Blood and Gold - Anne Rice [101]
I looked to Avicus only to see that he was miserably at the mercy of Mael’s words. As always he was in Mael’s power. As always he could not break free of Mael’s anger.
Avicus pleaded with him. Surely it would not change their lives so very much. They could teach her to hunt, could they not? Why, surely she knew already how to hunt. She wasn’t so very human, this lovely little girl. It wasn’t hopeless, and shouldn’t they do what I had asked?
“I want her to be with us,” said Avicus warmly. “I find her lovely. And I see in her a sweetness that touches my heart.”
“Yes, there is that,” I said. “It’s very true, this sweetness.”
“And why is such a thing of use in a blood drinker?” asked Mael. “A blood drinker should be sweet?”
I couldn’t speak. I thought of Pandora. The pain in me was simply too intense for me to form words. But I saw Pandora. I saw her, and I knew that she had always combined both passion and sweetness, and that both men and women can have such traits, and this child, Zenobia, might grow in both.
I looked off, unable to speak to either of them as they argued, but I realized suddenly that Avicus had grown angry, and that Mael was boiling to a rage.
When I looked back to them, they fell silent. Then Avicus looked at me as if for some authority which I knew that I did not possess.
“I can’t command your future,” I said. “I’m leaving you as you know.”
“Stay and keep her with us,” said Avicus.
“Unthinkable!” I said.
“You’re stubborn, Marius,” said Avicus softly. “Your own strongest passions frighten you. We could be the four of us in this house.”
“I’ve brought about the death of the owner of this house,” I said, “I cannot live in it. It is blasphemy against the old gods that I linger this long. The old gods will bring about vengeance not so much because they exist but because I once honored them. As for this city, I’ve told you, I must leave it, and I must take Those Who Must Be Kept to where they are truly secret and safe.”
“The house is yours by right,” said Avicus. “And you know this. You’ve offered it to us.”
“You didn’t destroy her,” I said. “Now let us return to the question at hand. Will you take this girl?”
“We will not,” said Mael.
Avicus could say nothing. He had no choice.
I looked away once more. My thoughts were purely and completely with Pandora on the isle of Crete, something which I could not even envision. Pandora, the wanderer. I said nothing for the longest while.
Then I rose without addressing either one of them, for they had disappointed me, and I went back into the bedchamber where the lovely young creature lay on the bed.
Her eyes were closed. The lamplight was soft. What a lush and passive being she seemed to be, her hair cascading over the pillow, her skin flawless, her mouth half closed.
I sat down beside her.
“Besides your beauty, why did Eudoxia choose you?” I asked. “Did she ever say?”
She opened her eyes as if startled, which could be the case with one so young, and then she reflected before answering, to say finally in a soft voice:
“Because I was quick of wit and knew whole books by memory. She had me recite them to her.” Without rising from the pillows, she held her hands as if she had a bound book in them. “I could but glance at a page and remember all of it. And I had no mortals to grieve for. I was but one of a hundred attendants to the Empress. I was a virgin. I was a slave.”
“I see. Was there anything more?”
I was aware that Avicus had come to the door, but I said nothing to acknowledge him.
Zenobia thought for a moment, then answered:
“She said my soul was incorruptible, that though I’d seen wickedness in the Imperial palace, I could still hear music in the rain.”
I nodded. “Do you still hear it, this music?”
“Yes,” she said. “More than ever, I think. Though