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THIS IS ALL a little too simple, isn’t it? I mean by that, my transformation from the zealous child who stood on the porch of the Cathedral to the happy ht in New York City that it was time to journey south and look in on his old friend

You knohy I cain at the start of this evening You were there in the chapel when I arrived

You greeted ood will, so pleased to see I was alive and unharedy young ones ere clustered about, two boys, I believe, and a girl, I don’t knoho they were, and still don’t, only that later they drifted off

I was horrified to see hi on the floor, and hisat hi and everyone as though she never knew a hu for what it was

I was horrified that the young tramps were about, and felt instantly protective of Sybelle and Benji I had no fear of their seeing the classics aends, the warriors-you, beloved Louis, even Gabrielle, and certainly not Pandora or Marius, ere all there

But I hadn’t wanted my children to look on coantly and vainly perhaps, as I always do at such uish sophomoric slob vampires ever came to be Who made them and why and when?

At such times, the fierce old Child of Darkness wakes in me, the Coven Master beneath the Paris Ceiven and, above all, to whom But that old habit of authority is fraudulent and just a nuisance at best

I hated these hangers-on because they were there looking at Lestat as though he were a Carnival Curiosity, and I wouldn’t have it I felt a sudden tee to destroy

But there are no rules a us now that authorize such rash actions And as I to make a mutiny here under your roof? I didn’t know you lived here then, no, but you certainly had custody of the Master of the Place, and you allowed it, the ruffians, and the three or four more of them that came shortly after and dared to circle hi any too close

Of course everyone was most curious about Sybelle and Benjamin I told them quietly to stay directly beside et it out of her mind that the piano was so near at hand, and it would have a whole new sound for her Sonata As for Benji, he was striding along like a little Sa out h his mouth was very puckered up and stern and proud

The chapel struck me as beautiful How could it not? The plaster walls are white and pure, and the ceiling is gently coved, as in the oldest churches, and there is a deep coved shell where once the altar stood, which makes a well for sound, so that one footfall there echoes softly throughout the entire place

The stained glass I’d seen brilliantly lighted froured, it was nevertheless lovely with its vivid colors of blue and red and yellow, and its si of the one in whose memory eachhad been erected I liked the old plaster statues scattered about, which I had helped you to clear from the New York apartment and send south

I had not looked at thelass eyes as if they were basilisks But I certainly looked at the St Rita in her black habit and white wimple, with the fearful awful sore in her forehead like a third eye There was lovely, s Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower of Jesus with His Crucifix and the bouquet of pink roses in her arms

There was St Teresa of Avila, carved out of wood and finely painted, with her eyes turned upwards, the mystic, and the feather quill in her hand that marked her as a Doctor of the Church

There was St Louis of France with his royal crown; St Francis, of course, in hu of tamed animals; and some others whose names I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know

What strucklike so uardians of an old and sacred history, were the pictures on the wall that marked Christ’s road to Calvary: the Stations of the Cross Someone had put the into the world of this place

I divined that they were painted in oil on copper, and they had a Renaissance style to them, imitative certainly, but one which I find normal and which I love

I all my happy weeks in New York came to the fore No, it was not fear so much as it was dread

My Lord, I whispered I turned and looked up at the Face of Christ on the high Crucifix above Lestat’s head

This was an excruciating e on Veronica’s Veil overlaid what I saw there in the carved wood I know it did I was back in New York, and Dora was holding up the cloth for us to see

I saw His dark beautifully shadowed eyes perfectly fixed on the cloth, as though part of it but not in any way absorbed by it, and the dark streaks of His eyebrows and, above His steady unchallenging gaze, the tricklets of blood from His thorns I saw His lips partway open as if He had volumes to speak

With a shock, I realized that froray eyes on ested the key I wouldn’t have her touchhostility for all those gathered in the room

Louis came then He was so happy that I had not perished Louis had so to say He kneas concerned and he was anxious about the presence of the others He looked his usual ascetic self, got up in tired black clothes of beautiful cut but impossible dustiness and a shirt so thin and worn that it seemed an elfin web of threads rather than true lace and cloth

"We let them in because if we don’t, they circle like jackals, and wolves, and won’t go away As it is, they come, they see and they leave here You knohat they want"

I nodded I didn’t have the courage to ad I had never stopped thinking about it, not really, not for one rand rhythm of all that had befallen ht of my old life

I wanted his blood I wanted to drink it Calmly, I let Louis know

"He’ll destroy you," Louis whispered He was flushed suddenly with terror He looked questioningly at gentle silent Sybelle, who held fast tohiht eyes "Arot too close He smashed the creature Thestone and he blasted the creature to frago near hi ones, have they never tried?"

Pandora spoke then She had been watching us all the while, playing in the shadows I’d forgotten how very beautiful she was in a downplayed and very basic way

Her long rich brown hair was colossy and pretty because she had smoothed into her face a fine dark oil to make herselfShe put her hand on me with a woman’s liberty She too was happy to see me alive

"You knohat Lestat is," she said pleadingly "Arht do"

"But have you never thought of it, Pandora? Has it never even entered your mind, to drink the blood from his throat and search for the vision of Christ when you drank it? What if inside him there is the infallible proof that he drank the blood of God?"

"But Arod"

It was so sihed, but only out of concern for me She smiled "I wouldn’t know your Christ if He were inside Lestat," she said gently

"You don’t understand," I said "So happened to him ent with this spirit called Memnoch, and he came back with that Veil I saw it I saw thepower in it"

"You saw the illusion," said Louis kindly

"No, I saw the power," I answered Then in acorridors of history wound back and away frole candle, searching for the ikons I had painted And the pity of it, the triviality, the sheer hopelessness of it crushed htened Sybelle and Benji They had their eyes fastened on me They had never seen me as I was now

I closed my arms around them both and pulled theht, to be at ly warm I kissed Sybelle on her pale pink lips, and then kissed Benji’s head

"Armand, you vex me, truly you do," said Benji "You never told me that you believed in this Veil"

"And you, littleto o into the Cathedral and look at it when it was on display there?"

"Yes, and I say to you what this great lady said" He shrugged, of course "He was never ," said Louis softly He was eer to be here on guard "I should throw them out now, Pandora," he said in a voice that couldn’t have threatened the most timid soul

"Let them see what they came for," she said coolly under her breath "Theyto enjoy their satisfaction Theyfor anything living or dead"

I thought it a lovely threat I hoped she would clean out the lot of them, but I knew of course thatabout those such as , without anyone’s permission, my children to see my friend who lay on the floor

"These two are safe with us," Pandora said, obviously readingand old," she said esture to include the entire room "There are some who don’t want to step out from the shadows, but they know of you They didn’t want for you to be gone"

"No, no one wanted it," said Louis rather emotionally "And like a dreas of it, hispers that you’d been seen in New York, as handsoorous as you ever were But I had to lay eyes on you to believe it"

I nodded in thanks for these kind words But I was thinking of the Veil I looked up at the wooden Christ on the tree again, and then down at the sluure of Lestat

It was then that Marius ca "Unburnt, whole," he whispered "My son"

He had that wretched neglected old gray cloak over his shoulders, but I didn’t notice then He eirl and o far, however I think they were reassured when they saw me put my arms around him and kiss him several times on the face and o He was so splendid, so softly full of love

"I’ll keep these mortals safe if you’re determined to try," he said He had read the whole script from my heart He kneas bound to do it "What can I say to prevent you?" he asked

I only shook my head Haste and anticipation wouldn’t let ave Benji and Sybelle to his care

I went over to Lestat and I walked up in front of hiht I knelt down quickly, surprised at how cold the , I suppose, how very damp it is here in New Orleans and how stealthy the chills can be

I knelt with my hands before me on the floor and I looked at him He was placid, still, both blue eyes equally clear as if one had never been torn froh me, as we say, and on and on, and out of a mind that seemed as empty as a dead chrysalis

His hair was mussed and fall of dust Not even his cold, hateful Mother had combed it, I supposed, and it infuriated ly:

"He will not let anyone touch him, Armand" Her distant voice echoed deeply in the hollow of the chapel "If you try it, you will soon find out for yourself"

I looked up at her She had her knees drawn up in a careless clasp of her arainst the wall She wore her usual thick and frayed khaki, the narrow pants and the British safari coat for which she was more or less famous, stained froht as his, braided and lying down her back

She got up suddenly, angrily, and she ca her plain leather boots echo sharply and disrespectfully on the floor

"What ods?" she demanded "What s who play with us are any more than capers, and we no hest that walk the Earth?" She stood a few feet fro That entity could not resist hiht to know"