Prince Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles 11)

"I'm sorry, Lestat," she said. "I don't remember them, except to say that I didn't know them by name or appearance. They were young, very young. There were always young ones coming and going. Maharet would bring them there. I don't know who perished. I simply don't know."

David was clearly shocked. He'd seen the ruins just as I'd seen the ruins but hearing about it had a fresh effect.

"What did Khayman have to say about all this?" David asked.

"That's just it. He couldn't remember what had happened. He couldn't remember where he'd been or what he'd done or what he'd seen during my absence. He was complaining of confusion and physical pain, actually physical pain in his head, and worse, he was drifting in and out of consciousness right in front of us, sometimes talking in the ancient tongue, and sometimes talking in other tongues I'd never heard before. He was babbling. And at times he seemed to be talking to someone inside his head."

I noted this and locked my mind like a vault.

"He was obviously suffering," Jesse said. "He asked Maharet what he could do for the pain. He appealed to her as a witch to heal the pain as if they were in ancient Egypt again. He said something was in his head hurting him. He wanted someone to take it out. He asked if that vampire doctor, Fareed, could open up his head and take this thing out. He kept reverting to the ancient tongue. I caught the most unbelievable and vivid cascade of images. And sometimes I think he did think they were back in those times. He was injured, crazy."

"And Mekare?"

"Almost the same as ever. But not quite." Jesse stopped.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She wiped the images from her mind before I could catch them. She went for words.

"There's always been a demeanor to Mekare," said Jesse. "But when I first entered the compound, when I first saw all the burnt timber and the collapsed roofing, well, I came on Mekare standing in one of the passageways, and she was so altered, so different, that for a moment I felt I was looking at a stranger." Again she paused, looking away and then back to us. "I can't explain it. She was standing there, arms at her sides, and leaning against the wall. And she was looking at me."

Now the image did blaze up. I saw it. Surely David saw it.

"Now I know that doesn't sound remarkable at all," said Jesse, her voice having dropped to a murmur. "But I tell you, I'd never seen her look at me in that way before, as if suddenly she knew me, recognized me, as if some intelligence had flared in her. It was like encountering a stranger."

I could see it, all right. I'm sure David could too. But it was subtle.

"Well, I was afraid of her," said Jesse. "Very afraid. I don't fear other blood drinkers for obvious reasons. But in that moment I feared her. The expression on her face was so uncharacteristic. At the same time she was merely staring at me. I was petrified. I thought, This creature has powers enough to have done this, burned this place, burned those young ones. This creature can burn me. But then of course Khayman had that power too, and I didn't know yet that he couldn't remember anything.

"Maharet appeared, and she put her arm around Mekare, and then it seemed Mekare was Mekare again, drifting, eyes serene, eyes almost blind, standing upright and softening all over, and resuming her old characteristic grace--walking with the old simple movements, her skirts flowing around her, her head slightly bowed, and when she looked at me again her eyes were empty. Empty. But they were her eyes, if you follow me."

I said nothing. The image continued to blaze in my mind. I felt a chill all over.

David wasn't speaking. I wasn't speaking.

"And Maharet dismantled the compound and we left there," said Jesse. "And she never left Mekare alone after that, not for very long. No young ones were ever invited again to visit with us. No one was ever invited. In fact, she told me we must seal ourselves off from the world. And as far as I know she never contacted the Geneva blood drinker, though I can't be too sure of that.

"When we established our new refuge she set up more technical equipment than in the past, and she used the computers regularly for all manner of things. I thought she went into a new level of involvement with the age. But now I wonder. Maybe she simply didn't want to leave again. She had to communicate by computer. I don't know. I can't telepathically read my maker. And Maharet can't read Khayman or Mekare. The First Brood can't read each other. All too close. She told me she couldn't read this Geneva blood drinker either. Queens Blood or First Brood, the really old ones can't read each other's thoughts. I suppose technically that Seth is Queens Blood. Queens Blood were the true heirs of Akasha's blood drinker religion. First Brood remained the rebels, and First Brood gave the Blood without rules or codes to those they enlisted over the centuries. If one could trace the lineage of most of the blood drinkers of this era, I suspect they'd go back to First Brood."

"Probably right," I said.

"What happened with Khayman?" asked David. "How is it with Khayman?"

"Something is very wrong with him," said Jesse. "Wrong with him to this very moment. He disappears for nights on end. He doesn't remember where he goes or what he does. Most of the time he sits silent staring at old movies on the flat screens in the compound. Sometimes he listens to music all night. He says that music helps the pain. He watches your old rock videos, Lestat. He turns them on for Mekare and he watches and I suppose in some way she watches them too. Other times he doesn't do much of anything. But he always comes back to the pain in his head."

"But what about Fareed, what does Fareed say about this pain?" I asked.

"That's just it, Maharet has never invited Fareed again to visit us. She's never invited anyone, as I've said. If she e-mails Fareed, I know nothing of it. Her involvement with the computer is actually part of her withdrawal if you follow me. I've come here to tell you these things because I think you should know, both of you. And you should share this with Marius, and with the others, however you want to do it." She sat back. She gave a long sigh as if to say to herself, Well, now it is done, you've confided and it cannot be undone.

"She's protecting all the others from Mekare now," David said in a soft voice. "That's why she's hidden herself."

"Yes. And there is no connection at all anymore with her human family as I've said. We live from night to night in peace and contentment. She does not ask where I go when I leave, or where I've been when I come back. She advises me in a multitude of small things, just as she's always done. But she doesn't confide in me about the deepest things! To tell the truth, she behaves like someone who's being watched, monitored, spied upon."

Neither David nor I spoke, but I knew perfectly well what she meant. I pondered. I was not prepared to share with them any of my vague and troubling suspicions as to what was happening. Not at all prepared. I was not sharing my suspicions with myself.

"But still," said David, "it might have been Khayman who burnt the archives and destroyed the young ones."

"It might have been, yes," Jesse said.