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’Is your guardian angel speaking?’ Manolis looked disgusted ’I have seen that look on your face before!’

Darcy kneas right and cursed under his breath ’So, who do you suggest bells the cat?’ he said

’Eh?’

’Who goes first and risks getting blown the hell off the cliff?’

Manolis shrugged ’But who else? You, of course!’

Jazz looked at Darcy and said: "This talent of yours, it really works?’

’I’hed

’So what’s the problem?’

The problem is my talent doesn’t work in fits and starts,’ Darcy answered ’It’s working all the ti I’ht a firework! You are saying: off you go, Darcy, get on up those steps-But it is saying, run like hell, son - run like bloody hell!’

’So what you have to ask yourself,’ said Jazz, ’is who’s the boss, it or you?’

Darcy offered a gri of his SMG and stepped out into vieho or whatever atching from above He made for the base of the stone steps and started up The others looked at each other for a et out of earshot and said: ’Zek, you stay here’

’What?’ she looked at hilike this on your own?’

’I’ood will you be anyith only a speargun? We need you down here, Zek If one of those things gets past us, you’re going to have to stop him’

"That’s just an excuse,’ she said ’You said it yourself: what good aun?’

’Zek, I -’

’All right!’ she said And: ’They’re waiting for you’

He kissed her and started after the other two She let hiet onto the steps and start upwards, then scraht later

Just before the crucial corner, where the narrow stone steps angled left and climbed unevenly up the section of cliff face directly beneath the threatening cave with its potential barrage of boulders, Darcy paused to let the others catch up a little His breathing was ragged and his legs felt like jelly: not because of the stiff cli his talent every inch of the way

He looked back and, as Manolis and Jazz came into vieaved And then he turned the corner and pushed on But he re hollohere the rest of the team would take cover, he’d been very tempted Except he had known that once he stepped in there, it would take at least a stick of dynalanced straight up, and winced He could see the wire-netting holding back the bulging tangle of rocks not ten feet overhead It was time to make his break for it He put on speed and clilanced back and saw Jazz and Manolis co round the corner At which precise

Feeling his feet shoot out over the ri rocks and in the sa to happen ’Shit!’ he yelled, clinging to the cliff face and the steps, as a deafening explosion sounded close by and its shock wave threatened to hurl hi everywhere; it was like the entire stack was co dust and debris, Darcy could only cling and wait for the ringing to go out of his ears Adied away Darcy looked back and Jazz and Manolis were claerously up towards him across steps choked with rubble

But up ahead soerously down!

As Darcy began pushing hi to meet the stack’s invaders head on One of them carried a pistol, the other had a nine-foot octopus pole with a barbed trident head The tines

Darcy’s SMG was trapped under rubble and stony debris He yanked on the sling but it wouldn’t co ai at Darcy dropped its pistol and staggered against the cliff face, its hands flying to the hardwood bolt skewering its chest It gagged, gave a weird, hissing cry, fell to its knees and toppled into thin air

The other one ca at Darcy with its terrible weapon He soed to turn the wicked trident head aside as Manolis arrived behind him Then the Greek policeman yelled, ’Get down!’ and Darcy threw hiain He heard the crack! -crack! - crack! of Manolis’s Beretta, and the hissing of the vaony Shot three tiered there on the steps Darcy yanked the octopus pole out of its hands, sla and yelping as it pinwheeled all the way down to the base of the stack

Jazz Simmons came up to the other two ’Up or down?’ he panted

’Down,’ said Darcy at once ’And don’t worry, it isn’tup It’s just that I kno hard those things are to kill!’ He looked beyond his two friends ’Where’s Zek?’

’Down below,’ said Jazz

’All the et back down,’ said Darcy ’After we’ve burned those two, then we’ll see what else is up here’

But Zek wasn’t down below, she was just thatround the corner And when she saw that they were all in one piece her sigh of relief said ht petrol from the boat and burned the two badly broken va up into the old fortifications Up there Janos had been preparing a spacious, spartan retreat; not quite an aerie of the Wamphyri as Zek remembered such, but a place al her telepathic talent guide her through piles of tus in half-constructed walls, and past deep e on fantastic views of the ocean’s curved horizon, she led the others to a trapdoor concealed under tarpaulins and ties-hollowed stone steps leading down into a Crusader dungeon Rigging torches, theheart of the stack, and Zek followed the men Down there they foupd the loalled ried even deeper into darkness, but that hen Zek gasped and lay back against nitrous walls, shivering

’What is it?’ Jazz’s voice echoed in the leaping torchlight

’In the wells,’ she gasped, one hand held trely to her throat ’There were places like this in the aeries on Starside Places where the Wamphyri kept their beasts!’

The wells were covered with lids fashioned fro; Manolis put his ear to one of the covers and listened, but could hear nothing ’So

Zek nodded "They’re silent now, afraid, waiting Their thoughts are dull, vacuous They could be siphoneers, or gas-beasts, or anything And they don’t knoe are But they fear we rown out of hiave a shudder and said: ’Like the creature Yulian Bodescu kept in his cellar Butit has to be safe to look, at least Because if it wasn’t I’d know’

Manolis and Jazz lifted the cover froe by the loall They looked down into Stygian darkness but could see nothing Jazz looked at the others, shrugged, held out his torch over the mouth of the well and let it fall

And it was like all hell had been let loose!

Such a howling and roaring, aand frenzied cla torch as it fell lit up the reatof rubbery li terrible beyond words crashed about down there, leaped and gibbered In the next moment the torch went out, which was as well for they’d seen enough And as the hideous tumult continued, Jazz and Manolis replaced the cover over the awful shaft

On their way back up the steps, Manolis said: ’We shall need all the fuel we can spare’

’And plenty of this building timber,’ Jazz added

’And after that those other limpet mines,’ said Darcy, ’so we can be sure we’ve blocked those wells up forever It’s tihts here’

As they reached the open air, Zek clutched Jazz’s arm and said, ’But if this is a measure of what Janos can do here, even in the liht have done up in those Transylvanian mountains’

Darcy looked at his friends and his face was still gaunt and ashen His throat was dry as he voiced his own thoughts: ’God, I wouldn’t be in Harry Keogh’s shoes for for anything!’

Harry woke up to the sure knowledge that so far away and terrible Inhu fire blazed before his eyes But then, starting upright in his bed, he realized that the screa cries of cockerels, and that the fire was the blaze of the sun striking through his east-facing s

Now that he ake there were other sounds and sensations: breakfast sounds froot up, washed, shaved and quickly dressed But as he was about to go downstairs he heard a strangely fa, and the easy clatter of hooves from out in the road He went to look down, and was surprised to feel the heat of the sun on his arms where he leaned out of theHe frowned The hot yellow sunlight irritated him, made him itchy

Down there in the road, horse-drawn caravans rolled single file, four or five of the for the distant mountains; and Harry felt a sudden kinship, for that was his destination, too Would they cross the border, he wondered? Would they even be allowed to? Strange if they were, for Ceausescu didn’t have a lot of time for Gypsies

Harry watched them pass by, and saw that the last in line was decked in wreaths and oddly-shaped funeral garlands woven froarlic flowers The caravan’s tiny ere tightly curtained; worieving The caravan was a hearse, and its occupant only recently dead

Harry felt sympathy, reached out with his deadspeak ’Are you OK?’

The unknown other’s thoughts were calm, uncluttered, but still he started a little at Harry’s intrusion And: Don’t you think that’s rude of you? he said Breaking in on etic ’I’m sorry,’ he answered, ’but I was concerned for you It’s obviously recent and not all of the dead are so stoical about it’

About death? Ah, but I’ve been expecting it for a long time You must be the Necroscope?

’You’ve heard about me? In that case you’ll know I didn’t mean to be rude But I hadn’t realized that ht of you as a race apart I mean, you have your ways, which don’t always fit in too ithno, that’s not what I ht and I am rude’

The other chuckled I knohat you h But the dead are the dead, Harry, and now that they’ve learned how to talk to each other, they talk! Mainly they re - except for you, of course Whichpoint Oh, yes, I’ve heard about you

’You’re a learned man,’ said Harry, ’and very wise, I can tell So you won’t find death so hard How you were in life, that’s how you’ll be in death All the things you wondered about when you were living, but which you could never quite resolve, you’ll work the to make me feel better about it, and I appreciate that, the other answered, but there’s really no need I was getting old and my bones eary; I was ready for it, I suppose By now I’ll be on my way to my place under the mountains, where my Traveller forebears elcos in their ti the history of our race at first hand I suppose I have you to thank for that, for without you they’d all be lying there like ancient, desiccated seeds in a desert, full of potential, shape and colour but unable to give them form To the dead, you have been rain in the desert

Harry leaned far out of his atch the caravan hearse out of sight around a bend in the dusty road ’It was niceyou,’ he said ’And if I’d known you were a king, be sure my approach would have been more respectful’

Harry - the other’s deadspeak thoughts drifted back to the Necroscope, and he sensed that they were a little troubled now, - you seeood, coht, for all that you are young And you say that you have recognized an older wisdom in me Very well, so noould ask you to accept so Go anywhere else but where you are going Do anything else but that which you have set out to do!

Harry was puzzled, and not a little worried Gypsies have strange talents, and the dead - even the recently dead - are not without theirs How then a dead Gypsy king? ’Are you tellingtime since I crossed a Traveller’s palm with silver’

The other vseized upon that: With silver, aye! My palain - but be sure hted with it! No, cross yourself with silver, Harry, cross yourself!

Now Harry wasn’t merely puzzled but suspicious, too What did this dead oldto say? Harry’s thoughts weren’t shielded; the Gypsy king picked them up and answered:

I have said too much already Some would consider ht: I’ence But you have been kind, and death has put ,’ said Harry But there was no answer Only a s, shohere the caravans had passed froht

’My route is set!’ Harry called after ’That is the way I h

’Thanks anyway,’ Harry answered sigh for sigh, and felt his shoulders sag a little ’And goodbye’

And he sensed the slow, sad shake of the other’s head

At 11:00 am Harry booked out of the Hotel Sarkad in Mezobereny and waited by the side of the road for his taxi He carried only his holdall, which in fact held very little: his sleeping-bag, a small-scale map of the district in a side-pocket, and a packet of sandwiches hter

The sun was very hot and seemed intensified by the old boneshaker’s dusty s; it burned Harry’s wrists where it fell on the a sensation which he could only liken to prickly heat At his first opportunity, in a village named Bekes, he called a brief halt to purchase a straw summer hat with a wide brim

From Mezobereny to his drop-off point close to the Ro his driver go he checked with him that in fact hispoint lay only two or three kilometres ahead at a place called Gyula

’Gyula, yes,’ said the taxi driver, pointing vaguely down the road And again: ’Gyula You will see them both, from the hill - the border, and Gyula’ Harry watched him turn his cab around and drive off, then hoisted his holdall to one shoulder and set off on foot He could have taken the taxi closer to the border, but hadn’t wanted to be seen arriving in that fashion A man on foot is less noticeable on a country road

And ’country’ hat it was Forests, green fields, crops, hedgerows, grazing aniood land But up ahead, across the border: there lay Transylvania’s centralas the Meridional!, perhaps, but ht Where the road crossed the crest of low, undulating hills, Harry could see the grey-blue peaks and do to the horizon, a sprawl of hazy crags obscured by distance and low-lying cloud His destination

And froe point he could also see the border post, its red- and white-striped barrier reaching out across the road from a timber, almost Austrian-styled chalet Borders hadn’t much bothered Harry, not when he had the use of the Möbius Continuum, but now they bothered hi to get past this one, not on the road, at least But his uncomplicated plan had taken that into account Now that he knew exactly where he was on the map (and the precise lie of the border), he would si the day quietly in soe or hamlet There he’d study his map until he knew the area intimately, and choose himself a safe route across into Romania He knew the Securitatea were keen to keep Romanians in, but couldn’t see that there’d be ners out! After all, who but a h, that ho

At the bottom of the hill was a T-junction where a third-class road (or half-h dense woodland And less than a h the woods thatfro, bulbous doh place and should suit his purpose ideally

But as he reached the bottoain that half-fale and saw in the shade of the trees those same Gypsy caravans which had passed under hisearlier in the day They had not been here long and the Travellers were still setting up ca black boots, leather trousers and a russet shirt, with a black-spotted bandana on his brow to trap and control his long, shiny black locks, was perched on a leaning fence chewing a blade of grass S as Harry drew level, he said:

’Ho, stranger! You walk alone Why not sit a while and take a drink, to cut the dust fro, slim bottle of slivovitz ’The slivas were sharp the year they brewed this one!’

Harry began to shake his head, then thought: why not? He could just as easily study his map sat under a tree as anywhere else And draw less attention to himself, at that ’That’s very kind of you,’ he answered, following up ie!’

The other grinned ’Many languages A little of most of them We’re Travellers, ould you expect?’

Harry walked into the calish?’

’Because you weren’t Hungarian! And because the Germans don’t much come here anymore Also, if you were French there would be two or three of you, in shorts, on bicycles Anyway, I didn’t know And if you hadn’t answered me, why, I still wouldn’t, not for sure! But you look English’

Harry looked at the caravans with their ornate, curiously carved sigils, their painted and varnished ork The various symbols were so stylized they seemed to flow into and becoeneral decoration, aln And looking closer - but yetan attitude of casual observation - he saw that he was right and they had been so concealed

His interest in this regard centred on the funeral vehicle, which stood a little apart fro black sat side by side on its steps, their heads on their boso,’ said Harry and out of the corner of his eye watched his new friend give a start Things began to piece the up into a picture

’How did you know?’

Harry shrugged ’Under all the flowers and garlic, that’s a good rich caravan and fit for a Traveller king It carries his coffin, right?’

Two of thehtly ht

’Oh?’

’The other one is for his wife She’s the thin one on the steps there Her heart is broken She doesn’t think she’ll survive hi’

They sat down on the huot out his sandwiches He wasn’t hungry but wanted to offer theood plum brandy And: ’Where will you bury them?’ he eventually asked

The other nodded eastward casually enough, but Harry felt his dark eyes on him ’Oh, under the mountains’

’I saw a border post up there Will they let you through?’

The Gypsy sold tooth flashed in the sun striking through the trees ’This has been our route since long before there were border posts, or even signposts! Do you think they would want to stop a funeral? What, and risk calling down the curse of the Gypsies on themselves?’

Harry smiled and nodded ’The old Gypsy curse ploy works well for you, eh?’

But the other wasn’t s at all ’It works!’ he said, quite siain and took a good long pull at it He are that others of the Gypsyhim, but covertly, while ostensibly they made camp He sensed the tension in them, and found himself in two minds It seemed to Harry that he’d discovered a way across the border Indeed, he believed the Gypsies would gladly take hio with the was that he didn’t feel any animosity towards this man, these people, who he now felt reasonably sure were here partly out of coincidence but more specifically to entrap him He didn’t feel afraid of theenerally than at almost any time he could remember in his entire life! His problem was simply this: should he casually, even passively accept their entrapment, or should he try to walk out of the camp? Should he make allusion to the situation, make his suspicions known, or simply continue to play the innocent? In short, would it be better to ’go quietly’, or should hehe was certain: Janos wanted him alive,the Szgany would do would be to hurt him Perhaps now that Harry was on the hook, it were better if he simply lay still and let the monster reel hireat jaws at you, go in through them, for he’s softer on the inside

Did I think that? Harry used his deadspeak, or was it you again, Faethor?

Perhaps it was both of us, a gurgling voice answered from deep within

Harry nodded, if only to himself So it was you Very well, we’ll play it your way

Good! Believe aht rest here a while?’ Harry asked the traveller where they sat under the trees ’It’s peaceful here and I ht just sit and look at my map, and plan the rest of my trip’ He took a last mouthful of slivovitz

’Why not?’ said the other ’You can be sure no harm will come to you here’

Harry stretched out, lay his head on his holdall, looked at his iu was maybe, oh, sixty miles away? The sun was just beyond its zenith, the hour a little after noon If the Travellers set off again at 2:00 pm (and if they kept up a steady six iu by uess as to how they would go about it, but felt fairly sure they’d find a way to get hih the checkpoint Just as sure as he’d seen that sigil of a red-eyed bat launching itself fro’s funeral caravan

He closed his eyes and, looking inwards, directed his deadspeak thoughts at Faethor I think I frightened Janos off- when I threatened to enter his mind, I mean

It was bold of you, the other answered at once A clever bluff But you were in error, and fortunate indeed that it worked

I was only following your instructions! Harry protested

Then obviously I had not made myself plain, said Faethor I meant simply that your mind is your castle, and that if he tried to invade it youhis reasons, s I did not mean, literally, that you should step inside! It would in any case be impossible You’re no telepath, Harry

Oh, I knew that well enough, Harry admitted, but Janos his in my mind, after all Not least your presence there And if you were advisinghe would want - the last thing anyone would want, including ht and it was bluff But I felt strong! I felt I was playing a strong hand

You are strong, Faethor answered But reirl and Layard You were using their amplified talents

I know, said Harry, but it felt even stronger than that It could of course have been your influence, but I don’t think so I felt that it was all mine And I believe that if I had been a true telepath, then I would have gone in If only to try and do to Janos what he did to Trevor Jordan

He sensed Faethor’s approval Bravo! But don’t run before you can walk, o with the Szgany, the filthy Zirra?

In through his jaws? Harry answered Yes, I think so If I can’t get into his et into his ’body’, as it were, andthe way But answer htened him off from any sort of mental seduction or invasion, ill he do next? What would you do, if you were him?

What remains to him? Faethor answered In the skilful use of powers - those very powers he desires to steal from you - he believes you are his match So he must first conquer you physically What I would do if I were hie right out of your screauts!

Your ’art’? Harry answered Thibor’s? Dragosani’s? But Janos doesn’t have it

He has this other thing, this ancient, alien ic He can reduce you to ashes, call you up from your chemical essence, torture you until you are a ruin, incapable of defending yourself - and then enter your er felt so strong Also, the slivovitz had been ht and he’d taken quite a lot of it Suddenly he knew the sensation of giddiness, an unaccustoht of a blanket tossed across his legs and lower body It was cool under the trees and so to his welfare, for now at least He opened his eyes a crack and saw his Gypsy ’friend’ standing there, looking down at him The man nodded and ss, Faethor commented

Ah! Harry answered But they’ve been well instructed

Though Harry felt he should have no real requirement for sleep, still he let himself drowse For two or three days now there had been this weariness on hi after so he’d picked up in the Greek islands But a strange ail on the one hand and wearied hie in the water, the air, all thehis deadspeak, so recently returned to his Orperhaps it was soan to dreae dream - of a world of swamps and e - so M&ouht,Whatever strength I can h, old friend

M&oue terms of expression And you don’t quite, well, feel the same

As Harry’s dream of Starside faded, so Möbius’s dead-speak made ? Terms of expression? I don’t feel the sah of relief Why, for ato so, Harry narrowed his eyes Perhaps you were, he said

He sought Faethor in his mind and wrapped him in a blanket of solitude And: There, he said And to M&oue tenant?

Aye, and greatly unloved and unwanted But for now I’ve covered his rat-hole I much prefer ust?

That we’re al down, Harry, revealing itself We’ll soon have the answer I ca you hope And to ask you to hold off froer, so that we -

- Too late for that, Harry broke in It’s now or never Tonight I go up against hier for it!

He took as reatly, Harry answered He would burn me to ashes, raise me up, torture me for my secrets - even invade the Möbius Continuum! And that is not his territory

Indeed it is not! It belongs to no one It siain, which caused Harry to concentrate and consolidate within his own personality

’It simply is’? he repeated to Möbius, mystified But of course it is! What do you , M&ou! But so, returning to a dimension of pure Number

And Harry o