Page 10 (1/2)

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Bloodson

Thibor the Wallach, that cursed ingrate - to who, name and banner, and into whose hands I had bequeathed my castle, lands and Wa froonies A myriad minion bats fluttered to me as I fell, were scorched and died for their troubles, but dah trees and shrubs, and pinwheeled aflae to the very bottoe, and I ca Waht come and remain undead, I put out a desperate call to my faithful Gypsies where they camped in the valley They ca water and cared for it, and carriedhtrest: a ti ofrest indeed!

For how Thibor had hurt me! All bones broken, back and neck, skull and lile; skin flayed by boulders and sharp branches, and seared with fire even the vampire in ? A year? Nay, an hundred years!

My long convalescence was spent in an inaccessible any tended me, and their sons, and their sons Aye, and their sweet, firhters, too Slowly the vampire in ain, practised er, more awesome than ever before And eventually I went abroad from my aerie and made plans for my life’s adventure

Ah, but it was a terrible world in which I e, famines, pestilence! Terrible, aye, but the stuff of life to me - for I was Wamphyri!

I found myself the ruins of a keep in the border with Wallachia and used the tunable within its walls, I set any, Hungarians and local Wallachs, housed thees, was soon accepted as a landowner and leader And so I became a small power in the land

As for Wallachia: I avoided venturing there, th and cruelties were already renowned: a ht for the Wallach princelings I did not wish to uard over my lands and properties in the Khorvaty even now!), not yet; for in the event of ht not be able to contain rown to a far greater power than I e must wait what is ti, where an entire day is like the single tick of a great clock - it is nothing But when each vastly extended tick is precisely the sain to fall like thunderclaps upon the earah, but then one discovers time’s restrictions, from which only boredo! I was restless, confined, pent up There was I, lusty, strong, soies The ti world

But then, in the year 1178, a diversion

Over a period of soany woman as a true observer of tinition Eventually my curiosity was piqued and I determined to see her She was not of my own band of Gypsies, and so I ions within ers to direct her wanderings aright, describing hohen she and her band came within my spheres they would be offered every hospitality, treated with utht render unto me And in the interied oracle, I deter a feeirds of my own

Itheir incense, and sought by oneiromancy to divine the way it would be between myself and this doubtless fraudulent witch, this ’Marilena’ (for such was her naood reason to be interested in talented folk, and to seek them out whenever the opportunity arose My son Thibor had been abroad for several huht have spawned all ht out all such ano prided myself with the discovery of charlatans But if I should coenuine talent (and if Wamphyri blood should course in the veins of such a one) then he or she was a goner! For while to a creature such as I the blood is - or was - the life, the sweetest nectar of all may only be sipped from the undead font of another vampire! A font, aye, for such a sip is surely holy - to one such as I am, at least

But only picture my astonishment when finally my oneiroel where I had thought to discover a hag!

What? She was a child! I saw her in ht (but wrongly, for she was knowing as a whore!) She came to me naked - all curves, crea hair; the lips of her face red as cherries, and those of her oyster when I opened it the hue of freshly slaughtered one by, since Thibor destroyed my castle in the Khorvaty, and raped my vampire women and put theany flesh, spillingof ’love’ in it, mind you; that as only applicable to others, never to myself But now ?

It was the human side of me, of course, which froazed upon this sweet, sensuous Princess of the Travelling Folk through eyes fogged by hu of my loins was the love (call it that if you will) of alust of the Wamphyri And to my shamelad stroking the teats of his first girl!

Butthe trouble with oneiromancy was always this: had it been a true and accurate prediction of the future, or was it just a dreas (and perhaps for other reasons, for plainly I was besotted), night after night would findmyself into divinatory dreaot to know each other, Marilena and I, the more pleasurable our loveplay became and myself ever more enamoured; until I knew that instead of a o mad!

Which hen she came to or Zirra, called ’King’ Zirra; indeed, Marilena was Grigor’s daughter And so I had been right: she was a ’princess’ of the Travelling Folk

It inter when they ca cold in all the years of any stationed their caravans and carts in clusters close to e bricks of snow smoothed to ice, pitched their tents within the clusters and tethered their beasts inside with them, for their warmth Ah, they had known it would be a hard winter, these wise ones! In the caves all around they had worked long and hard, storing fodder for their animals Even so, h that winter without they relied on the patronage of the Boyar in his castle

I kept all my doors unbarred to thes and coarse red wines were rain to ed to the Szgany anyway, for in better seasons they’d given the ain the mountains, which were e; if they shot three pigs or woodcocks one was any Zirra: that they were caught in a pass close by, where an avalanche had carried their caravans away! Only a handful survived, he said, scattered in the tuht I had dreaain hts and filled instead with blizzards and the screa And because I had not dreamed of my Marilena, I wondered was she one of theany chief and told hiirl trapped in the snows This any Go, find the them here And hurry, for if you are too late and she is deadthe house of the Ferenczy may feel that its hospitality is wasted on such as you and yours Is this understood?’

It was, and he went in all haste

In the afternoon any Zirra, which had nuor Zirra himself and a dozen of his band alive Three of the survivors were broken but would ht not, and of the rest one was Grigor’s daughter, called Marilena, an observer of times!

I coive the to make them welcome, co? Nothing of extra clothing, no carts or coverings? So, without me they are destitute Very well, quarter them within the castle’s walls Find them warm rooms within easy reach ofa puzzled look in his eyes: ’Well?’

’Your own people e, ers so well That we iance’

’You are forthright and I like you for it,’ I told hiht I have heard it said of the woman Marilena Zirra that she is comely If this is true it may be that I shall want her, for you Gipsies are not the only ones who feel the cold of a night! Wherefore treat her people with respect, especially her father and family, if such as these survived I do not wish that they should find me a cold and cruel man’

’What? You, master?’ he said, with no trace of emotion in his voice, his face utterly blank ’Cold? Cruel? Who would ever believe it!?’

I regarded hi, and forward another entirely Do you seek to be familiar with me? I tell you honestly, I cannot believe you would enjoy such fas to me, and in such a way, it should always please you to smile’ I stared at hirew unco to tremble, ’I meant no - ’

’Hush!’ I quieted hiood one! Now heed me well Later, when the Zirras are recovered, return and take one’

But when I went a them, I was not pleased It wasn’t that my instructions had not been followed; they had, to the letter It was simply that the ordeal of these people had been such that they wereMeanwhile, they sat in their rags and trembled, and spoke only when they were spoken to

As for the supposed ’princess’ of my dreams: where was she? One filthy bundle huddled to the fire looked much like the next to me It annoyed me that my dreams had lied to me; I felt that I had failed in my oneiromancy; I hated failure, especially in s a while, and finally asked, ’Which one of you is Grigor Zirra?’

He stood up: a nothing, a wisp, pale fro, the loss of his people He was not old, but neither did he look young There had been strength in his leanness once, but now it looked washed out of him Unlike myself, he was entirely human, and he had lost much

’I am the Ferenczy,’ I told hiany like yourself For the tiive you shelter But I have heard there is an observer of ti you, and it also pleases me to contemplate such mysteries Where is this witch - or wizard?’

’Your hospitality is vast as your legend,’ he answered ’Alas that in my sorrow I cannotof me died this day She was hter, a child, who reads the future in the stars, in the palm of your hand, and in her dreams She is no witch, lord, but a true observer of times, my Marilena, of whom you have heard’

’And where is she?’

He looked atat the sleeve of my robe, and started that soer on me unbidden since the day I rose up fro bundles risen to its feet to stand beside e, dark beneath a fur hoodits hair was all black ringlets, spilling about a heart-shaped faceits lips were the colour of cherries, bright as blood And upon ers numbered only three, as I had seen them in my dreaive my father, for he loves and fears for me; there are some in the land distrustful of mysteries they cannot fathom, and unkind to certain woered! She could be none other! I knew the voice! I saw through all her clothes to the very princess ofthat as in there was a wonder And: ’Iknow you,’ I said, my voice choked

’And I you, lord I have seen you in er!’

I had no words Or if I had they were stuck in h out loud, pick her up and whirl her all about? Oh, I wanted to, but I could not reveal reat fool, frozen, until she came to my rescue:

’If you would have me read for you, lord, then take me aside from here Here my concentration suffers, for there is s, and likewise much fuss and to-do - oh, andA private place would be to soe’

Oh? Indeed it would! ’Come with me,’ I said

’Lord!’ her father stopped us ’She is innocent!’ The last as spoken on a rising note - of pleading, perhaps? My nature was not unknown ahter? It was in ! What, this one, innocent? Man, she has licked my entire body clean as if bathed! I have fired ht for a ered hands! Innocent? If she is innocent then so as? For the fact of it was that I had only ever dreaain she rescued me:

’Father!’ she rebuked him before I could more than pierce him with my eyes ’I have seen ill be For me the future is, father, and I have read no harm in it Not at the hands of the Ferenczy’

He had seen my look, however, and kne far he strainedhis head ’Instead of speaking as a hter is only seventeen and we are fallen ah this day Ah! Ah! I ue even now! It is the grief My rief!’ And sobbing he collapsed

I stooped a little and put my hand on his head ’Be at your ease He who harms you or yours in the house of the Ferenczy answers to me’ And then I led her to my quarters

Once there, alone, where none dared disturb, I lifted off her coat of furs until she stood in a peasant dress Now she looked even h My eyes burned on her, burned for the sight of her And she knew it

’How can this be?’ she said, full of wonder ’I truly know you! Never were ht,’ I said ’We are not strangers We have shared the sareat scars,’ she said, ’here on your arm, and here in your side’ And even I, the Ferenczy, trembled where she touched me

’And you,’ I told her, ’have a tiny red le tear of blood, in the centre of your back’

Beside reat chi Over the fire, a hty cauldron of water added steaear, pouring water into the trough She kne to do it from her dreams ’I ah from the snows’

She stripped and I bathed her, and then she bathed ?’ I chuckled But as I opened her and went to slip inside:

’Ah!’ she gasped ’But our mutual dreams took no account of my inexperience My father told the truth, lord The future is closing fast, be sure, but I ain!’

Ah!’ I answered her,my way inside ’But weren’t we all, once upon a tied within me then, but I held him back and loved her only as a man Else the first time were surely her last

Now let me make it plain What had happened was this:

As much out of idle curiosity as for any other reason, in ht Marilena out, become enamoured of her and seduced her Or we had seduced each other

But (you will ask), how could she, a child, inexperienced, seduce me? And I will answer: because drea is changed upon awakening She could indulge all her sexual fantasies without reaping the reward of such indulgence And (you will also ask), how could I, Faethor Ferenczy, even asleep and drea less than Wa before I becas which had troubled me in my youth still occasionally troubled me in my sleep: the old fears, the old e is not lost: all of us know that long after an experience has waned to insignificance in the waking world, we may still review it afresh in our dreams, with as much apprehension - or excitement - as we did when it was new In my dreams, for example, I was still wont to remember the time ofand so been made a vampire Aye, and such dreaht of day that horror was quickly forgotten, lost in the greylad but the Ferenczy again