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led "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 my soul
I realized I had frightened 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 od "
"Look at the," 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