Chapter 13

The disciple hacked off the head, splattering the blood over his hands and shoulders.

"I am the wizard now!": he said as he lifted the head by the hair. "Power is mine. I have not the knowledge yet, but you. do."

The head opened its eyes "you betrayed me." it said.

"Yes. As you always knew I would. Now you must obey me. Or suffer punishment. Disobedient talking heads can be punished, in many painful ways."

The head closed its eyes.

"I am strong now, and you are weak. I command you and you obey. That's what you taught me once."

"Yes." the head agreed. "Rules are rules. You won and I lost. You are the wizard now. till you take one disciple who will be too smart for you."

"I don't think so. I will make it so that my disciple does not desire to kill me."

The head twisted its face in horror. "You mean to break the rules! You mean to turn over the Power to those who are weak and unworthy of it!"

"And what if I do?"

"I will not help you do it! Never!"

"I am the master and you the slave. You are less than a slave. You are only a talking head. I shall command you and you shall obey. And you will teach me what I want to know."

"Never!"

The disciple, now disciple no longer, put his hands over the wizard's eyeballs and pressed on them making the head howl in pain. He kept his hands there a while, letting the head howl.

"Enough1" Angelique said. "do not hurt him."

"Power and pain are all he understands." the disciples said. "Maybe all I understand too. But I owe you a favor. He shall tell you what you are seeking for."

Angelique nodded. That was what she had come for, wasn't it?'

"Speak" the disciple commanded the head.

"I will" the head said, with relish. "For I know that the answer will bring her pain. Here is the answer. Take a stake and drive it through the heart of the dead that seeks blood from the living. The one with the power of the bat. Then collect the blood and smear it on the statue, and it will return to life."

"No!" Angelique shouted.

"There is no other remedy. Do you regret it, sorceress this answer that you seek? Do you think to protect the blood drinker, though he should be only a slave to you, an easily replaced slave? On, your kind are weak indeed..."

"No..."

"There is no other remedy. Do you regret it now, sorceress, this answer you came to seek? Do you seek to protect the blood drinker? You cannot."

"But.."

"Go back." the new wizard said. "You have what you came for. I owe you no more debts, and should you remain any longer, I shall attempt to slay you."

Angelique bent her head. He was right. They had no more business there. They had the answer they sought, and the wizard was no longer a threat. The new wizard was too raw, too inexperienced to come hunting for them...

"Come Adam." she said.

"Is it over, now?" he asked.

"Yes. It is over."

They were again in the maze, going through the Lost Objects, because the new wizard night get into his head to trace them...

"So he is now the new wizard?'

"Yes. That was the way magic was transmitted at first. One powerful wizard ruling his or her territory, with disciples of the same sex, so as not to produce any offspring, which could make blood claims on the Power."

"And the disciple who killed the wizard became wizard?"

"Yes. Most of the disciples died as slaves, drowned in sacks. But one of them usually ended up killing the master and inheriting the crown."

"What happened that it is no longer so?

Eventually wizards came who did not kill regularly their disciples, but instead instilled loyalty in them. There were wizards who mated against the rules and produced children with a blood claim to be taught the Art. Then there was no longer the need to kill your master to become a wizard. Magic became more widespread, more powerful. Yet the wizard we met would have called it weakening, because it allowed inferior talents to grasp knowledge of the Art... It might well be that this young man will be the one to begin the new tradition. He's seen how much more powerful a wizard can be when the disciple helps and supports him instead of plotting against him. It was a harsh, cruel world that the Old Old time wizards created, and I am not sorry to see it pass."

She thought again of the relish with which the head had given them his answer. She though of Barnabas and Megan. Which one would she... sacrifice?

Barnabas, more likely than not. He would see in it a way to pay whatever debt he still owed to Maggie.

"Are you going to tell them?" Adam asked her.

She said nothing.

"If you want me to say nothing about it.."

"Don't worry, Adam:" she said, a bit despectively "I won't kill you or abandon you because of what you know. Nor abandon you. I am done with cruelty and ruthlessness."

"The wizard was too bad a reminder?"

"Oh, Adam. If only evil was as barefaced as that... If only they did not speak mealy mouthed pieties... You did not know the du Pres. You did not know the Countess nor Josette's father."

"Were they evil?"

"How could they not be, living off the sweat of slaves that died working for them with no surcease nor compassion? You think of Martinique today and it sounds so romantic. It was as romantic as Stalin's gulag... Do you now that slaves cutting cane were fitted with gags, so that they could not chew on the cane they were cutting, and thus replenish their strength?. Can you imagine? Working from dawn to dusk in that heat. Given the bare minimum of food to survive, badly. And they felt themselves weakening, and they knew if that if they could only chew on the cane, they would get the energy they needed... But that was stealing from Andre du Pres, stealing form the Countess. Stealing from Josette... I lived in that world. I learned ruthlessness and cruelty in that world. And I know the mealy mouthed pieties that Andre du Pres spouted, and the ones that the Countess spouted. and compared to them, that wizard was honest. He was strong and the rest are weak, so he had the right to trample on them. He was better than Andre du Pres ever was."

'And that's why you became what you became."

"It is trample or be trampled. I did not wish to be trampled. So I trampled. Not slaves. I trampled on sweet Josette, whom I never saw as innocent. I tramped on Barnabas' family. I trampled on others... No, I was no avenging angel. I was not looking for Justice. I was looking out for myself."

"And you were once Miranda."

"Yes, in another life... Not that it mattered. It was the same story there with the Puritans. Trample or be trampled with a lot of pious speeches which demonstrated that God wanted them to have al, and you to have nothing. "

"No wonder you rejected God and embraced the Devil"

"Just words. God means that you have all. The Devil means that I have all. That was the education I got."

"But you learned better."

"We all learn better if we live long enough. And wish to learn."

"My education also taught me all the wrong things. I still hate Barnabas, you know."

"And you got a case, though I will not tell him of it."

"And you will not tell him of what you learned? Eventually you will have to."

"Yes. And he might be willing to sacrifice himself...And... We do not have that many vampires in town. Megan is out of the question. We had others, but Derek, Roxanne, and Richard are out of it..."

Richard. It hit her. Richard had been executed by other vampires. There might be another execution, sooner or later. She only had to contact whoever passed death sentences among vampires, and ask that they save the blood for her.

"Yes, Adam. There is a way that does not involve telling Barnabas about it."

Roxanne stood in front of Barnabas

"I want to invite you to my wedding." she said.

"You are marrying Derek, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"I hope that you will be happy with him."

"I also wanted to... to talk to you."

"You wanted to tell me something?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"You seem relieved that I am marrying him"

"Well, it is a solution for all of us."

"I wish..."

"Are you having second thoughts?"

"It is not that. It is just that you...I..."

"Is it that you want me to be hurt? That you want me to sweep you off your feet and carry you away?"

"I know that I am being silly, but..."

"You still want me."

"I told you how things were, back home. Things were so bad... the only thing that kept me going was the thought that I would see you again."

"Then it did its purpose. It kept you alive long enough.. But now you don't need it anymore. And you'd have been disappointed in me, even if I was still available to you."

"I know."

"Derek is not me. He can't ever be. But he's worth loving for his own sake."

"Yes, he is."

"More than once, I wished that I was more like him."

Roxanne nodded

"Roxanne" he said "I don't know what you really want. I don't know if you know it either."

"I know what I want. I want you to come to my wedding."

Urien poured himself a small glass of sherry. He hoped that David did not keep track. Because if he could not take pills, then he could drink.

He had to be able to sleep and get better dreams than he had...

Megan waited with Amy.

"Do you blame me?' Amy asked her.

"No. You could not have stopped her. I might, but even that I am not sure I could. And she was right. She HAD to go."

"If anything happened to her."

Megan shrugged. "Then the kid would be your responsibility...And that's all we could do."

Amy was silent again. And before he could say anything else, the air grew heavy around them.:

"Wait... It feels like.."

They went to the next room, where the I Ch'ing wands were set.

And Angelique was there, with Adam.