The Shadows of God - J. Gregory Keyes [17]
“I—but I—”
“Not because of this fat little thing?” She poked a finger at émilie.
“What?” émilie choked out. “What did you say?”
Elizavet paid no attention to émilie but stepped forward and gave Linné a sharp slap on the face. Then, laughing, she stumbled back the way she had come. “No matter,” she said. “There are men somewhere in this camp.”
Linné cleared his throat. “I—”
Émilie slapped him, too, and without a word she turned and ran, sobbing.
“Oh, dear,” said Lomonosov.
“Well,” Adrienne said, “I think we will delay our discussion until a more appropriate time, yes?”
“Yes, Mademoiselle,” Lomonosov said.
Feeling suddenly mischievous, Adrienne turned back to him. “By the way, since you seem to have lost your companions, perhaps you could ask Mademoiselle de Crecy for another fencing lesson.”
She wished it were light enough to see him blush. Lomonosov was cute when he blushed.
“Good night,” she said, and continued on.
Feeling a little dizzy, and fearing to lie down in such a state, she walked to the little river, hoping to clear her head. She paused to stare at the moon, huge and orange on the eastern horizon.
La loooon! she thought she heard, in the voice of a child, her child. She remembered showing Nicolas the moon and teaching him what to call it.
Nicolas? she asked, into the silence of the night.
I said never to call me that. You said you would call me Apollo.
“Of course,” she murmured aloud, her heart skipping. “Are you watching the moon, Apollo?”
Yes. So are you.
“Beautiful, isn't it?”
Yes. Then, almost shyly, I haven't told anyone about you. Are you still my secret friend?
“I always shall be. What—how are you?”
A face seemed to form on the moon, features between boy and man, Adrienne's own dark eyes and the prominent Bourbon nose.
I have enemies, he replied. Evil creatures who resist me and my heroes. But it doesn't matter. My teachers say it doesn't matter.
“You are very strong,” Adrienne said cautiously. “I saw the keres you made.”
That was nothing. But he sounded proud. I have a secret. The keres, my heroes, the great cleansing—it is all just the beginning. My great purpose is above all of that.
“It is?”
Yes. But—but something is missing. I don't know what. I can't do it yet.
“What is missing?”
This time a sort of panic crept into the voice. I don't know. What if— He stopped.
“What, Apollo? You sound distressed.”
What if I can't do it? They say I am the one, the prophet, the Sun Boy, but sometimes—sometimes I think they must be wrong. They know there is something missing. And I have enemies who want to kill me. And sometimes I don't think I have any friends. Not really. They say they are, but—
“I am your friend,” Adrienne said. “I ask nothing of you except that you talk to me.”
Yes. But you could be my enemy, nonetheless. You could be tricking me. You said you were my mother before.
The vodka wanted her to cry out that she was, that what he thought he knew was a lie. But she knew deep down that that would be the end of it, that he would break the fragile bond, as he almost had when first they spoke.
“I cannot tell you what to believe,” she said softly. “If you think I am your enemy, I cannot dissuade you. I can only assure you that I care for you.”
Why? Because I am the Sun Boy? Because I hold life and death in my arms?
“No.”
Then why?
“Because you sing to the moon.”
He didn't reply.
“Apollo?” But after a space of five minutes, he still hadn't replied.
I shouldn't have been drunk, she thought. I shouldn't have let my guard down. I said the wrong thing.
Her eyes clouded with tears, and she turned to go onto her ship. But suddenly a shadow sprang at her, and something hit her in the chest, very, very hard.
“Die, bitch,” a man said.
Adrienne's hand went to her breast, and with dull shock she felt warmth spurting between her fingers, and her legs wobbled.
Her attacker yanked her hair back, turning her throat up to the moon.
James Edward Oglethorpe stood as still as the knobbed