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The Ferenc’s Story

Shaithis slept long and long

The bats kept hi solid in his ice-niche); his wounds healed; his thoughts, like Shaithis himself, remained hidden Until it was time to rouse hi place was discovered

What!? Who!? The astonished, involuntaryin hishe was on his feet, his blanket of albino bats breaking up in chittering disarray, whirring away from him like a shock of sentient snow Another auntlet; he let his Wamphyri senses reach out - but cautiously, tentatively - to discover as there Whoever, he must be near, else he wouldn’t have sensed Shaithis’s ehts had flowed inwards, an art in which he was adept; his drea the transition fro they had escaped like a yawn, and soh to hear it Too close by far

Shaithis allowed his mental probe to touch that of the other, and inition h that each creature was certain of the other’s presence Shaithis glanced this way and that There was only one way out of his niche; if he was trapped then he was trapped; so be it

Who is it? he sniffed the cold air with his bat’s snout Is it you, Fess, coauntlet in pus to tear out the loathsome heart of the odious Volse Pinescu?

And back caasp in the vampire’s mind: Hah! Shaithis! You survived The Dweller’s death-beams, then?

Arkis Leperson! Shaithis knew him at once He breathed his relief, watched curiously for a moment while his breath fell as snow, thenhis limbs, inhaled deeply and tested his ribs All seemed in order Pah! What had those minor dents and scratches been for wounds anyway? Repairs had been minimal; his vampire flesh had scarcely been overtaxed; he was left with an ache here, a bruise there

Arkis stood close to the foot of the ice-staircase He was squat for a Lord of the Waood three feet broad, too! A ious Now: it seeht Shaithisthe distance betith the easy, flowing glide of the vampire; sinister to ordinary men, but normal by Wamphyri standards In another moment they were face to face

’Well,’ said Shaithis, ’and is it peace? Or are you too hungry to think straight? I’ll be frank: I could use a friend And by the look of you huh! Our circumstances are much the same The choice is yours, but I knohere there’s food!’

The other’s entirely instinctive reaction was a single belched word: ’Food?’ His eyes opened wide and his flaring, convoluted snout plu Shaithis offered hirim smile, took from his pouch the last piece of cold bear-heart and devoured half in a single bite, then tossed the rest to the leper’s son - who snatched it from the air with a cry almost of pain And without pause he crais Griefcry out of a Traveller waif She’d been a leper and her infection had taken Morgis in hiswith his lips, eyes and ears) had been ah The disease had been like a fire in hi him faster than his va his nais had taken a firebrand and hurled himself and his Traveller odalisque into a refuse pit whose accuas had done the rest His suicide had left Arkis the youthful Lord and heir to a fine aerie Even better, Arkis had not contracted his forebears’ disease! Not yet, anyway Perhaps he never would It had all been one

While Arkis ate, Shaithis studied him

Squat in the body, Arkis’s skull was likewise squat, as if it had been crushed down a little His face seemed pushed out in front, and his botto upward over his fleshy upper lip And yet the overall effect wasn’t so th of his furred, tapering ears Aye, sorey one for sure Moreover, he was lean as a wolf; well, by the standards of for, upon however saze on Shaithis And when he was done: Til grant you it was a bite,’ he grunted, ’but was that the food you promised?’

’I made no promises,’ Shaithis answered ’I stated a fact: I knohere there’s food - by the ton!’

’Ah!’ the other grunted, and cocked his head on one side ’Volse’s flyer, d’you uard it well, Volse and the Ferenc It’s a mousetrap, Shaithis; only approach their private pantry too closely and you’ll end up in it! No chivalry here, ood as red juice of ars can’t be choosers I have tried and failed; they’re never too far away; I know they lust after my blood’

’Are you reduced to this?’ Shaithis raised a black, spiky eyebrow ’Scavenging after each other?’ He knew of course that they were; knew that he would be, too, soon enough The ’chivalry’ of the Wamphyri was at best a ’ - was lost on Arkis Leperson

’Shaithis,’ said the other, ’I’ve been here four, going on five sundowns; five auroral displays, anyhich I reckon a each other? Let me tell you that if it moves I’ll hunt it! I had bats by the handful at first: squeezed ’em to pulp so they’d drip into my mouth - then ate the pulp, too! - but now they won’t come anywhere near ht now, I’randdad frozen in the ice up top I’d have tried to get at hih - which now I a reduced to this or that We’re all reduced, Shaithis, and you no less than anyone else!’

So h after all That ca of a surprise; the leper’s son had always seemed such a dullard Perhaps the cold had sharpened his wits

’Arkis,’ Shaithis said, ’there are two of us now and we’ve shared food That’s good, for it strikes me we’ll do better as a teas and e has value Also, the disgusting Volse Pinescu and gigantic Fess Ferenc will think twice before coether Nohat say we leave this echoing shell of ice and find our breakfast?’

The leper’s son sighed his iered Shaithis a little: he wasn’t used to dull, squat creatures playing the equal with hirunted ’They guard Volse’s flyer, and guard it well! They’re likeell-fuelled, which we’re not And as you yourself have just this iant!’

Shaithis flared his nostrils and for a ht to leave the fool to his own devices Except that would alsohim to the tender mercies of the others -eventually And Shaithis wanted Arkis for hihts he steered inwards, lest Arkis hear theuard two beasts?’ he said ’And did you think I’d walked here, Arkis Dire-death?’ (the idiot’s other name)

It stopped Arkis dead ’Eh? Another flyer? I haven’t seen it But then, I’ve not dared venture too far out on the ice lest they see me! Where then, this flyer?’

’Where I sent it,’ said Shaithis ’Still good and fresh and wait a ht: Do you hearvery low ’Aye, and not yet bled to death Not quite’

’They know it’s there, that great vat of filth and the Ferenc?’

’Of course, else I’d not require assistance froht have known it! Soain, Arkisto Oh, let’s be friends, Arkis - because I’ve need of you!’

’So be it’ Shaithis shrugged ’I ed a joint venture which would furnish joint returns, that’s all Equal shares But so? What, and did you think this was Sunside at sundoith plenty of sweet Traveller game afoot?’ He made as if to turn away ’Starve, then’

’Wait!’ The other took a pace closer And in a more reasonable tone: ’What’s your plan?’

’None,’ said Shaithis, ’except to eat’

’Eh?’

Shaithis’s turn to sigh ’Listen, and I’ll ask you again: can they guard two flyers, Volse and the Ferenc?’

’Certainly - a man to each’

’But we are two ether?’

’Then one beast goes unguarded! Has the cold nuile brain, Arkis?’ (That last was a lie, but a little flattery wouldn’t hurt)

’Hht about it for a er at Shaithis ’Very well - but if we come upon Volse Pinescu on his oe kill hireed,’ said Shaithis ’Actually, I should think it’s the only part worth eating’

’Hah!’ Arkis snorted And: ’Har, har! Oh, ha - ha -haaar he laughed, in his way

And: Go on, laugh, Shaithis kept his thoughts hidden But when Volse and Fess are done for, you’re next, bone-brain! And out loud: ’Now guard your thoughts We go out onto the ice’

Volse Pinescu’s flyer was rimed with frost, stiff as a board

Still Arkis Leperson would have set to, but Shaithis

cautioned him: ’Let’s not waste valuable time here What?

Why, you’d wear those tusks of yours to stumps on this!’ Arkis turned to him with a scowl ’It’s food, isn’t it?’ ’Aye’ Shaithis nodded ’And half ain juicy pipes Good beasts I breed, Arkis, of the finest flesh Now listen: do you sense our eneuarding, right?’

Arkis sniffed the icy air ’It worries me What are they up to, d’you suppose?’

Ti after we’ve filled our bellies’ Shaithis had already set off across the blue foxfire ice And Arkis calanced back once and nodded, then faced forward and grinned his sly grin as of old Ever the leader, Shaithis, and how easy once more to take up theto heel

A wind came up

While Shaithis and Arkis Leperson, called Diredeath, sat in a cave carved by Volse and Fess in the underbelly of Shaithis’s flyer and sipped the feebly pulsing juices of that now insensate beast, the radiant stars were blotted out by dark, scudding clouds Snow came down in a shortlived blizzard, which loaned the ice a thin, soft coating

When the wind died down again the cannibalized flyer was dead and its arteries already stiffening ’Cold fare fro up his head to spy out the land around He looked towards the spine of volcanic peaks Then looked again And frowned his concern

’Arkis, what do you make of this?’

Arkis stood up, belched noisomely, looked where Shaithis pointed ’Eh? That? A ind, a snow-devil, the last flurry in the wake of the storreat fascination with Nature, Shaithis?’

’Fascination? With what’s natural, none whatsoever With what’s unnatural, plenty! Especially in a place like this’