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The site was lovely, shaded with trees of various bushy Mediterranean inclinations that took being leafy and green quite seriously Alexia stood up while the carriage s
"Do sit down, Alexia! You shal fal , and then hoil I explain to Floote that you had--" Madame Lefoux stopped herself before she inadvertently mentioned Alexia’s unfortunate condition in front of the preceptor, but it was clear her worry was largely for the child’s safety
Alexia ignored her
They were surrounded by a series of toanic in appearance, quite unlike anything Alexia had ever seen or read about Never having visited anythingthan a Ro with exciteht of proper British fashion and encunancy could be described as "bouncing" She sat down abruptly when their carriage went over a buh spirits were on account of Conal ’s printed apology, but the world certainly see place today than it had yesterday
"Do you know anything of these Etruscans?" she whispered to Madame Lefoux
"Only that they came before the Roht exclusive society?" Alexia asked the next most important question
The preceptor overheard her
"Ah, My Soul ess One, you ask one of the reat Etruscan ate this iven your peculiar skil set, you h intentional y leaving the thought unfinished
"Wel , my dear Mr Templar, I fail to see how I could possibly be of assistance I a I can identify with any consistency is ht unfinished, as she realized the iht be a preternatural focus to this culture? How reed "We have seen the rise and fal of reat empires in the past, some run by vampires, others by olves"
"And some that have been founded upon the persecution of both" Alexia was thinking of the Catholic Inquisition, an expurgation movement the Templars were ru
"But never yet have we found evidence of a civilization built to incorporate your kind"
"As difficult as that kind of proxiht be?" Alexia was puzzled
"Why do you think the Etruscans ht be the exception?" Madame Lefoux asked
The coach stopped and the preceptor stepped down He did not offer Alexia a hand, al owing Madame Lefoux to jump out and take over that dubious honor Some distance away, the Teh waiting for orders The preceptor gave thenals, and the roup The silent efficiency was unsettling, to say the least
"Don’t say much, do they?"
The preceptor turned his emotionless eyes on Alexia "Would you ladies prefer to explore or eat first?"
"Explore," said Alexia proe round tombs
The preceptor led them down into the dry, diround wal s were lined with lier than Alexia’s drawing room back at Woolsey Castle The limestone was elaborately carved to look like the inside of a house, with nooks, stone colu beams picked out in the sandy, porous rock It was the interior of a home, frozen in stone Alexia was reminded of the elaborate jel y sculptures she had eaten at fancy dinner parties, made of aspic and formed with the aid of a mold
There was no furniture, nor any other artifacts inside the tous in the center of the roo on his side and leaning up on one elbow behind a wo the same, his free arm draped affectionately over her shoulder
It was a lovely sculpture, but despite what the preceptor had said, Alexia experienced no sense of repulsion, no feeling about the place that she would have expected when in the presence of a preserved preternatural body Either there was none present, or the re since deco at her,her reactions closely Face impassive, she walked about, self-conscious under his dead-eyed scrutiny, exaes on the wal s
The place smel ed musty, in the same way that old books do, only with an overlay of dirt and cold stone But there was nothing there that engendered any adverse reaction in Alexia In fact, she found the ancient abode quite colad of this She would hate to have to hide her instinct to run if there had been some kind of preternatural mummy in residence
"I am sorry to say, Mr Templar, I do not think I can be of any help I do not even see why one ht associate this culture with my kind"
The preceptor looked disappointed
Mada him while he watched her friend, turned sharply to stare down at the sarcophagus
"What were they holding?" she asked
Alexia wandered over to see what Madame Lefoux was on about She was struck by the pleasantness in the al closer, she realized what it was that had drawn Mada on the elbow of one ar a carrot to a horse His other hand, behind the woer curved in the act of holding some smal object The woht pour libations or offer up a flask of wine
"Good question"
Both ladies turned to look at the preceptor inquiringly
"The wo since dried and evaporated into aether Thea piece of ists found an anie in his other hand"
"What was that?"
The Teer, final y pul ing out a chain that was around his neck Careful y he lifted it out froown, jacket, waistcoat, and shirt Al three of the down froled from the end of the chain Alexia and Madame Lefoux bent to examine it