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All right I am here So the rules have been broken So I'm in the courtyard of the Brat Prince hies of the Chronicles, co ra It was like being in a very shrine

All around me I could hear the brash noises of the French Quarter: the clatter of restaurant kitchens, the happy voices of the inevitable tourists on the pave out of doors on Bourbon Street I heard the creeping ruishly in front

The little courtyard itself was tight and beautiful; the sheer height of its brick walls caught est I'd ever seen, their waxy stalks buckling the purple flagstones here and there But this was no abandoned place

Soroves Someone had taken away the shriveled bananas that alither in New Orleans before they ripen Someone had cut back the abundant roses so that the patio itself was clear

Even the water gurgling from the conch in the stone cherub's hand down into the basin of the fountain was fresh and clean

All these sweet little details made me feel all the more like a trespasser, but I was too damned foolishly passionate to be afraid

Then I saw a light shining through the rear s above, a very diht, as if from a lamp deep in the flat

That did frightenet to speak to Lestat hiht of ? The letter, the onyx cameo, my own bitter pleas wouldn't have a chance

I should have given Aunt Queen the new carabbed her up and kissed her I should have made a speech to her I was about to die

Only a perfect idiot could have been as exhilarated as I was Lestat, I love you Here comes Quinn to be your student and slave!

I hurried up the curving iron stairs, careful not to ht the distinct scent of a hu What did this mean? I stopped and sent the Mind Gift before me to search out the rooms

At once a confusing e reached me There was a human there, no doubt of it, and he was furtive, this one,in haste, painfully conscious of the fact that he had no right to be where he was And this someone, this human, knew that I was here as well

For a ht an intruder in the act A strange protective feeling flooded me This person had invaded Lestat's property How dare he? What sort of a bumbler was he? And how did he know that I was here, and that my mind had searched his?

In fact, this strange unwelco as mine I sounded for his na Oliver, my old friend, from the Talamasca And at the sanize me

Quinn, he saidme But what did he know ofDid he sense already the change that had been worked inwith his quick telepathy? Dear God, I had to banish it froo back to the Heration, time to flee before he knew just what I'd become