Sustenance (63 page)
Authors: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
The weather has been wretched—either pouring rain and washing away sections of road, or the sun has come out and baked us during the day, and then, as we are in the mountains, we’ll then be half-frozen at night by the wind off the snow. My auto has been holding up quite well, but I have taken the precaution of carrying as many replacements for it as we may need on this journey. It is my plan to meet up with Roger there next Tuesday or Wednesday at Frunze. I’ll hand him several letters and reports which he will carry to Paris for posting. He will then fly to Delhi and wait for further instructions from me. I believe it is time for me to return to what is called civilization. When and where I will do this, Roger will know and he will keep you informed. I will need to stay away from areas where hostilities are taking place.
I have seen several orphans of memory, as the Khazars called them, on this expedition, abandoned towns from long, long ago that no one now remembers, except perhaps in folk-tales. These reminders of your work leave me apologetic to have missed your paper at the conference. How have you enjoyed Grenoble? Has the conference been a success? You told me there would be papers on discoveries in the Americas as well as the Middle East, and a few on the trouble of attempting an archeological dig in the middle of a modern city. That sounds most challenging, though I have been told that there are parts of Rome that have been successfully excavated without destroying what stands above them.
I’ll write more tomorrow. StG Weldon
13 April, 1952
As it turned out, we were detained yesterday at Cimkent, and so today, I will try to make up for the lapse. Two of the men accompanying me have decided to leave, which means that I am going to have to find at least one local person to take their places, a man the other two of my guides will work with and respect. My old friend Olivia taught me the importance of that many years ago. The police asked if I intended to press on alone, but I told them I would not; Olivia having chided me for that. It would be foolish for a foreigner like me to go about wholly on my own in these remote regions. Occasionally the guides I have used have played me false, but that must be expected from time to time. I do not take guides in a group—another of Olivia’s dicta—but singly, for that reduces the chance that I will fall into the hands of rogues and outlaws.
These mountains are most impressive, not unlike the mountains of Peru, having many long, narrowing valleys with a few high plateaus. As you know, it is my preference to travel at night, but this is not advisable in these mountains, and so I have spent hours in the auto, as much out of the sun as possible, and have taken my rest at night, on the backseat, which, though hard, is exactly what I want. Buka, my chief guide, sleeps on the floor of the backseat, to protect me. He is planning to continue on with me. We rarely see any persons along the road, and the few we do encounter are most often one or two in number, some on Bactrian camels, some on ponies. I don’t think I have seen more than five autos between here and Tashkent, and only a few lorries. Malyk, the other guide who will remain with me, has said that the war is still being fought in this region, by which he seems to mean that there is an uprising by the people of the region against the Soviet government. If so, it is a most unhappy turn.
It is often difficult to find adequate sustenance, and I have more than once been hungry. But this should not concern you. Worry more for my guides than me, if you must worry. And forgive me for having to withhold the personal exchanges that usually mark our correspondance.
I will hope to see you in Roma, where there are plentiful means of alleviating hunger of all sorts, and no need to sleep in autos, with or without guides. StG Weldon
16 April, 1952
A note from Roger tells me he is delayed for a week at least, so I am taking a chance and posting this here in Frunze. All being well, this should reach you in two or three weeks. I have taken Roger’s recommendation to heart and will be returning to England as soon as transportation may be arranged. There is more turmoil growing in these regions, so I’ll have to be careful while making plans to go west. I will sign over my auto to Buka so that he may make more money as a guide by providing transport.
It is time I return to cities and libraries and what we call culture, to regain my footing. Too often the events we encounter in life convince us that changing our environment will change the experience, but I have learned that it rarely does more than provide a new context in which to interpret the experience, and I am of such an age now that I would like to attempt to accomplish this in elegant surroundings and with companions who share my love of art and learning. You and I rarely see the same thing the same way, but that does not mean that I will reject your insights; in fact, I will welcome the insight they provide. I will agree not to challenge the fools who have only greed and dread within them, no matter how high they may rise; unless they endanger what and whom I hold dear, including you, my heart. I will let them claim victory in a fight that is more for form’s sake than to demonstrate any other advantage. I can hope only to see you again while you continue your archeological work. One way or another, even we will not always live alone.
My life-long devotion,
StG Weldon
Aristo
Better in the Dark
Blood Games
Blood Roses
Borne in Blood
Burning Shadows
A Candle for d’Artagnan
Come Twilight
Commedia della Morte
Communion Blood
Crusader’s Torch
A Dangerous Climate
Dark of the Sun
Darker Jewels
An Embarrassment of Riches
A Feast in Exile
A Flame of Byzantium
Hotel Transylvania
Mansions of Darkness
Night Pilgrims
Out of the House of Life
The Palace
Path of the Eclipse
Roman Dusk
States of Grace
Writ in Blood
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is both a Grand Master and a Living Legend of Horror. She has received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement; various of her works have been finalists for the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and Edgar Allan Poe awards. Her interests range from music—she composes and has studied seven different instruments, as well as voice—to history, from horseback riding to needlepoint.
Her writing is similarly wide-ranging; she has written everything from Westerns to mysteries, from science fiction to nonfiction history. Yarbro has written more than twenty-five novels starring her vampire hero, the Count Saint-Germain, including the seminal
Hotel Transylvania
(a finalist for Vampire Novel of the Century),
Night Pilgrims, Commedia della Morte,
and
An Embarrassment of Riches
. Each novel stands on its own and can be read independently.
She has received the Knightly Order of the Brasov Citadel from the Transylvanian Society of Dracula and was the novelist guest of honor at the first World Dracula Congress in Romania.
Yarbro has always lived in California and currently makes her home in the Berkeley area.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
SUSTENANCE
Copyright © 2014 by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
All rights reserved.
Cover photographs by Trevillion Images and Getty Images
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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-3401-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-0772-3 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466807723
First Edition: December 2014
