"At once?"
"Exactly," said Fareed. "Amel is correct, don't you see? Go back to when the Mother was killed. You all suffered. But if Amel had not been rescued and transferred within seconds, the connection would have broken. And likely none of you would have died. Akasha alone would have died. And Amel would have been--."
"Released," said Seth.
"I'm not following. When Akasha was put into the sun, vampires all over the world died in flames."
"They were all connected," said Fareed. "Don't lose sight of the goal. It is to disconnect."
"Lestat," said David, "what they are saying is--you were almost all disconnecting after Akasha died. If Amel hadn't been rescued by Mekare, you would have all been disconnected. But Amel was rescued and found a new host before the web disintegrated. For the web to disintegrate, it must take some time."
"Same with the second time," said Fareed. "If you had not taken Amel into yourself, Lestat--if Mekare had been allowed to perish with Amel inside of her--all the vampires of the world would be free."
"You're talking in circles," I said. "How could she have perished without us perishing?"
"I think I know," said Louis. "If her heart had been stopped for a long time before her perishing, the disconnect would have been complete, and then however she perished, no one would have felt her death but her."
I was stunned, but even I, with my foolish lack of scientific understanding, could see the logic. Well, almost.
"We might lose Amel," I said. "That's what you're saying. Stop my heart which is death but not destruction. And when it's started up again, they'll all be disconnected, everybody will be disconnected, but what if when my heart stops, he disconnects from me?"
"But I don't think he can," said Fareed shaking his head. "Not as long as your body is intact, and waiting there safely to be resuscitated. No."
He's right.
"This is all too theoretical," said Flannery Gilman. "All that might happen is Lestat is in suspended animation for an hour, and all the rest of the vampires of the world die."
"It's possible," said David.
"Not likely," said Fareed. "What's likely is that some will take longer to disconnect than others, but the web of connections will perish because no blood is being pumped through the body of the host. And when Lestat is revived Amel will be there as before. But the web will be gone."
Another huge free-for-all argument ensued. I was dejected beyond words. I held up my hands for silence.
"Amel, are you willing for us to do this?" I asked.
"Yes," he answered.
"Then I say we do it," said Fareed. "Otherwise we are back to the near-impossible task of severing each vampire individually."
Slowly they all came to full agreement, though Rose was the last one to come around. Rose had been arguing for the disconnect of individuals to proceed exactly as it had taken place with Louis and Fareed. She didn't want to think of my heart being stopped. But when Fareed began to name all of the many individuals, and to speak of how any fledglings I ever made in the future would be connected to me--until severed--and to speak of a multitude of other difficulties, she threw up her hands and agreed.
We would do this tomorrow night while I was still in my crypt, safe from any twilight rays lingering in the night sky. And with the great door sealed, and only Fareed and Louis and Gremt with me inside. That way, if Kapetria drew any conclusions from the radio alert, I'd be protected, with Thorne and Cyril outside my door.
Fareed would give me the injection to stop my heart and he'd be there to reverse it but Gremt would also have a syringe and so would Louis.
There was some other equipment involved, drugs, something, but I couldn't follow it. The main point was we would do it at that time when many young vampires at Court and all over Europe had not risen yet, and hope for the best.
For all we knew not all of the vampires of the Chateau would experience unconsciousness. It was entirely possible that the very old ones like Seth and Gregory would not at all. They might be weak, failing in vision, even limp and unable to move, but they might remain conscious and able to present a deterrent if Kapetria, intrigued by the alert, tried to enter the Chateau. After all Mekare and Maharet, old as they were, had managed to keep functioning when Akasha had been decapitated, but of course that was only for a few seconds...ah, but who really knew?
I could focus upon only one aspect of this: my heart would stop; the blood would stop circulating; but nothing else would really happen to my brain or my body. Amel would remain in me. I'd be safe in my coffin.
Whatever the case, the crypt of the Chateau was the best place to do it, and the more ancient ones would be gathered on the stairway that led down to the crypt.
Benji picked up as soon as we called.
He would start announcing the message immediately. An important half hour of meditation is declared for tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. All the Undead must be in a safe sheltered place at this time, and participate in this experiment by remaining entirely still for the full half hour, and keeping their eyes closed. He would mention "time of meditation" every hour until dawn sign-off, and then he'd set the tape to looping immediately before he retired for the day. We were thankful he didn't ask for an explanation. But then Benji was powerfully intuitive. Benji had Marius's blood in him and he knew and heard and understood things others could not. Probably many of the others knew what was happening. No doubt Gregory knew, and Marius as well.
Fareed began to laugh, a bit madly, like someone laughing from exhaustion or unbearable strain. "This is too funny," he said. He gestured to the desk, the book-lined walls, the laboratory. "And this, this old talk of the silver cord brings us to this experiment. If this works, I swear I will give up science altogether, and I'll begin reading all the poetry, literature, and psychic books I've always ignored. I'll become a New Age monk, a contemplative, a priest!"
27
Lestat
WHEN WE RETURNED to the Chateau I went out for a walk in the snow. I was not having regrets, but I had lost my remarkably clear understanding of how or why this should work.
I walked way up the old mountain that was my mountain, and I would cheerfully have killed a pack of wolves had they attacked. But there were few wolves if any in these woods now. And any and all surviving European wolves were a cherished part of life in this time, and not to be thoughtlessly or carelessly killed, just because I didn't know what might happen tomorrow night.
I'd been wandering for about an hour when the iPhone in my pocket rang. I was surprised as I was so far from the Chateau. But it was Kapetria coming through loud and clear.
"Fareed won't tell me what you're doing," she said.
Ah, so she'd heard Benji's call for all the blood drinkers of the world to be safe and still tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m.
"Do you blame him?" I asked. "You left us. You went off on your own when you might have helped us. You told us what to do, didn't you, find some way to prevent the whole tribe from dying when you made your move. But you didn't stay to help us figure out how."
"I'll help you tomorrow night."
"Oh, no, you won't. We're not telling you where this is to take place and you're not to come near us. If we see you or any of the People of the Purpose, the experiment won't take place. Besides we don't need your help."
"Please let me help."
"No."
"You don't know what Amel wrote for me. The message, I mean. The one you gave me."
"He told me," I said. "Later that night as a matter of fact. And in so doing, he let me know it was just a matter of time till you made your assault. I know about your phone conversations. He said you were a parent prepared to rescue a child, no matter what the child wanted."
"Do you think I would ever go against Amel's wishes?"
"Yes," I said. "Because I probably would, if I were you."
"I want to help you. I'll come alone."
"There isn't time."
"Yes, there is."
"Oh,
giving away your location, are you? This means you're still in Europe, doesn't it?"
"Will you please let me come."
"No, Kapetria. I'm resigned to what happens whenever you make your move, but right now I want to be certain that whatever you do, you do it only to me."
I ended the call. I turned off the phone. Amel was with me but he wasn't saying a word.
It was now half past three in the morning. I headed down the mountain slowly, singing to myself. I was remembering the giant old yew trees growing around Gremt's old monastery home and I thought I would like to have yew trees planted here too. I hadn't given enough thought to the old forest.
I was thinking of anything except what lay ahead. Finally as I drew near the Chateau, I heard a commotion in the ballroom, so I took to the air and came down on the terrace and went in through the open doors.
The ballroom was empty except for three people.
And one of them was Kapetria. She was all bundled up in a gray wool coat and red scarf, and her hair was pulled back into a rather stylish black cloche hat. She had an accidentally glamorous look to her, and her dark face was all the more striking for the severity of the hair pulled back into the hat. She was sitting on the couch nearest the empty orchestra chairs and she was in a fierce argument with Thorne and Cyril. She had a large valise at her feet.
She stood when she saw me. "I came alone," she said. "Alone. Nobody is with me. No one is anywhere near. I didn't even tell them where I was going. I started driving as soon as I heard."
"Well, now, this is interesting," I said. "And you've made a very stupid mistake. Because how can the others possibly mount an assault on me to free Amel, if you are no longer the captain of the team?"
She didn't answer.
"You're in grave danger is what I'm trying to tell you," I said.
"Please don't take this tack," she said calmly.
I honestly didn't know what to say.
Then Amel spoke up.
Let her help you.
She couldn't hear Amel, of course, but Thorne and Cyril had heard him, and they exchanged glances.
"Let her help!" Amel shouted at me. Thorne and Cyril stared at me as if I were a ghost, or he were a ghost inside me.
Still I didn't know what to say. But Fareed had just come in and Seth was with him, and Gregory was right behind them and so was Marius. Gremt was there and Teskhamen and David as well.
In a moment, they had surrounded us.
"I want to help," she said again. "I know you're going to try something, and if it isn't dangerous, it's not likely to work."
Four a.m. The great clocks of the Chateau were chiming, not one in sync with another it seemed. Time for me to leave.
"You make up your minds on it. Her old friend from Atalantaya says to let her help. I'm going down now. Whatever you decide, you'll let me know."
Of course I could still hear them talking when I was safe belowstairs as I lay there in the dark.
I could hear Armand's voice now as well, and Marius's voice and now and then even Kapetria, though it was very difficult to hear her, as I had to hear her through them. Gradually I put together the picture: they were taking her to the inn to spend the night. Fareed was doing the talking. And mortals spied on them from behind closed blinds.
"Do you think it's going to work?" I asked Amel.
"If she helps," he said, "there's a better chance."
"And why is that?"
"Because she can recognize the signs of things that Fareed might not recognize. Don't underestimate her senses. If you begin to die, really die--that is, if the process of irreversible cellular death commences--she'll restart your heart."
"Hmmm. Irreversible cellular death. That's a mouthful."
"Not for me."
I laughed. "You're not the least bit worried about this experiment, are you?"
"No," he said. "I don't see why you should die. Your own etheric vampire brain and body will simply wait for you to be revived--even if I am detached and forced out when your heart stops."
"Mon Dieu!"
"Don't be concerned," he said. "Not likely to happen. I'm more than likely to remain locked into the blood as I've always been! There were moments of horror and despair when I tried with all my will to detach from Mekare. I could never do it. Now think on this.--Imagine if the body of Akasha had been frozen, or the body of Mekare. All the tribe might have been disconnected; but I'd have been locked inside her, unable to rise, until the host was unfrozen, and the heart started to beat again."
"So that's all it would have taken--ever--to disconnect the tribe from the host?"
"Maybe," he said. "But who knew?"
28
Lestat
I AWOKE ABOUT A half hour before they came. Amel was with me, as far as I could tell. Soon I heard their voices. The doors of the vault were opened and Louis came with Fareed and Kapetria, the two scientists attired completely in white and with their valises, no doubt filled with marvelous medical gadgets and vials of chemical wonders. Both of them had stethoscopes around their necks. Seth was nearby.
Rose and Viktor were there too. This was Kapetria's idea and Fareed had agreed.
It had been decided that if after my heart was stopped, either Rose or Viktor showed signs of actually "dying" in some way--shriveling, deteriorating, transforming in any way indicating irreversible death--then my heart would be restarted at once.
It had also been agreed that if all the vampires of the world merely remained unconscious for the duration, likely the "Great Disconnection" would be a failure, and they'd all still be connected when my heart was started again.
"The Great Disconnection," I said. "I like it. I'll love it, if it works."
Rose and Viktor understood. They sat down to wait it out on the stairway outside the vault.
Louis closed the lid of my coffin and seated himself there. He was close enough to me that I could take his hand and I did.
A memory came back to me, a memory of the first time I ever saw him in New Orleans. He'd been staggering through the streets drunk, a rough-cut version of what he was now. Suddenly the veil collapsed between that time and this and it was all playing back for me as if someone else had a hand on the button and I saw him after the transformation standing in the swamp, the water almost up to his knees as he marveled at everything around him, including the moon snagged in the moss-hung branches of the cypress trees, and I could smell the fetid green water again.
I let out a long sigh.
"You're here, aren't you?" I asked Amel.
"Of course, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere," he said.
Fareed stood over me, testing the syringe in some way, making it spurt in silvery little droplets. When he bent down to put the needle into my chest, I shut my eyes.
The most remarkable thing happened. I wasn't there in the vault at all. I was someplace else entirely.
It was midday and the sun was pouring down through the dome. The light was so bright and pure and equatorial that it was almost impossible to see that the dome was there.
"This is your office?" I asked.
He sat behind the desk. His red hair was very much like my hair, but it was a real true red, not coppery or auburn, but deep red with golden highlights to it, and his eyebrows were darker and distinct and his eyes were most certainly green.
He had a longer nose than I had, and a long full mouth, the lower lip bigger than the upper lip, but the upper lip was perfectly shaped, and his jaw was square. And having said all that, what can I say about the brilliance of his smile and the boyish look to him overall? He'd been finished, like I had, on the very verge of manhood, with the requisite shoulders, but the face had the stamp of a boy's curiosity and optimism.
"Yes, it's my office," he said. "I'm so glad you've come."
"Oh, you're not going to start crying on me, are you?" I asked.
"Not if you don't want me to. But look outside. Just look. This is Atalantaya! This is all mine!"
It was quite impos
sible to describe. Imagine you're stranded on the sixty-third floor of a building in Midtown Manhattan and all you can see around you are other buildings like it, but everything is made of glass. Imagine the light skittering on all those glass surfaces, and then imagine that you can see into the buildings and see all the living beings at work in them, at desks, tables, machines, or just stranded on balconies in groups of two or three or more, talking to one another, all the busy life of the city all around you, and some of the towers climbing so high you can't quite see the top from where you're sitting and others below you have verdant gardens on their roofs, and you see fruit trees, and flowers, and vines spilling down over the balustrades, vines with purple blossoms, purple as wisteria, and you see in one garden, just one particular garden, a group of children in a circle with their arms out embracing one another as they skip and dance--Lock arms and detonate--and as they pull the circle this way and that. But it holds as a circle. Because circles don't have to be round.
"But I thought this was the tallest building. Oh, I see, the buildings are changing shape, the buildings are moving."
"That's just because I want you to see everything at the same time."
"I can see the clouds beyond the dome. Does the dome increase the heat of the sun?"
"Of course. But it's all balanced. Everything is balanced. That's what I want you to see."
He sat back in his chair with his feet up to one side on the desk. He wore shiny clothes, clothes that shimmered as the building shimmered, a collared shirt with breast pockets like the shirts we have today, and soft creaseless pants, and sandals on his feet.
I must have been standing in front of the desk, because he was smiling up at me, positively beaming. He had just the smallest cleft in his chin, and that and the curve of his cheeks made him look so new, so young. He actually had dimples in his cheeks. Dimples.
"You can't imagine what it was like in the beginning," he said. "So many steps to come to this point. And what do you think might have happened if we'd never been interrupted, if they'd never come and tried to destroy us? What do you think the world would have been like?"
"I don't want to think of that," I said. "Because I love the world the way it is. After all, hasn't the world come almost to the same point? I mean take a look around you in the world, and see how far they've come on their own. I don't mean that what you did wasn't splendid. It was glorious. All this is glorious. And they can't make a city of luracastria, no, but think of all they've achieved without one guiding force, and subject to the squabbles, and battles and war, of a multitude of guiding forces. They've come out of it to achieve so much."