I nodded. I looked away, but he put his hand on my shoulder.
"Look at me, please, sir," he said. "Isn't it so?" His face was serene.
"Yes," I said, "it's so. "
"Why do you shrink from me as I ask this question?" he pressed.
"Amadeo," I said, speaking firmly, "is this a curse, this Blood?"
"No," he answered quickly.
"Think on it before you answer. Is it a curse!" I declared.
"No," he said again.
"Then cease your questions. Don't seek to anger me or embitter me. Let me teach you what I have to teach. "
He had lost this little battle and he walked away from me, looking once more like the child, though his full seventeen years as a mortal had rendered him more than that.
He climbed upon the bed, and curled his legs beneath him, sitting there motionless in the alcove of red taffeta and red light.
"Take me back to my home, Master," he said. "Take me back to Russia where I was born. You can take me there, I know you can. You have that power. You can find the place. "
"Why, Amadeo?"
"I must see it to forget it. I must know for certain that it was . . . what it was. "
J thought on this for a long time before I answered.
"Very well. You will tell me all you remember and I will take you where you want to go. And into the hands of your human family you can place whatever wealth you wish. "
He said nothing to this.
"But our secrets will be kept from them, as our secrets are kept from everyone. "
He nodded.
"And then we shall return. "
Again he nodded.
"All this will happen after the great feast that Bianca will start preparing. On that night, here, we will dance with our invited guests.
Over and over again, you will dance with Bianca. We will use our greatest skill to pass among our guests as human. And I shall count upon you as much as I count upon Bianca or Vincenzo. And the feast will leave all of Venice in awe. "
A faint smile came over his face. Again he nodded.
"Now you know what I want of you," I declared. "I want that you befriend the boys all the more lovingly. And I want that you go to Bianca all the more often, after you've fed of course, and your skin is ruddy, and that you tell her nothing, nothing of the magic by which you were saved. "
He nodded.
"I thought. . . " he whispered.
"You thought? "I asked.
"I thought if I had the Blood I would have all things," he said. "And now I know that it's not so. "
Chapter 23