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consider me their equal; I am merely renting them a room. Also, I said I would
make conditions; by which I meant that I will take precautions against
treachery. One: they must come alone, without their lieutenants. That shall be
the first proviso. Two: no gauntlets."
'"What?" I was amazed. "But, Lady, will they heed you? I mean, you really
intend to order them to leave their battle-gauntlets behind?"
'"For their own protection!" she smiled her half-human smile. "So that they
will not be tempted to brawl among themselves if their talks get heated. So
... no gauntlets -or no admittance. Oh, they'll agree, for they're eager to
get this thing underway.
'"And finally, three: the meeting shall be right here in these chambers - this
very hall - with one of my own warrior creatures in each corner. Stalemate! if
they attempt any
. . .
act, against me, then my creatures will attack! Remember, Zekintha, that for
all his strength and his powers, a vampire is only flesh and blood. He will
die in the right circumstances, under the correct conditions. And melting in
the stomach-acids of a warrior is one such condition. On the other hand, the
Lords will know that if I call upon my creatures without provocation, then
they shall have the right to deal with me in their way: a stave through my
body, decapitation, a bath full of blazing oil! As I said:
stalemate. Now what do you say?"
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"I still find it fraught."
"So do I, but it's done. And I may even profit from it. Now look there - "
'Through a window the mountains were blackly silhouetted where a fan of golden
sunlight faded behind them in the southern sky. "Sundown," I said. "Soon . .
."
"Aye, soon," she echoed me. "When there's a pink rim all along those peaks,
then they stir, mount their beasts, glide from stack to stack. They land in
the launching levels below, proceed on foot upward through the body of the
stack. One at a time, they shall come. My table shall bear . . .
unconventional dishes. Suckling wolf in pepper, hearts of great bats floating
in their blood, but blackened by the use of herbs, grassland game from
Sunside, and weak mushroom ales from the trog caverns. Nothing to inflame
their passions."
'"But what is your purpose, Lady?" I was curious -terrified, but curious. "I
know you wish nothing to do with these Lords. I know that you are . . . not
like them. Could you not refuse them outright? Is there no other place
suitable for them to hold their meeting?"
'"Most of these men," she answered thoughtfully, "have never before set foot
in Dramal Doombody's aerie - my aerie, now. I think Shaithis was a visitor,
once or twice, in
Dramal's youth when they had something in common. They used to hunt women
together at sundown on Sunside, just the two of them. Not so much a friendship
as a rivalry. But for the others it's an opportunity to see what I've got
here. I know that they'd use the visit to study my defences against some
future invasion. But if I turned down their request, refused to offer them my
... hospitality, that would only provoke them, unite them against me."
"You said you might even profit from their coming," I reminded her. "In what
way, profit?"
"Ah, yes. And that's where you come in," she answered. "We Wamphyri have
powers, Zekintha. You are not alone; I, too, have the ability to steal the
thoughts of others. It is of course a talent of my vampire, transferring to
me. As yet, however, the art is undeveloped, dubious at best. I can't always
be sure that I read aright, and over any great distance it is not worth the
effort. Also, because I am Wamphyri, they would know if I probed too deeply.
Our vampire minds are similar, do you see? But you are not
Wamphyri ..."
"You want me to listen to their thoughts? And if they should discover me?"
"They will expect to discover you! What profit in owning a thought-stealer and
letting her talent go to waste? But the trick is this: to sneak into their
minds without them knowing, with your guard up lest they read yours! Discover
you mentally? Possibly; but no real danger, as I've said, for they'd expect as
much. But they will not discover you physically for we shall hide you in a
secure place. And these are the things I shall desire to know:
"Their thoughts and plans concerning myself; whether their meeting here is
entirely genuine or simply a ploy to seek out my weaknesses;
their weaknesses, their uncertainties, if they have any. Look into each of
their minds in turn, and see what you can see. Except I'd caution you: don't
bother with Lesk the Glut. His brain is addled. His vampire is itself mad. How
may one discover truth in a mind as mercurial as that? What? - he cannot make
sense of his own thoughts, not from one moment to the next! But he has a
strong aerie, and his strength is prodigious, else the others would have dealt
with him long ago."
' "I shall do my best," I told her. "But as yet you haven't explained the
point of this meeting. What is it that brings them together like this?"
' "The one they call The-Dweller-in-His-Garden-in-the-West," she answered.
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