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"I’ll be back, Father," I said to the Elder "Give entle, sweet-tempered and infinitely pious Father when Prince Michael himself commands?"

"Oh, shut your lousy little mouth," said my Father "You think I want to listen to this all the way to the Castle of Prince Feodor?"

"You’ll hear it all the way to Hell!" declared the Elder "You take my finest novice to his death"

"Novice, novice to a hole in the dirt! You take the hands that have painted thesewhisper, "and you know it, Father Will you please stop erence"

I was on the back of my horse The Ikon was strapped in wool to my chest

"I don’t believeto control hisit in line with that of my Father "Perhaps these travelers saw so survives in the grasslands now," pleaded the Elder "Prince, don’t take Andrei Don’t take hiside of ; you will find only the wild blowing grass and the trees Put the Ikon in the branches of a tree Place it for the will of God, so that when it is found by the Tatars they will know His Divine power Place it there for the pagans And come home"

The snow came down so fierce and thick I couldn’t see his face

I looked up at the stripped and barren dolory left to us by Mongol invaders, who now exacted their greedy tribute through our Catholic Prince How bleak and desolate was this, ed for the mud cubicle of the cave, for the smell of the earth close around me, for the dreams of God and His Goodness which would come to me, once I was half-entombed

Come back to me, Amadeo Come back Do not let your heart stop!

I spun around "Who calls to me?" The thick white veil of the snow broke to reveal the distant glass city, black and gli as if heated by hellish fires S sky I rode towards the glass city

"Andrei!" This was my Father’s voice behind me

Come back to me, Amadeo Don V let your heart stop!

The Ikon fell froled to bridle my mount The wool had come undone On and on we rode The Ikon fell downhill beside us, turning over and over, corner bouncing upon corner, as it tu loose I saw the shiht o!" I protested I looked back Against the frozen earth lay the Ikon, and the staring, questioning eyes of the Christ

Firers pressed my face on either side I blinked and opened ht There looht above me, his blue eyes shot with blood "Drink, Amadeo," he said "Drink froainst his throat The blood fount had started; it bubbled out of his vein, flowing thickly down onto the neck of his golden tissue robe I closed my mouth over it I lapped at it

I let out a cry as the blood inflamed me

"Draw it from me, Amadeo Draw it hard!"

My ainst his silky white flesh so that not a drop would be lost Deeply I sed In a dirasslands, a powerful leather-clad figure, his sword tied fir crooked, his cracked and worn brown boot fir gracefully and perfectly with the huge strides of his white horse

"All right, leave me, you coward, you impudent and miserable boy! Leave me!" He looked before hiet you for their filthy catacombs, their dark earthen cells Well, so my prayer is answered! Go with God, Andrei Go with God Go with God!"

My Master’s face was rapt and beautiful, a white flaht of countless candles He stood overwith the blood I cli "Master"

At the far end of the roo rose-colored floor, his arms outstretched "Come to me, Amadeo, walk towards led to obey hied with colors around i "Oh, that it’s so vivid, so utterly alive!"

"Come to me, Amadeo"

"I’lorious light"

I took one step after another, though it see ever closer to him I stumbled "On your hands and knees, then, coreat height if I wanted it I reached up and took hold of the crook of his right arainst ain, I eain I found the fount I drank, and drank, and drank

In a gilded gush the blood went down into s and my arms I was a Titan I crushed him under me "Give it to me," I whispered "Give it to me" The blood hovered on my lips and then flooded down my throat

It was as if his cold , beating, the valves opening and closing, the wet sound of his blood invading it, the swoosh and flap of the valves as they welcoer andlike so many invincible metallic conduits of this most potent fluid

I lay on the floor He stood above me, and his hands were open to me "Get up, Amadeo Come, come up, into my arms Take it"

I cried I sobbed My tears were red, and my hand was stained with red "Help me, Master"

"I do help you Come, seek it out for yourself"

I was on th, as if all human limitations had been loosened, as if they were bonds of rope or chain and had fallen away I sprang at hi back his robe, the better to find the wound

"Make a neound, A it, and the blood squirted over ainst it "Flow into rass blowing, the sky blue My Father rode on and on with the small band behind him Was I one of them?

"I prayed you’d escape!" he called out to , "and so you have Daical painter’s hands Dahed, and rode on, the grass bending and falling for hiled to shout I wanted him to see the stony ruins of the castle But ht Prince Feodor’s fortress was destroyed, and he hione My Father’s horse reared up suddenly as it came to the first heap of vine-covered stones

With a shock, I felt the marble floor beneath ainst it I liftedrosy pattern was so dense, so deep, so wondrous, it was like water frozen to make the finest stone I could have looked into its depths forever

"Rise up, Amadeo, once more"

Oh, it was easy to make this climb, to reach for his arm and then his shoulder I broke the flesh of his neck I drank The blood washed through ainst the blackness of my s, as with this forht around an for seeing, for hearing, for breathing I breathed withtiny mouths

The blood filled me so that I could take no more

I stood before my Master In his face I saw but the hint of weariness, but the smallest pain in his eyes I saw for the first time the true lines of his old humanity in his face, the soft inevitable crinkles at the corners of his serenely folded eyes

The drapery of his robe glistened, the light traveling on it as the cloth esture He pointed He pointed to the painting of The Procession of the Magi

"Your soul and your physical body are now locked together forever," he said "And through your vaht, and of touch, and of smell, and of taste, you’ll know all the world Not fro away fro your arlory will you perceive the absolute splendor of God’s creation and the ence, by the hands of men"

The silk-clad i appeared to move Once more I heard the horses’ hooves on the soft earth, and the shuffle of booted feet Once ht I saw the distant hounds leap on the mountainside I saw the ilded procession against them; I saw petals fly from the flowers Marvelous animals frolicked in the thick wood I saw the proud Prince Lorenzo, astride his mount, turn his youthful head, just as my Father had done, and look at me On and on went the world beyond him, the world with its white rocky cliffs, its hunters on their brown steeds and its leaping prancing dogs

"It’s gone forever, Master," I said, and how rounded and resonant wasto all that I beheld

"What is that, my child?"

"Russia, the world of the wild lands, the world of those dark terrible cells within the moist Mother Earth"

I turned around and around S candles Wax crawled and dripped over the chased silver that held the floor The floor was as the sea, so transparent suddenly, so silken, and high above the painted clouds in illimitable sweetest blue It seemed a mist eling land and sea

Once again, I looked at the painting I ainst it, and stared upwards at the white castles atop the hills, at the delicate groomed trees, at the fierce subliish journey of aze

"So much!" I whispered No words could describe the deep colors of brown and gold in the beard of the exotic us, or the shadows at play in the painted head of the white horse, or in the face of the balding race of the arch-necked camels or the crush of rich flowers beneath soundless feet

"I see it with all ofperfectly all aspects as the dome of my mind became this room itself, and the as there colored and painted by me "I see it without any omission I see it," I whispered

I felt my Master’s arms around my chest I felt his kiss on lassy city?" he asked

"I can ainst his chest I openedbefore me the very colors I wanted, and lass rise in ination, until its towers pierced the sky "It’s there, do you see it?"

In a torrent of tureen and yellow and blue spires that sparkled and wavered in the Heavenly light "Do you see it?" I cried out

"No But you do," said h"

In the di was difficult, nothing had its old weight and resistance It seeers up the doublet to have it buttoned

We hurried down the steps, which seeht

To cli, to anchor my feet over and over in the chinks of the stone, to poise on a tuft of fern and vine as I reached for the bars of aand finally pulled open the grate, it was nothing, and how easily I let the heavy reen water beloeet to see it sink, to see the water splash around the descending weight, to see the glimmer of the torches in the water

"I fall into it"

"Come"

Inside the chaainst the cold, he had wrapped his neck in wool His dark blue robe was banded in pearly gold Richhis loss over thesethe inevitable gains, all partners murdered by the blade and by poison, it seeuess now that we had done it, the red-cloaked h fourth-storyin this frozen winter night?

I caught hi life, and unwound the wool froed me to stop, to na onlyfor this large pulsing, irresistible vein

"Your life, Sir, I , isn’t it, Sir?"

"Oh, child," he cried, all resolve shattering, "does God send His justice in such an unlikely forely rank this human blood, spiked with the wine he’d drunk and the herbs of the foods he’d eaten, and alht of his laers before I could lap theht I felt his heart stop

"Ease up, Ao and the heart recovered

"That’s it, feed on it slowly, slowly, letting the heart puers that he not suffer unduly, for he suffers the worst fate he can know and that is to know that he dies"

We walked along the narrow quay together No need anyaze was lost in the depths of the singing, lapping water, gaining its h its many stonewalled connections froreen moss on the stones

We stood in a sh stone church They were bolted now All ere blinded, all doors locked Curfew Quiet

"Once ive you," said s pierced me, as his hands held me captive

"Would you trick ain helpless, no preternatural effort that I could surasp

The blood was pulled out of , led to reainst him But the flow continued, out of me, out of all ain, Amadeo, take it back from me"

He dealt one fine blow to my chest I almost toppled off rasping for his cloak I pulled myself up and locked , ed and too determined to make a mockery of his lessons

"Very well, sweet Master," I said as I tore at his skin once again "I have you, and will have every drop of you, Sir, unless you are quick, s!

He started to laugh softly, and it heightened h beneath these new fangs

With allhis heart out of his chest I heard hih in a with a hoarse disgraceful sound

"Co the blood greedily, widening the gash withteeth that were nowfor hter eet

I took his blood s after s, glad and proud at his helpless laughing, at the fact that he had fallen down on his knees in the square and that I had him still, and he must now raise his arm to push me away

"I can’t drink anymore!" I declared I lay back on the stones

The frozen sky was black and studded with the white blazing stars I stared at it, deliciously aware of the stone beneath me, of the hardness under my back and my head No care now about the soil, the da things of the night caht think who peeped from their s No care now for the lateness of the hour Look at me, stars Look at , these tiny eyes of Heaven

I began to die A withering pain commenced in my stomach, then moved to my bowels

"Now, all that’s left of a mortal boy will leave you," my Master said "Don’t be afraid"

"No more music?" I whispered I rolled over and puton his elbow He gatheredto you a lullaby?" he said softly

I un to flow from me I felt an instinctive shame, but this quite slowly vanished He picked me up, easily as always, and pushed my face into his neck The wind rushed around us

Then I felt the cold water of the Adriatic, and I foundon the unmistakable swell of the sea The sea was salty and delicious and held nos I was far out, near to the island of the Lido I looked back to the ation of ships at anchor the blazing torches of the Palazzo Ducale, with a vision that esoled voices of the dark port rose, as if I were secretly swih I was not

What a remarkable power, to hear these voices, to be able to hone in on one particular voice and hear its early- to yet another and let other words sink in

I floated under the sky for a while, until all the pain was gone from me I felt cleansed, and I didn’t want to be alone I turned over and effortlessly swa under the surface of the water when I neared the ships

What astonished h life for ed in the oon, and to see the curved bottoalleys It was an entire underwater universe I wanted to explore it further, but I heard my Master’s voice-not a telepathic voice, as ould call it now, but his audible voice-calling me very softly to return to the piazza where he waited for me

I peeled offto hihted that the chill itself meant little When I saw him I spread out my arms and smiled

He held a fur cloak in his arit around me

"You feel your new freedom Your bare feet are not hurt by the deep cold of the stones If you’re cut, your resilient skin will heal instantly, and no s creature of the dark will produce revulsion in you They can’t hurt you Disease can’t hurt you" He covered me with kisses "The most pestilential blood will only feed you, as your preternatural body cleanses it and absorbs it You are a powerful creature, and deep in here? In your chest, which I touch noith my hand, there is your heart, your human heart"

"Is it really so, Master?" I asked I was exhilarated, I was playful "Why so human still?"

"Amadeo, have you found me inhuman? Have you found me cruel?"

My hair had shaken off the water, drying almost instantly We walked now, ar me, out of the square

When I didn’t answer, he stopped and ery kisses

"You love me," I said, "as I am now, even ed hly and kissed an to kiss my chest "I can’t hurt you now, I can’t snuff out your life with an accidental embrace You’re mine, of my flesh and ofHe didn’t want me to see He turned ahen I tried to catch his face with my impertinent hands

"Master, I love you," I said

"Pay attention," he said brushing me off, obviously impatient with his tears He pointed to the sky "You’ll always knohen , if you pay attention Do you feel it? Do you hear the birds? There are in all parts of the world those birds who sing right before dawn"

A thought cas I had missed in the deep Monastery of the Caves under Kiev was the sound of birds Out in the wild grasses, hunting withfro of the birds We had never been too long in the miserable riverside hovels of Kiev without those forbidden journeys into the wild lands froone I had all of sweet Italy around reat voluptuous ic of this transformation

"For this I rode into the wild lands," I whispered "For this he took me out of the Monastery on that last day"

My Master looked at me sadly "I hope so," he said "What I know of your past, I learnt from your mind when it was open to me, but it’s closed now, closed because I’ve made you a vampire, the same as I am, and we can never know each other’s minds We’re too close, the blood we shareroar in our ears e try to talk in silence to one another, and so I let go forever of those awful iround Monastery which flashed so brilliantly in your thoughts, but alith agony, alith near despair"

"Yes, despair, and all that is gone like the pages of a book torn loose and thrown into the wind Just like that, gone"

He hurried h the back alleys

"We go now to our cradle," he said, "which is our crypt, our bed which is our grave"

We entered an old dilapidated palazzo, tenanted only with a few sleeping poor I didn’t like it I had been brought up by hi impossibility in rank and watery Venice, but a cellar it was, indeed We made our way down stone stairs, past thick bronze doors, which men alone could not open, until in the inky blackness we had found the final room

"Here’s a trick," ht you yourself will be strong enough to work"

I heard a riot of crackling and a s torch blazed in his hand He had lighted it with no more than his er, and then with each century, and you will discover ical leap Test them carefully, and protect what you discover Use cleverly all that you discover Never shun any power, for that’s as foolish as aspellbound at the flames I had never seen such colors in sih I knew that it was the one thing that could destroy esture I should regard the room

What a splendid chaold Two stone sarcophagi stood in the ure in the old style, that is, severe and more soleures were hel tunics, with heavy broadswords carved close to their flanks, their gloved hands clasped in prayer, their eyes closed in eternal sleep Each had been gilded, and plated with silver, and set with countless tiny gehts were set with aleamed in the scabbards of their swords

"Is this not a fortune to te as it does here beneath this ruined house?"

He laughed outright

"You’re teaching"What back talk! No thief can gain access here You didn’t th when you opened the doors Look at the bolt I’ve closed behind us, since you are so concerned Now see if you can lift the lid of that coffin Go ahead See if your strength meets your nerve"

"I didn’t mean it to be back talk," I protested "Thank God you’re s" I lifted the lid and thento me, yet I knew this was heavy stone "Ah, I see," I said ave him a radiant and innocent smile The inside was cushioned in damask of royal purple

"Get into this crib, my child," he said "Don’t be afraid as you wait for the rise of the sun When it coh"

"Can I not sleep with you?"

"No, here in this bed which I have long ago prepared for you, this is where you belong I have h for two But you are mine now, mine, Amadeo Vouchsafe me one last bevy of kisses, ah, sweet, yes, sweet-"

"Master, don’t let ry Don’t let er, be rateful pupil" He looked faintly sad He pushed estured to the coffin The purple satin damask shimmered

"And so I lie in it," I whispered, "so young"

I saw the shadow of pain in his face after I’d said this I regretted it I wanted to say soo on

Oh, how cold this was, cushions be damned, and how hard I , listening to the sound of the torch snuffed, and to the grinding of stone on stone as he opened his own grave

I heard his voice:

"Good night,love, o limp How delicious was this sis

Far away in the land of my birth, the monks chanted in the Monastery of the Caves

Sleepily, I reflected on all I’d reone home to Kiev I had ht know And in the last httime consciousness, I said farewell to them forever, farewell to their beliefs and their restraints

I envisaged The Procession of the Magi splendidly glowing on the Master’s wall, the procession which would be ain It seemed to me in my wild and passionate soul, in i had come not only for Christ’s birth but for my rebirth as well