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Teskhamen sat to Marius's left and he nodded to this last remark, and so did Gremt, who was at Teskhamen's left hand. The Marius Party indeed, I thought. No ghosts were present, which meant that these two alone represented the Talamasca. And it also meant that they had in some way finally and officially come over to us, with Marius's approval, otherwise they wouldn't be here at this time of crisis.
David, my beloved David Talbot, was to the left of Gremt, and he sat with his head bowed and his arms folded over his chest. He looked spent, if nothing else, his khaki jacket and blue cotton shirt badly rumpled, as though he'd only just wandered into the Chateau.
Armand sat close by Louis on my right, and was his usual self in a dark burgundy velvet coat with layers of lace at the collar, very much the stylish master of Trinity Gate, his pale boyish face as unreadable as ever.
Next to Armand was Allesandra, Allesandra my old queen from the Satanic coven under Les Innocents, who had not been at Court since the beginning of the New Year. She had continued to grow in beauty and presence since her resurrection, and her ash-blond hair was tied back with a bone clip on the top of her head, spilling loosely down her back and over her shoulders. She wore a simple velvet gown of dark blue, without ornamentation.
I sensed an immense sadness in Allesandra.
Next to her--between her and David Talbot--was a stunningly beautiful black vampire whom I'd never seen before, though I knew who he was and he silently gave me his name, Arion, as our eyes met. He was so black that his skin was almost bluish, and his eyes appeared yellow, though I think they must have been more truly pale green. His jacket and shirt were almost rags. He wore an incongruous watch on his left wrist, one of those devices that tells the time all over the world. And his curly black hair was clipped short.
I felt a sudden pain in my heart at the sight of him. It was with this powerful vampire, somewhere on the coast of Italy, that two young ones, two young ones very dear to me, might have been lodging when the tragic conflagrations of last year had begun. No one had seen or heard of those two vampires since the Burnings. And I had a desperate feeling that this Arion knew their fate. I also had the sense he was withholding this information from me now because it was not the time to reveal it, and his quick furtive glance to Marius let me know he thought other things might take precedence here.
Pandora was directly opposite Arion, in her usual embroidered gown, her long tightly waving brown hair shining clean, and at her left was Arjun, Arjun of India, her fledgling and companion, dressed as usual for him in a fine black sherwani.
To the left of Arjun sat Fareed, who was always at the right of his maker, Seth. Both wore the simple white cotton coats of doctors, with nondescript shirts and ties.
No Benji, though I knew he was in the building, and had expected him here due to the importance of the radio broadcast.
And no Chrysanthe, Gregory's wife. In other words only those who were assuming power and wanted power.
Marius began at once.
"This is what has happened," he said. "During the daylight hours, the non-humans used the radio broadcast to communicate with us and with one another. We have to decide immediately whether or not to shut the radio broadcast down."
"I say leave it up," said Teskhamen, which surprised me, and I think it surprised Marius a little to be interrupted. Teskhamen was fashionably dressed in a fine suit and linen much like Gregory. "Let them communicate and let them come together," Teskhamen said. "Especially now that we know Rhoshamandes is hunting them down. We hear that Rhoshamandes is in a rage, and plotting against us with a vampire from Hungary named Roland. Both have powerful resources. And you--we--need to make contact with those creatures, and we need to find out what they know of Amel."
"Yes, that is the name of the emergency," said Marius. "The name of the emergency is Amel."
"Well, Amel's inside me now," I said. "But he's gone silent."
"Let me summarize what we know," said Marius. "This morning at about nine a.m. a non-human without a name called the radio broadcast and explained that he and someone named Derek were escaping Rhoshamandes's castle on the island of Saint Rayne. The creature explained that Derek had been held captive by a blood drinker named Roland of Budapest who'd had the being imprisoned in that city for ten years." Marius's voice gave a subtle indication of his anger over this. "Rhoshamandes only lately came in possession of this Derek and subjected him, according to the caller, to great cruelty. Immediately after this, the unidentified caller gave a long message in an unknown tongue."
I nodded. "I've heard it, sounds most like Sanskrit to me," I said, "but perhaps Arjun knows this language."
"I don't know it," said Arjun a little apologetically. "I can't crack it. It does sound like Sanskrit but it is not related to Sanskrit."
Marius continued: "Now what the being said about Rhoshamandes holding this creature Derek and treating him cruelly is true," he said. "Allesandra joined us just before sunrise this morning and is here to verify that she saw firsthand Rhoshamandes's treatment of Derek. Rhoshamandes hacked off Derek's left arm and actually tried to burn the severed arm i
n the fireplace. This Derek creature healed at once from the injury. And he is most certainly a creature exactly like Garekyn Brovotkin and Kapetria and Welf, whose stories you know. Indeed, Allesandra has left Rhoshamandes on account of his treatment of Derek and his refusal to make Derek's presence known to us or to bring Derek here to the Court. Arion has also left Rhoshamandes on account of this. Now Rhoshamandes knows full well of Garekyn's attack on Killer and Eleni. And yet he withheld knowledge of this Derek from us."
"Was it a human being who made this call?"
"It was not a human," said Marius. "We can only assume it's another of the non-human group, presumably one who managed to rescue Derek, though how he'd known where to find Derek--that we can't know at this point." He motioned for patience. "About two hours after that call went on the air," he said, "Garekyn himself called on a throwaway cell phone from somewhere in England and he too left a message, obviously, for the others who share this strange language. But before he signed off he also left a detailed message for us, that he meant us no harm, and had never meant us harm, but wanted only to make contact with us for reasons having to do with the identity and history of Amel. He said it was not his intention to kill anyone, indeed that he had only been defending himself when Killer was taken down, and that wounding Eleni he did only in order to escape Trinity Gate."
"Does that sound reasonable?" I turned to Armand.
He seemed unprepared for this, and glanced at Marius as if for permission to speak. Marius nodded.
"Yes," said Armand. "I do believe Killer took the wrong tack with this powerful creature. But there's more." He gestured to Marius.
"This Garekyn sounded entirely reasonable, and even persuasive," said Marius. "Less than an hour after that, another call came on the line. This time it was Dr. Karen Rhinehart who identified herself as Kapetria and she too left a long message in the strange language, before telling us that she and her kindred, as she called them, meant no harm to us whatsoever, and were deeply distressed to discover that we had now chosen to make enemies of her and Welf and Derek and Garekyn, who would never have sought to harm us."
"Eventually, I want to hear these messages, but for now go on."
"About an hour after sunset," said Marius. "While you were still kept safe away from the sun's rays, there was yet another call and this time it was from Derek himself. Of course he issued a long and obviously emotional message in the ancient tongue, before telling us in no uncertain terms of the wickedness of Roland and Rhoshamandes, and that he feared they would try to destroy him before he could ever reach his kin. Now if you want to hear the messages, I'll play them for you, but frankly, I don't think we have the time. We have to decide now whether to keep the broadcast phone lines open and what answer, if any, we are to make to these creatures about our interest in them."
"I say leave it open," said Teskhamen again. "It is imperative we make contact through the line ourselves with these creatures."
