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"I see it, but it troubles me," he answered. "Why not take Gregory's offer to live and work in Paris? Why withdraw from us in such secrecy when we've all sworn that we are eternal friends?"

What was the Prince thinking now, the Prince who was smiling and looking off as he listened?

"If for no other reason than that I must answer their questions," said Kapetria, "as to all I've learned about us these last few years. And I have to study the new ones. I have to come to some sort of understanding of what they know and don't know, and just how knowledge is passed on, and what are the qualities of that knowledge in the new ones, and what might be their weaknesses. Look, I'm being completely open with you. My first obligation is to the colony, and I have to take the colony into seclusion."

The colony. This was the first time Derek had ever heard her use this word. Derek liked it, the word "colony." We are indeed a colony in this world, he mused.

"Why don't you stay close," asked the Prince, "and work along with Seth and Fareed? You know Fareed's eager for this. Okay, so some sparks flew last night, but it was nothing. He's eager to work with you. Think what you might achieve together, you and Seth and Fareed."

He even talked like a Hollywood cowboy gunslinger, thought Derek. He looks like a princely porcelain statue but talks like a gunslinger, with a low easy drawl. French can be beautiful when you speak it with a drawl, and his English was beautiful with the French accent and the drawl. But however he spoke, he seemed sincere, and this warmed Derek's heart. The Prince's smile was brighter than Marius's smile because the Prince smiled with his eyes and his lips, and Marius smiled mainly with his lips.

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"Surely we will achieve great things together," said Kapetria. "This is the future we all want. But we need our time alone before anything further happens. And I ask that you trust us. You do trust us, don't you?"

"Of course," said the Prince. "And what would we do if we didn't trust you? Do you think we'd try to force you to stay? You think we'd try to seal you up under the Chateau the way Roland kept Derek in Budapest? Of course not. It's only that I didn't expect you to leave so soon."

She wasn't budging, Derek thought. She wasn't giving them anything. And he wasn't sure why. Why didn't they remain here in the safety of the Chateau or better yet set up some new residence for themselves in Paris in the shadow of the great Gregory Duff Collingsworth? He'd offered to give them whatever they wanted. He'd promised resources beyond their dreams.

"And what will you do now with the information Amel gave you?" asked the Prince. "We've opened our doors to you. And the doors remain open. But I can't help but wonder what you will do. I wonder because of what I am and what I once was." Just like a cowboy, so straightforward.

"Please remember," said Kapetria. "We do see ourselves as the People of the Purpose--the new purpose we embraced in Atalantaya. We will never do anything to harm sentient life. We are like you. You are like us. We are alive, all of us. But we must have some time to ourselves."

"What about Amel?" asked the Prince. "You don't want to learn more directly from Amel?"

"How can we be learning directly from him," asked Kapetria, "when such communication risks causing you excruciating pain and that pain is felt by the tribe when you feel it?"

"The pain was before I drank from you," said the Prince. "I think we could attempt it again."

"There are other ways," said Marius. "Amel can speak through any blood drinker. He could speak through me. I'm centuries older and stronger than Lestat. Whatever pain I feel won't be felt by others." His voice had a coldness to it as he spoke, Derek thought, but the coldness didn't seem personal.

Kapetria was studying Marius with narrow eyes.

"What did you learn from Amel?" asked Kapetria. "Is Amel who you thought he was? Maybe I'm asking, what did you learn about Amel from me?"

Silence. Derek was surprised at their silence and their stillness. When they went quiet they resembled statues.

Then the Prince spoke, and for the first time, his voice sounded cold, too.

"I think Amel told you things in the blood," he said, "that I couldn't share."

Kapetria did not respond. She held his gaze and gave no hint of what was in her mind.

"I think he told you things perhaps that you didn't know," said the Prince. Then he shrugged, and sat up a little, and looked off again. "Naturally," he said, "I wonder why you want to leave so soon. I wonder what he told you. I wonder if we really are friends, kindred, fellow travelers of the millennia. How can I not?"

"I don't want to disappoint you," said Kapetria. Her voice had taken on a new and darker tone. But it wasn't hostile. Just more serious as if the admission had been drawn out of her by force. "Something tells me that you, both of you, think on your feet. I don't think on my feet."

"There are so many questions," said Lestat, "that you haven't asked. You haven't asked me if Amel remembers himself now, and that seems an immense question."

Kapetria regarded him carefully before answering.

"I know that he remembers himself now, Lestat," she said. "I knew last night in the blood. I knew he was our Amel and he remembers himself and he remembers us."

The Prince waited for a moment and then he nodded. "Very well," he said, looking off again and then back at her. "I can't change your mind, can I?"

"No," she said. "But will you believe in us? Will you trust us? Will you trust that we will be back soon?" This was as close as she had come to deep feeling, Derek figured.

Again, the Prince hesitated. "He has something else to tell you," said the Prince.