aye, and he's dangerous!
Recognizing that telepathic voice at once, Nathan thrilled with a variety of emotions, not least horror. For its owner was his twin brother - Lord Nestor, of the Wamphyri!
IV
Nestor