all in tatters? And ... and ... the Lidesci's wife, you say?' He turned back to Lissa. 'But likewise wild and torn? Now say, what is this thing?'
'Old man,' it was Misha's turn to speak, 'hard times have come, and we must spend the night here and wait for sunup.' And innocent, she reached out a hand to touch his sleeve.
'Ah!' he said again, a gasp this time, and swiftly drew back out of reach. And: 'I am not... not old,' he shook his head, however slowly .. .
But in the next moment, 'What hard times?'
The Wamphyri are back in Starside,' Nana told him then, breathlessly. 'And tonight they raided on Settlement!'
Finally they had made an impression. The Wamphyri!' the leper croaked, bobbing about in sudden agitation. 'What? They are back, did you say?' Abruptly he turned, hobbling off down a path towards the wooden buildings under the trees.
'Wait!' Misha called after him. 'We can't spend the night in the open!'
He glanced back. 'I only keep watch,' he husked. 'But we have a leader, too. Now wait here, and I'll bring him.'
In a little while he returned; several more lepers, all dressed alike, came with him. One of them was tall, shuffling, obviously in great pain. The sleeves of his robe seemed empty from the elbows down ... but his cowl was thrown back so that his face at least was visible and clean. He was pale, hollow-cheeked, with dark expressive eyes.
'I'm Uruk Piatra,' he told the women, looking at them. The others call me Uruk Long-life. And you ..." He looked long and hard at Lissa - her oval face with its gentle almond eyes; her slim, long-limbed figure - and said, 'Yes, you are Lardis Lidesci's wife. You've been here before, am I right?'
'With my husband,' she nodded. 'When he was beating the bounds. Twice, I think, but long ago.'
'Aye, long ago,' the other agreed, 'when I had hands.' He looked at all of them again, blinking in the yellow light of the lanterns. 'But I've been told a terrible thing: that the Wamphyri have returned to raid in Sunside!'
"Vampire World 1 - Blood Brothers"
By then Lissa had taken a firm grip on her nerves. 'It's true,' she told him, 'all horribly true! We've come here from Settlement, which was burning when last we saw it. There were vampires in the streets, killing, raping, making thralls. But I remember that long ago, my husband told me that this was a place safe from all vampires. That's why we've come here: to hide through the night from the Wamphyri, and to shelter from the forest and its beasts - till sunup at least, when we'll think what to do.'
The leper leader shook his head and his expression grew more haunted yet. 'A monstrous thing!' he said. 'But there are terrible things and terrible things. For a woman to fall into the hands of the Wamphyri would be a nightmare, I know, and to live with them even worse than dying. But to live here ... is a slow, lingering death in itself - which you risk just by being here.'
Nana Kiklu had had enough of this. 'So, we are turned away by lepers!' Her words were bitter. Then we'll sleep here, outside your gate. Only bring us clean blankets and a lantern, and we'll look after ourselves.'
Uruk Piatra looked at her and nodded slowly. 'Being what I am,' he said, 'does not make me any less the man. Upon a time I was Szgany, like you. Not a Lidesci, no, but I was a man. And even now I know my duty. I meant simply this: that I could not invite you in, for your own sakes. But certainly we can do better than blankets and a lamp! When lepers come here, we build them homes. Until they are built, however, a tent of skins must suffice. I suggest you pitch it under the trees, over there.'
Nana went to speak again, then hung her head.
And again he nodded. 'It's all right. I understand. Only looking at you I can see how much you've suffered.'
He gave orders and the other lepers went back to their sprawl of dwellings, returning in a while with a tent, blankets, vegetables, an iron pot and tripod. And: 'Stay here,' their leader told Nana, Lissa, and Misha,
'while they build your tent under the trees and light a small fire. Then you must make your own soup, with water from the stream there.'
And while their refuge