Chapter 11
Dree stood in the corner of the hallway, watching the door to Valtieri's room. After a moment Antoinetta Marie jogged easily up to the door and went inside. A few minutes later she came out, moving slowly. Dree watched as she reached out a hand for the wall and leaned there.
"Are you all right?" Dree said.
"Oh, never better," Marie said, and twitched a friendly grin over her shoulder. From someone else, it might have been sarcasm. Not from Antoinetta. "Though I am so very disappointed that Ocheeva insisted on the cure afterwards. But you shouldn't loiter, Sister dear. Your blood won't do for another of the Gifted." She stood still a moment more, then made her way quietly up the hall. Dree hesitated. I want to know. But if Marie saw me even in the dark, somebody else would, too.
She retraced Antoinetta's steps into the Sanctuary. M'raaj-Dar must have gone back to his spell practice, because the occasional dull boom came from behind the practice room's double doors. Telaendril was on her way to the opening of the well, bow in hand.
"You're leaving?" Dree said.
"Middas is over, and I still have work to do," Telaendril said. "A sad way to lose Vicente, but the god takes us all. I wonder who would want to poison a Brother?" Green eyes looked speculatively on Dree. "Oh, well. I suppose we'll never know." A moment later she was up the ladder and out of sight.
Dree went to look for Gogron. As expected, he was in the living quarters, putting on his armor. He looked up as she scuffed her foot on a flagstone.
"You find the apple again?" he said.
"Yes," Dree said. "I wrapped it in some sacking and put it in your box." She nodded at the chest next to the bed. Gogron raised a heavy eyebrow.
"That was locked," he said.
"You know those lockpicks we found?"
Gogron looked at her blankly for a second. Then he chuckled. "Good, very good. But you'd better save them. You ought to have your own box, now you're a Sister."
"I thought you were asleep," Dree said.
"Yeah, but I'm not deaf, and you weren't exactly whispering. Everyone else probably knows, too." He finished wedging an enormous foot into an even more enormous boot. "You thirsty?"
"We'll be down here at least another day, right?" Dree said.
"Sure. Maybe longer."
"Then no, thank you," Dree said. "Not until I have to."
"Still thinking about that last one?" Gogron said.
"Yes," Dree said. "Gogron, you know I didn't poison Vicente, right?"
Gogron pulled on his gauntlets. He looked at Dree. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed, but he barely had to look up. "Yeah," he said. "I do."
Dree sat down on the bed opposite. "It's not that I don't want him dead. I do. But I wouldn't do it that way. I wanted it to be when I was better, because I was better."
Gogron nodded. "I figured," he said. "And I don't think you know that much about poisons. From what M'raaj-Dar was saying, that apple's something way out of the common."
"Maybe it wasn't even meant for him," Dree said. "Maybe someone just put it in the cupboard a while ago, and he was saving it so M'raaj-Dar wouldn't get it."
"Wouldn't be surprised," Gogron said. "Weren't any apples in the cupboard when we got home. I checked both of them."
"You would, wouldn't you," Dree said, smiling faintly. Sithis, what if Gogron had gotten there before Vicente? At least no one will think he did it, Dree thought. He'd never poison anybody. They've got to know that, by now. "Maybe someone snuck in," Dree said.
"Snuck in here?" Gogron said. "There's only two ways in, Dree. And Ocheeva spends a lot of her time wandering around the Sanctuary. I've seen her call Lucien by name when he came in here invisible. Not even Teinaava can sneak past her."
Dree nodded slowly."I hate this," she said.
"Me, too," said Gogron. He looked at her for a second, old-gold eyes unreadable. Then he said, "I'm going to go practice. Want to come?"
"Maybe in a couple of minutes," Dree said. There's something I need to know. Gogron nodded equably, picked up his axe, and went with loud step out of the living quarters.
Dree watched him go. People would see me if I waited in the hallway, she thought. But when I was in his room, I remember a trap door in the ceiling. I'll bet it goes to Ocheeva's room. The Sanctuary must surely have been built with a vampire in mind, to have that winding hall to the lowest room and another one right over it. I wonder how old he actually is.
She waited a few moments, until she was sure Gogron would be in the practice room, then crept out through the Sanctuary. She saw no one, and more importantly, heard no one as she crossed to Ocheeva's room. She tugged one of the double doors open as silently as possible. It wasn't locked. Of course, Dree thought. Stealing is against the Tenets, and even Ocheeva probably doesn't have anything worth risking that Spirit of Sithis thing for. I'll wager Lucien Lachance has some things worth stealing. I wonder what his security is like.
The room was darker than the Sanctuary. Dree, remembering back to a girlhood that seemed ages ago, understood: Ocheeva grew up somewhere candles were expensive, and things burned easily. Same as me. The room was sparsely furnished, without much more than a bed, a desk, and a couple of wooden barrels. And, like the room beneath, it was long and narrow. Dree went softly over to the round metal hatch in the back of the room. The ceiling sloped downward here, so that she had to stoop. Here she hesitated. I don't know if that trapdoor creaks. It would figure. She lay facedown on the floor and pressed one pointed ear to the surface instead.
" - Completed his task?" said the vampire's voice. The sound was still ragged, but it was clear.
"...course. Teinaava always..." the rest was lost. Dree frowned. The metal seemed to create a strange echo, muffling the voices more than a wooden trapdoor would have. Then, too, Ocheeva was sounding a little weak herself. Blood loss, no doubt. Vicente Valtieri said something that might have ended in "greet him," but the answer was inaudible.
The sound of the door opening and closing, however, was quite clear. Dree waited a few moments, then unfastened the trapdoor. It did creak when she opened it, but only a little. She put her head down and looked around. Ocheeva wasn't far off, the but the sound of her pulse was muffled, retreating. Vicente still lay on the slab, staring at the ceiling with carmine eyes. Someone had taken the trouble to wipe the blood from his face, but he was just as gaunt, just as white as before.
Dree lowered herself into the room. There was a tricky moment as she hung by her fingers with one hand and pulled the trapdoor shut with the other, and at the end of it she hit the ground with a tiny thump.
"I have been expecting you, child of Sithis," said the other vampire. He did not look around. Of course he knows who it is. I have no pulse. He took it from me.
"Have you?" Dree said. She approached the slab slowly. A claymore in a sheath leaned against the wall not far from the marble altar, conspicuously out of reach. Vicente Valtieri did not move.
"Is it not a perfect opportunity?" he said softly. Now he let his head fall to the side so that he could see her. Red eyes transfixed her, but she would not be pierced this time. Dree set her palms against the edge of the slab and leaned forward. Vicente had to turn his head again, to look up at her.
"For what?" she said.
Vicente smiled tightly. "Tsk, child, we both know for what." He paused. A living person might have drawn a deep breath, but he was very still. "I'm alone. I am weak. If I die now, I will fall to ashes. They will believe I simply succumbed."
"I don't think Ocheeva would," Dree said, equally softly. "And I know Gogron wouldn't. But maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe I did know whose well I fell down that day. Maybe I came for you, and I don't care if I do have to face the god's wrath afterwards." She smiled humorlessly, showing him her new teeth. "I hope you've been thinking about that, sire of mine. I hope you've been thinking of it every single day since I got here. But you weren't afraid, were you? Because I'm weaker than you." She dropped the smile. "Or I was."
"You want to see me show fear," Valtieri said. His smile was still in place, but it was much colder. "It won't work."
"No, it wouldn't," Dree said. She still leaned over him, but didn't touch. "Because you're not afraid of anything, are you? You wouldn't even try to call for help. You don't believe anything can kill you. You are easily the most arrogant creature I've ever met in my whole life, and I've seen some. But actually I didn't come to see you beg, Vicente. I want you to answer a question."
Valtieri frowned fleetingly. Lines tightened and relaxed across his forehead in a second. "I have yet to refuse you any answer," he said. "Speak."
"Why did you tell me not to touch that apple?"
Valtieri raised his eyebrows. A very small drop of blood leaked from the corner of one eye, but he seemed to ignore it. "I beg your pardon?"
"When I found you," Dree said. "You told me not to pick up the poisoned apple. Why would you do that?"
"You came here to ask me that?"
Dree nodded. She had to resist an urge to laugh as she looked at his face. He looked outraged, as if it were truly offensive that she'd sneaked in without planning to kill him. "It's the only thing I've seen you do that didn't make sense," she said. "You like giving me little hints, because you know it's irritating. You follow the rules, because it's not what everyone would expect a vampire to do. And you'll drink in other people's life to keep yours, but only the people you think are deserving of your attention, because if things went wrong we couldn't have Gogron or M'raaj-Dar turn into what you are. They're not good enough for you. And me..." She reached up to tug at the tip of one ear. "I embarrass you, right? So common. Clumsy. Unworthy. So why would you try to keep me from getting myself hurt?"
Valtieri said nothing for a long time. Dree stood quietly and waited. The red tear slid down his temple and dripped off onto the marble slab, but he made no move to wipe it away.
Dree was about to speak again when Valtieri suddenly grinned, pushed himself up onto his elbows, and kissed her on the forehead. She stared down at him, stunned, as he fell back onto the slab. His face looked no healthier, but it was suddenly much younger. "Far too curious for your own good," he said. "You really are my offspring. I think that ought to be enough reason, don't you?"
Dree opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. No sound came out.
"Do hand me a handkerchief, will you?" Vicente Valtieri said. "I really can't abide blood in my hair."
There was no thump at all behind her, but Dree suddenly understood. "Ocheeva," she said as she turned. The Argonian was just closing the trapdoor behind her. I'm an idiot. Of course he wouldn't send her away when he knew I was coming. She must have run all the way around to the other room, and I wouldn't be able to hear her through that trapdoor. I wasn't trying to use the hunter's sight. I never thought of it.
"Your sincerity is pleasing to hear, Sister," Ocheeva said. She went to the room's small wooden desk, extracted a handkerchief, and went to hand it to Vicente. She moved slowly, but she did not stumble. But then, she's known a lot more years of hard discipline than Marie. "Did you find what you came for?"
"More or less," Dree said.
"Then go. I am tired, and I expect Teinaava at any time."
"Yes, Sister," Dree said, and departed while she still had a tatter of dignity left. She paused outside the door to collect herself. The shadows in the corner of the hall might hide a small Bosmer, but they were completely inadequate to conceal a large Orc. Besides, the armor shone.
"Gogron," Dree said. "Why are you standing there? Why are you standing there with an axe in your hand?"
"Waiting," Gogron said. He put up the weapon and started toward the Sanctuary. "I followed you. Then I saw Ocheeva slide around back up to her room. Seemed odd."
"I didn't hear you," Dree said, walking quickly to keep up with him.
"I waited behind the training room door. You had kind of a funny look and I figured you might do something stupid," he said blandly.
Sithis. His heart isn't even beating faster. Dree glared up at him. "And then what?" she said. "I'm pretty sure I'd have been dust about a half-second afterwards, if I'd really tried to kill him. She was waiting for me."
They walked out into the low room with its smoking torches. Gogron shrugged. "Probably," he said. "But she's a little slow right now. With both of us, there'd be a chance."
"Not much of one," Dree said. "And why even bother? You haven't known me a month yet, Gogron. I've been drinking your blood all this time and I've never done a thing for you, except kill one Altmer."
Gogron sat down on a bench, so that they were almost eye to eye. Looking down into his eyes was an odd sensation. From this angle, she could see that one of his tusked underteeth had a chipped end. "You know how long I've been here?" he said. "Nigh on to ten years. I was in the Arena for part of that, because Lucien wanted me to learn to use an axe. I've only been doing jobs for the Sanctuary for maybe six. It wasn't going to last."
Dree stared at him, completely at a loss. "What?"
"That one Altmer would be the death of me sometime," Gogron said. He said it without emotion, as if it was something he'd been over many times. "Or one Orc, or one Imperial, or one Khajiit. Doesn't really matter. When I'm like that, I've got no control. I don't remember who it is I'm supposed to kill, I just kill whatever's there. Somebody would get away, sooner or later, who'd seen my face. And keeping the Sanctuary secret is one of the Tenets. If the Legion caught me, I'd be out of the Brotherhood."
"You could get back in," Dree said. "You just have to fight the Spirit and win, right?"
"Yeah," Gogron said. "But if you're caught by the Legion, there's no knowing what you might end up saying. Lucien couldn't afford to take that chance. I needed somebody here to make sure it didn't happen." He sat back against the wall, eliciting a faint clank from the axe. "I needed you," he said.
Dree sat down beside him. You can't be out of breath, because it's technically impossible, she thought. Get hold of yourself. "How could you know I'd be worth it?" she said. "The first time you saw me, I looked like a cinder."
Gogron smiled slightly. "I figured it was worth a try," he said.
Dree, who had never been needed in her entire life, struggled silently with herself. She had very little education in books, and hardly more in the school of personal interaction. She didn't know what you were supposed to say when you felt like this. She wanted to die. She wanted to live. She wanted to kick him for using her, and kiss him for thinking she was worth using. (That last one gave her particular trouble, given her background with the opposite sex.) She wanted... Oblivion with it. Who knows what I want? The more enduring and practical Dree within finally exerted some control.
"You won't be sorry," she said. "I won't leave. Not ever."
"Oh, never's a long time," Gogron said.
"Not for me," said the vampire Dree.
