Blood and Gold - Anne Rice [37]
It seemed for a moment he would fly at me, desperate in his rage, but then there came a change in him. And shaking his head a little, he grew calm, scowling and then went on:
“When this confirmation came to me from the god’s own mind,” he said, “I was fatally set upon my course. I told the other priests immediately that they were to bring a sacrifice. We had no time for quarreling, and that I should see that the condemned man was given to the god. I should go into the tree with the condemned man. I had no fear to do it. And they must hasten with all things, as the god and I might need the night for our magic to be done.
“It seemed an hour passed before they found the wretched man who was to die in the tree, but at last they brought him forward, bound and weeping, and very fearfully they unlocked the mighty door.
“I could feel the mounting rage of the god inside. I could feel his hunger. And pushing this poor condemned wretch before me, I entered, torch in hand to stand inside the hollowed chamber of the tree.”
I nodded with a small smile to say only I know.
Meantime Mael’s eyes had shifted to Avicus.
“There stood Avicus much as you see him now,” Mael said, still looking at his companion. “And at once, he fell upon the condemned man. He drank the blood of this piteous victim with merciful speed, and then he cast the body away.
“Then Avicus fell upon me, taking the torch from me, hanging it up on the wall so that it seemed dangerously near the wood, and grasping me tight by the shoulders he said,
“ ‘Tell me of Marius, tell me how he escaped the Sacred Oak. Tell me the story or I’ll kill you now.’ “
Avicus listened to all this with a calm face. He nodded as if to say, That was how it took place.
Mael turned away from him and looked forward again.
“He was hurting me,” Mael said. “If I hadn’t said something quickly he would have broken my shoulder, so I spoke up, knowing how well he might search my thoughts, and I said, “Give me the Dark Blood and we shall escape together as you have promised. There is no great secret to what I know. It is a matter of strength and speed. We take to the tree limbs, which they cannot do so easily who follow us, and then we move through the trees.’
“ ‘But you know the world,’ he said to me. “I know nothing. I have been imprisoned for hundreds of years. I only dimly remember Egypt. I only dimly remember the Great Mother. You must guide me. And so I’ll give you the magic and do it well.’
“He was true to his promise. I was made strong from the start. Then together, we listened with minds and ears for the gathered Faithful of the Forest and the Druid priests, and finding them quite unprepared for our departure, we forced the door with our united strength.
“At once we took to the treetops, as you had done, Marius. We put our pursuers far behind us, and before dawn we were hunting a settlement many many miles away.”
He sat back as though exhausted by his confession.
And as I sat there, still too patient and too proud to destroy him, I saw how he had woven me into all of it, and I wondered at it, and I looked to Avicus, the god who for so long had lived in the tree.
Avicus looked calmly at me.
“We have been together since that time,” Mael said in a more subdued voice. “We hunt the great cities because it is simpler for us, and what do we think of Romans who came as conquerors? We hunt Rome because it is the greatest city of all.”
I said nothing.
“Sometimes we meet others,” Mael continued. His eyes shot towards me suddenly. “And sometimes we are forced to fight them, for they will not leave us in peace.”
“How so?” I asked.
“They are Gods of the Grove, the same as Avicus, and they are badly burnt and weak and they want our strong blood. Surely you’ve seen them. They must have found you out. You cannot have been hiding all these years.”
I didn’t answer.
“But we can defend ourselves,” he went on. “We have our hiding places, and with mortals we have our sport,