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"We still don't really know who he is," said Marius.

"So what are you saying, Lestat?" asked Armand in that subtle tone of his. "You are saying this spirit, Amel, is good? Lestat, all we ever learned of it from the twins was that it was evil."

"Not so," I said. "That is not really what the twins told us at all. Besides why would it be inherently either good or evil? And what the twins described was a playful, boasting spirit that loved Mekare and sought to punish Akasha for ever harming her, and somehow this spirit went into Akasha's body and became one with her, one with the one he hated. And now six thousand years later, he finds himself restored to the body of the one he loved, and she's dead to him, dead to everything."

"Ah, that is a beautiful story," said Pandora under her breath.

"But that doesn't make him good!" said Armand.

"And that doesn't make him evil either," I said. "When Maharet told us these old tales she made it clear: good spirits were those who did the bidding of witches; bad ones did mischief. That's a very primitive and near-useless definition of evil or good."

I was suddenly aware of Benji gesturing to Armand, asking him to be quiet, and Louis also. And I saw that Marius was making a similar gesture with his hands low to the table, as if to say, Be quiet. And no sooner had I picked up on this than Armand picked up on it.

I thought for a moment, pressing my fingers together right under my eyes. Then I said, "Look, I'm not speaking for the Voice's benefit. I'm not trying to trick him by praising his sensibilities or his growth or his capacity to love others. I'm saying this because I believe it. The Voice can tell us things no other entity in this world can, and that includes perhaps other spirits who are among us--." I glanced knowingly at Sevraine. I was speaking now of Gremt. "Entities that aren't really confiding in us! Or helping us. Such spirits may be so angry at Amel, so against him, so inveterately his enemy from the time before time that they can't be counted on right now to help us."

"We don't know that," said Sevraine. "We only know they will not help. You're speaking of powerful spirits who may in time help us but for now are waiting, waiting to see what we aim to do."

"No, I would not count out those spirits," said Pandora suddenly. "They may help us yet."

"Precisely," said Sevraine.

At once everyone was in a bit of an uproar. But it was plain many at the table knew what we were talking about and many did not. Benji did not. Neither did Louis or Armand, but Marius knew and so did Pandora. And even the flashy and dapper Everard knew.

"The Talamasca will not help us yet," said Marius. "But they are with us in this."

"The Talamasca's made up of spirits?" demanded Benji. "Since when did that come to be known!"

Quickly, Marius told him to be quiet, that it would all be explored.

And then I held up my hands for silence. I fully expected to be ignored, but the exact opposite happened.

"My point is simply that this Amel is a spirit of immense knowledge and secrets and he happens to be our spirit!" I waited. "Don't you see? We cannot keep talking about him as if he were a cheap villain who's broken into our existence simply to inconvenience us and frighten us and bully us and demand things from us. He's the fount of our very life." I leaned forward and rested my hands on the table. "So he kills," I said. "We kill. So he slaughters mercilessly. Who here of my age or older has not done the same? This entity, this being, is at the root of what we are. Whether he has any plan or not, beyond taking possession of Rhoshamandes, he has a destiny! We all do! That's what this crisis has taught me. That's what Benji's incessant urgings have taught me! We are a tribe with a destiny and it's a destiny worth fighting for. And Amel feels what we feel, that he is a being condemned to suffer for reasons he cannot know, a being who wants to love and wants to learn, who wants to see and feel, and he, like us, has a destiny worth fighting for."

Utter silence.

There was almost no movement, except that they were all glancing to one another. Then in a low voice Seth spoke.

"I think," he said, "that Prince Lestat has made an excellent point."

Marius nodded.

"So what you're saying," said Benji, "is that the Voice is a member of the tribe."

I laughed. "Well, yes!"

"And he's evil and we are evil," whispered Armand.

"That's not so!" said Benji. "We are not evil. You will never understand that. Never."

A change came over Seth. It was sudden. He rose to his feet and so did Sevraine and also Gregory.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Rhoshamandes. He's coming," said Seth. "He's drawing near."

"He's overhead, directly," said Gregory.

Marius rose to his feet with them.