what you might lose, should I pursue ... certain investigations? As it stands, the uprising has been put down.
Those Lords who were caught red-handed will pay for it, and let that be the end of it. Shaitan is merciful...
As the psychic aether fel silent, Radu said to Emil Hagisman, 'Now you can take your flyer and return to the Gust. If he asks you what transpired, tell him you told me nothing, and be sure I'll never give you away. Also, if at any future time something should befal Hengor Hagi, you know there's a place for you with me.
Only tell me one more thing before you go.'
'Name it,' the other's relief was plain to see.
'In al of this so far, I've haven't heard a single word out of the Ferenczys. Are they without mentalism, or what?'
'Apparently,' Emil nodded. 'It wil doubtless come with time, as al Wamphyri talents do - though slower in some than in others - but for the moment the Ferenczy brothers are deaf and dumb in the art of telepathy.'
They'l know nothing of my presence here?'
'Oh, be sure they'll know you're here, if not who you are. And they'll know that soon enough, for others are bound to tell them. Then there's the question of Lagula's stolen thrals. But you have Shaitan's protection - for now, at least.'
'He's changeable?'
'As the wind off the Icelands, aye!'
The wind off the Icelands - ' Radu repeated him, nodding thoughtfuly and stroking back his mane. But then he grinned in his wolf fashion, clapped Emil on the shoulder, and barked: ' - Which currently blows in your favour! So be off now to Hengstack, and give my regards to the Gust. Tel him I admired his word-game, and that I look forward to taunting with him again sometime ... "
Thus Radu Lykan ascended to Wolfsden in Starside, in those earliest days of the Wamphyri...
The rest is known.
Radu rose in the ranks of the Wamphyri, and acquired al the 'natural,' monstrous instincts of a Lord almost as a vampire born. Eventualy he incurred the wrath of Shaitan, by which time he was equal in stature to even the greatest of the lesser Lords, and Wolfsden was insufficient to contain his army. Territorial, he looked at the other stacks - al of them occupied now - but especialy he looked at Ferencscar!
Let the bloodwars commence! Radu allied himself with Hengor Hagi, Klaus Lankari, and Thereza Lugosi against the Ferenczys, who were now legion. Lagula Ferenczy had sired a bloodson, Nonari the Gross, and a daughter, Freyda Ferenc, both of whom had ascended in their turn to occupy their own aeries. Rakhi Ferenczy had likewise ascended to a Lord (albeit a lesser one); for Petre Stakis's last bite had been virulent indeed, transfusing or conferring upon Rakhi all the ingredients of a Lord. In short, he had developed a leech of his own.
Still Rakhi fell first. Radu beheaded him, tore out his parasite and devoured it. Rakhi's men and beasts were divided between the victors; straws were drawn for Rakstack, which went to the Gust, who at once gutted the place; Radu and his allies again turned their eyes on Ferencscar, Nonspire and Freydastack. But Freyda, a so-called 'Mother of Vampires,' was no more; she had died spawning a deluge of eggs, al of which save one were diseased and likewise expired.
Ferencscar fell, and finally Lagula Ferenczy - the lone surviving member of that band who had ravaged Radu's innocent sister -must pay the price. A hundred and seventy years had passed since then, but Radu had forgotten and forgiven nothing. The Wamphyri do not forgive. He cut through Lagula's tendons to weaken his joints, put his neck in a silver noose, skewered his limbs with iron hooks, and had him drawn and quartered between straining flyers, so that his blood and his bits fel like red rain down onto the shuddering boulder plains ...
And that would have been that, except now Lagula's bloodson, Nonari the Gross, swore vengeance on Radu and death to his kith, kin, and spawn for al time to come. The impassioned vow of a Lord of the Wamphyri, which might outlast eternity itself. They would have gone at it at once, except a greater peril now united all the Lords, even Radu and Nonari, against a yet more pitiless foe -whose name was Shaitan!
The Lord of Vampires had stood aloof from the bloodwars ... until now. But finaly, when al the others were weakened, Shaitan swooped on