Page 11 (1/2)

11

Harry’s Friends, and Others

A distant clanking momentarily distracted Harry fro hi, he scanned across the wasteland of churned, boggy earth and decaying, partly de warnant pools, could not dispel the cheerlessness of the scene: a handful ofthemselves in clouds of dust and blue exhaust smoke Unlikely that the bulldozers would head this way, but the sight of the of the hour It would be about nine o’clock; he still had to get back to Bucharest; his return flight to Athens was booked for 12:45

Harry? said Faethor, his h I can feel the sun on the earth and it weakens me Should I continue, or shall we postpone it until another tiht about it He’d already learned quite a lot about Janos, a va to Faethor his son had not been a vampire in the fullest sense of the word, not at that tio So this wasn’t simply an opportunity to learn eneral Harry knew that he was already an authority, but he felt there could never be a surfeit of knowledge about creatures such as these Not when his life, and the lives of others, ht, said Faethor Very well, let me continue I shall be brief as possible

My Szgany found the dog shivering in a cave high in the crags I went up to him and called hie in the face of a sheer cliff

Janos, though young, was big and very strong As big as Thibor in his youth, even as big as myself He was afraid but not craven He had cut himself a branch and sharpened it to a stake ’Come no closer, father,’ he warned, ’or I’ll pierce your vampire heart!’

’Ah,of aniht you loved me! Indeed, I knew it And I knew you loved your h not hoell you loved her And yet what in fact do I know about you, except that you are le pace forward into the cave

’At least you knoill kill you,’ he gasped, backing off, ’if you should try to punish me!’

’Punish you?’ I let my shoulders slump, shook my head in a sad fashion ’No, I seek only an explanation You are of my flesh, Janos What? And shall I punish my own son, now of all times, when of all creatures I ary, be sure, but is that so hard to understand? And what did one from us, and we are both without her e loved so dearly And now there is no er left in me’

’You don’t hate me?’ he said

’Hate you? My own son?’ Again I shook my head ’It is simply that I do not understand I desire to understand you, Janos Explain this thing you have done, so that I may know you better’ And I stepped a little deeper inside the cave

He backed off more yet, but held his spear steady on me And now, as if a dam had been broken, the words flooded out of him ’I have hated you!’ he said ’For you were cruel to me, cold, often indifferent, and always different I was like you, and yet unlike you I wanted so much to be like you in my entirety, but could not Often I’ve watched you beco leaf on the air, but when I tried I always fell I wanted to inspire your fear in the hearts of ht; but I was not a vampire and knew that if I tried they would only kill me like any coet into their ain their obedience In myself I looked a little like you, but I could never be you, and so I have hated you’

’You desired to be me?’ I repeated him

’Yes, because you have the power!’

’You have powers enough of your own!’ I said ’Great powers! Fantastic powers! For which you must thank me And yet you hid them from me all these years’

’I did not hide them,’ he said, scornfully ’I demonstrated them! I used them to keep you out of my mind and will And even full-blown they rehtyour talents and therefore unassailable by them; that I was such a blank - indeed a void - no stylus could ever impress me! So that when you discovered that you couldn’t force yourself upon !" but, "Hah! He is weak!" That was your ego, father, which is vast but not infallible’

’Aye,’ I nodded thoughtfully when he was done, ’much more to you than I suspected, Janos You do have certain powers’

’But not your power!’ he said ’You area changing thing, mysterious, always different And I am always the same’

’Well, and there you have it,’ I told hi ’I am Wamphyri!’

’And I desired to be,’ he said, ’but was only a strange ’

’But does this excuse you?’ I asked hih that you should use your own mother as a whore? To hate me for your own deficiencies was one error, but to co unto - ’

’Yes!’ he cut me short ’It was my reason I wanted to be like you and could not, and so hated you Wherefore I would defile or suborn all that you any, whom I would cause to love me if not above you then at least as your equal; and then your woman, who knew you better than anyone else in the world - and in hich only a lover could know you!’

Now (quite deliberately) I backed away from him, and he followed after, towards the mouth of the cave ’In your desire to be like s I did, and to know the things I knew Even to the extent of knowing your own ht teach hed, but not quite ’The ways of the flesh, Janos? A father’s task, that, surely?’

’I wanted nothing of you, except to be you’

’Could you not try to be ender h, almost ’What? As well seek sweetness in a lump of salt!’

’You are hard,’ I told him, low-voiced ’Perhaps we are not so far apart after all And so you’d be Wamphyri, eh? Ah, but you’ve much to learn before that day dawns’

’What?’ he said, a look of incredulity crossing his face like a shadow And again, in a whisper: ’What? Are you saying that - ?’

’Ah!’ I held up a cautionary hand; for now that he was fascinated, I was in a position to cut him off ’Aye, not so very far apart at all And I’ll tell you so, my oh so stupid jealous, i Neither vile nor even strange Not toof others like me What, incest? Why, the Wamphyri have ever fucked their own, and in lad that you were born a man and mainly human For if you were another vampireoh, I’d kno best to serve you Aye, and then you’d knoell enow the realof rape!’

My words should have warned hi as I seemed, but they did not I had made him a half-promise, and he wanted the other half - now ’You said did you mean can you teachlike that,’ I answered And his spear avering nohere he pointed it at me

’Hoould you do it?’

’Not so fast!’ I said ’First you ressed You have said you desire to be like me Exactly like me Which is to say, Waht? So, and what have you achieved?’

He was sly ’Ask s which I have not achieved All else is mine!’

’Very well: what eludes you?’

’I cannot alter e my shape, fly’

’That is a matter of the will over the flesh - but only if it is Wae that What else?’

’You are a crafty necromancer Once, when a lone traveller passed this way, you murdered him Hidden in a secret place, I saw you open his body and tease the various parts of hie of the outside world You inhaled the gasses of his gut, to learn from them You sucked his eyes, to see what they had seen You rubbed the blood of his ruptured ears into your own, to hear what they had heard! Later, when a party of strange Szgany passed by, I stole away a girl child from them and used her in the sa and was very ill’

’The Wamphyri excel in necromancy,’ I told him ’Aye, and it’s a rare art But even this ht Had I been allowed into your mind, I could have instructed you In this you thwarted yourself, Janos Is there anything else?’

’Your great strength,’ he said ’I saw you chastise a ! And I have watched youin bed When others would have flagged, your energy was boundless I used to think she had some secret, Marilena, some ointment or trick to keep you hard Another reason why I went to her I desired to know all of your secrets’

And inI too had to know ’Did she ever suspect?’ I asked him then

He shook his head ’Not once My eyes held her entirely in thrall She knew only what I wanted her to know, did only as I instructed her to do’

’And you caused her to think that you wereback!’ And I went to grab hi had read my mind Until then I had kept it shielded froether returned to plague hts, ed at me with his spear

I was on the rim of the cliff; I ducked to one side and his weapon tore razed my shoulder; I wrenched it from him and knocked him in the face with it His mouth was torn and his teeth broken in Also, he jerked away fro And as he collapsed I caught hi as I carried him to the sheer ri ave way to the vampire within to let its fury shape and reshape runted then, h the ripped ridges of my jaws ’So, and you would be Waed to the talon of a primal beast ’You would be as I am But I would have you know, Janos, that the only reason you are human at all is because of your ave her a ht You are neither one thing nor the other, and no use to man nor beast You desire flesh you can ob of phlegue and hurled it into his gaping ed and choked until his eyes stood out in his face, but there was nothing he could do

’There!’ I laughed at hirow in you and form the stretchy flesh you so desire, and make your own flesh like unto itself Aye, for you’ll need so of the vampire in you - if only to mend all your broken bones!’

And without more ado I hurled him from the cliff

Janos was sorely broken All his bones, as I had guaranteed, and his flesh all torn on the rocks Aof me in him, and now there was even more What I had spat into him spread faster than a cancer, except that unlike a cancer it spared, indeed saved, his miserable life He would mend, and live to serve ary and headed for Zara, I coany I left behind ive hiuard my castle and lands, so that when I return there will be a welcome for me Until then he is the master here, and his will be done So let it be’

Then I went to join the Great Crusade, the substance and outcome of which you already know

As Faethor’s voice tailed away, Harry looked up and all around and saw that the bulldozers were toiling now Only two hundred yards away an old, raddled relic of a house went down in dust and shuddering debris, and Harry fancied he felt the earth shake a little Faethor felt it too

Will they get this far today, do you think?

The Necroscope shook his head ’I shouldn’t think so In any case they see at random and don’t appear to be in too much of a hurry Will it affect you -1 mean, when they level this place? There’s not much of it left to level anyway’

Affectcan do that, for I’m no more But it may make it daoing on! And Harry sensed the extinct rin, as the monster in turn sensed the inevitability of a concrete torin, yes, for Faethor would not accept Harry’s concern, wouldn’t even acknowledge it Pointless therefore to say:

’Well, I hope you’ll beOK?’ But the Necroscope said it anyway And quickly, before his (or Faethor’s) eet on my way I’ve learned a lot frorateful for the power of deadspeak, which you’ve returned to ht, of course, and probably from afar -so that you can finish your story For I know that after the Fourth Crusade you came back to Wallachia and put an end to Thibor, and there must have been more between you and Janos, too Since he is only recently risen, I know someone must have put him down You, Faethor, I would suspect’

He sensed the varim nod

’Well, as done once may be done a second time, with your assistance’

You are welcome, Harry, any time For after all, that is our dual purpose, to return him to dust And now be on your way I would like to rest a while in whatever peace is left to me - while I may

But as Harry took up his holdall, so his feet squelched in the sli toadstools Their ’scent’ reached hih!’ He couldn’t hold back the exclamation of detestation And Faethor picked it up, and perhaps saw in hisof the cause

What? he said Mushrooht, and suddenly nervous Perhaps the finality of his situation was affecting hied ’Mushroo them away’

He felt Faethor’s shudder and could have bitten off his tongue His last sentence had been thoughtlessly cruel But what the hell! why should anyone feel sorry about the fate of a long-dead,like a va out of Faethor’s ruined house, back towards the graveyard and the dusty road beyond

Farewell, that unquiet spirit answered hier over what you must do but seek to make a quick end of it Time may well be of the essence

Harry waited a moment more but Faethor didn’t elaborate

As Harry cli the plots and leaning slabs, soh?

He julanced all around Butno one there! Of course not, for it was deadspeak at work -without the terrible ony he’d come to associate with it He’d been denied the use of histhat it would take a little tiain

Did I startle you? asked the voice of so to that dead Thing Who Listens, and we knew itthe living could it be, talking to the dead? And who else would even want to talk to or befriend such a Thing as that? Only you, Harry, who have no ene the Great Majority

’Oh, I’ve a few,’ Harry eventually, hesitantly answered ’But h, yes’

Now the entire graveyard came, as it were, to life Before, there had been a hush, an aching void to ca burst its banks like a river in flood, and a hundred voices suddenly required Harry’s attention They were full of the usual queries of the dead: hoere those they’d left behind doing in the world of the living? What was happening in that bustling world of corporeal being, where minds were housed in flesh? Would it be possible for Harry to deliver a e to this oh so well-remembered and -loved father, or mother, or sister, or lover, and so on

Why, he could spend a lifeti the many errands of the inhabitants of this one ceht than they knew and recognized its truth, and the mental babble quickly died down

’It isn’t that I don’t want to,’ he tried to explain, ’but that I can’t You see, to the living you’re dead and gone forever And apart froues, I’ed Do you think it would help if all your still living friends and loved ones knew that you, too, remained extant? It wouldn’t It would only serve to rief thatin some vast and terrible prison cah, I know, but not that bad - especially now that you’ve learned to co yourselves But we can’t tell that to the living you left behind you, for if we did those who’ve stoppedand returned to what’s left of their own lives, why, they’d start all over again! And I’m afraid there would always be fake Necro-scopes to take advantage of theht, of course, Harry, their spokesman answered then It’s just that it’s such a rare - indeed unique - treat, to speak with a ency and we certainly didn’t intend to hold you up

Harry wandered amidst the plots, some ancient and others quite new, and inquired: ’Hoill it affect you? When they get through levelling what’s left around here, I mean? You’ll still be here, I know that, no raves have been disturbed?’

But they won’t be, Harry! an Area Planning Council member, late of Ploiesti, spoke up For this cemetery has a preservation order on it Oh, it’s true, a lot of graveyards have been reduced to rubble, but this one at least escapes Ceausescu’s madness And I pride myself that I was in part instrumental - but I had to be Why, members of my family, the Bercius, have been buried here for centuries! And faht? Radu Berciu chuckled, however wrily Ah, but I never thought that I’d benefit personally, or at least not so soon For just nine days after I brought that preservation order into being, why, I htful enough to enquire: ’Are there any more here only recently dead?’ For he knew from past experience that they’d be the ones hardest hit, not yet recovered from the trauma of death At least he could find the ti on

And eventually a pair of voices, sad, young, and very lost, found strength to answer him:

Oh, yes, Harry, said one We’re the Zaharia brothers

Ion and Alexandru, said the other We were killed in an accident, working on the new road A tanker crashed and spilled its fuel where ere brewing tea on a brazier We burned And both of us with neives If only there were so, that there was no pain

’But there uise his astonishment

Yes, one of the Zaharias answered, but we’d like them to believe there wasn’t Otherwise they could stay awake every night for the rest of their lives, listening to us scream as we burned We’d like to spare them that, at least

Harry washe could do for them Not yet, anyway ’Listen,’ he said ’It could be that I may be able to help - not now but at some time in the future Soon, I hope If and when that tih, I can’t promise you any more than that’

Harry, they tried to tell hi, that’s iven us hope, in thatwe have a friend in a place otherwise beyond our reach All of the tee dead should be so lucky And indeed they are lucky - that you’re the one with the power

Heright in the direction of Bucharest Behind hi themselves now, of him rather than to him And he knew he’d made a lot of new friends A mile down the road, however, he met tere not his friends On the contrary

The black car passed hi the sudden squeal of its brakes he looked back and saw itU-turn And from that moside and stopped, and as its occupants jumped out, he kneas in trouble

They weren’t in uniform, but still Harry would know their sort anywhere He’d met them before; not these two in particular, but others exactly like thee for they were all very rey suits and felt hats with soft riht out of the Thirties - they were the Romanian equivalent of Russia’s KGB: the Securitatea One was s Their faces were almost expressionless, hidden in the shade of their hats

’Identity card,’ the sers

’Work ticket,’ said the other, more slowly ’Papers, documents, authorization’

They had both spoken English, but Harry was so badly taken by surprise that he fell straight into their simple trap ’II have only lish, and reached for it in his inside jacket pocket

Before he could produce his forged Greek passport, the sly automatic pistol into his side ’Carefully, if you please, Mr Harry Keogh!’ he rasped And as Harry’s hand came back slowly into view, so the docuer of the two

Then, while the small one expertly frisked him, the wooden one opened up his passport and studied it After a lance at it without looking away frorinned, coldly and without huht hoell they imitated sharks But he also knew they had hi he could do about it

The last ti like this had happened to hione to speak with M&ou ceh the Möbius Continuue of the ht to him by several dead masters Well, and he was still an expert with many years of practice behind hier man, less experienced and wont to panic He was much calmer now, and with every reason: in the years flown between Harry had faced terrors such as these two thugs could scarcely iine

’And so we are lish slightly guttural but still very good, especially in its sarcastic inflection ’You are not this Harry Keogh after all but a Greek gentleman named Hari Kiokis? Ah, a dealer in antiques, I see! But a Greek who speaks only English?’

The one with the ferret’s face was ht, Harry?’ He prodded the snout of his pistol deep into Harry’s ribs ’What traitor gave you shelter, eh, Mr spy?’

’II stayed with no one,’ Harry answered, which wasn’t entirely true He indicated his holdall ’I slept in the open My sleeping-bag is in here’

The tall one took the holdall fro It had a little rass And now the special police he looked bewildered, but only for a moment ’Ah, I see!’ he said then ’Your contact didn’t show up, and so you’ve had to s Very well, then perhaps you’ll tell us as supposed to meet you, eh?’

’No one,’ said Harry, as an idea began to for out is cheap and I enjoy a little fresh air, that’s all And in any case, what business is it of yours? You’ve seen my passport and knoho I am, but who the hell are you? If you’re policemen I’d like to see some sort of identification’

And while they stared at hi of astonishment, so he reached out with his deadspeak to the raveyard half a mile away He spoke (but silently) to Ion and Alexandru Zaharia, and his e was simple and to the point:

I’m under threat from two men Your countrymen, I’m afraid: Securitatea, Without your help I’ot so much out, and only so roin He saw it coed to deflect ony in the dust of the road

’There now!’ said the wooden one, his voice cold and eered Corneliu! You really h, to be more co-operative Our patience is by no means infinite’ He went to the back of the car, opened it and threw Harry’s things in But he placed the forged passport in his own pocket

But what can we do, Harry? Ion Zaharia’s anxious voice ca for time We could try to but no, for you’re too far away We’d never get to you in tiht where you are Only dig yourselves out, that’s all You and anyone else ell, who’s still in shape - and ants to help But don’t go wasting yourselves trying to co these bastards to you

’Jacket!’ the small, thin one - Corneliu - snapped ’Quickly!’

Harry sat up, half-shrugged out of his jacket before it was snatched fro, really,’ said the other one, asn’t so much wooden now as disdainful, superior ’We fully expected that ould have to shoot you! Such things they told us about you! Such problems you’ve caused our friends across the border! And yetyou don’t seeh Perhaps your reputation is undeserved?’

Harry had given up all thoughts of trying to bluff it out They kneell enough who he was, if not what ’That was all a long tier I’ame is up’

An open-backed truck ru for Bucharest In the back, seated on benches along the sides-, twin rows ofpeasants, faced each other Their eyes were uniforlanced at Harry where he kneeled in the dirt with a pair of thugs standing over him; they had troubles of their own They were the destitute, the hohted by Ceausescu’s blind, uncaring agro-industrial policy

’Well, the game is most certainly up for you, my friend,’ the tall one continued ’You’ll know, of course, that they want you for espionage and sabotage - and reat deal of the latter, apparently!’ He took out handcuffs ’So much, in fact, that I think we’ll just immobilize you a little One can never be too careful You look harh, and you’re unar Harry’s hands together