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And has it co Conscious, you may not converse with et on?

Now Harry remembered: asleep, his deadspeak couldn’t hurt him Oh yes, he remembered that now -and more than that ’I cameto find out about Janos Ferenczy!’

Indeed, Faethor answered, that is one of the reasons why you are here But it is not the only one Before we consider all of that, however, first answer me this: did you come here of your own free will?

’I’m here out of necessity,’ said Harry, ’because there are vaain’

But did you come as a free man, as you yourself willed it? Or were you coainst your own natural desires?

By now Harry was fully ’awake’ in his dream and more surely aware of the varown as skilled in their word-games as the Wamphyri themselves and knew that they were only a for ’Compelled?’ he said ’Well, no one pushed me Coerced? On the contrary, my friends would have kept me back! But cajoled? Only by you, old devil, only by you’

By me? Faethor played the innocent How so? You have a problerabbed up your brains and tied a knot in them I can perhaps untie it - if I feel inclined Which Ias you create obstacles and make these accusations! So tell me quickly no have I cajoled you? In ay?

’The way I understand it,’ said Harry, ’the word "cajole" has several s To coax or persuade with flattery; to wheedle; to le so as to derive a point of personal gain These are the s of the word Ah, but when a vampire cajoles then the object of the exercise is far less clear And the consequences frequently dire’

Hah! Harry sensed Faethor’s exasperation, and his astonish should attea of indifference, and perhaps of finality And: Well, said Faethor, that says it all! You do not trust et yourself gone! I had thought ere friends, but I was mistaken In which case what care I that there are vampires in your world? To hell with your world, and with you, Harry Keogh!

Harry wasn’t about to fall for that one He was supposed to plead now, for Faethor’s audience But Faethor would never have called him here just to dismiss him so casually It was siain the upper hand But just as some dreams are brilliantly clear and real as life, so this one was developing Within it, Harry’s ere grown razor sharp

’Let’s have it out in the open, Faethor,’ he said, abruptly ’For it suddenly dawns on me that while we’ve talked now and then, you and I, we’ve never actually met face to face And I feel certain that if I could only see your earnest, honest face, why, then I’d be that much more at ease in your presence - and not need to stay so firuard!’

Oh? said the other, as if surprised And are you still here? But I could swear our conversation was at an end Or perhaps you didn’t understand me Then let’Very well And no great loss For let’s face it, I could never have relied on anything you said, anyway’

What? Now Faethor was furious And how h? And how often have I borne you up, when 1 could - and should - have let you founder?

’We’ve had this conversation before,’ said Harry, unperturbed ’Must we play it out again? If reed in a previous tie: neither one of us gained h horse and tell me truly, why now do you insist on this sinister ritual that I should come to you of ation will I place hed Faethor, after a h, instead of blood-crazed Thibor or that sche, devious lout Janos! If only I had chosen my sons more carefully, eh? Why, such as you and I could have ruled the world together! But too late now, for Thibor gotand Janos was my bloodson And now there’s neither spark nor spunk left of ht for aHarry shivered), ’then believe me I wouldn’t be here!’

But you are here, and so I beg of you, observe the formalities, that ancient ’ritual’ of which you speak so harshly and suspiciously

’So now you beg of me,’ said Harry, ’and still I ask myself; what’s in it for you?’

Aye, and we’ve had that conversation before, too! Faethor cried Well then, if I must repeat myself: that bloodspawn of mine - that child of ain, and I cannot bear it! When Thibor was desperate to be up and about, as it ca hi! And now it’s the turn of Janos What’s in it for ht remember to tell, hi in his grave That will be profit enough

’What?’ said Harry, speaking (and thinking) slowly and very carefully ’But surely that would be a lie, for nothing at all of you lies in any grave You burned up in the fire that destroyed your house - didn’t you?’

But you know I did! the other cried But still I a, for how else could I talk to you? It isvanished, that you hear It is your talent, your ability to speak with the dead, which in itself should be evidence enough of my extinction!

Harry was silent a while He knew that it was tit for tat, this for that, and that he’d get nothing without first giving soer, indeed insistent, that his rules should apply in any exchange here And in the end it was plain the vampire would have his way, for Harry’s cause was doos, but yet contrived to hide such thoughts from Faethor

Ah-ha! And now I see it! the other finally burst out

You are afraid of , burned up and melted away in a holocaust! But why now? What is different now? We are not strangers This is not the first tiether for a common cause

’No,’ said Harry, ’but it’s certainly the first time I’ve bedded doith you! I’ve been here before, yes, but when I ake And other than that I’ve only ever spoken to you across great distances, again via deadspeak, when there was no possible danger toI’ve learned about vampires, Faethor, it’s that when they seem at their erous’

We’re arguing at odds, getting nowhere, said the vaue’ he displayed, still Harry guessed that Faethor wouldn’t be moved from his stand in this matter Which meant there remained only one way to break the deadlock

’Very well,’ he said, ’and so one of us ive way Perhaps I’m a fool, but yes, I carunted at once, and Harry could alreeable decision And why not? For if I’m to observe your manners and customs, why should not you observe mine, eh? They loved to win, these creatures, even in so s as a contest of words Perhaps that was all to the good, for now Faethor ive way in other hts:

And noe may face each other on equal terms You desired to speak to me face to face? So be it

Until now the drea, a place without substance except in the exchange of thoughts But now the grey took on a gently swirling motion and rapidly dissolved down to a thickly misted plain under a slender hornedin the ground mist where it lapped at his ankles; and Faethor, seated upon a heap of rubble, was a dark figure in a shrouding robe, whose hood cast his face in shadows Only his eyes burned in that hollow darkness, and they were like tiny scarlet lah?

’I know this place,’ said Harry

Of course you do, for it is the same place but perceived as it shall be some small distance in the future Oh yes, for that was one of my talents, too: to see a little way into the future Alas, it was unreliable, else I’d not have been here that night they dropped their bombs

’I see that the bulldozers have been at work,’ Harry looked all around ’This place of yours seems the only place left!’

For the moment, aye, Faethor answered A ruin on a low plain, surrounded by mud and debris, soon to become an industrial complex And even if there were ears to hear h all of that hubbub and h, that I am reduced to this? And perhaps now you can understand why Thibor was o the sa, and instead chose to defy me And should I haunt this place, alone, unloved and unremembered, while one of them is returned to the world, perhaps to become a power? Perhaps The Power? No, I shall not rest, until I know that Janos is as little or even less than I a

’And I’m to be your instrument?’

Is it not what you want? Do not our objectives coincide?

’Yes,’ Harry agreed, ’except I want it for the safety of a world, and you want it for your own selfish spite They were your sons, Thibor and Janos Whatever it is in thee father who’ll murder his own sons because they take too well after hiloo Is it, Harry? Is it? And you’re the expert, are you? Ah, but of course - certainly you would understand such things -for I’ve heard it that you have a son, too

Harry was silent; he had no answer; perhaps he would destroy his son if he could, or at least change hie the Lady Karen?

Faethor took his silence as son that perhaps he went too far Noas quick to change his tone But there, the circumstances are different And anyway, you are apoint except in our dual purpose So let’s make an end of criticisms and accusations and such, for there’s work to be done

Harry was pleased to change the subject ’These are the siain, permanently Neither one of us can do it on his own For you it is absolutely iift of deadspeak You say you can return that talent to me; that since it was taken from me by a vampire, only a vampire can return it Very well, I believe you What will it entail?’

Faethor sighed and seelowing eyes away and looked out over the plain of mist And: We are come to that part from which I know you will shy most violently And yet it is unavoidable

’Say it,’ said Harry

The trouble lies in your head A creature other than yourself has visited the labyrinth caves of your es there Let us say that within your house the furniture has been rearranged Now another o in and put the place in order

’You want me to let you into my mind?’

You must invite me in, said Faethor, and I must enter of my own free will

Harry recalled to mind all he knew about vaosani’s osani’s affairs When he touched the living foetus which would become Yulian Bodescu, that was sufficient to alter the child entirely and turn hiain Thibor was in Yulian’s uide - or direct hireat distances At this very moment a friend of mine on the island of Rhodes has a vampire, your bloodson Janos, in hisit And my friend exists in a hell of terror and torment And you want me to let you into my mind?’

I said you would shy from it

’If I let it happen this once, how may I be sure it won’t happen when I don’t want it?’

I would reer Even if what you suggest were possible, do you intend to stay here in Roo, which will put you far beyond my reach I would further reround - he was real, solid, intact in all his parts - while I ahost, aye: empty, immaterial, incorporeal, and of no consequence whatsoever

’Except to a Necroscope’

Except to you, Faethor’s shade nodded its agreement, the man who talks to and befriends the dead Or used to

’So hoe go about it?’ Harry asked ’I’m no telepath, with a mind like a book to be read’

But in a way you are, Faethor told him Is it not a form of telepathy, to be able to talk to the dead? Also, when you too ithout body, did you not speak to the living?

’That was a strange tireed ’It wasincorporeal, I had no voice, and so I could talk to the living - to those who had body - in the saain Faethor’s nod There’s h And I say I can be into it even as Thibor was into Dragosani’s! - but without the coerness He was far too eager But there was no way round it ’What do I have to do?’

Nothing Simply relax Sleep a dreamless sleep And I shall visit within your uile on his I want And if your mind-tricks work, perhaps a fourth, later’

Name them

’First, that you undo the reed Second, that you give ainst Janos’s telepathy, for I’ve seen what he can do to minds such as mine Third, that you look and see if there’s any way I can regain access to the M&ouainst Janos and would surely tilt the odds in my favour’

And the fourth?

’When - if - I have ain no matter where I am And then, hopefully for the last tiain To free the mind of my friend Trevor Jordan, which Janos holds enthralled’

As for this last thing, the vampire answered, if it can be done, then it shall be done in due course But alas, access to this device of yours - teleportation? - we shall see e shall see However, I doubt it It was not an art ofin a language I cannot speak? The language of er toI can surely put back to rights, for I understand it Even when they were dead ot up froainst Janos’s ; it’s not any sort of gift I can will or bestow upon you But later I shall describe to you how to fight fire with fire Which may help if you can stand the heat of it

’Faethor,’ Harry was alned to his fate now, ’I wonder, will I thank you for this when it’s done? Will there ever be thanks enough? Or will I curse you for all eternity, and will there ever be curses enough? Even now you could be plotting to destroyelse you ever touched And yet it sees are not entirely true, Harry, Faethor answered Destroyed things? Aye, I’ve done that - and brought a few into being, too Nor are you without choice Indeed it seems to me the very sione from here and wait for Janos to seek you out - and when the tiainst him like a child, naked and innocent of all his ways and wiles

’We’ve talked enough,’ said Harry ’And we both know there’s only one course open to me Let’s waste no more time’

And: Sleep, said Faethor, his mental voice deep and dark as a bottoh, leaving all the doors of youropen to h you may will it freely, still I shall find certain doors closed to me - and closed to you! These are the ones which I must unlock For beyond them lie all your talents, which your son has hidden from you

Sleep, Harry We are the betrayed, you and I, by our own flesh and blood We have this much in common, at least Nay, more than this, for we’ve both been powers in our tih!

The mist on the plain swirled as Faethor flowed to his feet and approached Harry where he slu dead vampire reached out a hand towards Harry’s face and the hand hite and skeletal, projecting from the fretted sleeve of his robe like a bundle of thin sticks The bony fingers touched Harry’s pale brow, and melted into his skull

And as the scarlet fires diht was transferred beneath Harry’s lowered lids, like red candles behind frosted glass Follohich the vahts and ht have been moments or millennia:

Wake up! said Faethor

Harry came out of the dream with a sneeze; and a second sneeze even as he realized he was truly awake He rolled his head a little in the hood of his sleeping-bag, and so sound close by In the faint dawn light, he saw a ring of srown up beside his bed in the night Already they were rotting, bursting open at the slightesttheir spores in peppery clouds Harry sneezed again and sat up

For aas one He knew he’d conversed with the spirit of Faethor Ferenczy, but that was all If anything had passed between them, Harry couldn’t say what it had been Certainly he felt no different from when he went to sleep

Oh? said Faethor And are you sure of that, Harry Keogh?

’Jesus!’ Harry jumped a foot ’Who ?’ He looked all about, saw no one

And did you think I would fail you? said Faethor

’Deadspeak!’ Harry whispered

It is returned to you There, see no Faethor Ferenczy keeps his word

Harry had unzipped his sleeping-bag and scraof a bump There was no pain in his head; no one squirted acid in his mind; his talent seemed returned to him in full measure

All that remained was to try it out And:

’Faethor?’ he said, still wincing inside and expecting to be struck down ’Was it difficult?’

Difficult enough, aye, the dead vampire’s voice sounded tired What had been done to you was the work of an expert! All night I laboured to rid your house of his infestation, Harry You e for yourself the ain With his heart in his mouth, he attempted to conjure a M&ou andwith awesome acceleration on the computer screens of his mind were completely alien to him; he couldn’t fathom thehed and said: ’Well, I’rateful I am - but you weren’t entirely successful’

Faethor’s ansith his bodiless shrug sensed superiht be so Oh, I found the region of the trouble, be sure, and even ed to unlock several of its doors But beyond the! No ti places, Harry, and strange to think that they exist right there in your mind - in your entirely hule step over those thresholds wouldsucked in and lost forever beyond the boundaries of the universe Needless to say, I took no such step And in any case, no sooner had I opened these doors than they slarateful

Harry nodded ’You looked in on the Möbius Continuum,’ he said And: ’When I’ve finished here, I must try to find him Möbius, I mean For just as you’re the expert in your field, so he’s the one true authority in his Useless to seek him out until now, for without deadspeak I couldn’t talk to him’

Will you do it now, at once? Faethor was fascinated I aeniuses, Harry For however far removed their various talents, into whichever spheres, still the obsession remains the same They seek to eliminate all imperfections Where this Möbius has approached the very limits of pure numbers, I myself have searched for purest pure evil We stand on the opposite sides of a great gulf, but still we are brothers of a sort Yes, and it would be fascinating to meet such a one

’No,’ Harry automatically shook his head, and knew that Faethor would sense it, ’I won’t look for him now

Eventually, but not now After I’ve practised a while and when I’ve convinced ood as it used to be, o now to seek out Janos?

Harry rolled up his sleeping-bag and stuffed it into his holdall ’That too, eventually,’ he answered ’But first I’ll return toAnd before any of that there are still things you must tell me I still want to know all about Janos; the better a man knows his enemy, the easier it is to defeat hiainst hiotten there ork still to be done But only see how eager I ao too fast! And certainly you are right: you must have every possible weapon at your disposal, if you’re to defeat him As to how you may best defend yourself, that’s not easy This sort of thing is inherent in the Wamphyri, but difficult to teach Even the keenest instinct would not suffice, for this is soether

’No,’ again Harry shook his head, ’out of the question Can’t you break it down into its siht just catch on’

I can but try, said Faethor

Harry lit a cigarette, sat down on his stuffed holdall and said, ’Go ahead’

Again Faethor’s shrug, and he at once commenced: Janos is without doubt the finest telepath - which is to say beguiler, enchanter, fascinator - I have ever known Wherefore he will first attempt an invasion of your mind Now as I’ve hinted, and as is surely self-evident, your mind is extraordinary, Harry Well, of course it is: for you are the Necroscope! But where you have practised only good, Janos, like myself in my time, has practised only evil And because you know he is evil, so you fear him and what he may do to you Do you understand?

’Of course None of this is new to me’

To anyone less well versed in the ways of the Wamphyri, such is the awe - the sheer terror - Janos would inspire, that his victinorant of our ways; indeed you are an expert in your own right Do you know the saying, that the best form of defence is attack?

’I’ve heard it, yes’

I suspect that in this instance it would be true

’I should attack hi back from him when you sense him near, seek him out! He would enter your mind? Enter his! He will expect you to be afraid; be bold! He will threaten; brush all such threats aside and strike! But above all else, do not let his evil weaken you When he yawns his great jaws at you, go in through them, for he’s softer on the inside!

’Is that all?’

’If I say more, I fear it would only confuse you And who knows? You may learn more about Janos from his story than from any measures of ht’s work Ask me what has been, by all means, but not what is yet to be True, I have been an observer of times, but as my current situation is surely witness, I was far too often in error

Harry thought about what he’d learned: Faethor’s ’advice’ about how to deal with a ht consider it suicidal to act in accordance with such instructions; the Necroscope wasn’t so sure In any case, it see to get Dawning daylight had apparently dampened the vampire’s enthusiasm

Harry stood up, stretched and looked all around

The aunt houses stood beyond a hedge half a ers and bulldozers were like dinosaurs frozen on a grey horizon Another hour and they’d roar into destructive mechanical life, as if the sun had warround where he stood, the spot where Faethor had died on the night Ladislau Giresci cut off his head in the ruins of a bo house He saw the now liquescent rass and soil; and in the eye of hishe’d been in his drea me Janos’s story?’ he asked, apparently of no one

That will be no effort at all but a pleasure, the other answered at once It was ave ain!

But first do you remember the story of Thibor in his early days? How he robbed me of my castle in the Khorvaty? And how I, most sorely injured, fled ards? Let me remind you, then

This was hoas