Free Brothers to the Death (The Saga of Larten Crepsley) by Darren Shan

even have been relieved, though he gave no indication either way. With a short handshake, he turned his back on the man who had once longed to call him father and set off through the snowy recesses of the night, alone.
    “So often alone,” Larten muttered, staring into the dregs of his mug. He was surprised to see that he’d drained it while reminiscing.
    He gazed at the remains of the ale, recalling the many lonely years, wondering if solitude and unhappiness were always to be his lot. Then, conscious thatWester would be waiting for him, he downed the last drop, cast his eye over the most recent additions to the list to make sure Gavner’s name hadn’t been added, then stood and staggered from the Hall of Osca Velm, readying himself for the ignoble business of warmongering.

Chapter
Nine
    Wester had welcomed Larten into the fold without any reservations. Larten thought his old friend might try to dissuade him when he said that he wanted to help lead the clan into war, that Wester would tell him to take more time and only make a decision when his head was clear. But Wester knew what it was like to lose loved ones to the vampaneze. He didn’t question Larten’s reasons for joining him. Instead he simply told the General how he planned to win back supporters who had deserted them in recent years, and persuade others to unite behind them.
    Larten’s stock had continued to rise since they’d last spoken. Many vampires had heard about Aliciaand they admired the way he’d put duty before his thirst for revenge. The pair found an attentive audience wherever they traveled. It didn’t matter that Larten was a poor speaker, or that he only repeated things that Wester and others like him had been saying for decades. When Larten spoke, vampires listened, and when he asked for their support, many gave it willingly.
    They’d met dozens of vampires in the course of their travels, but Council was their first chance to make a deep impression. This was when the great and the good gathered in the wintry wilds of Vampire Mountain, when they could potentially bend hundreds of Generals to their cause. Wester thought it would take thirty or forty years to win over the majority of vampires—Larten would need to become a Prince before they could push ahead with their more elaborate plans—but if they had a successful run at Council, it might be possible to do it sooner than that.
    It wasn’t the best time to try to promote a war. The Nazis had driven the world to global chaos. Millions of humans were locked in battle, and it looked as if it would produce the highest body count ever. Many vampires thought that the Great War could not be topped, but those with firsthand knowledge ofthe Nazis were glumly betting on this one being even grislier.
    A lot of vampires were sick of war. They’d already seen some of the casualties, towns razed to the ground, innocents rounded up and slaughtered. They wanted to retreat from battle, hole up in Vampire Mountain for the duration of Council, and pretend they lived in a civilized world.
    Larten and Wester ignored all of that and worked hard to win support. They made dire predictions and grand promises, doing all in their power to convince the rest of the clan to follow them into an all-out, decisive war with the opposing creatures of the night.
    They regularly focused on Mr. Tiny’s warning and the threat the clan faced if they did nothing. Wester even asked Larten to use the specter of the new World War to drum up anti-vampaneze sentiments.
    “If the other countries of Europe had acted earlier, the threat of the Nazis could have been nipped in the bud,” Larten argued a dozen times a night. The words were Wester’s (he would never have used such an expression), but he delivered them from the heart. “They have taken the world to war, but only because they were allowed to. If we do nothing, a Hitler of the vampaneze will come along and then we will face awar of
their
making. We must act now,