Taltos lotmw-3

by Anne Rice

  “Then Michael told you.”

  “No, you told me. All the times you thought about it out there, remembering the waltz from La Traviata, and the ghost of Julien telling you to do it. But this isn’t important to me. It’s only important that you not worry about my hating you anymore. You have to be strong to be the heiress, especially the way things are now. You can’t be worried about the wrong things.”

  “Yes, you’re right. You really don’t hold it against me. I know you don’t.”

  “You could have known sooner,” said Rowan. “You’re stronger than I am, you know. Reading people’s thoughts and emotions, it’s almost a trick. I always hated it when I was a child. It frightened me. It frightens lots of gifted children. But later on, I learned to use it in a subtle, almost subconscious way. Wait a beat after someone speaks to you, especially if the words are confusing. Wait a beat and you’ll know what the person feels.”

  “You’re right, it’s like that, I’ve tried it.”

  “It gets better and stronger. I would think that knowing what you know-about everything-it would be easier for you. I was supposed to be disgustingly normal, an honors student with a passion for science, growing up with all the luxuries of a well-to-do only child. You know what you are.”

  She paused. She drew a cigarette out of the pack lying on the table. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.

  “No, not at all,” said Mona. “I like the smell of cigarettes, always have.”

  But she stopped. She slipped the cigarette back in the pack. She laid the lighter beside it.

  Then she looked at Mona, and her face seemed incidentally hard suddenly, as though she’d fallen deep in thought and forgotten to conceal her strong inner self.

  The look was so cold and so quietly fierce that it made her seem sexless to Mona. It might be a man looking at her, this person with the gray eyes and the dark straight eyebrows and the soft blond hair. It might have been an angel. Surely, it was a beautiful woman. Mona was far too intrigued and excited by all this to let her eyes be forced away.

  Almost at once the expression did soften, deliberately perhaps.

  “I’m going to Europe,” said Rowan. “I’m leaving in a little while.”

  “Why? Where are you going?” demanded Mona. “Does Michael know this?”

  “No,” she said. “And when he finds out, he’ll be hurt again.”

  “Rowan, you can’t do that to him, wait a second. Why are you going?”

  “Because I have to. I’m the only one who can figure out this little mystery about the Talamasca. I’m the only one who can find out why Aaron died like he did.”

  “But Michael, you’ve got to take Michael with you, you’ve got to let him help. You leave him again, Rowan, and it’s going to take more than a nubile thirteen-year-old to save his ego and whatever manhood he’s got left.”

  Rowan listened to this, thoughtfully.

  Mona instantly regretted what she’d said, then instantly thought she hadn’t said it strongly enough.

  “It’s going to hurt,” said Rowan.

  “Oh, you’re kidding yourself,” said Mona. “Maybe he won’t be waiting around here when you get back.”

  “Look, what would you do if you were me?” Rowan asked.

  It took a second for this question to sink in. Mona took another big drink of the orange juice and then pushed the glass to the side. “You’re really asking me?”

  “There’s no one I’d rather ask.”

  “Take him with you to Europe. Why not? What’s he staying here for?”

  “There are things,” she said. “He’s the only one who understands the kind of danger directed against the family. And there’s the question of his own safety, but then I don’t know just how critical that is.”

  “His safety? If the Talamasca guys want to hit him, they know where to find him if he just hangs around this house. Besides, Rowan, what about your own safety? You know more about all this than anyone except Michael. Don’t you need him with you? You’re really prepared to go over there alone?”

  “I wouldn’t be alone, I’d be with Yuri.”

  “Yuri?”

  “He called again this morning, only a little while ago.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m telling you now,” Rowan said coolly. “He had only a few minutes. He was in a pay booth in London. I persuaded him to meet me at Gatwick. I have only a few hours before I leave.”

  “You should have called me, Rowan, you should have …”

  “Hold it, Mona. Yuri’s purpose in calling was to warn you to stay close to your family and remain under guard. That’s what’s important here. He thinks there are people who may try to get hold of you, Mona. He was very serious. He wouldn’t explain any more. He said things about the genetic testing, people accessing the records, figuring out that you were the most powerful witch in the clan.”

  “Yeah, well, I probably am. I figured that out a long time ago, but, Rowan, if they are after witches, why aren’t they after you?”

  “Because I can’t give birth ever again, Mona. But you can. Yuri thinks they may want Michael also. Michael fathered Lasher. These evil people, whoever they are, will try to bring you together. I think Yuri’s wrong.”

  “Why?”

  “Mating two witches? Expecting the extra genes to throw a Taltos? It’s as unlikely now as it ever was. You might say that breeding two witches is the long way of doing it. According to our records, the one and only successful attempt took three hundred years. There was intervention and purpose in that one success. I gave it my assistance at a crucial moment. Maybe it could not have happened without that.”

  “And Yuri thinks they’d try to force Michael and me to do that?”

  All this while Rowan’s gray eyes were fixed on her, scanning her, weighing her response to every word.

  “I don’t agree with him,” said Rowan. “I think the villains of the piece killed Aaron to cover their tracks. That’s why they’ve also tried to kill Yuri. That’s why they may be arranging some sort of accidental death for me. On the other hand …”

  “Then you are in danger! And what happened to Yuri? When did it happen, where?”

  “This is my simple point,” Rowan said. “We don’t know the limits of the danger for anyone who’s in any way involved. We can’t know because we don’t really know the motives of the killers. Yuri’s theory, that they won’t give up until they’ve bred a Taltos, is obviously the most pessimistic and the most inclusive. And that’s what we should go with. You and Michael both have to be protected. And Michael is the only one in the family, really, who knows why. It’s imperative you remain within the house.”

  “So you’re leaving us together here? All cozy and comfortable under your own roof? Rowan, I want to say something to you that takes a lot of nerve.”

  “You shouldn’t have any problem,” said Rowan simply.

  “You’re underestimating Michael. You’re selling him short in every respect. He’s not going to go for this. And if you leave him without telling him, he’s not likely to hang around and play the assigned role. If he does, what do you think the man in him is going to want? And if he does want to do it-sleep with me, that is-what do you think I am? Rowan, you’re arranging all this as if we were pawns you’re moving on a chessboard. Rowan, we’re not.”

  Rowan didn’t answer. After a little pause, she smiled.

  “You know, Mona, I wish I could take you with me,” she said. “I wish you’d come.”

  “I will! Take me and Michael! The three of us should go.”

  “The family would never tolerate such a betrayal on my part,” said Rowan. “And I couldn’t do it to you myself.”

  “That’s crazy, Rowan. Why are we having this conversation? Why are you asking me things like what I think about what’s going on?”

  “There are too many reasons, Mona, why you have to stay here with Michael.”

  “And what if we do get in the sack together?”
<
br />   “That’s up to you.”

  “Terrific, punch him out, and expect me to comfort him but not to-”

  Absently, Rowan slipped out a cigarette, then stopped exactly as she had before, gave a little sigh, and pushed it back in the pack.

  “I don’t care if you smoke,” said Mona. “I don’t do it, due to my superior intelligence, but-”

  “You’ll care very soon.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Don’t you know?”

  Mona was flabbergasted. She didn’t answer. “You’re saying … oh God, I should have known.”

  She sat back. Still, there had been so many near misses in the past. She was always on the phone to her gynecologist. “I think I did it this time.”

  “It’s no near miss,” said Rowan. “Is it Yuri’s child?”

  “No,” Mona answered. “That’s impossible. Sir Galahad was too careful. I mean, that is flatly impossible.”

  “It’s Michael’s child.”

  “Yes. But are you certain I am pregnant? I mean, this was only a month ago, and …”

  “Yes,” said Rowan. “The witch and the doctor know the same thing.”

  “So this could be the Taltos,” said Mona.

  “Do you want a reason to get rid of it?”

  “No, absolutely not. There’s nothing on earth that’s going to make me get rid of it.”

  “You’re certain?”

  “How certain do I have to be?” Mona asked. “Rowan, this is a Catholic family. We don’t do away with babies. Besides, I wouldn’t do away with this baby no matter who the father was. And if it’s Michael’s, that’s all the more reason for everybody to be happy, because Michael’s part of the family! You really don’t know us so well, Rowan. You’re not getting it, even now. If it’s Michael’s baby … if it’s really there, that is …”

  “Please finish.”

  “Why don’t you finish for me?”

  “No, I would like to hear you say it, if you don’t mind.”

  “If it’s Michael’s, then Michael would be the father of the next generation that will inherit this house.”

  “Yes.”

  “And if the baby were a girl, I could designate it as the one to inherit everything, and … you and Michael could be its godparents and we could stand at the baptismal font together. We could stand there and then Michael would have a baby, and I’d have a father who I wanted for the baby that everyone will trust and love.”

  “I knew you would paint a more colorful description than I would,” said Rowan softly, a little sadly. “That went beyond my expectations. You’re right. There are still things about this family I have to learn.”

  “Color in St. Alphonsus Church, where Stella and Antha and Deirdre were baptized. And I think … I think they baptized you over there too.”

  “That they’ve never told me.”

  “Seems I heard it. Seems like something they would do.”

  “There’s no chance that you might decide to get rid of it.”

  “You gotta be kidding! I want it. I’d want any baby of my own, be serious. Look, I’m going to be so rich I can buy anything in the world, but there’s no substitute in existence for my own baby. I can make that happen only one way. Oh, if you knew the family more, if you hadn’t spent your life out there in California, you’d understand it’s not even a question, unless, of course…. But even then …”

  “Even then?”

  “Let’s worry about that when it happens. There must be indications, all kinds of little signs, if it’s abnormal.”

  “Perhaps so. Perhaps not. When I carried Lasher, there were no signs until the moment came.”

  Mona wanted to respond, to say something, but she was too deep in her thoughts. Her own child. Her own child, and nobody, I mean nobody, was going to shove her around anymore. Her own child, and she would have passed over into adulthood regardless of age. Her own child. Suddenly she didn’t think thoughts so much as she saw things. She saw a cradle. She saw a baby, a real live little baby, and she saw herself holding the emerald necklace and then she put the necklace around the baby’s neck.

  “What about Yuri?” asked Rowan. “Will he understand about this?”

  Mona wanted to say yes. The truth was she didn’t know. She thought of Yuri, quickly, sort of completely. He was sitting on the side of the bed that last night, and saying to her, “There are all sorts of very important reasons why you must marry among your people.” She didn’t want to think that she was thirteen and fickle. She realized suddenly that Yuri’s understanding about the baby was the least of her worries, the very least.

  Why, she hadn’t even found out yet how they tried to kill Yuri. She hadn’t even asked if he was hurt.

  “An attempt was made to shoot him,” said Rowan, “and the attempt failed. Unfortunately the assassin was killed by the person who foiled him. And the body won’t be easy to find. We won’t try to find the body anyway. We have a different plan.”

  “Listen, Rowan, whatever your plan, you’ve got to tell Michael all this. You can’t just leave.”

  “I know.”

  “Why aren’t you scared that these bad guys will kill you and Yuri both?”

  “I have a few weapons that are strictly my own. Yuri knows the Motherhouse completely. I think I can get into it. I can reach one of the very old members, one of the most trusted and revered. I need perhaps fifteen minutes with him to know whether this evil springs from the Order collectively, or from a small group.”

  “Can’t be one person, Rowan. Too many people are dead.”

  “You’re right, and three of their soldiers are dead. But it could be a very small group within the Order, or outsiders who have a connection within.”

  “You think you can get to the bad guys themselves?”

  “Yes.”

  “Use me for bait!”

  “And the child inside you too? If it is Michael’s-”

  “It is.”

  “Then they might want that more than they want you. Look, I don’t want to speculate. I don’t want to think of witches as some sort of rare commodity to those who know how to use them, of women in the family falling victim to a new species of mad scientist. I’ve had enough of mad science. I’ve had enough of monsters. I only want to end this. But you can’t go. And neither can Michael. You have to be here.”

  Rowan pulled back the black silk of her jacket sleeve and looked at a small gold watch. Mona had never seen her wear this watch. Probably Beatrice had bought it too. It was delicate, the kind of watch women wore when Beatrice was a girl.

  “I’m going to go upstairs and talk to my husband,” said Rowan.

  “Thank God,” said Mona. “I’m going with you.”

  “No, please.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m going.”

  “For what reason?”

  “To make sure you tell him everything that you should.”

  “All right, then let’s go together. Maybe you’re one jump ahead of me. You’re going to give him the reason to cooperate. But let me ask you one more time, Jezebel. Are you sure this child is his?”

  “It was Michael. I can tell you when it probably happened. It happened after Gifford’s funeral. I took advantage of him again. I didn’t think about precautions any more than I had the first time. Gifford was dead and I was possessed of the devil, I swear it. It was right after that that somebody tried to get in the library window and I smelled that scent.”

  Rowan said nothing.

  “It was the man, wasn’t it? He’d come for me after he’d been with my mother. Must have been that way. When he tried to get in, it woke me up And then I went to her and she was already dead.”

  “Was it strong, the scent?”

  “Very. Sometimes I can still smell it in the living room here, and upstairs in the bedroom. Can’t you?” Rowan didn’t reply.

  “I want you to do something just because I ask you,” Rowan said. “What’s that?”

  “Don’t tell Michael
about the baby until the usual tests have been done. There is someone you can confide in, isn’t there, someone who can be like a mother? There must be.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Mona. “I have my secret gynecologist, I’m thirteen.”

  “Of course,” said Rowan. “Look, whatever happens, I’m going to be back here before you have to tell anyone at all.”

  “Yeah, I hope so. Wouldn’t that be something, if you could finish it that quick? But what if you never come back and Michael and I never know what happened to you or to Yuri?”

  Rowan thought about this, apparently, and then she merely shrugged. “I’ll come back,” she said. “One more caution, if you don’t mind.”

  “Hit me with it.”

  “If you do tell Michael about this baby, and then decide to get rid of it later, that will kill him. Twice before, this has been promised to him and taken away. If there’s any doubt, any whatever, don’t tell him till that doubt is resolved.”

  “I can’t wait to tell him. I can get my doctor to see me this afternoon. I’ll tell her I’m having a nervous breakdown and I’m on my way over. She’s used to this stuff with me. When the tests come back okay, nothing’s going to keep me from telling him. And nothing, I mean nothing, is going to keep a baby of mine from being born.”

  She was about to get up when she realized what she’d said, and that Rowan would never face this particular dilemma again. But Rowan seemed not at all offended by her words, and certainly not hurt. Her face was very quiet. She was looking at the cigarettes.

  “Get out of here so I can smoke in peace, will you?” Rowan asked, smiling. “And then we’ll wake up Michael. I have an hour and a half to make the plane.”

  “Rowan, I … I’m still sorry about doing it with him. I just can’t be sorry about the child.”

  “Neither can I,” said Rowan. “If he comes out of this with a child of his own, and a mother who’ll let him love it, well, maybe he’ll find a way to forgive everything as the years pass. Just remember. I’m still his wife, Jezebel. You’ve got the emerald and the baby. But Michael is still mine.”