until he could abide to venture out in a hooded cloak - the Drakuls were true children of the night; sunlight would kill them instantly. But they'd developed their metamorphism to such a degree that like Shaitan the Unborn they could shape themselves into bats to fly out in the night and so take their prey.
And they'd been doing it ever since. Moreover, in Starside they had been reared by wolves. They knew wolves, and in this world kept grey brothers as familiar creatures. Wolves of the wild kept watch for them, by means of which the Drakuls were secure in their aerie and feared no man.
For the moment it worked for them, hence the rumours now finding their way to Radu. For the barbarian invaders who were settling the plains north of the mountains were no less superstitious than the locals they usurped. And when their wives or children died mysteriously or vanished in the night, then they knew who to blame: the winged devil in his mountain retreat - the 'obour' or 'viesky,' the vampire - the Drakul! The brothers had long since built a castle or castles in no-man's-land, at least one of which aeries stood on a rocky promontory over a chasm.
This much Radu learned, and no more. Sufficient to determine him to avoid the error of bringing himself into prominence. And he kept reminding himself: anonymity and obscurity are synonymous with longevity. The Drakuls were true legends now; when al the fighting was over and done with and Dacia was united as a single tribe or country, then the people would remember these monsters and go looking for them. But even if the locals should forget, be sure that Radu Lykan would not. Territorial the Wamphyri, aye, and this place was where Radu had come forth.
And anyway, there'd never been much love lost between him and Karl and Egon in the first place.
Ever vengeful - and smiling grimly, if only to himself - Radu dreamed
WAMPHYRI: ANCIENT AND MODERN
PART FOUR:
WAMPHYRI: ANCIENT AND MODERN
I
MORE OF RADU'S STORY. BONNIE JEAN: SHE VISITS HER MASTER
In those days if you would live, the high mountains were most probably the safest place to do it. And for the time being the werewolf Radu Lykan had had his fil of war. In the last quarter of the year 467 AD, he and his small pack wintered down in what was to be their lair for the next sixty years.
The place was a great cavern in the mountains of western Moldavia, not far from a scrabbled-together 'town' or village, more properly a makeshift encampment of refugees, caled Krawlau by its one hundred and fifteen polyglot inhabitants.
As to why he chose this place: Radu's reasons were several. For one, the heights were inhospitable and almost inaccessible. To gradually establish oneself there would be one thing, but for any would-be invader to launch an attack, or even want to? ... That seemed unlikely. Two: being simply a holow crag, the redoubt would not invite attack in the manner of an 'aerie' or castle; and at its rear, its lowest crevice exits opened on the shore of a broad, bitterly cold lake.
In the event that he was attacked, Radu could easily slip away by boat to the far shore. For while it was a time of relative quiet, there would continue to be sporadic invasions from the east (Radu's dreams were full of them) ...
Three: while a true aerie would be his first choice for a permanent dweling place, its construction would prove prohibitively expensive. The cavern on the other hand required no actual or external building as such but only some interior works, and what monies Radu had amassed were better put aside against the vagaries of an uncertain future - his precognition was by no means infallible. Four: an entire work-force, with which to make the crag habitable, was immediately to hand in the shape of the folk of Krawlau. These former farmers -driven into the mountains by war and the collapse of the Eastern Empire's borders in the face of invading Asiatics - had no work. Like
Radu, they were simply wintering out the bad times. In order to survive they'd become scavengers, hunting the land and fishing the lake for food. Which was why, when first Radu found them, they saw him as a godsend. •
At first, aye ...
And when he was established ... then they saw him almost as a god! Oh, it was in his bearing when he walked among