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I locked

"There was a town in which I lived," he went on,its fur as if it were the prettiest of cats, and it with its tiny eye seereat curved scythe turned doard "A lovely town it ith high thick walls, and such a Fair each year; words can’t describe where all the es both far and near sent young and old to buy, to sell, to dance, to feast it seeue caate or wall or tower, invisible to the Lord’s men, and to the Father in the field and the Mother in her kitchen garden The plague took all, all it seemed except thecorpses of my brothers and sisters It was a va there he found no other blood to drink but ive up our mortal history for the love of God?" Allesandra asked but most carefully Her hand worked on his hair and brushed it back froht and ain he looked atone to trees and blowing grass and piles of rubble And in castles far away one finds the stones which once made up our lord’s keep, our finest hard-paved street, our proudest houses It is the very nature of this world that all things are devoured and time is a mouth as bloody as any other"

A silence fell I could not stopMy body quaked A ht to left and bowed

When I looked up again, I spoke

"I won’t serve you!" I whispered "I see your ganation! You’re spiders with your dark and intricate webs, no more than that, and breed for blood is all you know, all you know round which to weave your tiresome snares, as wretched as the birds that make their nests in filth on marble casements So spin your lies I hate you I will not serve you!"

How lovingly they both looked at h "You have only just begun to suffer Why must it be for pride’s sake and not for God?"

"I curse you!"

Santino snapped his fingers It was such a sh doorways like secretive dumb mouths in the mud walls, there caathered le

They dragged ht to dig ers ca no more

I lay down I wept I wept for my Master I didn’t care if anyone heard or mocked I didn’t care I knew only loss and in that loss the very size ofthe size of love could soroveled in the earth I clutched at it, and tore at it, and then lay still with only silent tears flowing

Allesandra stood with her hands on the bars "Poor child," she whispered "I will be with you, alith you You have only to call my name"

"And why is that? Why?" I called out,off the stony walls "Answer me"

"In the very depths of Hell," she said, "do not deht was old

I thirsted

I burned with it She knew it I curled up on the floor,back on ain But it was all that I could see, all that I could think of, all that I could want Blood

After the first night, I thought I would die of this thirst

After the second, I thought I would perish screa

After the third, I only drea at ertips

After six nights of this when I could bear the thirst no longer, they brought a struggling victie I sht

A great stinking ed towardsand drooling like a ht of the torch hich they bullied hi him towards me

I climbed to my feet, too weak almost for this effort, and I fell on him, fell on his succulent hot flesh and tore open his throat, laughing and weeping as I did it, asand sta, he fell beneath me The blood bubbled up out of the artery over lips and ers I drank and drank and drank until I could contain no one froone in the pure satisfaction of hunger, the pure greedy hateful selfish devouring of the blessed blood

To this gluttonous, mindless,aside, I felt ain in the dark The walls around me sparkled once more with tiny bits of ore like a starry firmament I looked and saw that the victim I had taken was Riccardo, oodhearted Riccardo-naked, wretchedly soiled, a fattened prisoner, kept all this while in so earthen cell just for this

I screaainst them My white-faced warders rushed to the bars and then backed away in fear and peered at

I grabbed up the corpse "Riccardo, drink!" I bit intoface "Riccardo!" But he was dead and e him there to rot in this place with"Dies irae, dies ilia" and to laugh as I sang it

Three nights later, screa corpse of Riccardo limb from limb so I could hurl the pieces out of the cell I could not endure it! I flung the bloated trunk at the bars again and again and fell down, sobbing, unable to drive my fist or foot into it to break its bulk I crawled into the farthest corner to get away from it

Allesandra came "Child, what can I say to comfort you?" A bodiless whisper in the darkness

But there was another figure there, Santino Turning I saw by soather that he put his finger to his lip and he shook his head, gently correcting her "He must be alone now," Santino said

"Blood!" I screamed I flew at the bars, hted and rushed away frohts, when I was starved to the point where even the scent of the blood didn’t rouse me, they laid the victi for pity-directly in my arms

"Oh, don’t be afraid, don’t," I whispered, sinking my teeth quickly into his neck "H it slowly, trying not to laugh with delight,down on his little face "Oh, dreas There are saints ill come; do you see the fro over ht stone or flinty iron that lay embedded in the earth I let my head roll to the side, away froed carefully, as for the shroud, against the wall behind ure I saw its gauzy outline against the wall as it stood gazing at hast No scent came from it I turned and stared at the corpse It lay as before Yet there, against the far wall, was the very boy hi at me

"How is this?" I whispered

But the wretched little thing couldn’t speak It could only stare It was clothed in the very sae and colorless and soft withIt was of a shuffling step in the long catacomb that led to my little prison This was no vahtly as I tried to catch the scent of this being Nothing changed in the damp musty air Only the scent of death was the aroma of my cell, of the poor broken little body

I fixed my eyes on the tenacious little spirit

"Why do you linger here?" I asked it desperately in a whisper "Why can I see you?"

It moved its little mouth as if it htly, piteously eloquent of its confusion

The steps caled to catch the scent But there was nothing, not even the dusty reek of a va sound And finally there caard woman

I knew that she was dead I knew I knew she was as dead as the little one who hovered by the wall

"Speak toyou, I pray you, speak to me! "I cried out

But neither phantom could look away from the other The child with a quick soft tread hurried into the woan to fade even as her feet once againsound on the hard mud floor which had first announced her

"Look at lance"

She paused There was al left of her But she turned her head and the diht of her eye fixed on me Then soundlessly, totally, she vanished

I lay back, and flung out my arm in careless despair and felt the child’s corpse, still faintly warhosts

I did not seek toso

They were no friends to me-it was a new curse-these spirits that would now and then collect about the scene of my bloody destruction I saw no hope in their faces when they did pass through those moments of ht light of hope surrounded theht about this power?

I told no one about them In that damned cell, that cursed place where my soul was broken week after ithout socoffin, I feared thereat future would reveal to me that other vampires, in the main, never see theet ahead of myself

Let me return to that intolerable time, that crucible

Some twenty weeks were passed in this misery

I didn’t even believe anyht and fantastical world of Venice had ever existed And I knew my Master was dead I knew it I knew that all I loved was dead

I was dead Sometimes I dreamt I was home in Kiev in the Monastery of the Caves, a saint Then I awoke to anguish

When Santino and the gray-haired Allesandra caentle as ever, and Santino shed tears to see me as I was, and said:

"Come to me, come now, come study with me in earnest, come Not even those as wretched as we should suffer as you suffer Come to me"

I entrusted myself to his arms, I opened my lips to his, I bowed my head to pressheart, I breathed deep, as if the very air had been denied me until that ently onchild, oh, such a long road you’ve traveled to come to us"

And what a wonder it was that all they had done towe shared, a common and inevitable catastrophe

SANTINO’S CELL

I lay on the floor in the arms of Allesandra, who rocked me and stroked ht," said Santino "You come with us, with Allesandra and with ry You are so very hungry, are you not?"

And so an

Night after night I did hunt in silence with my new companions, my new loved ones, in my new apprenticeship in earnest, and Santino, my teacher, with Allesandra to help hireat honor in the coven, or so the others were quick to tell me when they had the chance

I learnt what Lestat has already written froreat laws

One, that ere forhout the world, and each Coven would have its leader, and I was destined to be such a one, like unto the Superior of a convent, and that all matters of authority would be in my hands I and I alone should determine when a new vampire should be made to join us; I and I alone would see to it that the transformation was made in the proper way

Two, the Dark Gift, for that is e called it,, iven to those ere not beautiful, for the enslaving of the beautiful with the Dark Blood wasto a Just God

Three, that never should an ancient va, for our powers increase with ti Witness the tragedy of myself, reat and terrible Marius I had the strength of a demon in the body of a child

Four, that no one a us, save the coven leader, who must at any time be prepared to destroy the disobedient of his flock That all vagabond va to no coven, ht

Five, no vaths to a mortal and thereafter be let to live No vampire must ever write any words that reveal these secrets Indeed no vampire’s name was ever to be known in the mortal world, and any evidence of our existence which ever escaped into that real with those who allowed such a terrible violation of God’s will

There were other things There were rituals, there were incantations, there was a folklore of sorts

"We do not enter churches, for God should strike us dead if we do," declared Santino "We do not look upon the crucifix, and its mere presence on a chain about the neck of a victim is sufficient to save that ers froes of the saints

"But we strike with a holy fire those who go unprotected We feast when and where ill and with cruelty, and upon the innocent and upon those most blessed with beauty and riches But we make no boast to the world of e do, nor boast to one another

"The great castles and courtrooms of the world are shut to us, for we must never, never, meddle in the destiny which Christ Our Lord had ordained for thosefire, or the Black Death

"We are a curse of the shadoe are a secret We are eternal

"And when our work is done for Hiather without the comfort of riches or luxuries, in those places blessed by us underground for our sluht, we cos and dance, yes, dance about the fire, thereby to strengthen our will, thereby to share with our sisters and brothers our strength"

Six longwhich I ventured forth into the back alleys of Roe myself upon the abandoned of fate who fell so easily into my hands

No more did I search theNowithout pain to the victim, no more did I shield the wretched s

One night, I awoke to find ray-haired woman helped me from my coffin of lead and told me that I should coether The bonfire had been built high, as it had been on the night my mortal brothers had died

The air was cool and full of the scent of spring flowers I could hear the nightingale singing And far off the whisperings and reat crowded city of Rome I turned my eyes towards the city I saw her seven hills covered over with soft flickering lights I saw the clouds above, tinged with gold, as they bore down on these scattered and beautiful beacons, as if the darkness of the sky were full with child

I saw the circle had formed around the fire Two and three deep were the Children of Darkness Santino, in a costly new robe of black velvet, ah, such a violation of our strict rubrics, came forward to kissyou far away, to the north of Europe," he said, "to the city of Paris, where the Coven leader has gone, as we all go sooner or later, into the fire His children wait for you They have heard tales of you, of your gentleness and your piety and your beauty You will be their leader and their saint"

My brothers one by one came to kiss me My sisters, ere few in number, planted their kisses onI stood quiet, listening still for the song of the birds in the nearby pines,Heavens and wondering if the rain would come, the rain which I could s water allowed to entle and warm

"Do you take the solemn vow to lead the Coven in the Ways of Darkness as Satan would have it and his Lord and Creator, God, would have it?"

"I do"

"Do you vow to obey all orders sent to you from the Roman Coven?"

"I do "

Words and words and words

Wood was heaped on the fire The druan to cry

Then caray hair against o with you north, ratitude I threw my arms around her, I held her hard cold body close to me, and I shook with sobs

"Yes, dear, dear little one," she said "I will stay with you I ao to God’s Justice, as we all must"

"Then we dance in jubilation!" cried Santino "Satan and Christ, brothers in the House of the Lord, we give you this perfected soul!"

He threw up his arms

Allesandra stepped back fro but only ratitude that she would be with me, that I would not make this awful terrible journey alone With me, Allesandra, with me Oh, Fool for Satan and the God Who made him!

She stood beside Santino, tall as he was,her hair froin!" she cried

The drums became a thunder, the horns wailed, and the thu low cry rose fro hands, they began to dance

I was pulled back into the chain they ht as the figures turned this way, then that, then broke free and leapt spinning into the air

I felt the wind on the back of my neck as I turned, as I leapt I reached out with perfect accuracy to receive the hands on either side of ain

Above, the silent clouds thickened, curled and sailed across the darkling sky The rain caures, in the crackle of fire and the torrent of druh into the air and received it, the silvery rain floating down toof the dark Heavens, the baptised A barbarous rhythotten In rain and in the unquenchable blaze of the giant fire, the va, their li so that they stomped with backs bent, heels pounded into the earth, and then sprang free, ar as they whirled and leapt, and caught in raucous open-throated voluain, Dies irae, dies ilia Oh, yes, oh, yes, day of woe, oh, day of fire!

Afterwards, when the rain came down solemnly and steadily, when the bonfire was no one off to hunt, when only a fewtheir prayers in anguished deliriuainst the ground

It seemed the hed at ently They said, "Andrei, what made you think you could escape? Didn’t you know that God had called you?"

"Get away from me, you are not here, and I am nowhere; I am lost in the dark wastes of a winter without end"

I tried to picture Him, His Holy Face But there was only Allesandra, come to help me to my feet Allesandra, who pro before Santino was iven the Dark Gift in the forests of France to which ould be going together

"Oh Lord, Lord hear my prayer," I whispered If I could but see the Holy Face

But ere forbidden such things We could never, never look upon His Ie! Until the end of the world, ould ithout that comfort Hell is the absence of God

What can I say in defense of myself now?

What can I say?

Others have told the tale, how for centuries I was the stalwart leader of the Paris Coven, how I lived out those years in ignorance and shadow, obeying old laws until there was no s and quiet despair, I clung to the Old Faith and the Old Ways as others went into the fire to destroy themselves, or simply wandered away

What can I say in defense of the convert and the saint that I becaabond angel child of Satan, I was his baby-faced killer, his lieutenant, his fool Allesandra was alith me When others perished or deserted, there was Allesandra who kept the faith But it was my sin, it was my journey, it was my terrible folly, and I aloneas I exist

THAT LAST MORNING in Rome, before I was to leave for the north, it was decided thatthe very word for God, was most unseemly for a Child of Darkness, especially one meant to lead the Paris Coven

Froiven me, Allesandra chose the name Armand

So I became Armand