Free A Coven of Vampires by Brian Lumley Page A

thing she did not regret was the Hrossak. Odd, that….
    Stretching again and yawning hideously, she might perhaps have lingered longer over thoughts of Tarra Khash, but that was a luxury not to be permitted. No, for she was in serious trouble and she knew it, and now must prepare whatever excuses she could for her lateness and unseemly mode of arrival here in this unholy place.
    Aye, for the eyes in the lava lamia’s head had cracked open and now glared sulphurously, and from the smoking jaws came the voice of inquisitor, demanding to be told all and truthfully:
    “What have you to say for yourself, Orbiquita, borne here by djinn and weary nigh unto death, and late by a day so that all your sisters have come and gone, all making sport over the idleness or foolhardiness of the hated Orbiquita? You know, of course, the penalty?”
    “I hate my sisters equally well!” answered Orbiquita unabashed. “Let them take solace from that. As to your charges, I cannot deny them. Idle and foolhardy I have been. And aye, I know well enow the price to pay.” Then she told the whole, miserable tale.
    When she reached the part concerning Tarra Khash, however, the lava lamia stopped her in something approaching astonishment: “What? And you took not this Hrossak’s life? But this is without precedence!”
    “I had my reasons!” Orbiquita protested.
    “Then out with them at once,” ordered the lava lamia, “or sit here in stony silence for five long years—which is, in any case, your fate. Of what ‘reasons’ do you speak?”
    “One,” said Orbiquita, “he saved me from Gleeth’s scorch ing beams.”
    “What is that? He is a man!”
    “My father was a man, and likely yours too.”
    “ Hah! Do not remind me! Say on, Orbiquita.”
    “Two, though I suspect he guessed my nature—or at least that I was more than I appeared—still he offered no offence, no harm, but would have fed and protected me.”
    “Greater fool he!” the lava lamia answered.
    “And three,” (Orbiquita would not be browbeaten) “I sensed, by precognition, that in fact I would meet this one again, and that he would be of further service to me.”
    And, “Hah!” said lava lamia more vehemently yet. “Be sure it will not happen for a five-year at least, Orbiquita! ‘Precognition’, indeed! You should have gorged on him, and wrapped yourself in his skin to protect your own from the moon, and so proceeded here without let and indebted to no one. Instead you chose merely to sip, summoning only sufficient strength to call up detested desert djinn to your aid. All in all, most foolish. And are you ready now to take my place, waiting out your five years until some equally silly sister’s deed release you?”
    “No,” said Orbiquita.
    “It is the law!” the other howled. “Apart from which, I’m impatient of this place.”
    “And the law shall be obeyed—and you released, as is only right—eventually…. But first a boon.”
    “What? You presume to—”
    “Mylakhrion’s ring!” cried Orbiquita. “Stolen from me. My rune-book, too. Would you deny me time to right this great wrong? Must I wait a five-year to wipe clean this smear on all lamias? Would you suffer the scorn of all your sisters—and not least mine—for the sake of a few hours, you who have centuries before you?”
    After long moments, calmer now but yet bubbling lava from every pore, the keeper of this place asked, “What is it you wish?”
    “My powers returned to me—fully!” said Orbiquita at once. “And I’ll laugh in Gleeth’s face and fly to Chlangi, and find Mylakhrion’s ring and take back my rune-book. Following which—”
    “You’ll return here?”
    “Or be outcast forever from the sisterhood, aye,” Orbiquita bowed her warty head. “And is it likely I’ll renege, to live only five more years instead of five thousand?”
    “So be it,” said the lava lamia, her voice a hiss of escaping steam. “You are renewed, Orbiquita. Now get you hence and