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Marius turned back and sat down again on the bench. But he could scarcely follow what they were saying. He was thinking of all those intimate whispers of the Voice, all that eerie eloquence, that searching to strike the right pitch.

"The ever-increasing young ones weaken it," said Teskhamen. "Proliferation of the Blood ultimately weakens it. That is my guess, but it is only a guess. I suppose as a scholar I should say that is my working hypothesis. Amel has limits, though what they are no one knows. Gremt and Amel knew each other in the spirit realm in ways that cannot be described.

"Gremt is a powerful spirit now in the body he's made for himself, drawn to himself through some form of etheric magnetism. Oh, after all these centuries the Talamasca knows no more about the science of the supernatural than before. I suspect the blood drinker doctor, Fareed, already has learned infinitely more than we have. We approached the data empirically and historically. He approaches it scientifically."

Marius said nothing. He knew of Fareed and Seth, yes. David Talbot had told him of Fareed and Seth. But he had never laid eyes on either. He had assumed, wrongly, that Maharet would never tolerate their foray into hard science. But in truth, he had not himself been terribly interested. He had had his own reasons for choosing to live away from other blood drinkers with only Daniel for a companion. Daniel had spoken gently a number of times of wanting to approach Fareed and Seth, but Marius had never taken the matter up in a serious way.

"Whatever the case," Teskhamen went on, "these invisible bodies have limits, and Amel has limits. He is not, as the ancient witches supposed, a thing of infinite size. Invisible does not mean infinite. And I think now he resents the drain upon his body. It--he--would limit the population, and how severely no one can know."

"And no one can know that he has always been unconscious," said Marius. He was remembering many things, so many things. "What if two thousand years ago," he asked, "it was Amel who put the wicked elder of Alexandria up to abandoning the Mother and the Father in the sun? He knew, somehow, on some level, that the Mother and Father would survive, but that all the young ones out there would burn, and ones of your age would suffer as you did. What if Amel knew?"

"And when Akasha awakened," asked Daniel, "when she went after Lestat. Was that Amel's doing as well?"

"That we can't know," said Teskhamen. "But I wager he comes to consciousness more often and more strongly when there is no fierce mind in the host body to contest his own churning thoughts."

Churning. That seemed a perfect word for it, Marius agreed. That was a perfect word for his own ruminations. He was seeking to remember so many things, moments over the centuries when he had drunk Akasha's blood, been visited by visions he had thought to come from her. But what if they had not come from her? What if they had come from Amel?

"So that's its goal?" said Daniel. "I mean his goal. Is it to confine us to a small population?"

"Oh, I think he dreams of much-greater accomplishments than that," said Marius. "Can anyone know what his ultimate purpose might be?"

"He rages," said Daniel. "When he's gotten into my head, he's raged."

Marius shuddered. He had so hoped somehow this would all pass without his active acknowledgment, that somehow his time of holding the survival of the tribe in his hands was past. Had he not cared for the Mother and Father for two millennia? But he knew now he could not remain on the sidelines any longer.

"What do you want us to do?" asked Daniel.

"Join Louis and Armand and Benji as soon as you can. Whatever happens, you, the blood drinkers enlivened by this thing and dependent upon it, must come together and be prepared to act. Go to them now. If you go, others will go."

"And you're not one of us?" Marius asked. "You are not coming yourself?"

"I am and I am not. I chose the path of the Talamasca long ago, and that was a path to observe but never to intervene."

"I don't see that that old vow much matters now," said Marius.

"My friend, think on what you're saying," said Teskhamen. "I gave my life into the hands of Gremt, and I have given it since to him and to my fellow Elders of the Talamasca. I'm the only blood drinker among them. How can I walk away from them now?"

"But why should you have to walk away?" Marius insisted. "Why won't you help us? You said yourself that Gremt came into the physical realm to watch this thing, Amel."

"And what if it is Gremt's decision that the body in which Amel resides must be destroyed?" asked Daniel. He spoke calmly, reasonably, as if he had no fear. "I mean last time it was the soul of Akasha that was condemned to perish, but not this thing that animated her. If this thing is condemned, then we all die."

"Ah, but it was not the Talamasca that condemned Akasha's body and soul to death," said Teskhamen. "It was Mekare who slew her, and Mekare and her twin who removed the Sacred Core. We ourselves made no decision."

"Because you didn't have to," said Daniel. "Isn't that so?"

Teskhamen shrugged. He made a little gesture of agreement with his hands.

"And now, you may come to a decision, that's what you're telling us," said Daniel. "You and Gremt and Hesketh and whoever else is with you, if there are other spirit elders with you--you may decide that you think Amel himself should be destroyed."

"I don't know," said Teskhamen softly. "I only know that I stand with Gremt."

"Even if you perish? Or are you certain yourself to return the way Hesketh returned?"

Teskhamen put up his hands again but this time defensively. "Daniel," he said gently. "I honestly do not know."

Marius went silent. He was reaching for courage, true courage to say that if this is what must happen, I will support it, but he did not quite have that courage. His mind wanted possibilities, it wanted some chance of containing or controlling this Voice that did not involve the death of all that he, Marius, was and knew.

"It slays only blood drinkers," he said. "Why should it perish for this? Even now, it's made no real destructive incursion into the world."