'So be it,' said Nestor.
'Very well,' Canker answered. 'Now we proceed directly to your nethermost level, where I shall show you the stairwell and pass down into Mangemanse. And on the way down, I'll advise my creatures as you suggest.'
Nestor looked all about the great hall. A few thralls were busy in a kitchen to one side; a female swept the floor; industrious sounds echoed from various side-tunnels and passageways. The Lord Nestor had issued a warning against sloth, and it was obvious that his people had taken it seriously.
'Zahar!' he called out, as Canker led the way towards a stone-hewn stairwell. 'Attend me.' And to Canker: 'I need him. When you have gone, he shall accompany me on my tour of Suckscar.'
'Good!' said the other. That way, you will seem to have purpose and not be seen wandering aimlessly.'
'I do have purpose!' Nestor retorted. 'I shall be seen to be interested in everything, and where things don't work, they shall be put to rights. Even if they do work, but I don't like the way they work, I shall change them.'
'A new broom sweeps clean,' said Canker. 'And a new Lord of the Wamphyri commands respect.' He shook his head and frowned, and great shaggy red eyebrows met over the bridge of his nose. 'But still I can't get over how quickly you're settling in. Maybe there's more to that story of yours than meets the eye: about your having been Wamphyri before, and forgotten it. Could it be you're someone's bloodson, I wonder? Is it possible that somewhere in your ancestry some Lord took a Sunside girl, and the issue had nothing of the vampire in him except the desire to be Wamphyri?'
Nestor nodded, shook his head, shrugged. 'I don't know. 'You could be right. But I do know this: if I haven't always been Wamphyri, certainly I have always wanted to be.'
Then Zahar joined them and they proceeded down into the lower levels ...
After Canker had gone, Zahar took Nestor on his tour.
'How many rooms do I have?' Nestor inquired.
'You have stables, storerooms and a granary, a slaughterhouse and cold store,' Zahar answered. 'You have kitchens and rooms for dining, quarters for your thralls, workshops and a laundry, and launching-bays. You have a hall of metamorphosis, with great vats hollowed in the floor and cages in the walls for your warriors. And of course you have your own rooms over the great hall. But how many? I doubt if anyone ever counted them, Lord!'
'Oh? Then have it done,' Nestor answered at once. 'I want them counted, listed, and mapped.'
'Mapped?'
'Aye, on skins. Five skins in frames, one for each