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"Perhaps you have, my pretty one," I said. "Perhaps you have. Oh, it's gone, isn't it? My whole world. It's gone. I think of the feasts, the masquerades, the dancing, it's gone, all my paintings burnt. "
She began to cry.
"No, don't cry. Let me cry for it. It was all my doing. Because I didn't slay one who despised me. And they have taken Amadeoprisoner. Me, they burnt because I was too strong for their designs, but Amadeo they took!"
"Stop it, Marius, you rave," she said fearfully. She put out her hand and touched my gloved fingers.
"Oh, but I must rave just for a moment. They took him and I could hear him begging them for explanations, and all the boys, they took the boys too. Why did they do this?"
I stared at her through the mask, unable to imagine what she saw or read from this strange artificial countenance in her heated mind. The scent of her blood was almost overpowering and her sweetness seemed part of another world.
"Why did they let you live, Bianca, for surely I had not come in time?"
"Your pupils, those were the ones they wanted," she answered, "they captured them in nets. I saw the nets. I screamed and screamed and screamed out of the front doorway. They did not care about me except to draw you on, and what could I do when I saw you but cry out for your help against them? Did I do wrong? Is it wrong that I'm alive?"
"No, don't think such. No. " I reached out as carefully as I could and squeezed her hand with my gloved fingers. "You must tell me if this grip is too strong. "
"Never too strong, Marius," she said. "Oh, trust in me as you ask that I trust in you. "
I shook my head. The pain was so terrible I couldn't speak for a moment. My mind and body both were pain. I could not endure what had befallen me. I could not endure the hopeless climb which stood before me and my future self.
"We remain here together, you and I," she said, "when surely there is much to be done to heal you. Let me serve your magic. I have already told you that I will. "
"But what do you truly know of it, Bianca? Have you truly understood? "
"Is it not blood, my lord?" she asked. "Do you think I cannot remember when you took Amadeo, dying, into your own arms? Nothing could have saved him such as that transformation which I saw forever after in him. You know that I saw it. I knew. You know that I did. "
I closed my eyes. I took my breaths slowly. The pain was terrible. Her words were lulling me and making me believe that I was not miserable, but where would this path lead?
I tried to read her mind but in my exhaustion I could not.
I wanted so to touch her face, and then believing in the softness of the glove, I did it, stroking her cheek. The tears welled in her eyes.
"Where is Amadeo gone?" she said desperately.
"South by sea," I confessed, "and to Rome, that is my belief on it, but don't question me now as to why. Let me say only that it was an enemy of mine who made this siege upon my house and those I love, and in Rome is where he dwells, and those he sent to harm me and Amadeo come from Rome.
"I should have destroyed him. I should have foreseen this. But in vanity I displayed my powers to him, and brushed him aside. And so he sent his followers in great numbers so that I couldn't overcome them. Oh, how foolish I was not to divine what he would do. But what is the use of saying it now? I'm weak, Bianca. I have no means to reclaim Amadeo. I must somehow regain my own strength. "
"Yes, Marius," she said. "I understand you. "
"I pray with all my heart that Amadeo uses the powers I gave him," I confessed, "for they were great and he's very strong. "
"Yes
, Marius," she said. "I understand what you say. "
"It's to Marius that I look now," I said again guiltily and sadly. "It's to Marius that I look, for I must. "
A silence fell between us. There was no sound except the crackling of the torch in its sconce high on the wall.
Again I tried to read her mind, but I could not. It was not only my weakness. It was a resolute quality in her just now. For though she loved me, there were thoughts conflicting in her, and a wall had been thrown up to keep me from knowing what they were.
"Bianca," I said in a low voice, "you saw the transformation in Amadeo, but did you really understand?"
"I did, my lord," she said.
"You can guess the source of his strength forever after that night?"
