"Brian Lumley - Necroscope 10 - Lost Years 02 - Resurgence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

vampire Lord in the world of Radu's origin. Thus he became an artful warrior in his own right
But eventually, following an act of human treachery, Radu knew it was time to take stock. Returning to Romania, the dog-Lord determined to
isolate himself in a mountain 'den.' Except he must find a livelihood, and the only way he knew was by the blood which is the life. Wherefore
he built an aerie, and set himself up as Voevod - a warlord protector - to the mountain-dwelling peasants of the eastern Carpathians.
But the Drakuls, long-established in the western arms of the Carpathian horseshoe, knew his plan. They swept down on him to murder him
and destroy his manse. Radu wasn't to house; but when he returned and saw what was done... he knew who to blame.
There was nothing he could do about it; yet again his pack had been decimated, and Radu hadn't the manpower to fight back.
But at least the Drakuls had shown their true colours, and from now on Radu would know where he stood with them. Indeed, he
had always known, but this was in effect the first actual 'declaration' of war. A bloodwar, aye!
Down all the centuries from that time forward, no quarter would be given or expected by the rival Wamphyri factions. Drakuls and
Ferenczys, their descendants and thralls, Radu and the pack: they formed a far-flung triangle of mutal animosity, of a hatred and
loathing far beyond the passions of any merely human adversaries. From time to time they might come into contact - though usually they would
find it prudent to avoid one another - but in the right place at the right time...
6 BrianLumley

... Blood wiU out And blood will be let out! Keeping his band small and fighting in many of the ancient world's great battles, Radu went on as a
mercenary. When times allowed he would return to Romania, which he considered a home of sorts. But he knew that the Drakuls continued to
Lord it in the mountains, and that his worst enemies, the Ferenczys, were still abroad in the world. He begged of his mistress moon that
eventually he would meet up with them to right the wrongs they had worked against him. And in a way - though not entirely as he had
wished it - his prayers were eventually answered...
Time went by; the world changed; a new terror came ravaging from the east No conquering Mongol horde this time, but a
horde of rats! The Black Death had come to Europe - and vampires as well as entirely human beings were dying from it
In the Vampire World there'd been only one human disease that the Wamphyri feared: leprosy, which infected their metamorphic
flesh faster than their leeches could repair or replace it. Now in this world there was another. It seemed grotesquely ironic: that
where the Wamphyri were the greatest parasites of all, this plague was spread by the very smallest - the fleas that infested the
Asiatic rats! The last Drakul (Egon, a Starside original) lived in Poland for the duration of the terror, Poland suffered little or no plague mortality.
As for any remaining Ferenczys: at least one may have seen out the plague years on some easily-defended island, for
at that time they were powerful in the Mediterranean. But Radu Lykan was ever the mercenary, the adventurer and wanderer. And he was
caught out in
the open.
Fleeing west through a panic-stricken, plague-ridden Europe, Radu was attacked, wounded, and infected with the plague. Overburdened
with Radu's strenuous physical life-style and the disease in his blood both, his parasite grew weak and began to Ml him. So that
by the time he and the survivors of his pack reached Scotland, he felt exhausted and had but one recourse.
For a long time the dog-Lord had pondered the preservative, perhaps curative powers of resin. Now he would take refuge in a
resin 'tomb,' immerse himself in a great vat of the stuff, and place his trust in the tenacity of his leech. Relieved of some of its
burden, his parasite would have an opportunity first to cure itself, then to work on him. And it would have ample time in which to perform its
duties.
Radu had a skill other than his hypnotism and mentalism; he was a server on future times, which he glimpsed in oneiromantic dreams.
Scanning the future, however, is a dubious art The events witnessed may not come to pass exactly as foreseen. But the one
thing Radu 'saw' quite clearly was the duration of his planned 'sleep' - more than six hundred years! It came as a blow at first but as the
dog-Lord got
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weaker so he resigned himself to the idea. In the high Cairngorms he prepared a lair and set watchers over it; when all was done, he
consigned himself to the resin...

That was then and this is now.
The centuries are flown and the time is right; Radu will return. Except first he awaits the coming of a certain
'Mysterious One' - a 'Man-With-Two-Faces' - whom he has scried close at hand in the imminent hour of his
resurgence. And B J. Mirlu has brought just such a one to her Master's attention: the Necroscope, Harry Keogh.