Author's note…hello again all…I'm back! (Half hearted groans all round)….
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story apart from the Shadowkin and the plot…all other characters, places, etc belong to Terry Pratchett.
So then…
Chapter 3
Just over a week later Sam Vimes found himself standing outside the massive doors to Lady Margolotta's huge, sprawling castle.
He raised a hand to knock and the doors swung back.
"Hello again Igor."
"Oh, hello again thur" what would have been a delighted smile on anyone else spread across the servants face.
"How's Igor?" Vimes asked politely
"He'th fine thur, jutht got a new job, perthonal athithtant to Thrieking Doctor Lobotomy."
"Oh…good" Vimes paused." Igor's getting on well in Ankh-Morpork." he said.
"Really? Oh, that ith good, Igor and Igor will be tho pleased."
Igor gestured to the doors
"Whatever am I thinking of?" he said. "Come in thur, her ladythip ith ecthpecting you."
Vimes followed him into the castle. Lady Margolotta was waiting for him; there was a welcoming glass of lemonade on a low table.
"Sir Samuel, how vonderful to see you again" she said. gesturing to an empty chair.
Vimes sat down; he took a sip of the lemonade.
"Thanks, the feeling's entirely mutual." He said with more than a little acid in his voice.
Margolotta nodded.
"I understand how sudden this is." She said. "Frankly, the whole dvarf community is in turmoil and the news has already vinged it's vay to Ankh-Morpork. I hope your Vatch vill be able to control the inevitable riots."
Vimes thought for a minute. "Yes, I think so." He said, "The sooner he's found the better obviously"
"Of course" said the vampire. She got up and poured herself a drink. Vimes watched her sip the red liquid.
She looked up
"Does it bother you?" She asked.
"No, no, not at all." Vimes said quickly, breaking out of his semi-trance.
An awkward silence passed between them, Lady Margolotta opened her mouth to speak but shut it again as If she had suddenly thought the better of it.
She smiled brightly at him.
" I hear congratulations are in order." She said.
Vimes looked blank
"Lady Sybil?" she prompted.
"Oh yes!" Vimes started "yes, thank you."
"How is she coping?"
Vimes was about to tell her about the incident in the Oblong Office but stopped himself. He had heard rumors that this vampire had once been, or still was…er… romantically involved with Vetinari, he didn't want to risk being the object of violence for another woman after she learned that his wife had tried to smash her beloved's head in with a daisy-patterned milk jug.
" She's fine." He said " A bit moody, but fine."
"Ah"
The silence was back, with a vengeance.
" So" said Vimes at last "Where do I start tomorrow?"
"You vill be taken down to the mines." Said Margolotta. " The dvarves who vitnessed the incident are in custody and are being interviewed as ve speak, basically, everyvone's a suspect."
Vimes nodded, he knew that situation well enough, there wasn't enough evidence to point the finger at any particular person, so just to be on the safe side you pointed the finger at everyone.
He finished his lemonade.
"You've had an exhausting journey Sir Samuel." Said Lady Margolotta. "Vhy don't you get some rest."
Vimes had to agree, his body felt as though it were slowly turning into lead. Even small talk about kidnapped dwaves couldn't keep him awake.
He followed Igor up the staircase to his room and crashed out gratefully on the large bed with a head full of uneasy fog.
* * *
Downstairs, having dismissed Igor, Lady Margolotta paced up and down the room aimlessly.
Damn foolish pride, what was wrong with asking about the man anyway? It's not as if anyone could accuse her of being some lovesick teenager…or even lovesick 340 year old.
She smiled to herself.
It had been a long while since she had really allowed herself to wallow in memories of Vetinari, for fear of becoming depressive. Now she sat back in her chair and did just that.
* * *
Vimes moaned uneasily in his sleep, one hand rose to ward off invisible attackers. Heavy footsteps coming up the stairs, the high-pitched tinkling of smashing glass. A half-hand, half-paw crept around the edge of the door, jagged claws shredding the wood as if it were paper. A hideously disfigured Wolfgang slid into the room, jaws open in a vicious snarl. The claw that reached out to grab him changed into something that had once been a human hand. Vimes looked up into the pleading, mutilated face of Inigo Skimmer.
* * *
Lady Margolotta was awoken from pleasant, if somewhat x-rated reveries by the piercing scream from above. She ran up the stairs and knocked twice on Vimes's door, getting no answer, she went in.
The commander was sitting bolt upright in bed and shaking violently.
Vimes became aware that someone else had entered the room, slowly; he focused on the figure moving towards him and cowered back instinctively as Lady Margolotta sat on the bed and lit a cigar for him.
* * *
About four hundred miles away, Lord Vetinari was jolted from political musings by a terrified scream.
He touched an apparently normal part of his desk and selected an evil looking knife from the drawer that slid opened soundlessly. He quickly crossed the room and flung the door back, coming face to face with a very surprised Drumknott who was just about to knock.
* * *
"What was that about?" Lady Margolotta asked quietly.
There was a heavy pause.
"Just a dream." Said Vimes, equally quietly.
The vampire waited patiently.
"It was Wolfgang…and Inigo…what they did…" he stopped, unable to continue.
Lady Margolotta nodded and Vimes jumped a mile in the air as Igor materialized.
"Ith everything alright mithreth?" he asked.
"Yes Igor, everything's fine, thank you."
He de-materialized.
Vimes took a deep drag on the cigar and turned to Margolotta.
"Thank you." He said "I'm alright." His heartbeat was slowly returning to its normal speed.
"If you're sure…" Lady Margolotta said doubtfully, the man was still trembling and had a vacant look in his eyes.
Vimes nodded. "I'm fine, really" he said, wishing he felt as confident as he sounded.
He didn't blow out the candle as the vampire left.
* * *
"…So you didn't hear anything?"
"No sir, nothing."
Vetinari was actually puzzled. A scream of that blood-curdling intensity was usually hard to miss, except in the Shades where they were most emphatically not heard on a very regular basis.
But it had sounded so close, and so terrifyingly real…
Drumknott, as he was dismissed, wondered if the man was going mad.
What he didn't know was that Vetinari was vaguely wondering the same thing.
* * *
The dwarf paced his tiny prison over and over, back and forth.
He heard a cry, abruptly cut off, from the next cell.
Silence.
"H'gra grz-dak?" he called into the darkness, his expression a mixture of puzzlement and fear.
He heard an answering sigh, like the wind through trees behind him and turned to stare into gleaming eyes and shapeless, merciless death…
* * *
Any good?…shall I continue..? Oh, go on, tell me…