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anyway. She was
Wamphyri! - the real thing - and her lieutenants knew it. She looked, and for
the moment perhaps still thought like a young woman, yes, but that was only
the shell.
'Within her she had a vampire and its strengths were hers, growing stronger
every day. If she appeared weak it was simply that she didn't want her
underlings to test her, didn't want to have to punish them as she'd been
obliged to punish Corlis, for that might mean calling again upon the monster
within her for its assistance. And she was
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dedicated to her stance, which was to hold it at bay. Let it gain true
ascendancy just once . . . she believed it would dominate her always. And
eventually it will, of course, for that is the nature of the vampire. Karen
doomed to change, to metamorphosis, to the gradual deterioration of what she
was into what she must become . . .
is
'I remember that toward the end of my captivity there in her aerie, I asked
her what Corlis could have done that she'd wished to banish him to the
hell-lands. Perhaps because I was the only one she could talk to without
worrying about their motives, she told me all about it.
'Corlis had been the biggest of Karen's men, both in size and in the aerie's
pecking order. He was also surly, a troublemaker, the Wamphyri equivalent of a
male chauvinist whatever - in spades! Even as a Traveller he'd been a brute,
but that had been forty years ago. Then he had been taken in a raid, since
when he'd served Dramal Doombody
- if "served" is the right word for it. God knows why Dramal suffered him, but
the ways of the Wamphyri are never easy to figure out. Maybe at one time
Dramal intended that Corlis should have his egg. But that's pure guesswork, of
course.
'Let me explain Corlis like this: he wasn't true Wamphyri, but if ever a man
should have been then he was that man. And he knew it.
'Most men would shrink from the idea, but not Corlis. He wanted an egg - and
the power it would bring. He wanted to be master of the aerie, a Wamphyri
Lord. He would like nothing better than to ride to war on the back of a flying
beast, and command his warriors in their terrifying aerial battles. But while
he and the others called themselves Wamphyri, they knew that in fact they were
merely the undead servants of their true vampire mistress. And that was the
great thorn in Corlis's side.
'He had asked the Lady Karen that she make him the aerie's warlord. To which
she'd replied that she had no need of a warlord, for there was no war. He had
demanded rank and position above his fellows, only to be told he had no right
to such honours. There was room for only one master (or mistress) in an aerie,
and in this aerie that one was the Lady Karen herself. Then Corlis had offered
himself as Karen's consort and protector - at which she'd lost her temper and
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told him she'd rather sleep with a warrior! As for his protection: he should
worry about protecting himself, especially if he intended to continue his
current campaign of mischief and annoyance.
'But Corlis wasn't to be put off lightly. He'd argued heatedly that the other
Wamphyri Lords were plotting for war, that now that Dramal was dead the aerie
was vulnerable, and that Karen, a mere woman, could never hope to achieve any
sort of effective command of her army in battle. She should choose her
champion now, without delay, and the champion she chose had better be him!
'At that Karen had ordered him out of her presence, Corlis and the other six
with him. Four of them had made to obey her, but the others . . .
They had sided with Corlis. And warning off the four who remained half-loyal
to her, Corlis and his two (for surely he'd suborned them) had surrounded her
where she sat upon her throne of office, which had once been Dramal Doombody's
"bone-throne", made of the curved, fossilized jaw of a vast cartilage
creature. From under his jacket, one of these traitors produced a stake of
wood, forbidden in every aerie since time immemorial, and sprang at her. The
second produced chains of iron, to bind her. As for
Corlis:
'He stood, arms akimbo, and watched. His plan was this: to stake Karen through
her vampire heart and then, when she lay helpless, to threaten her with
decapitation and fire. This threat, he hoped, would drive her vampire to
produce its egg, for even immature vampires will do this when true death seems
imminent. The egg would be his, for he intended to be in such a position as to
leave no alternative host. Namely: fused sexually with his victim!
'But Karen had divined his purpose. Being Wamphyri, she'd been gifted with an
element of telepathic talent. Now, in her hour of need, that talent worked for
her not only in reading Corlis's intentions, but also to call her warrior
creature from its vigil at the top of the stairwell. The creature came - and
swiftly!
'Corlis and his two now held Karen down. She was not wearing her gauntlet, but
still she put up a fight. She wouldn't lie still long enough for the one with
the chains to bind her; her nails opened up Corlis's face; she kicked the one
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