sensitive tips tracing the contours of the ground. Then, with a sighing of air and a folding of wings, the thing set down light as a feather. And flanking it, six lesser beasts likewise touched down, their lieutenant riders out of their saddles and striding to their master's side all in a few liquid moments. While for those same moments Malinari sat there as if in contemplation, reins loosely clasped, one elbow on the pommel of his saddle, and chin in hand.
'Then, stirring himself up, he swung lithely down from his mount, sighed and said, 'Well, and here we are…' Simply that, the merest murmur of a sound; yet powered by Malinari's mentalism, every man, woman, and child in the entire Vadastra settlement heard it.' And to every mind he touched — despite that his voice was brandy-deep and honey-sweet — a certain fetor clinging. For with all his powers of deception, even Malinari could not hide the underlying stench of blood.
'His mentalism had its limits. Spread thin as this, it was good for seeking out enemies or Szgany in hiding, but for very little else. So that having displayed it he now dispensed with it. And the swift withdrawal of his probes felt like water clearing from one's ears after surfacing from a dive in a deep pool. And now, too, he called for my father Dinu in a voice both rich and strong. But while the brandy depth was still there, the sweetness was all used up. For now it was time for the business.
'The Vadastras (all except the few favoured ones, who were hidden away) were gathered as a clan on that side of the clearing farthest from the barrier mountains, so positioned that all eyes had been enabled to follow the arrival of Malinari and his tithesmen. My father, who stood central and to the fore of this gathering, came with all speed in answer to Malinari's call and prostrated himself before his acknowledged master. And the vampire Lord stood there a little while, looking down on him, perhaps enjoying his grovelling.
'But, ahhhh — this Malinari was handsome! He was all of an hundred and sixty years old, but looked no more than forty. His hair was black and shone like a night-hawk's wing — as well it might, being greased with the fat of Vadastra women! Swept back from the broad dome of his head, behind pointed ears which were not as large or misshapen as the webby, conch-like ears of most Lords, and with its jet ringlets curled on his caped shoulders, while its gleaming black curtain fanned out down his back like the hair of a young girl, or the decorative head plumage of the black eagle… why, it loaned him the haughty looks of a great hunting bird — a veritable night-hawk, aye.' And for once it was no deception; for as much as he was anything, Malinari was certainly the bird of prey.
'And his face, its deathly pallor… the deep-sunken eyes
under arcing eyebrows… cheek-bones jutting… the high brow rising… slightly flattened nose whose convolute flanges were almost imperceptible… the lean cheeks and perfect bow of his blood-red lips. The red of blood, aye, to match the fire of his eyes. In any other man or vampire the fiery lamps of Malinari's eyes would be less than ornamental, but they suited The Mind to perfection. Indeed, they loaned his cheeks a ruddy semblance of warmth, of life, while in fact he was the cold and cruel master of something other than life, but not yet death.
'And tall: he would be two long paces tall, and then some. And slim as a wand, yet strong as a dozen of our best, who were only men. I knew this last for a certainty, for there never was a weak Lord of the Wamphyri. But Malinari's strength wasn't of the flesh alone; not only brawn, but brain; not merely muscle, but mind. He was The Mind!
'And, 'Up,' he finally commanded my father. 'Up, and show me my tribute.'
'There was no kissing of sandalled feet, nor yet of hands, as my father came erect; no touching of any sort. Such were The Mind's powers that even a touch could prove harmful, draining a man's knowledge or erasing part of his memory. And anyway, Dinu was Malinari's trusted servant who would not dare hold anything back from him. This was how it had been between them for many a shameful year. Shameful, aye. For if I've not already said that I loathed this cringing, subservient existence, surely by now I have hinted as much?
'Anyway:
'My father was big, burly, bearded, and blustering. Rumour had it that he was a bastard, too, but I never heard it bruited in his presence. Puffed up with his own importance, yet somehow managing to bow and scrape, he led Malinari and his men to that side of the clearing where the trestle tables were bowed a little from the weight of the tribute. Here Dinu Vadastra had been as clever as he dared to be, so arranging the trestles that the centre spans were bound to bow a little under any extra weight!
Whether or no his ploy fooled anyone, it certainly looked good. And indeed Malinari seemed impressed.
'Then he and my father conversed. And because Dinu's caravan stood very close to the trestle tables, and the night being so still now (and likewise all those who were not directly involved, keeping very still), Nadia and I heard their every word.
''Dinu, chief of the clan Vadastra,' Malinari spoke to my father. 'It appears you had word of my coming. I would even say you must have had, since you've responded with this oh-so-excellent tribute! What's more, try as I might I cannot remember the time when my tithesmen brought home so handsome a bounty. What? Why, I could even be forgiven for thinking that perhaps they've been robbing me all this time. My own lieutenants, like ungrateful dogs, thieving from the house that shelters them:..'
'He stared at his men — glared at them with eyes of flame, lengthened his jaws and yawned at them a little — so that they all drew back a pace… until he grinned a wolfs grin at them, then threw back his great head and laughed until his hair shimmered all down his back!
''Ah, but see, I have made a joke,' he said. 'For all and all, my lieutenants, thralls, and familiar creatures know that to thieve from me is to bid farewell to all this. My rules are made simple, so that even a dullard may understand them. In my manse in Starside dwell many starveling warriors who have their needs no less than men; from time to time they enjoy the occasional tidbit, and to a monster they are especially fond of tidbits that kick and shriek and spurt red…'
'And after a pause, turning to my father: 'Dry work, this joking,' he said. 'Are we perhaps thirsty, Dinu Vadastra?' And he beckoned to his side a junior lieutenant.
'By then, as might well be imagined, my father was very thirsty. He produced a tray of beaten gold, and three goblets of that same common metal which he filled with white wine from a barrel. This was ever the ritual: that Dinu play the part of one
of Lord Malinari's food-tasters. For, like all of the Wamphyri but more so than most, The Mind was susceptible to silver in however small a measure — indeed, to granules of silver, to the very dust of silver — and likewise to garlic, whose mere reek was guaranteed to cause nausea and copious vomiting. Thus Dinu would take the first sip, which would provide him with an early opportunity to declare the wine fouled; next the tithesman who, being a vampire, would not only taste any poison but react violently to it; and finally Malinari, first inhaling deeply of the wine's bouquet through his snout's fleshy runnels, before gulping it down. For however much he affected lordly airs, and, on occasion, a 'flowery' or 'delicate' mode of speech, still Lord Malinari's table manners were dreadful!
'So on through every barrel, a taste from each; the brandies, too, and even the honey. And while my father was sensible enough to drink but sparingly, still he was staggering a little towards the end. As for the foodstuffs — the wild grain, roots and fruits, animals and such, aye, and bairns, too — they were not tested, though for a fact Malinari lingered a while over a fat boy child whose black eyes smiled at him in all innocence, while the monster's own crimson orbs flared that much brighter in his face…
'Then on to the wolf-bitch in her cage: 'A prize indeed!' Malinari approved. 'I may keep her and her whelps both,' and he made as if to stroke her through the bars. But, growling low in her throat, she snapped at him, and Malinari withdrew his hand with no room to spare, saying, 'Or perhaps not. For wolves are plaguy, treacherous beasts at best. But fine strong meat, Dinu Vadastra, I'll grant you that. And on that same subject, where, pray, are the rest of my animals — the ones who walk upright?'
'With which the unfortunate ones, all sorted and chained in a row — a man, a girl, a youth, a woman, and so on — were trooped out for Malinari's inspection. They had been caused to void themselves (for the sake of 'cleanliness'), then had been washed, groomed, and clad in good fur robes fastened with golden clasps.
And there they paraded, most with bowed heads, but a few of the younger men muttering (however unwisely), and the adult women sobbing, and this or that young girl far too prideful, too aware of her lithe Szgany sensuality, head tilted and dark eyes fluttering, daring to gaze on Malinari and even hoping to impress him. Ah, but The Mind was not easily impressed.
'He walked the line — or rather flowed along it, with that deceptive grace of the Wamphyri — and his tithesmen with him, senior men to the fore and juniors well to the rear. And whenever Malinari paused to look closer at one of his male acquisitions, then his senior lieutenants would step forward and take hold of the man,
