By Anne Fraser and Barbara Zuchegna
With assistance from Sharon Pickrel and Jean Lamb
Copyright 1999

Chapter Thirty-Three

Richard was prevented from answering by a diffident knock on the corridor door. Rather than call out, he rose and went to the door to open it.

Will Scrope towered there above the Iranian guard who said quickly, as Will pushed past him into the room, "Vaje-ye, the Vaje Ed sends that he will be here in moments only."

Richard nodded and closed the door again. Will had seen Doni and Stephen and was smiling his benign welcome, but he returned his attention to Richard immediately. "The palace is secured, Your Grace. The women in the harem have been attended to and those who were still alive when we arrived are safe. Four, who were in the last months of pregnancy, were killed when the guards first took over the palace. Ardeshir has arrived, and has taken command of his people while the Exalted sleep."

"Our losses?"

"Among Ardeshir's people, seven dead and thirteen seriously wounded. Among the Exalted, two dead and one more who may not survive."

"Whom among the Exalted? And how did they die?"

"The woman Nasrin was with Jake when a grenade went off very close to her. The man Ashraf was shot in the head. The woman Niloufar's spine has been severed, and Shapour says she has decided to 'accept the True Death.' They can do this at will, he says, and she does not want to live as she is."

Doni was already on her feet and moving. "For God's sake, Richard, if you have wounded people here, why didn't you say something? Will ... take me there. Stephen, I'll have to send for Tango." She didn't notice Will's head jerk around at this statement. "I'm going to need some help."

Will looked at Richard, and he nodded. "Stay with her," Richard said. "Send word to Ardeshir that I will see him when it is convenient for him to come here."

Will bowed and went with the impatiently waiting Doni, out into the corridor. Before the door could close, Ed Perry was there, pushing his way past the sentry. His eyes had followed Doni as she hurried Will along, but they turned back to Richard now and widened at the sight of Richard's extravagant finery.

"I will never know how you do it," he said. "We all fall into shit, and you keep coming up smelling like a rose."

Richard laughed briefly, and introduced Ed to Stephen, with no explanation to either of just whom the other was. "Will says that Niloufar will die," Richard said.

Ed nodded. "That's what Shapour said. She's still alive; the whole bunch of them are planning some kind of sendoff for her when they wake up tonight, and then she's supposed to just be able to sort of decide not to be alive anymore. Adrian says he's never heard of such a thing, but I guess that's the way they do it here." Ed yawned mightily and looked around. "Do I smell coffee?" he said, as if he couldn't quite believe it. Ed hadn't had much sleep, and looked like it.

Stephen handed him a steaming cup. Ed took it and didn't ask where it had come from. Ed's ability to disbelieve in anything had taken a hell of a battering in the last couple of weeks. Cup in hand, he sat down on the chair Doni had left. "Did Will tell you Ardeshir got here?"

"Yes. Ed, I would appreciate it if you could be there when the Exalted awaken. I want a Healer to examine Niloufar. If there is something that can be done to improve her condition, she must not decide to die. Make certain that Shapour understands."

Ed's mouth twisted unpleasantly. "Better talk to Adrian then. First, because I don't speak French, and second, because Shapour seems to have lost interest in just about everything but our Pretty Boy."

There was a long moment while Richard's eyes frosted over and Ed, slowly realizing he'd overstepped some boundary, began to turn red. Richard said coldly, "When I wish to speak with Adrian, I will do so. When I give an order, I expect that it will be obeyed."

Ed didn't say anything. He couldn't meet Richard's eyes, and took refuge in sipping his coffee.

The moment passed, and Richard's voice returned to normal. "As soon as you have finished your coffee, I would like for you to begin a search of the offices to find a complete roster of the city police, or locate them by whatever other means you can. Send word to them that they are to report for duty no later than ... what is the time?"

Ed checked his watch. "A little before nine."

"No later than two in the afternoon. Their officers are to report to me. Please set up one of the offices for my use."

"Already done. It was one of the first things Ardeshir wanted when he got here ... offices for you, for him, and for Shapour."

Richard nodded approvingly. "I would like for the palace to be searched for weapons abandoned during the fight, or for stores of arms and ammunition ... particularly in the barracks area. Gather these in some central place that can be locked, and see that Ardeshir is given control of them. Ask, too, if he will assign people to begin to interview the women in the harem, to determine what each wishes to do now, and to ascertain in what way we may assist them. When Adrian awakes, whatever I may be doing, I wish to speak with him immediately."

Ed waited a half beat, then figured that was the end of Richard's orders, and gulped his coffee while he could. As he headed for the door, Richard's voice stopped him. "And Ed? Send someone, please, to Sa'idi for our personal belongings." He looked down at his shirt with annoyance. "Five hundred years ago, I would not have found this extraordinary ... but I think that people in this world might find a commander dressed in velvet and jewels somewhat less than prepossessing."

Privately, Ed didn't think Richard would have any trouble establishing who was in charge if he was dressed in a lace teddy, but he thought better of mentioning it. He just nodded, and went out. The guard in the corridor, who seemed a nervous sort, started violently again when the door was swung open.

Stephen had been watching all this with satisfaction. This was exactly what he hoped Richard would be able to accomplish for the Listeners ... this attention to detail, and this ability to command obedience. And now that they were alone, Richard's eyes turned to him with a faintly amused look that hinted that he already knew it. He said, "Perhaps, now that I am no longer under attack by your lady, you might want to tell me what it is that you really wished to discuss with me?"

Stephen's smile was rueful. "I won't apologize for Doni. Diplomatic, she's not. But there is some justification for her anger. Try to understand, Richard. She's been very worried about both Lily and Anne. She knows it's not your fault, but she's not just their Healer. She's their friend."

"I do understand, and I have no quarrel with whatever she chooses to say to me. You're avoiding the question, Stephen."

Stephen thought about it for a minute, and then he said, "Yes, I am. And I think I'm going to go on avoiding it for a while. You've got other things to attend to here. When that's over, we'll talk."

Richard smiled. But he was as closed off as ever. He said, "You're still looking for a king. I should tell you that I've retired from the profession."

"I don't think so." As Richard's eyebrows lifted, Stephen said, "I think you're calling it something else. But you can't retire from what's been bred into you. And I don't think you'll find anything else in this world that you're as well equipped to do. But Richard, as a favor, I wish you'd wait before you push me into making a proposal. You're not in any mood to give me a fair hearing, and I think you owe me that much."

Stephen was perfectly well aware that it wasn't fair to put it that way, and that he had left Richard no choice. He was willing to be unfair. And Richard acquiesced at once.

"I owe you far more than that. Liliana told me how she happened to come to the infirmary that night, Stephen."

"Don't be too grateful. She would probably have come on her own anyway."

"Or I would have gone to her. If it helps you to know it, nothing on this earth could have kept us apart." His eyes were very serious, and Stephen thought he was deliberately allowing something of what he felt to show there. "She is the part of me I never knew was missing until I found her. Every breath she takes is a miracle I cannot yet believe I have been granted. Thank you."

"Now that was nicely said."

Richard's head lifted and his entire face changed. Stephen knew he was looking at Lily, who had appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, but Stephen didn't look that way. He was fascinated by the sudden, overwhelming love that shone in Richard's eyes ... and that Richard was making no attempt to hide, even though he stayed seated and did not go to Lily physically. He didn't have to. Stephen's own senses felt the strength of the bond Lily had already opened between them, and he was astonished all over again, not just that it was possible, which none of the Awakened had ever imagined, but that it was so complete.

Richard, unawakened, could feel Lily's mind in his, not as an intrusion, but as a total bond, and that should not have been possible. Whatever was happening between Lily and Richard, it was something none of the Awakened had ever seen before ... and, somehow, he had to keep the Council from destroying it.

Lily was wearing her habitual tight, faded jeans and a simple sleeveless white shirt she had knotted at her waist ... and she was barefoot. She looked heartbreakingly beautiful.

Richard said only, "Be careful where you step," and Lily looked down at the mess of shattered china and spilled tea, concentrated for a second, and it was gone. She came across the room to take the chair Ed had left and looked down at the cup of herbal tea Stephen had placed on the table there with a slight frown. "Unless you want another cup of this stuff thrown across the room, this had better disappear," she told Stephen. It did, and a mug of coffee took its place. She smiled sweetly. She and Richard were not touching or even looking at each other, but the connection between them was almost palpable. "Thank you," she told Stephen. "Where's Doni?"

"Tending the wounded. How do you feel?"

She smiled. "Later." She turned now, to look at Richard. "And you're already working. I could hear you from in there."

"Do you mind?" There was a tone in his voice Stephen had never heard before, but one that Lily knew very well.

She shrugged. "Does it matter? I couldn't keep you from it anymore than I could keep you from breathing."

His mouth twitched, but he didn't quite smile. "You could. Thank you for not doing so. There are things I must see to today."

There was another soft knock at the door and Lily nodded that way. "I think another of them has just surfaced."

This time, Richard just called out, and the guard at the door ushered a tall, dark-skinned man in floor-length striped robes into the room. Richard introduced him as "Vaje Ardeshir, who is the leader of his people." If Ardeshir was surprised by Lily's presence, or Stephen's, he gave no sign of it. With immense dignity, he bowed to each of them, and then to Richard.

"Vaje-ye," he said, "as you directed, I have gathered the prominent men of the city. They await your pleasure in the ayatollah's audience chamber below."

Richard stood up. "I'll see them now. While I do, I hoped you might be able to arrange to bring the regular staff of the palace back. The place must be cleaned, and we will need kitchen staff and servants."

Ardeshir bowed his head again. "It will be done, vaje-ye."

"Thank you." Richard's hand rested, briefly, on the taller man's shoulder, then his eyes turned back to Stephen. "Is there something else you need from me before I go?" And when Stephen shook his head, Richard said, "I'll see you later, then. Liliana..." His eyes, on hers, softened. "I will allow this to take no more time than is absolutely necessary."

"Do whatever you have to do," Lily said serenely. "I'll be here, when you're done."

There was obvious reluctance in his eyes, but he smiled, a small, regretful smile, and went with Ardeshir. The corridor guard, who was going to need something for his nerves, looked almost sick as they passed him on their way out.

Lily turned to Stephen. "You were saying?"

He didn't really have to ask again. The answer was there, in her eyes, in the whole air of lazy satiation about her. But she wanted to tell him, so he said, "I asked how you were feeling."

Her smile was slow and gently mysterious. "If happiness were money, Stephen, I am rich enough to buy the moon and the stars." The smile widened. "Hell, I could buy the universe itself. I don't give a damn what the Council says. Let them outlaw me, or strip my Awakened powers. I don't care. But nothing in this world or any other will ever drive me from him again."

There was no doubt that she meant it. Stephen would win them both, or lose them both. His hand went out to cover hers and squeezed lightly. He was on her side; he wanted her to know it. He didn't have to tell her that it might not help at all.

Jake had slept the sleep of the ... well, the Undead, really. By the time they had finished bathing, T'beth was leading him around by the arm, and he had no idea just where they'd been going, until she pushed him down on a low divan long enough to accommodate almost all of him and then went across the room and threw herself luxuriously down on a bed big enough for her and half a dozen others as well. Jake didn't have the energy to argue. His eyes were closed almost as soon as his head was down.

He woke to a tickling sensation that drifted down the side of his face to his neck. When trying to bat it away didn't work, he opened his eyes ... to Adrian Talbot's soulful teal gaze, damned near devouring him.

Adrian withdrew the light touch of his finger at the look on Jake's face and sighed mournfully. "All right, all right," he said. "It was just a thought."

"The minute," Jake said sourly, "it becomes more than that, you become vampire fricassee." He pushed Adrian back and swung his legs over the edge of the divan. Shit. He'd slept in the vampire's part of the palace.

But at least he seemed to be, for the most part, well and whole. And naked, under some kind of light cover T'beth must have thrown over him.

"No, she didn't," Adrian said, smugly. "I did. Just now. Never let it be said that I don't concern myself with your modesty, Jacob."

With that unhappy thought, Jake ran an exploratory hand down along his leg under the cover. The bullet wound was still there, but it didn't even hurt anymore, and he could feel the scar tissue forming. "Do we have any clothes?" he asked.

Adrian sighed dramatically. "So ungenerous of you, Jake..." But he showed him where there was a whole dressing room full of clothing, from among which he had undoubtedly selected his own rather elaborate outfit ... a silk shirt the color of his eyes, the loose, baggy pants that everyone around here seemed to wear, in a darker tone of the same color, and a sort of kaftan affair that hung loose from his shoulders to the floor (well, to be honest, it dragged on the floor a bit) and was made from some kind of heavy, and heavily embroidered, dark gray fabric that gleamed silvery in the light.

Jake found something a bit less flamboyant...and not quite long enough ... in golden beige. But it was still uncomfortably and sensuously silky. While he dressed, and Adrian obediently kept his eyes averted, Jake asked, "Where's T'beth?"

"Gone." Adrian was petulant. "Am I supposed to keep track of her?"

Jake, fully dressed, came around in front and glared down at him. "If you'd done a better job of it in Toronto, we'd still be there."

They were still sniping at each other when they left the vampire's area and found a young Sa'idian stationed in the corridor, waiting for Adrian. "The Vaje Richard asks that you report to him as soon as possible," the kid said. His eyes were very round. He was not used to being so close to an Exalted One. Adrian thought he looked luscious, and ignored Jake's quickly sent, 'You take time to exalt this kid, Talbot, and I tell Richard why you were late getting there.'

Adrian smiled at the boy. "And what's your name?" he purred.

"Ziya, vaje-ye." He really did have the loveliest, liquid brown eyes...

Jake grabbed Adrian's arm and dragged him. "No, dammit," he said. "If Richard is gonna be courteous, let him be courteous to you. You can look for munchies later."

Adrian could have stopped him with ease, but he allowed Jake to manhandle him with a maddeningly pleased smile on his face. "I love it," he said, "when you're being masterful."

Grimly, Jake held on and kept walking. They had neglected to ask Ziya where they might find Vaje Richard, but they found out soon enough. Everyone in the palace ... and there were a rather alarmingly large number of people busily scooting about the corridors with urgent purpose in their manner ... seemed to know where Richard was. Directions were quickly given, so that the informant could continue on his hurried way to complete whatever chore was occupying him. Richard had taken over an office at the front of the palace.

"Uh ... Adrian," Jake said hesitantly as they headed that way. He wasn't dragging Adrian anymore, and he saw the same speculative alarm in Adrian's eyes that he was feeling. "Is it just me, or does it seem like there are an awful lot of people running around as if they had important things to do?"

"It's not just you," Adrian said. He didn't sound happy.

They couldn't know that Richard hadn't chosen the largest office himself ... the one that had undoubtedly belonged to the Ayatollah Zanjani. Ardeshir had chosen it for him, but from the number of people running in and out, it was just as well that Richard had plenty of room.

There was a huge anteroom filled with hastily-installed tables, over which were spread maps, charts, tons of paper, all being pored over by sober-looking Iranians who bore the look of bureaucrats ... bureaucrats whose boss was in the next room and in no mood to accept anything less than their successful efforts at whatever he had set them to. In that next room, although there was a massive and incredibly ornate desk underneath the opened windows to the square, Richard was working at a very plebeian folding table that had been set up against another wall. And he was working on his feet, as was the scholarly looking man who peered down at him through thick eyeglasses and took voluminous notes. They seemed to be discussing the damaged electric generating facility.

"If you will give me a moment," Richard said, as Adrian and Jake came in, and turned his attention back to the other man.

What was needed for repairs, it seemed, could be had in the nearest large city, Zahedan. Richard's orders were crisp and comprehensive. Funds were to be provided from the town's stores by Ardeshir; engineers were to accompany this man to make certain that the correct parts were acquired; tools must be examined and if necessary, replaced. If any additional skilled labor was needed, it was to be located in Zahedan and paid whatever was necessary to bring it here. Everything must be back in Saravan within a day and a half and the facility in full operation within a day following. Did the man understand? He did, bowing. He left. He looked happy as all hell to do so.

Richard turned to Adrian and Jake. They resisted the urge to flinch as his eyes came to rest on them. He damned near crackled with energy, and it was obvious he was going to tell them that he would appreciate it if they would do something or other ... certainly something they would prefer not to do. And would do anyway. He said, "Adrian, Jake, I must apologize for my absence from the latter part of the efforts to locate and remove the remaining guardsmen last night."

"We understood," Adrian said quickly. "And you were badly wounded, Richard."

He had no sooner said it than it dawned on him, and on Jake, that Richard showed absolutely no signs now of having been wounded at all. Richard seemed oblivious to their puzzlement. He said, "I'm quite myself now. And we must discuss the situation at Khelat."

Oh.

"Before the vampires there create any more of their kind, they must be exterminated or brought under the control of the Sa'idi Exalted," Richard was saying, totally ignoring their long faces. He wasn't going to let them have even one night to rest up and enjoy their victory, damn him.

But Adrian only said, "Whenever you're ready to go, I'll round up the Sa'idians."

Richard stared at him, faint surprise in his lifted eyebrows. "I," he said calmly, "do not plan to go. I have work enough here. I'm sure I can entrust Khelat to your capable hands, Adrian."

Jake's jaw dropped. He could frigging what?

Jake's eyes swiveled around to Adrian, fully expecting to see panic setting in.

Incredibly, Adrian looked four inches taller and seemed to have developed pectoral muscles that would have done Arnold Schwartzeneggar proud. He flipped the hem of his kaftan up over his shoulder and said serenely, "Of course you can, Richard."

Richard smiled. "Then I'll see you when you get back," he said. They were dismissed.

Adrian had hardly made it halfway across the anteroom before Jake was hauling him around with a look of absolute terror on his face. "You're gonna lead the assault on Khelat?"

Adrian sniffed. "Of course."

"Talbot, are you out of your fucking mind at last? What in the hell do you know about taking over a fortress full of..."

"Jake." Adrian, his voice all sweet reasonableness, looked around the crowded room. "You might want to keep your voice down. It wouldn't do to undermine the troops' confidence."

Jake was speechless for a moment, glaring at him. Then, crossing his arms on his chest, he said, "I'm not going."

"As you please." Adrian turned away, prepared to walk into History on his own.

Jake tried to stand still. He really did. He couldn't.

"Goddammit, Talbot, you wait a fucking minute! You're not going anywhere without me!"

Adrian's smile was positively adoring. "Why, Jake, I never expected to. Come on. Let's go kick vampire butt."

With Jake, cursing and muttering, hot on his heels, Adrian returned to the vampires' section. The same Exalted who had been frolicking naked in the bathroom very, very early that morning were now all dressed in varying degrees of borrowed splendor. Shapour had had as hard a time fitting himself as Jake, and was draped in something more closely resembling a really fancy toga than anything Islamic. Jake suspected it of having started life as a bedspread.

They were all gathered, with their unnaturally bright eyes glittering, around the bed of the woman Niloufar.

Right. She was doomed, Jake remembered; her spinal cord severed. She had chosen to die. Adrian hadn't known that vampires could choose the True Death. Not, at any rate, by simply willing it. But the Exalted had gathered to see her off, to toast her bravery and her decision to go into the Great Unknown Void rather than face immortal unlife as a helpless cripple. Not even vampiric healing powers could regenerate a spine.

The party didn't seem to be happening. Adrian, still swollen with pride at being chosen to lead this group of Exalted to Khelat, elbowed his way to a bedside seat, so to speak, wondering why everybody was looking so strange.

There was a mortal in the room, beside Niloufar's naked body. A tall, striking woman with long dark hair and dark eyes, the unknown mortal had her hands laid on Niloufar's exposed spine. It made Adrian's eyes water to see what that spine looked like; no wonder the female Exalted had chosen the True Death.

T'beth materialized beside Jake, looking a trifle uncomfortable at the press of vampire bodies around her. She was a woman who liked her space, was T'beth, but she also hated to miss out on anything.

"Who are you?" she demanded of the strange mortal.

The woman who had her hands on Niloufar didn't bother to look up. "Someone who is going to fix this spine," she growled back. "I work a lot better if I'm not being stared at. Shoo."

She had just told a mess of vampires and one half-vampire to shoo. She spoke with the ring of authority of a doctor or schoolteacher. They shooed.

"Who the hell is she?" Adrian demanded as he, Jake, T'beth and Shapour peeled away from the more common crowd. He'd have to tell them soon about Khelat, but this stranger was more pressing.

"Somebody who came with Liliana, out of nowhere," T'beth guessed.

"How can she heal an Exalted?" Shapour's English was getting better ... he and Adrian had pursued multilingualism amongst other things.

Adrian shrugged. "I suspect she could heal a statue, if she wanted," he replied, remembering his own experiences with a healer (The touch of Pandora's hands on his leg, the burn of the ointment, the soothing pleasure of drinking her blood, the relief of oblivion...). "We can be healed, Shapour, just as we can be killed."

"Or, apparently, we can will ourselves to death," T'beth said.

"I have never heard of this," Adrian said to Shapour. "How is it possible, that an Exalted can wish to die the True Death, and it happens?"

"I could show you," Shapour volunteered. "It is a simple matter of having the will..."

"NO!" T'beth and Jake shouted at once.

Shapour subsided. Adrian just stared at his friends. Then he said, almost meekly, "I'd better round up everyone and tell them about Khelat."

Shapour put a hand on the smaller vampire's shoulder. "What about Khelat?" he rumbled.

"We are going to go clean it out," Adrian replied. "Tonight."

"Tonight? No, tonight we rest, we feast, we celebrate that Niloufar will live; we do not go to Khelat."

"Richard has declared that we shall go tonight, Shapour; and he made me in charge."

"Toi?" Shapour relapsed into French.

"Oui. Moi." Adrian pulled himself up to his full five-foot-six-and-a-bit inches. "Lestat, c'est moi," he declared.

Jake choked. He was the only one who got the joke.

The ATV, with Adrian standing up in the middle of it so that everyone could see him, was at the forefront of the vehicles heading for Khelat. The engines were silent. The waiting phalanx of vampires was silent as well, waiting for what Adrian would say.

'He's going to give them a speech,' Jake thought. ‘Bet he'll do the "St. Crispin's Day" bit, or at least talk about the dogs of war or something.'

Adrian raised his rifle into the air and the silence became even more profound.

"Let's go kick some butt!" he yelled.

A roar of approval and starting engines met this sally, and the ATV brigade set off for Khelat. Adrian remained in place, rifle held high, in the front of the line. A leader, leading into battle.

"That was your big speech?" Jake asked in disbelief.

"Do you really think this was the audience for Henry V?" Adrian replied mildly.

Jake just shook his head.

The trip across to Khelat was a blur. The occupants of the vehicles checked and rechecked weapons and thought hard about what they knew about the old fort. They would have to flush the vampires out. It was going to be messy, probably messier than the Saravan palace had been. But the Sa'idian vampires knew their duty now, and to a vampire, they knew they had to rid their area of the country of these evil Exalted Ones.

Nobody thought it was going to be easy, but since their leader had confidence in them...

The convoy of ATVs, trucks, and jeeps heading for Khelat stopped a half-mile or so from the fortress. There would be no disguising their presence; vampires patrolled the walls of Khelat. The distance was simply to make it more difficult for the enemy to sabotage the vehicles.

"I would suggest that we approach this much the way we did the storming of the palace," Adrian said when he had everyone gathered. "Break into small teams once we are inside. There is only one entrance, so that does present a problem for access, but if we maintain a steady cover of silver bullets we can distract or kill the guards on the entrance." T'beth translated the words for him into Farsi.

Everyone nodded, even T'beth. Jake marveled that she was content to let Adrian be the leader here, but she didn't seem to mind.

'Just humoring him, Jake,' came T'beth's lazy mental drawl. 'Let him play king. Actually, he's not doing a bad job.'

'Let him play king?' Jake thought. He watched Adrian. The vampire was pacing, as if he had live bugs under his clothes. And his tone was of absolute courtesy. So far he hadn't been courteous enough to peel skin, but nobody had done anything to deserve that.

Damn him, he was playing Richard.

"Once we are inside," Adrian was continuing, "we must be prepared to kill. These so-called Exalted Ones, these false pretenders to an honorable title, will not surrender. Everyone should have full ammunition bags with extra clips loaded with silver bullets, as well as silver-coated knives and wooden stakes."

T'beth held up her crossbow. She'd be true dead before she was separated from her favorite weapon. "Is this okay, Professor?" she asked.

"Whatever suits you best, lady," Adrian replied in such a perfect imitation of Richard that Jake looked around for a second, wondering where the king was.

"Ed," Adrian said, and the lone true mortal in the assault group looked up, "I think it would be best if you stayed with myself and Jake; you know how we fight and we can protect you."

Ed opened his mouth to say he knew his job well enough that Pretty Boy didn't need to tell it to him. He saw the expression on Adrian's face, and closed his mouth again. He nodded.

They moved. The vampire guards on the top of the wall and by the door of the fort fired far too early, spending ammunition on the desert. The group of Sa'idian vampires plus three Torontonians and one ex-CIA agent held their fire until they were within range. Silver bullets spat from automatic rifles; raining argent hell on the defenders of the fort. Two of the vampires fell from the wall with crossbow bolts sticking out of them. The defenses crumbled, and the invaders were through the door.

Once inside, T'beth and five other Sa'idian vampires peeled away from the group to go one way across the fort, while Adrian and his followers went the other. Gunfire and screams punctuated the desert night.

Some archeologist, thought Jake, coming across the ruins of Khelat in a hundred or so years, was gonna be surprised as hell to find silver here. In the shape of spent cartridges and dropped knives.

Steeled by his experiences in Saravan, Jake wasn't even wincing as hot bullets sizzled around him. He automatically crouched low, making himself as small a target as possible, while still providing covering fire for Adrian and Ed. One of the Sa'idian vampires dropped, screaming; none of their party even looked back to see if he could be saved. If he could, they would pick him up on the way out.

For a second, Adrian dropped his impersonation of Richard. 'Bring back any memories, Jake?' he grinned across at his friend as silver bullets, fired by T'beth at a Khelat vampire in the middle of the open yard, gouged the wall behind him.

'Shit, yeah.' Jake still had nightmares about that final confrontation with Melantha, and about Sofi firing a silver bullet into Adrian's leg.

Adrian nodded, then resumed his role as Richard III attacking Khelat. "Down this way," he pointed, and it wasn't a suggestion.

His followers followed. That's what you're supposed to do when the king commands.

Ed's rifle swung up and fired away on full automatic, and two Khelat vampires who had been following the intruders towards the rear of the fort dropped in their tracks. They didn't even have time to scream as the ex-CIA man's bullets had taken off their heads. Adrian didn't even stop to thank Ed--that was what a good soldier was supposed to do. With Ed covering the rear, and Jake covering the sides, and Shapour covering everything else, the four of them that were left crept towards the ruined building that guarded the entrance to the underground chambers of the fort.