Free Area 51: Nosferatu-8 by Robert Doherty Page B

carrying torches issue forth from the gates of the fort into the village. Too many for him to fight.
    He heard the slap of oars in the water and Vampyr looked upriver to see a boat floating with the current, about thirty feet away. A man wearing a black robe stood in the prow, staring at him. Eight men with drawn bows stood along the center of the boat, their weapons aimed at

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    Vampyr. Four other men rowed, bringing the boat closer to his.
    Vampyr took a step backward as the prow of the other boat touched his and two of the men reached out to secure the two together. The man in the cloak climbed on board Vampyr's boat. Vampyr drew his dagger. The stranger drew a sword that glittered in the starlight, but he did not immediately attack, nor did the bowmen fire.
    "Who are you?" Vampyr demanded.
    "I am a Shadow of those you hate. Aspasia's Shadow."
    Vampyr tightened the grip on his dagger. "What is a Shadow?"
    The man drew back his hood, revealing a thin, pale face and dark eyes. With his free hand he pointed at his head. "I carry the memories of Aspasia, Lord of the Gods." He laughed. "At least one side of the so-called Gods. I am his Shadow. I have received a message from the Guardian that there has been trouble in the Roads of Rostau and I believe I have just found the source of that trouble. I have been looking for you for a while now."
    Aspasia's Shadow glanced past Nosferatu at the Giza Plateau. "But." He let that word hang in the air for a few moments. "You killed Isis and Osiris?"
    Vampyr stood taller. "Yes." He expected the other man to attack, but Aspasia's Shadow seemed to be thinking.
    "Interesting," Aspasia's Shadow said. "Two of the six who hide in the Roads dead. They were supposed to be caretakers only, not set themselves up once more as Gods. Perhaps they will have learned their lesson."
    "And what is your task?" Vampyr asked.
    "A caretaker also, in my own way. To maintain the truce while the Gods sleep.
    To win for my side if the opportunity presents itself." Aspasia's Shadow shrugged.

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    "I'm a backup, an afterthought. I must say, though, that's better than what you are."
    Aspasia's Shadow put the point of his sword into the wood and leaned on the pommel as he considered Vampyr. The bowmen, however, did not relax the tension on their strings and the barbed points of their arrows were aimed directly at Vampyr's chest.
    Vampyr could hear the soldiers searching along the riverbank, growing closer; but Aspasia's Shadow did not seem concerned.
    "You're just another piece on the board," Aspasia's Shadow said. He cocked his head, staring at Vampyr. "You burn with hatred. I can feel it. This should be interesting." He pointed downriver, toward the Middle Sea. "Go. Take your hatred and leave this place. Nurse it. The time of the Gods will be over here someday."
    He leaned over and looked under the thin wooden deck and saw the black tube. "As you know, you can sleep without dreaming or thinking for a long time using that.
    I would recommend you go far away and go into the deep sleep for a long time.
    Then awaken and see what has changed in the world."
    "How do I do that?" Vampyr asked.
    Aspasia's Shadow climbed down belowdecks and tapped something into the command panel.
    Vampyr watched his movements carefully. "How do I know you aren't setting that to kill me? Or put me to sleep forever?"
    "You don't," Aspasia's Shadow said. "But the Airlia move very slowly. If you want to scavenge about this world for millennia, waiting for things to change, be my guest. Things will change over time, but slowly. The deep sleep, which I use myself, is a way to 'speed' the process. And it keeps you from aging during the time you sleep."
    "Why should you care about what I do?" Vampyr de-

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    manded, still holding the bloodstained dagger tightly in his hand.
    "It is a game," Aspasia's Shadow said. "As I said, you're just another piece on the board, making things interesting. I may have Aspasia's memories, but I have lived a long