'Sleep?'
'Undeath,' said Grig. 'In your sleep, you drained her. You took from her and you gave to her. She was a vampire thrall but mainly human. When she wakes up she will still be a vampire but mainly inhuman. Essence of your leech is in her. Eventually, if she is allowed to continue she will be Wamphyri!'
Nestor tried hard to grasp the principle. But the intricacies of vampirism were such that even with his own vampire's instinct, still he was confused. He stood up, took the undead girl's hand in his, let it flop loosely, lifelessly back among the furs. 'On Sunside,' he said, speaking slowly and mainly to himself, 'when the Wamphyri make their thralls, they are only thralls! So what's so different here?' He looked at Grig accusingly. 'And why do you understand when I do not?'
'I have been here some time, Lord,' Grig answered,
'and I have learned. There were things which Vasagi did, and things which he did not do. He bred vampires - not Wamphyri! On Sunside, in the hunt, the Lords take women for their pleasure and the comforts they give; also for their blood, of course. Some of their blood. They also take men, for thralls, lieutenants, and for the provisioning of the manse. The difference is this: they don't kill them. They take a little, give something back. The fever gets into their Szgany victims, who are then brought back here or make their own way. Or they are discovered by the Travellers and put to death on Sun-side. Except ...' He searched for words, and Nestor grew impatient. 'Yes, except?'
'Except, if a man or woman is drained - if so much blood is taken that he or she "dies" - then the vampire, your vampire, compensates, gives more of itself. The more you take, the more you give. And after the sleep of undeath, the transition is that much faster.'
Nestor looked at the 'dead' girl again, but with a different expression on his face. 'She could be ... Wamphyri?' He glanced at Grig and held up a hand to still his tongue. 'Yes, I know: if she is allowed to continue ...'
He looked at the other woman. 'But this one, Maria ... is only a thrall.'
'But a weak thrall, Lord,' Grig nodded. 'For your hunger was very great. The furs are soaked red where your thirst ran over! She needs food, soup, meat. In order to serve you again, she must first recover.'
Suddenly Nestor felt bloated. Suddenly he was aware of his red hands, face, even his eyes. He was still a novice and had taken too much. While his system was changing, it had not yet had time to adjust or prepare itself for such a gorging. His ascendant leech had been too eager! He reeled beside the bed, clutching the high stone headboard for support. And indicating Carmen, he choked out: 'Deal with that. The provisioning.' But as Grig lifted her up light as a leaf: 'No, wait! Lie her in state somewhere, until I can think. Then return and care for this one, this Maria. But for the moment -' Nestor's gorge was beginning to heave, '- leave me aJonef
And as Grig carried Carmen from the room, Lord Nestor of the Wamphyri groped his way blindly to the curtained niche in the corner, and almost but not quite made it...
Nestor and Grig went down into Mangemanse. At least, Grig would have accompanied his master, if he had been allowed. But where a deep dark stairwell descended in a steep, narrow spiral into black bowels of rock, and a recess in the wall facing the shaft housed a second bat-thing guardian, there Nestor took his lieutenant's arm to bring him to a halt. And he pointed out a sigil carved in a flagstone at the head of the steps. It was Canker's mark: a sickle moon.
Then, as if at some signal, though none had been given, a growl echoed up from below and was followed by a single, ululating howl, which slowly died away. The guardian showed alarm, flowed forward in its niche and hissed, but Nestor cautioned it: Be quiet, all is well.
And: 'Lord?' Grig looked at him uncertainly, and waited.
'Canker and I have an agreement,' Nestor told him. 'When in future we visit, we go alone, of our own free will. It was not my intention that you would accompany me further than this point, but that you'd wait here until I return. Then you shall show me Suckscar, taking