Now the creature's jaws cracked open and yawned wide, and its teeth were visible like row upon row of long white needles, receding into its scarlet throat. Teeth like that could strip a man's flesh to the bone, leaving his face or limbs flensed in a moment. But even now the thing was not as awesome as Wratha's guardian beasts.
You are mine! Nestor told it. I have Vasagi's egg. Stand aside, for I would pass. Likewise these men withme, who are my friends ... for now at least. He took another breathless pace forwards -
- And the creature flowed to meet him!
Its wings opened, but they were not wings. From its forearms and underarms, down the sides of its body to its knees or where knees would be in a man, a thick webbing of flesh formed furry blankets which were like wings on both sides of the creature's body. Superficially, they were wings. But in reality, they were traps!
On Sunside there were flowers which functioned similarly; they had spined, fleshy petals that closed on insect victims to devour them. But this thing wasn't designed to devour insects - and the Sunside flowers weren't intelligent and mobile!
Under the 'wings' before they closed on Nestor, he saw that the pink worms were merely the tips of a nest of lashing tentacles based around the dark orifice of a grinding, suctorial mouth. The thing had two mouths, only one of which was in its face. Then the tentacles locked him in, trapping his arms and crushing him to that more immediate mouth where its huge, quivering lips tasted him!
For a moment - a single moment - Nestor was deaf, dumb, and blind. He was nauseated by the smell of rotting meat, the stench of an open stomach, the slick feel on his skin of some bio-acidic solution. A single moment . .. before the guardian released him, folded its flaps and flowed back from him in a confused fashion, blinked furnace eyes hesitantly, then shuffled backwards into its niche and cowered down.
Nestor might have staggered a little, but Canker had come forward and was holding his elbow. 'Excellent!' the dog-thing growled. 'Vasagi's beast acknowledges its new master.'
Nestor's skin was crawling from head to toe, but he and Canker went on. And behind them, the thing in the dark archway opened its flaps again, lashed its tentacles and hissed menacingly as Wran and Spiro followed - until Nestor turned and cautioned it: Be quiet.' Did I not say that these men were with me?
And as the thing fell silent and shrank back, so the four proceeded down into Suckscar ...
At the end of the short corridor, two more of Vasagi's creatures were tethered in niches set back a little from the main passage. They were not too unlike Wratha's personal guardians: brutal, ferocious things that howled and gibbered, tearing at their chains as Nestor and the others came into view. Their new master spoke to them at once, saying:
'I am the Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri. Vasagi's egg - and all of Vasagi's things - are mine. Now what is this commotion? Desist ... or suffer!' It was enough; the warriors sniffed him out and at once fell silent, shuffling uncomfortably in their places.
Wran and Spiro were frankly astonished. Being Wamphyri, of course they too could have calmed the beasts ... given sufficient time to threaten, cajole, and work on them. But Nestor had no experience of such things; even with Vasagi's egg, still he was a newcomer here; and yet he instinctively, almost automatically fitted into place. 'Yes,' Wran told him, 'I think you'll do very well indeed, in Suckscar.' But his scarlet eyes were shrouded. For it seemed to Wran that perhaps Nestor would do just a little too well here ...
Thralls and lieutenants alike had heard the rowing warriors. Two of the latter came at the run just as Nestor and the others entered Suckscar's main hall. They were massive men, as are all the chosen lieutenants of the Wamphyri, so that Nestor felt dwarfed between his three companions and these newcomers. But the lieutenants, seeing Canker, Wran and Spiro, skidded to a halt, looked at each other, and approached more cautiously.
While they were still out of earshot, Canker whined, 'Now comes the real test. For these are not dumb beasts but men, and they have brains that think. Better let me handle it, for now at least.'