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"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 over me

I lay on the floor My body sang with the blood I cli "Master "

At the far end of the roo rose-colored floor, his arms outstretched "Come to me, Amadeo, walk towards me, come to me, to take the rest "

I struggled 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, Amadeo "