Chapter 11

"Who is the one causing all this trouble? Vassily Petofi?"

"Yes. He is one. And he has called on the help of others in his family. He can summon the help of Andreas, who fought Barnabas in 1897, and the help of Kira, who brought so much suffering to Collisport. But he is not the only one. There is also Nicholas Blair."

'Nicholas Blair? Does it have something to do with Doctor Blair who is visiting with Roxanne?"

"It has everything to do. Nicholas lured Doctor Blair here, and had him show himself in Collinsport and be accepted. When everyone trusted Dr. Blair, Nicholas kidnapped him and took his place."

"You'll have to tell Angelique,,, you must..."

"I can manage it without Angelique's help. And the less people know of this, the better. It is not just Vassily, nor Nicholas Blair. There is an unseen player in this. I thought it might be Judah Zachary, but it does not feel like him. Until we have seen his face we cannot fight him."

"But Angelique"

"Angelique was deceived by Nicholas Blair. She has some vulnerabilities too now. And Megan is too caught up in vampire politics to be fully trustworthy now.."

"So it is up to us."

"Yes. There must be three more players gathered here. When the five are together, we will face this warlock.."

"And what is my task?"

'Now you must help in gathering the players, as Roxanne gathered you."

"Who are they?"

"You ask too much, too soon. When you need to know something you shall be told. Now, the less knowledge you share, the less knowledge you can betray. In this game I hide things from myself lest my thoughts betray me. So I shall hide them from you too."

"I...I understand."

"It is good that you do."

"Whichever you can command me, I will do. And ask you no questions for which there can be no answers."

Amy smiled. "You have passed the first test, Frances. There shall be others, and all of them offered by me. Fail one of those and you might be destroyed."

Frances nodded It was going to be a tight, dangerous game for her to play. But there was no other choice. It had chosen her, and she could only abide by it.

"Let's find the face of the third player. Choose a card. Your hands will be guided in your choice."

Frances took a card.

"It is the Hanged Man... is this the one I must seek? Or is it me?"

"Why do you say that it is you?"

"Because I am here, hanging between two worlds, my destiny in suspension."

"In a sense all players are the Hanged Man. But yes, you more than the others. And you must know yourself beyond any doubt. For only when you do, you will know what you must do. Look at the card, look at yourself. Then you will find the knife that will sever the rope that keeps you in suspension. And you will then find the face of the player that you must seek.

There were many questions in Frances. It infuriated her that Amy would not tell her more, and she doubted that she could find the answers all by herself.

"You must trust me." Amy said, as if she had been reading Frances' mind. Trust me utterly. Even if it makes no sense to you, you must have faith. The answer will come to you, and you will know that it is right.

She gestured and Frances found herself in some strange corridor, with the card in front of her as the only beacon.

"Will she find her way?" Roxanne asked.

"She must. So she will. Now take your card, Roxanne."

Roxanne took it

"The Fool. Am I supposed to find a fool? Or that I am a fool?"

"You know the answer to that. You know the choices you made and where they led. The Fool stepped over a precipice he could not see."

"So I have to start looking for another player?'"

'Yes. And then the four of you will find the fifth."

Roxanne stood impassible in front of Patterson.

"You finally went ahead and did it, didn't you?" there was weariness and disgust in Patterson's voice "I knew that it was coming, that you would end up killing someone. And that someone turned out to be Frances."

"I did not kill her."

:"You were seen chasing her. She was seen running in great fear. And now she is gone... You know how to get rid of a body, don't you?"

"She isn't dead."

Patterson shrugged. "It will be hard to prove that. She could never outrun you. You caught up with her and did what you wanted all along."

Roxanne wanted to protest, but remember what she had been told. They must never know that Frances was alive...

So she let Patterson cuff her and take her to jail.

Amy saw this... Roxanne had been arrested. Nicholas must think tow that his plan was working out... That would make him careless...

More important, the unseen warlock behind Nicholas would become careless. And she would be able to see his true face...

Now she had to wait for the two new players to arrive. And then to find the fifth...

Barnabas looked at the bracelet. It was one of the few remaining pieces of the cache of jewels that had been his cash source for the first years since he was released... That was before he got into investing, and then when he finally had to do like everybody else and get a job...

He had thought of giving it to Tammy. It was her heritage after all, she was his descendant, his child...

He recognized the foolishness of it. He could not give it to Tammy without reminding her how it had been paid for.

Face it. He was a slaver, from a family of slavers. The Collins fortune had been built out of the business of slavery. His becoming a vampire had been the result of the accumulated karma, and the means of delivering retribution.

He could have friendship with Tammy, might like her. But he could not make the past right. It would remain there, accusing him, accusing all the Collinses, With no possibility of restitution, nor of reconciliation. Just the acknowledgment that they had to go on and accept that a terrible injustice had been committed and they had gotten away with it.

And trying to deny it would only lose him Tammy's friendship. He had played that game of giving restitution to Maggie, and all it had done was lock them into a sick relationship. It could not be done. You could not make water run upstream..

Julia had told him what someone else had said, that when you inflict certain kinds of damage, the best you can do for the victims is to disappear from their lives so they don't have to deal with you anymore... It might have been the best to do with Maggie... And it was the best to do with the legacy that Tammy embodied...

Still, he was going to die soon, and he wanted to make disposition of what he had. He wanted to much to give something to Tammy..

Well, some practical voice inside him insisted, why not give a legacy to the NAACP in her name? Leave the jewels to Urien, who probably could find a good buyer for them...

He had to think of legacies for Willie, for Vicky, for Julia...

And he had to see Carolyn as to the disposition of the Old House.. It would be nice to give it away to some organization that could put it to good use. But with no modern conveniences, it was a lot of unnecessary expenses... Maybe Carolyn could fix it. And then sell it or lease it... He had to talk to her about it.

The corridors stretched endlessly. Frances kept the card in front of her, and the light that emanated from it seemed to show her the way. But only a few inches at the time. She could not guess the path ahead, only discover it as she crossed it.

She felt again the doubt gnaw at her. Was this the best way? Wasn't she just lost, and wandering aimlessly, each step making it worse, making it even more impossible for her to return to Collinsport?

Yet she had to have faith. She had to trust Amy in this. Amy did not wish her to wander here till she died. Amy wanted her to find the next player in the game...

"Did I tell you I have a daughter?" George told Patterson, bitterly "Her name is Georgina. She was conceived here, when they mated me to Angelique... She is so beautiful, so special... and I may never see her again."

"Why are you so sure?

"Because I can sense that something is coming to a head. I suspect that what Roxanne did is only the first step. Howard will not take this well. He will manage to blame Derek for it. And blame me...and I cannot return yet."

"Couldn't you call on Angelique?"

"I tried, don't you think that I tried? I cannot reach her... Patterson, I am afraid that something wants us to kill each other."

"What for?"

"To regain power... Some other Petofi who wants to reclaim this kingdom. And he, or she, is using our own passions against us. Roxanne wanted Howard and Frances was in the way. Howard and Derek are at loggerheads because Howard has this utopian dream that he wants to carry out. Frances was getting more and more attracted to Derek, and tried to hide it to herself. But I think that Howard sensed it... another reason to resent Derek... even if he himself wanted Derek's wife...And Derek who married Roxanne because he expected her to back him against Howard...Add to it that Roxanne has not forgiven me yet for taking Barnabas from her... There is enough here to have a big tragedy, with everyone dead at the end..."

'Well, we'll put up a good fight." Patterson said, taking out his gun. "We will sell our lives dear."

"Yes. That we can do."