Then ... you are finished here? Korath's doomful voice trembled. And is this my fate, to be left alone down here forever? Why, you have not even thanked me, much less pardoned me for being what I was made to be!
Thanked you? Harry said, his voice still far-distant and faintly echoing. Pardoned you? How many women did you rape and vampirize when you and your master %unted' the Szgany in Sunside? How many good men have you killed with your gauntlet and your bare hands?Agghhh! Korath cried. And: Ah, no, don't ... don't remind me! he pleaded. That wasn't me! Or it was, but I was driven to do these things. I was driven by ... driven by my ... (But here he came to an abrupt, stumbling, tongue-biting halt.)... By your leech? Harry finished it for him. Your leech, Korath? And then to Jake: Do you see what I mean? Nothing more devious than a vampire, even when he's dead. This one had developed a leech and was ready to ascend. And Malinari was right to recruit him, for he was obviously the right stuff.'But he is dead now/ Jake answered. 'And being dead, what more mischief can he possibly get up to?'I sometimes wonder if you listen at all! Harry told him. / can only hope you'll remember some of this when you're awake.'Lord, who would want to?' Jake replied, then shivered and hugged himself tighter yet. 'And talking about being awake - or, if not awake, at least out of this place - aren't we just about finished here?'Jake, (Harry sighed) try to get this foxed in your stubborn head. I'm not sure I'll be back. I may not be able to come back. So while I am here you had better be taking in everything you can. And whatever else you do, remember that in future time I've seen your blue life~thread crossed by the red of vampires. So, like it or not, one way or the other it's coming.And Harry's deadspeak voice - despite that it was fainter yet - was so sincere, so urgent and fraught, that finally Jake had to take note of what it was telling him. With which he resigned himself yet again, and said: 'So ... what's next?'Korath isn't finished, Harry answered, with something of a sigh - but different this time because it was a sigh of relief, not one of frustration. We still don't know how he - how they - ended up here. We've only heard half of the story, and we still don't know very much at all about Vavara and Szwart.
Jake might have contradicted him, for he had learned something of Vavara and Szwart himself, from Lardis Lidesci. Before he could speak, however:Nor are you going to know much about them! (Korath's surly voice.) Not from me, anyway. For you are ungrateful, and I have spoken my last. But:Not your last and not nearly enough, Harry told him. Bluster all you like, Koratl, but I say you will speak.Oh, and are you then a necromancer after all? Korath queried, sarcastically. If so, perhaps I should point out that I've neither living nor dead flesh for you to worry with your pincers and hot irons.
That's very true, Harry replied. But I think I could probably find a bone or two, washed clean in this pipe - if I were a necromancer. But I'm not, and anyway there's no need. For you know as well as I that as little as you are now, if we take our leave of you then you'll be even less. Or is our company worth nothing? In which case we must assume that you prefer this endless darkness, this eternal silence, and leave it at that. And leave you for ever and ever.
After a long moment it seemed that Korath sobbed, but very quietly. Until finally he answered: But you're a cold and cruel one, Harry Keogh.And Harry told him, Ah, but I had good teachers. And they were vampires, too. So say on while you still have the chance, Korath, and while we are still here to bear you out...
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
A Dark Lady ... and a Darker Lord'Fuelled by blood, Nephran Malinari's bloodwars were a terrible scourge on humanity/ Korath picked up the threads of his story. 'For as long as he ravaged on Sunside to provision fortress Malstack, so must the rest of the