'Well?' Spiro took a threatening pace towards Grig, who had now come to a halt.
And Wran - still smiling, for the moment - told Zahar: 'Man, if you persist in blocking my way, there's a very strong chance I'll eat your heart right here and now, off this immaculately clean floor.'
'Gentlemen,' Nestor growled, coming upon them. 'I see you found my women, and picked out two of the comeliest to show me what is my get. That was thoughtful of you. But now, alas, matters have come to a head and I must show you off my property. As you see, two of my creatures are here to make sure you have not forgotten the way out.' And in his mind: Rear up! Menace them! Issue your smoking juices!
He stepped aside, Canker likewise - and the guardians of the staircase at once flowed forward, reared upright, presented their muscular underbellies and dripped acid! Wran released his captive; both he and his brother crouched down, looked this way and that; their crimson eyes now blazed with fires so hot they almost smoked. Then:
'Do ... you ... threaten?' No longer a 'gentleman', Wran looked about to explode, indeed to rage.
Threaten?' Nestor put on a surprised expression. 'In what way? I merely provide you with an escort from my place. For as I have said, matters are coming to a head.'
'What matters?' Spiro snarled, clasping his brother's arm as if to hold him in place.
'Why, only that the sun is up,' Nestor answered. 'You've a little time to spare, of course, but if you would collect your flyers from Wratha's landing-bay, and return to Madmanse without - inconvenience - then it's time you were on your way.'
Wran's captive had wriggled away from him; she hid behind Nestor, clutching his jacket. The brothers fumed; they glared at each other, at Canker, and at Nestor with his knife in his belt, but mainly at his familiars. Wran and Spiro were not equipped for war, and even Nestor's common thralls had now taken heart, hissing and creeping closer.
'Hah." Spiro snarled. 'Not a threat?' 'In no way,' Nestor answered. 'I invited you in here, and you entered of your own free will. What sort of hospitality, to threaten you now? Also, Wran is responsible for my being here. I would be in his debt - except of course, I saved his life on Sunside, and so we're even. And while we talk the sun is risen, soon to burn on Wrathspire. I was thinking of your safety, and only that.'
Wran took a deep breath, held it a moment, then slapped his thigh and burst out laughing, however harshly. 'A prodigy!' he cried, through gritted teeth. 'A babe out of Sunside, grown to a man in a single morning, and master now of an aerie manse! Well, and didn't I say you'd do well in Suckscar?'
'Indeed you did.' Nestor gestured to indicate the way out, and in so doing cleared a path for them across the floor of the great hall, towards the tunnel stairs to Wratha's landing-bays. 'And so I shall. But each of us in his own place, and yours is in Madmanse.'
The brothers left; they took their time walking across the floor, but they left. Behind them, Nestor's staircase guardians flowed across the flags, leaving a whiff of acid stench in the air. And ahead of them:
Nestor sent a thought to the dark-furred bat-thing in its archway niche. The men who approach: Jet them pass, then spit at them, hiss, and shepherd them up and out of Suckscar! From this time forward, they shall not pass again.
Nestor's male and female thralls, his lieutenants, most of his people - and all of them vampires - were gathered to him now. Knowing that things were afoot, they'd converged on the great hall from their various work places. He stepped up onto a table and turned in a circle, letting all of them see him clearly. Their babble ceased in a moment.