Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (The Vampire Chronicles 12)

"There should be no secrets with any of us," I said. "I mean the Talamasca's no more, right? You've let the human Order go into the world without your governance. And now you're free to come live with us for as long as you like! To be part of us, part of the Court, part of the company that we are."

He gave me a long loving smile. I was faintly humiliated.

Amel was silent but most assuredly present.

"You need never worry about the Talamasca anymore," said Teskhamen. "Surely you know that. And they'll never seek to harm you any more than they did in the past. They're off studying supernatural phenomena with the same dreary dedication for which they have always been famous."

"Hands off the Talamasca," I said with a shrug. "We agreed to that the first time we came together to agree on anything."

That didn't surprise them. Likely they knew. Likely they had some ghost in the very room spying on us. Where were the other ghosts? Hesketh? And that male ghost who'd come to Trinity Gate, bringing tears from Armand, the one called Riccardo?

"But you," I said, "you, the very heart of the Talamasca, you must come and visit with us and share with us everything you ever discovered, ever learned...."

"And what do you think we learned," asked Teskhamen, "that Maharet didn't long ago tell you? Ghosts exist. Spirits exist. Are all spirits ghosts? Nobody knows. It always ends with 'nobody knows.' And nothing changes the ascent of biological humans, humans of body and soul, to rule the planet and reach for the stars beyond it."

Suddenly in a silent flash I saw that city falling into the sea, that great city

of glistening spires....But the image vanished as if snatched away from me. A misery came over me, certainly originating with Amel. I knew because it was like nothing I ever felt in the regular course of things. The fire. The sea. A city melting? And then that too was gone, and the fire here on the hearth was crackling and the air filled anew with the sweet smoke of the burning wood, and I felt an icy draft moving along the floor that meant it was colder outside, and maybe it was snowing. I couldn't see out the windows from where I sat, but I could feel that it was snowing. I longed for the sweet balmy air of New Orleans, across the sea, for Louis.

Teskhamen started speaking again.

"The Order is stable now, quite harmless to you. But we've never stopped watching over them. The old traditions are still venerated, and the scholars are more than ever obedient to the old rules. We know everything. We watch them as they watch the supernatural phenomena of the world. And if there were to be any disturbance with the Order, if any of you were to be threatened, we would intervene. When it comes time for the Talamasca to die, we will dispatch it."

"In years past," I answered, "I made a lot of trouble for the Talamasca from time to time. But you know perfectly well, I thought the Order was made up entirely of mortals. I acknowledge that, and the trouble I made. I deliberately seduced and overcame David Talbot. I did other things. I offended the Order and now I know you were the Order, and though I can't say I regret any of it, I've never held any enmity for you."

"What happened with David Talbot and Jesse Reeves has been removed from the Order's records," said Teskhamen. "From all of the records in all forms. There isn't anything now in the archives to verify what actually took place. Also all Marius's paintings that were salvaged from his Venetian years have been returned to him. Surely he told you this. There are no blood drinker relics at all anymore in the vaults."

"I see," I said. "Well, that's probably for the best."

"It's for their protection as they continue, as they go on studying the paranormal phenomena of the world. Of course."

I sat considering all this, my elbow on the arm of the chair.

"So you trained them to watch us for over a thousand years," I ventured. "And now there is no need for the new Order to watch us, or report on us, or track us at all."

"That's exactly right," said Teskhamen. "The Order is concerned with reincarnation, with Near-Death Experiences, as they are called. And with ghosts, of course, always with ghosts, and sometimes sorcerers and witches. But the vampires have been withdrawn from the Charter, so to speak. And you have absolutely no reason to fear the Order. Do make a proclamation. I appreciate your self-deprecating tone, but you are the Prince and you can, and I do hope you'll do it. They are pitiful mortals, simple mortals, honest mortals, scholars and nothing more."

I nodded and made an open-handed gesture of complete acceptance. I wondered if it was really that easy, to command an Order of mortal scholars not to study vampires any longer, when in fact we were more visible in the world than ever. Had none of those proper British scholars heard Benji's radio broadcasts? Had none of them read newspaper accounts of the mysterious fires around the world that documented Benji's description of the Great Burning of vampires in far-flung capitals?

Memo to self: Have Marius, the Prime Minister, draw up a formal proclamation. And I meant "Prime Minister" in the sense that Mazarin and Richelieu had once been Prime Ministers for the French King, not in the sense of prime ministers today. Marius was my Prime Minister.

"It's easier than you think," Teskhamen explained, "to convince a group of scholars that some other secret department under their roof is working on the question of blood drinkers, when in fact there is no such secret department. We are guiding them. I told you."

I nodded. "I've never really feared the Talamasca," I said. "I don't fear you either. I don't say that to be difficult or unfriendly. But I don't. So we are agreed on all this."

Gremt was studying me. He'd come out of his deep thoughts and I could see his pupils moving in that subtle way which means mental calculation.

Why was Amel silent? I felt that prickling over my scalp, that interior grip on the back of my neck. "If you're so damned angry," I said silently, "why don't you race off down some branch of your immense vine and pester some other blood drinker and leave me alone?"

No response.

Even as I made a mental note of this, a pleasing warmth penetrated my spine. His doing, his physical doing. And then I heard his whispering voice: "Ghosts and spirits and shadowy shapes and things that go bump in the night. You're demeaning us both here. This is a tomb."

I realized that Magnus, or the thing that represented Magnus, was turned away from me and towards the fireplace, and the limbs beneath the brown robe had shriveled, and the one sandaled foot that showed beneath the hem was skeletal and white. The robe appeared threadbare and torn here and there, and I could all but smell dust coming from it. God, what went on in the mind of this creature as he experienced these transformations?

Hundreds of years dropped away. I saw that spindly white monster on all fours jumping up and down on his funeral pyre. I saw the jester's smile and the black hair flying in the swirling embers....I heard my own screams as he went up in flames! I don't know that I remembered anything in all my life any more vividly than I remembered that. I felt myself trembling.

"Can we expect you at Court?" I asked. I looked from Teskhamen to Gremt. Then to Magnus.