Blood and Gold - Anne Rice [60]
As for the Queen she remained undisturbed. It was as if none of it had ever taken place, or so I thought, until I saw the droplets of blood on the shoulder of her linen gown. I should have to change it when I could.
But this was evidence that she had allowed the kiss, and he had forbidden it. Well, this was most interesting, for I knew now that when I had last drunk from her, it was Enkil who had thrown me back on the chapel floor.
There was no time to ponder it. I had to get Avicus and Mael away from the shrine.
Only when we were back within the confines of my brightly lighted study did I turn my fury on Mael.
“Two times I’ve saved your miserable life,” I said. “And I will suffer for it, I’m sure of that. For by all rights, I should have let you die the night Avicus sought my help for you, and I should have let the King crush you as he would have done tonight. I despise you, understand it. No end of time will change it. You are rash, willful and crazed with your own desires.”
Avicus sat with his head down nodding as if to say he agreed.
As for Mael he stood in the corner, his hand on his dagger, regarding me with begrudging silence.
“Get out of my house,” I said finally. “And if you want to end your life, then break the peace of the Mother and the Father. For ancient as they are and silent as they are, they will crush you as you have seen for yourself. You know the location of the shrine.”
“You don’t even know the measure of your crime,” Mael answered. “To keep such a secret. How could you dare!”
“Silence, please,” said Avicus.
“No, I won’t keep silent,” said Mael. “You, Marius, you steal the Queen of Heaven and you keep her as if she were your own? You lock her up in a painted chapel as if she were a Roman goddess made of wood? How dare you do such a thing?”
“Fool,” I said, “what would you have me do with her! You spit lies at me. What you wanted is what they all want. You wanted her blood. And what would you do now that you know where she is? Do you mean to set her free and for whom and how and when?”
“Quiet, please,” said Avicus again. “Mael, I beg you, let us leave Marius.”
“And the snake worshipers who have heard whispers of me and my secret, what would they do?” I demanded, now quite lost in my fury. “What if they were to gain possession of her and take the blood from her, and make themselves an army stronger than us? How then would the human race rise up against our kind with laws and hunts to abolish us? Oh, you cannot begin to conceive of all the ills that would be loosed upon this world were she known to all our kind, you foolish, mad, self-important dreamer!”
Avicus stood before me, imploring me with his upraised hands, his face so sad.
I wouldn’t be stopped. I stepped aside and faced the furious Mael.
“Imagine the one who would put them both in the sun again,” I declared, “bringing fire on us like the fire which Avicus suffered before! Would you end your life’s journey in such agony and by another’s hands?”
“Please, Marius,” said Avicus. “Let me take him away with me. We will go now. I promise you, no more trouble from us.”
I turned my back on them. I could hear Mael leaving, but Avicus lingered. And suddenly I felt his arm enclose me and his lips on my cheek.
“Go,” I said softly, “before your impetuous friend tries to stab me in base jealousy.”
“It was a very great miracle you revealed,” he whispered. “Let him ponder it until he has made its greatness small enough for his mind.”
I smiled.
“As for me, I don’t wish ever to see it again. It is too sad.”
I nodded.
“But allow me to come in the evenings, quietly,” he whispered. “Allow me to watch at the garden windows in silence as you paint your walls.”
8
The years passed too fast.
The great city of Constantinople in the East was all the talk in Rome. More and more of the honorable Patricians were drained away by its magic. Meanwhile after Constantine the Great there came no end of warring Emperors. And the pressure along the borders of the Empire continued to be intolerable,