Blood Brothers Read online

  “They all are!” Lardis cried.

  “—But he fled before them, snatching up his bloodied gauntlet as he went. And as he got behind his flyer where it wallowed in the ruins of your cabin, Lissa heard him cry out: ‘Roll on them! Crush them!’

  “The creature made to thrust itself upon them; they ran in different directions; Lissa was struck by the flyer’s wing and knocked over the knoll’s steepest rim! And … and that was the last she saw of Jason. Then: she fell through the brambles, bracken, saplings of the hillside, tumbling most of the way to the bottom. Her clothes were torn—you see how this blouse is stitched, here and here?—and so were her hands and arms, but not seriously. And when she came to rest, then she would climb to the top again!”

  Lardis groaned and clutched his head. “What a fool of a women I married,” he said. And then, with pride: “But what a woman!”

  “Hear me out,” Misha told him. “She would have climbed back to the top—to be with her son and help him fight the vampire Lord—but missed her footing and went plunging the rest of the way to the bottom! Then, shocked out of her wits, half-stunned, she made for Settlement where she hoped to find you and tell you what had happened. But at the North Gate … she saw the town was burning, saw what was loose and ravaging in its streets.

  “Weak now and terrified, hoping to find a place to hide, Lissa went into the forest and skirted Settlement to the west. And that was where she bumped into Nana Kiklu. Nana had hidden in the woods after her house was wrecked, but when things had seemed to quiet down a little she’d gone back in through a gap in the stockade to look for her sons. Instead of finding them, she found me. And so I have Nana to thank for my life.

  “She dragged me out of there and brought me round, and as I regained consciousness … that was when Lissa came stumbling and crying through the night. Nana calmed her, and then would have returned again into Settlement. But by then there were monsters everywhere. Their roaring, and all the screaming … it was terrible. And Lissa and I, we couldn’t be left alone. We … we were no longer capable. I feel so ashamed—of my own weakness!”

  “You’ve nothing to be ashamed of, daughter,” Varna Zanesti rumbled, but with a catch in his voice. He came forward to put his arms round her and glower at Lardis. And: “These women,” he growled. “Why, they put the rest of us to shame!”

  Lardis nodded, but neither he nor Varna knew how true it was; especially in Misha’s case. For she had avoided explaining a single detail of why she’d been so close to Nana Kiklu’s house in the first place. And so like Nathan before her, she’d covered up for Nestor’s shameful lapse. But now:

  “I have to know,” she said, eagerly. “Where is Nathan? I would have expected him here by now … oh!” And to cover her immediate embarrassment: “Oh, and Nestor, too, of course! Nana is eager for news of both of them, naturally.”

  “Aye, ‘naturally’,” her father repeated knowingly—and in the next moment fell deathly silent. For he remembered now about Nathan’s brother. And poor Nana Kiklu, after all she had done and been through: still at the leper colony, knowing nothing about her son taken by the Wamphyri.

  Then, low-voiced, Lardis told Misha about Nestor, and went on to explain Nathan’s absence: how Nathan believed that the flyer which took Nestor might have crashed to earth somewhere in the east, and had gone to see if he could find him there. Misha was sad to have missed him, but at the same time felt glad that he had forgiven Nestor. For after all, nothing had come of that one’s bad behaviour in the end. And if Nestor still lived, perhaps all this would serve to reunite them.

  “Of course,” she said, when Lardis was done, “Nathan will be back, won’t he? I mean, whether he finds Nestor or not… Nathan will return?”

  “Of his own free will?” Lardis shrugged. “Immediately? I can’t promise it. Oh, I want him to come back—and so do you, I know—but Misha, he thinks that you, too, have been stolen away! So what is there here for Nathan now?” And there followed more explanations: how the last time Nathan had seen her, Misha had been in the grip of a slavering, hunch-shouldered Wamphyri hybrid.

  “Ah!” her hand flew to her mouth. And: “But Nana saw that creature too!” she gasped. “She had just returned to the gap in the stockade fence, and saw the dog-thing drop me to go loping off after some poor screaming woman. But that means … Nathan was right there, just a few paces away!”

  Lardis nodded. “Crumpled in the grass at the foot of the fence, aye. If Nana Kiklu had known where to look, she might even have seen him there. But with the vampire mist and what all—everything that was happening—and you and Lissa to care for …”

  Misha’s eyes were wide; she made an instinctive, almost involuntary move for the door. Her intention was all too obvious, but her father stood in the way. “No!” he said. “I forbid it! The old Szgany trails where they skirt the foothills are no safe place for a girl even at the best of times. But now? Why, there’ll be changeling people hiding in the thickets and caves, trapped by the sun as they headed for Starside. And there are bound to be vengeful men out hunting them! I’ll not lose you a second time, Misha.” He turned to his son. “But Nicolae …?”

  It was Lardis’s turn to object. “What, and am I still the leader of my people, or has Varna Zanesti taken my place, to do my work and my thinking for me? Well, and you’re a fine strong man and all, Varna—likewise your son—but no one would call Nicolae fleet of foot! Anyway, you’ve both of you mourned enough and now have reason to rejoice. And while I am still the leader, I won’t have you split up again. Finally, I need both of you, indeed all three of you, right here in Settlement. What? But there’s work to be done! On the other hand, I do have a number of runners to choose from, who’ll be after Nathan in a flash.” Turning to Andrei Romani, he nodded. “See to it.”

  As Andrei went off in great haste, Lardis spoke again to Misha. “I love Nathan Kiklu like a son, and I’m sure there’s more to him than he’s been given credit for. Will you and he get together now?”

  She looked at her father and Varna shrugged. “The choice is yours, daughter. But it’s true the lad came looking for you, and I have to admit, he seemed a likely son-in-law to me.”

  Nicolae nodded, and added: “I’ll have him for a brother, certainly.”

  “Good!” Lardis clasped Varna’s broad forearm.

  Then:

  It was as if the old Lidesci had woken up from a nightmare. He straightened up and squared his shoulders, as if to throw off some great invisible weight, and to Varna and Nicolae said: “They could use your help repairing the stockade, for it’s heavy work. And then the great catapults and crossbows need bringing up to scratch. Also, Dimi Petrescu is convinced he can duplicate the black, explosive powder from The Dweller’s shells and grenades. Old Dimi’s been working at it for eighteen years, on and off, but he’s very weary now and needs the strength of others to make purest charcoal, break rocks, and grind sulphur and iron into dust.”

  He nodded. “So … it’s a long day ahead, lads, but you can’t say it hasn’t started well enough. All we have to do is keep it rolling, right?” And to Misha:

  “Girl, the way I see it you’ve done more than your fair share already. Yet now I’ll ask you to do one more thing. If I get a couple or three likely lads together and arm them, can you lead them back to the leper colony, and so bring Lissa and Nana Kiklu safely home? I ask this of you, Misha, in order to save time. You know the whole story, you’re sympathetic, and so the women will have word of their sons from another woman. What do you say?”

  And as he’d known she would, Misha nodded and said, “Just bring me my escort, and I’m ready …”

  Within the half-hour she was on her way back through the woods with Lardis’s “likely lads”: three tried and trusted friends. The way was fairly easy going; as the crow flies it was maybe seven miles, nine if you counted the winding trail. Misha knew all the shortcuts, however, and also the shallow fording places across the many streams. Last night in the darkness, with only star
—and occasional moonlight to see by, Nana Kiklu had provided the strength and will, but Misha had been their guide.

  Then it had taken five hours; now, as she’d already discovered, it would take less than two and a half to retrace her steps. By then, too, Lardis’s runner should be catching up with Nathan on the approaches to Twin Fords. Such was the span of Sunside’s day—more than one hundred and twenty hours—that with luck the two should be together again a third of the way through the morning. By then she would be very tired, but for now thoughts of Nathan sped Misha on her way.

  While at the leper colony:

  Nana and Lissa were camped less than a hundred yards from the colony proper, at the edge of the forest where it gave way to rolling savannah, then scrub, and finally the mainly uninhabitable desert wastes known collectively as the Furnace Lands. Out there, only ten to fifteen miles south of the leper colony, there was nothing much worth mentioning: sand, scorched earth, rockpiles; snakes, scorpions, and other poisonous creatures; a scattered handful of aborigine tribes. Of the latter:

  In the old days when the Szgany had been true Travellers, these primitive desert nomads—who seemed no further advanced along the evolutionary trail than Star-side’s trogs—had sometimes bartered with men. They would meet at high sunup, in the dry savannah margins between desert and forest, to trade fancy lizard leathers and healing salts for Szgany knives and knick-knacks, wines, gourds and garlic. And now, here at the rim of Lidesci territory, the nomads traded just as in the old days; except now they traded with the lepers. Nana Kiklu knew this for a fact; for, far out on the savannah, she’d noticed a tall springy pole with a fluttering rag pennant, like a fly on the face of the sun.

  As a girl, travelling with a small tribe, she’d seen just such markers before and knew that the listlessly flapping pennant indicated a nomad trading place. She supposed it was just as well that the lepers had some sort of trade, even with the mysterious, little known or understood nomads; for certainly the bulk of the Szgany weren’t likely to come too close. No, for leprosy was as contagious among them as it was among the Wamphyri.

  Not that the colony had been entirely abandoned by the Szgany Lidesci. On the contrary: it had been Lardis’s father who conceived of it and built the first nucleus of airy lodges under the trees at the forest’s edge. As to how that had come about:

  Twenty-four years ago a good friend of the elder Lidesci had contracted the disease. Before the affliction made itself obvious, it had been passed on to every member of his family. In those days—in that earlier period of Wamphyri domination—the old ways had been simple and hard: such sufferers were usually banished out of camp to wander alone until they died, on penalty of an even swifter death if they should ever try to come back. Some tribes had even been known to put lepers down out of hand. But Lardis’s father wasn’t able to do that, and so instead he built the leper colony here at the rim of Szgany territory to house the family of his friend.

  Later, hearing about the place, other lepers had made their way here from the wilderness and from various tribes, and so the colony was established. And seven years later as Settlement had grown up and prospered, it had been a younger Lidesci, Lardis himself, who had continued to send supplies to the colony on a regular basis, so helping those who were mainly incapable of helping themselves. And even though in those early years the Szgany Lidesci rarely had a surplus of anything, still there was always enough to give a little to the lepers.

  Now it was the turn of the lepers to give in return …

  These were Nana Kiklu’s thoughts where she stood in the shade of a tree at the forest’s very edge, and thought back on the events of last night. Not on the painful scenes—such as the destruction of her house, and the fact that she’d not been able to return and search for Nathan and Nestor, which had left such an ache in her heart that it would not be driven out until she and her boys were reunited—but on her exhausted arrival here at the colony. Exhausted, yes, for she and Misha Zanesti between them had been mainly responsible for getting Lissa Lidesci here safe and sound. Poor Lissa, cut by thorn and thicket, and very nearly insane from what she’d seen and been through.

  And yet while Nana had the strength both physical and mental, it had been Lissa who was wise enough to advise their coming here, and Misha who was artful enough to lead the way. Misha Zanesti, to whom as a child the forest had been a vast and glorious playground. So all three had played their parts, until at last the woods were behind them and they came upon the savannah by moonlight.

  Then, too, Misha had known or divined the way; studying the stars and stating her belief that they had strayed too far west, she had led her companions in the other direction, along the edge of the rolling grassland. Until finally, in the lee of great trees which stood like sentinels looking out towards the inhospitable deserts, they’d seen the soft glow of lamplight and knew that this must be the colony.

  Then there had been a low wooden fence, a robed and hooded watcher at the gate, holding up his lamp, and the hoarsely whispered, mumbled query: “Who comes? Are you lepers?”

  “No, not lepers,” Nana had answered, turning her eyes from the lamp’s bright glare, “but friends of those that live here.”

  “Not lepers?” the other shrank back. “Then go away—and go quickly! For we lepers have no friends. And it’s not so much that we live here, as that this is where we come to die …”

  “No friends?” Now Lissa had found voice to speak up. “Not even Lardis Lidesci whose land this is, whose father built this place, and whose wife I am?”

  “Ah!” the other hissed, and they caught a brief glimpse of his face where he held his lantern higher yet: the grey bone showing through his cheek, and the fretted gape of his nostrils. “The Lidesci? His wife? But in the dead of night? And you —” he swung his light towards Misha, “—only a girl, yet dishevelled, full of bruises, and your clothes 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!”

  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.”