Read The Ringworld Throne for Free Online Page A

taken.”
    “What of the vampires?”
    “It seems they did well, too.”
    Vala grimaced.
    The Thurl said, “There was a region we all avoided. Vampires need refuge from daylight, a cave system, trees, anything. When the clouds came, they feared the sun less. They traveled farther from their lair. We know no more than that.”
    “We should ask the Ghouls.”
    “Do you Machine People talk to Ghouls?” The Thurl didn’t quite like that idea.
    “They keep their own company. But Ghouls know where the dead have fallen. They must know where the vampires hunt, and where they hide during the day.”
    “Ghouls only act at night. I would not know how to talk to a Ghoul.”
    “It’s done.” Vala was trying to remember, but her mind wasn’t working well. Tired. “It’s done. A new religion pops up, or an old priest dies, and then it’s a rite of ordeal for the new shaman. The Ghouls must know and accept what rites he demands for the dead.”
    The Bull nodded. Ghouls would carry out funeral rites for any religion, within obvious limits. “How, then?”
    “You have to get their attention. Court them. Anything works, but they’re coy. That’s a test, too. A new priest won’t be taken seriously until he’s dealt with the Ghouls.”
    The Bull was bristling. “*Court* them?”
    “My people came here as merchants, Thurl. The Ghouls have something we want: knowledge. What do we have that the Ghouls want? Not much. Ghouls own the world, Arch and all, just ask them.”
    “Court them.” It grated. “How?”
    What had she heard? Tales told at night; not much in the way of business dealings. But she’d seen and talked to Ghouls. “Ghouls work the shadow farm under a cluster of floating buildings, far to port. We pay them in tools, and the City Builders give them library privileges. They’ll deal for information.”
    “We don’t know anything.”
    “Nearly true.”
    “What else have we got?” The Thurl said, “Oh, Valavirgillin, this is nasty stuff.”
    “What?”
    The Thurl waved about him. In view were nearly a hundred vampire corpses, all lying near the wall, and half as many Grass Giant dead scattered from the crossbow limit to the uncut grass.
    Beedj was examining a smaller corpse. He saw he had her attention, and he lifted the head so that Vala could see its face. It was Himapertharee, of Anthrantillin’s crew.
    A shudder rippled along Vala’s spine. But the Thurl was right. She sad, “Ghouls must feed. More than that: if these thousand corpses were left to lie, there would be plague. All would blame the Ghouls. The Ghouls must come to clean up.”
    “But why will they listen to me?”
    Vala shook her head. It felt stuffed with cotton.
    “What then, after we know where the vampires lair? Attack them ourselves?”
    “The Ghouls might tell us that, too—“
    The Thurl broke into a run. Vala saw Beedj waving, holding—what? At that moment he shook it violently, then flung it away, and hurled himself in the other direction. Where it fell, it writhed and went quiet, though Beedj was howling.
    It was a living vampire.
    Beedj called, “Thurl, I’m sorry. It was alive, wounded, just the bolt through its hip. I thought we might talk to it, examine it—anything—but—but the smell!”
    “Calm yourself, Beedj. Was the smell sudden? You attack, it defends?”
    “What, like a fart? Sometimes controlled, sometimes not? ... Thurl, I’m not sure.”
    “Resume your patrol.”
    Beedj’s sword slashed viciously at the grass. The Thurl walked on.
    Vala had been thinking. She said, “You must set a delegation among the dead. A tent, a few of your men—“
    “We’d find them sucked empty in the morning!”
    “No, I think it’s safe for tonight and tomorrow night. The vampires have hunted this area out, and they’d smell their own dead. Even so, arm your people and, mmm, send men and women together.”
    “Valavirgillin—“
    “I know your custom, but if the vampires sing, best your people mate with each