Brian Lumley - Necroscope - Invaders

'That was the thrall's story, and the other survivors with him agreed with everything he said. But survivors of what?'

Since the answer to Korath Mindsthrall's final question was obvious, a reply seemed unnecessary. But Harry Keogh answered him anyway, saying, Survivors of Lord Szwart, of course.

Harry's words — more definite, decisive in Jake Cutter's mind — startled him from the reverie induced by Korath's narrative; from what had seemed like a dream within a dream, where everything that the ex-vampire lieutenant described had seemed as real as if Jake himself had been there, in another time and another world. And:

'What? Where?' Jake gave himself a shake. And looking all about he saw debris: the buckled stanchions and shattered concrete slabs fallen from the ceiling, the partly-gleaming, scorch-scarred rim of the monitor conduit rising from the sullen swirl of dark waters. That was where this fragment of the history of a vampire world had its origin: that ugly pipe where Korath had died the true death, which still contained his bones, sloughed clean and washed white by the water. And Jake shuddered.

Harry sensed his unease, and asked, Are you all right?

'No,' Jake answered. "And I don't think I'll ever be all right again.'

You will lie, the other told him. You have to be. Anyway, we still aren't through here. I want to know more about Szwart — what he is and how he came to be — and I think Korath knows it all. But I sense that he's slowing up, holding back

To which Korath immediately replied, And you are correct! For it dawns on me that I do myself no good here. When you have learned your fill, what then of me? No forgiveness, shunned by the living and the dead alike, washed away to nothing and dispersed across an alien land? Hah! Surely I can do better.

You are dead, said Harry. These things are what happen to the dead, in circumstances such as yours.

And Korath answered, Ah, cold, cold!

No, said Harry, not entirely. Merely truthful. I won't lie to you that there's anything in this for you. Only our company, for however long it lasts.

But Korath said:

Yet your dead converse! I know, for I have heard them whispering in their graves. When they sense me listening, then they keep quiet or exclude me. So why can't they converse with me?

They don't like you, said Harry. Can you blame them? Being dead, they hate death. And they know that you thrived on it! -

I did what vampires do. Is there no pity?

For you, none.

Then I have none for you! Korath sulked. You dare to go up against Vavara, Szwart, Malinari? Without knowing all there is to know about them? Good luck to you. You are dead men and may think of me again some time, when you lie broken or drained, or minced into warrior feed. Then perhaps you'll wish we had spoken at greater length, but too late. Until that time you'll hear no more from me. He fell silent. But:

You have no idea how weary I am of all your bluff and bluster, Harry told him. What do you expect of me? What can I possibly do for you? You are dead, Korath!

You, too, Korath answered. And yet you have mobility, companionship… a future?

My case is different, said Harry. And as for the future, I never underestimate it.

And Jake's case? His future?

There was a slyness in Korath's deadspeak voice, and Harry didn't like it. He wondered if he detected some hidden innuendo, or more likely some kind of threat. Jake is a dreamer, he said. Right now he is no more and no less. He's my apprentice, if you like, and for the moment knows very little about such things — but he will learn. And:

'Huh!' Jake snorted. 'Even if I don't want to, it seems!'

Yessss, said Korath. And I can feel your apprehension. But still Harry is right and you should… learn. If not from him, then perhaps from me?

Harry was at once alarmed. You know what we want from you. And that's all we want. So what's it to be Szwart's origins?

(Harry's deadspeak nod). And more about Malinari's bloodwar — how you survived the Icelands, and how finally you came here.

Korath sighed and said, Very well For I am forgiving, even if you are not.

He was silent for a moment, then sighed again and said: The rest of it, then…

'I can't swear to Szwart's origin/ Korath commenced the final chapter of his story. 'I can only repeat what I heard of him in the service of my master, Malinari of Malstack, all those years ago. And of course I can report what I have seen of him, for he was after all Malinari's co-conspirator, along with Vavara, and shared with them in their banishment when they were whelmed by the forces of Dramal Doombody…

'As for Szwart's "visit" to Lord Stakis's Narkslump: while that had occurred as a prelude to the actual hostilities, obviously it was an important factor in the heightening tension between the soon-to-be-warring parties. I recall that soon after Narkus's demise, as angry rumblings from the aeries grew louder, Malinari arranged the latest of several get-togethers with his future partners, Vavara and Szwart.

'By then, when they ventured abroad from their respective stacks, all three "outsiders" — rejects, as it were, excluded or ostracized by the rest of the Wamphyn — were constantly on the alert for trouble: the imposition of restrictions over disputed airspace, skirmishes over boundaries, even ambushes were by no means unlikely. But since by chance their stacks formed a close triangle in the centre of the clump, and the space within that triangle was theirs, flights between were generally accomplished without threat or interruption. And of course the close proximity of their aeries was yet another good reason for forming their alliance: back to back, they presented a more formidable foe.

'Anyway, Szwart and Vavara came on flyers across the respective gulfs from Darkspire and Mazemanse, to meet with my master in Malstack. And that was the first time that I saw Szwart. For contrary to certain Szgany campfire tales of the time, Lord Szwart was visible when he so desired. In any reasonable degree of light, and when he chose to assume an acceptable form (which invariably cost and, indeed, still costs him no small effort of will) he could be seen, though he much preferred not to be. But in his condition… well, that was surely understandable.

'But I sense that I've whetted your curiosity; you are wondering what "condition" I speak of, and what do I mean by "acceptable form"? We shall get to these things.

'So then, Lord Szwart came from Darkspire, and I was sent to bid him welcome to Malstack and organize the stabling of his flyer, just as I had seen to Vavara's when a little earlier she had arrived from Mazemanse, her castle of vertiginous balconies and fretted, spindly spires.

'I remember the time was several hours past sundown, when only the last faint rays of a dying sun limned the peaks of the barrier mountains in gold. This vestigial glimmer posed no real threat to the Wamphyri in general (even at noon the deadly rays probed only the uppermost spires of Starside's tallest aeries), but it was a problem for Szwart, who dreaded to be seen. 'And there we have it:

'Lord Szwart's fear of light wasn't that it might destroy him but that it made him visible.' This weird photophobia wasn't so much a physical as a mental disability. Which perhaps serves to explain his reclusive nature: his rumoured celibacy, and the fact that he so rarely went abroad from his aerie (and then only into Sunside, to hunt) and never mingled with other than his thralls or creatures of his own device in lonely, shadow-cursed Darkspire.

'But it wasn't only in his mind, this ugliness that Szwart

couldn't bear to display. It wasn't merely imaginary. Rather it was very real, and hereditary…

'He arrived in a Malstack landing bay. His flyer was black as night; swooping across the gulf it had been clearly visible, but in the shadow of Malstack it simply disappeared. I stood in the gape of the landing bay, waiting — and suddenly Szwart was there! A black shape buffeted night-black air in my face as the shadows that were Szwart and his flyer alighted. Then, while he dismounted, I called for thralls to see to his beast. And looming close, Szwart said: