Rice, Anne - Vampire Chronicles 6 - Vampire Armand

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1、THE VAMPIRE ARMANDTHE VAMPIRE CHRONICLESANNE RICEJesus,speaking to Mary Magdalene:Jesus saith unto her,Touch me not;for I am not yet ascended to myFather:but go to my brethren,and say unto them,I ascend unto myFather,and your Father;and to my God,and your God.THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST.JOHN 20:17PAR

2、T 1BODY and BLOODTHEY SAID a child had died in the attic.Her clothes had been discoveredin the wall.I wanted to go up there,and to lie down near the wall,andbe alone.Theyd seen her ghost now and then,the child.But none of thesevampires could see spirits,really,at least not the way that I couldsee th

3、em.No matter.It wasnt the company of the child I wanted.It wasto be in that place.Nothing more could be gained from lingering near Lestat.Id come.Id fulfilled my purpose.I couldnt help him.The sight of his sharply focused and unchanging eyes unnerved me,andI was quiet inside and full of love for tho

4、se nearest me-my humanchildren,my dark-haired little Benji and my tender willowy Sybelle-butI was not strong enough just yet to take them away.I left the chapel.I didnt even take note of who was there.The whole convent was nowthe dwelling place of vampires.It was not an unruly place,or aneglected pl

5、ace,but I didnt notice who remained in the chapel when Ileft.Lestat lay as he had all along,on the marble floor of the chapel infront of the huge crucifix,on his side,his hands slack,the left handjust below the right hand,its fingers touching the marble lightly,asif with a purpose,when there was no

6、purpose at all.The fingers of hisright hand curled,making a little hollow in the palm where the lightfell,and that too seemed to have a meaning,but there was no meaning.This was simply the preternatural body lying there without will oranimation,no more purposeful than the face,its expression almostd

7、efiantly intelligent,given that months had passed in which Lestat hadnot moved.The high stained-glass windows were dutifully draped for him beforesunrise.At night,they shone with all the wondrous candles scatteredabout the fine statues and relics which filled this once sanctified andholy place.Littl

8、e mortal children had heard Mass under this high covedroof;a priest had sung out the Latin words from an altar.It was ours now.It belonged to him-Lestat,the man who laymotionless on the marble floor.Man.Vampire.Immortal.Child of Darkness.Any and all are excellentwords for him.Looking over my shoulde

9、r at him,I never felt so much like a child.Thats what I am.I fill out the definition,as if it were encoded inme perfectly,and there had never been any other genetic design.I was perhaps seventeen years old when Marius made me into a vampire.I had stopped growing by that time.For a year,Id been five

10、feet sixinches.My hands are as delicate as those of a young woman,and I wasbeardless,as we used to say in that time,the years of the sixteenthcentury.Not a eunuch,no,not that,most certainly,but a boy.It was fashionable then for boys to be as beautiful as girls.Onlynow does it seem something worthwhi

11、le,and thats because I love theothers-my own:Sybelle with her womans breasts and long girlish limbs,and Benji with his round intense little Arab face.I stood at the foot of the stairs.No mirrors here,only the highbrick walls stripped of their plaster,walls that were old only forAmerica,darkened by t

12、he damp even inside the convent,all textures andelements here softened by the simmering summers of New Orleans and herclammy crawling winters,green winters I call them because the treeshere are almost never bare.I was born in a place of eternal winter when one compares it to thisplace.No wonder in s

13、unny Italy I forgot the beginnings altogether,andfashioned my life out of the present of my years with Marius.I dontremember.It was a condition of loving so much vice,of being soaddicted to Italian wine and sumptuous meals,and even the feel of thewarm marble under my bare feet when the rooms of the

14、palazzo weresinfully,wickedly heated by Mariuss exorbitant fires.His mortal friends.human beings like me at that time.scoldedconstantly about these expenditures:firewood,oil,candles.And forMarius only the finest candles of beeswax were acceptable.Everyfragrance was significant.Stop these thoughts.Me

15、mories cant hurt you now.You came here for areason and now you have finished,and you must find those you love,youryoung mortals,Benji and Sybelle,and you must go on.Life was no longer a theatrical stage where Banquos ghost came againand again to seat himself at the grim table.My soul hurt.Up the sta

16、irs.Lie for a little while in this brick convent where thechilds clothes were found.Lie with the child,murdered here in thisconvent,so say the rumormongers,the vampires who haunt these hallsnow,who have come to see the great Vampire Lestat in his Endymion-likesleep.I felt no murder here,only the ten

17、der voices of nuns.I went up the staircase,letting my body find its human weight andhuman tread.After five hundred years,I know such tricks.I could frighten allthe young ones-the hangers-on and the gawkers-just as surely as theother ancient ones did it,even the most modest,uttering words toevince th

18、eir telepathy,or vanishing when they chose to leave,or nowand then even making the building tremble with their power-aninteresting accomplishment even with these walls eighteen inches thickwith cypress sills that will never rot.He must like the fragrances here,I thought.Marius,where is he?Before I h

19、ad visited Lestat,I had not wanted to talk very much toMarius,and had spoken only a few civil words when I left my treasuresin his charge.After all,I had brought my children into a menagerie of the Undead.Who better to safeguard them than my beloved Marius,so powerful thatnone here dared question hi

20、s smallest request.There is no telepathic link between us naturally-Marius made me,I amforever his fledgling-but as soon as this occurred to me,I realizedwithout the aid of this telepathic link that I could not feel thepresence of Marius in the building.I didnt know what had happened inthat brief in

21、terval when I knelt down to look at Lestat.I didnt knowwhere Marius was.I couldnt catch the familiar human scents of Benji orSybelle.A little stab of panic paralyzed me.I stood on the second story of the building.I leaned against thewall,my eyes settling with determined calm on the deeply varnishedh

22、eart pine floor.The light made pools of yellow on the boards.Where were they,Benji and Sybelle?What had I done in bringing themhere,two ripe and glorious humans?Benji was a spirited boy of twelve,Sybelle,a womanling of twenty-five.What if Marius,so generous in hisown soul,had carelessly let them out

23、 of his sight?Im here,young one.The voice was abrupt,soft,welcome.My Maker stood on the landing just below me,having come up the stepsbehind me,or more truly,with his powers,having placed himself there,covering the preceding distance with silent and invisible speed.Master,I said with a little trace

24、of a smile.I was afraid forthem for a moment.It was an apology.This place makes me sad.He nodded.I have them,Armand,he said.The city seethes withmortals.Theres food enough for all the vagabonds wandering here.Noone will hurt them.Even if I werent here to say so,no one woulddare.It was I who nodded n

25、ow.I wasnt so sure,really.Vampires are bytheir very nature perverse and do wicked and terrible things simply forthe sport of it.To kill anothers mortal pet would be a worthyentertainment for some grim and alien creature,skirting the fringeshere,drawn by remarkable events.Youre a wonder,young one,he

26、said to me smiling.Young one!Whoelse would call me this but Marius,my Maker,and what is five hundredyears to him?You went into the sun,child,he continued with the samelegible concern written on his kind face.And you lived to tell thetale.Into the sun,Master?I questioned his words.But I myself did no

27、twant to reveal any more.I did not want to talk yet,to tell of what hadhappened,the legend of Veronicas Veil and the Face of Our Lordemblazoned upon it,and the morning when I had given up my soul withsuch perfect happiness.What a fable it was.He came up the steps to be near me,but kept a polite dist

28、ance.Hehas always been the gentleman,even before there was such a word.Inancient Rome,they must have had a term for such a person,infalliblygood mannered,and considerate as a point of honor,and whollysuccessful at common courtesy to rich and poor alike.This was Marius,and it had always been Marius,i

29、nsofar as I could know.He let his snow-white hand rest on the dull satiny banister.He worea long shapeless cloak of gray velvet,once perfectly extravagant,nowdownplayed with wear and rain,and his yellow hair was long likeLestats hair,full of random light and unruly in the damp,and evenstudded with d

30、rops of dew from outside,the same dew clinging to hisgolden eyebrows and darkening his long curling eyelashes around hislarge cobalt-blue eyes.There was something altogether more Nordic and icy about him thanthere was about Lestat,whose hair tended more to golden,for all itsluminous highlights,and w

31、hose eyes were forever prismatic,drinking upthe colors around him,becoming even a gorgeous violet with theslightest provocation from the worshipful outside world.In Marius,I saw the sunny skies of the northern wilderness,eyes ofsteady radiance which rejected any outside color,perfect portals to hiso

32、wn most constant soul.Armand,he said.I want you to come with me.Where is that,Master,come where?I asked.I too wanted to becivil.He had always,even after a struggle of wits,brought such finerinstincts out of me.To my house,Armand,where they are now,Sybelle and Benji.Oh,dont fear for them for a second

33、.Pandoras with them.They are ratherastonishing mortals,brilliant,remarkably different,yet alike.Theylove you,and they know so much and have come with you rather a longway.I flushed with blood and color;the warmth was stinging andunpleasant,and then as the blood danced back away from the surface ofmy

34、 face,I felt cooler and strangely enervated that I felt anysensations at all.It was a shock being here and I wanted it to be over.Master,I dont know who I am in this new life,I said gratefully.Reborn?Confused?I hesitated,but there was no use stopping it.Dont ask me to stay here just now.Maybe some t

35、ime when Lestat ishimself again,maybe when enough time has passed-.I dont know forcertain,only that I cant accept your kind invitation now.He gave me a brief accepting nod.With his hand he made a littleacquiescent gesture.His old gray cloak had slipped off one shoulder.Heseemed not to care about it.

36、His thin black wool clothes were neglected,lapels and pockets trimmed in a careless gray dust.That was not rightfor him.He had a big shock of white silk at his throat that made his paleface seem more colored and human than it otherwise would.But the silkwas torn as if by brambles.In sum,he haunted t

37、he world in theseclothes,rather than was dressed in them.They were for a stumbler,notmy old Master.I think he knew I was at a loss.I was looking up at the gloom aboveme.I wanted to reach the attic of this place,the half-concealedclothing of the dead child.I wondered at this story of the dead child.I

38、 had the impertinence to let my mind drift,though he was waiting.He brought me back with his gentle words:Sybelle and Benji will be with me when you want them,he said.Youcan find us.We arent far.Youll hear the Appassionato when you wantto hear it.He smiled.Youve given her a piano,I said.I spoke of g

39、olden Sybelle.I hadshut out the world from my preternatural hearing,and I didnt want justyet to unstop my ears even for the lovely sound of her playing,which Ialready missed overly much.As soon as wed entered the convent,Sybelle had seen a piano andasked in a whisper at my ear if she could play it.I

40、t was not in thechapel where Lestat lay,but off in another long empty room.I had toldher it wasnt quite proper,that it might disturb Lestat as he laythere,and we couldnt know what he thought,or what he felt,or if hewas anguished and trapped in his own dreams.Perhaps when you come,youll stay for a wh

41、ile,Marius said.Youll like the sound of her playing my piano,and maybe then welltalk together,and you can rest with us,and we can share the house foras long as you like.I didnt answer.Its palatial in a New World sort of way,he said with a littlemockery in his smile.Its not far at all.I have the most

42、 spaciousgardens and old oaks,oaks far older than those even out there on theAvenue,and all the windows are doors.You know how I like it that way.Its the Roman style.The house is open to the spring rain,and thespring rain here is like a dream.Yes,I know,I whispered.I think its falling now,isnt it?Is

43、miled.Well,Im rather spattered with it,yes,he said almost gaily.Youcome when you want to.If not tonight,then tomorrow.Oh,Ill be there tonight,I said.I didnt want to offend him,notin the slightest,but Benji and Sybelle had seen enough of white-facedmonsters with velvet voices.It was time to be off.I

44、looked at him rather boldly,enjoying it for a moment,overcoming ashyness that had been our curse in this modern world.In Venice of old,he had gloried in his clothes as men did then,always so sharp andsplendidly embellished,the glass of fashion,to use the old gracefulphrase.When he crossed the Piazza

45、 San Marco in the soft purple ofevening,all turned to watch him pass.Red had been his badge of pride,red velvet-a flowing cape,and magnificently embroidered doublet,andbeneath it a tunic of gold silk tissue,so very popular in those times.Hed had the hair of a young Lorenzo de Medici,right from thepa

46、inted wall.Master,I love you,but now I must be alone,I said.You dontneed me now,do you,Sir?How can you?You never really did.InstantlyI regretted it.The words,not the tone,were impudent.And our mindsbeing so divided by intimate blood,I was afraid hed misunderstand.Cherub,I want you,he said forgivingl

47、y.But I can wait.Seems notlong ago I spoke these same words when we were together,and so I saythem again.I couldnt bring myself to tell him it was my season for mortalcompany,how I longed just to be talking away the night with littleBenji,who was such a sage,or listening to my beloved Sybelle play h

48、ersonata over and over again.It seemed beside the point to explain anyfurther.And the sadness came over me again,heavily and undeniably,ofhaving come to this forlorn and empty convent where Lestat lay,unableor unwilling to move or speak,none of us knew.Nothing will come of my company just now,Master

49、,I said.But youwill grant me some key to finding you,surely,so that when this timepasses.I let my words die.I fear for you!he whispered suddenly,with great warmth.Any more than ever before,Sir?I asked.He thought for a moment.Then he said,Yes.You love two mortalchildren.They are your moon and stars.C

50、ome stay with me if only for alittle while.Tell me what you think of our Lestat and whats happened.Tell me perhaps,if I promise to remain very quiet and not to press you,tell me your opinion of all youve so recently seen.You touch on it delicately,Sir,I admire you.You mean why did Ibelieve Lestat wh

51、en he said he had been to Heaven and Hell,you meanwhat did I see when I looked at the relic he brought back with him,Veronicas Veil.If you want to tell me.But more truly,I wish you would come andrest.I put my hand on top of his,marveling that in spite of all Idendured,my skin was almost as white as

52、his.You will be patient with my children till I come,wont you?Iasked.They imagine themselves so intrepidly wicked,coming here to bewith me,whistling nonchalantly in the crucible of the Undead,so tospeak.Undead,he said,smiling reprovingly.Such language,and in mypresence.You know I hate it.He planted

53、a kiss quickly on my cheek.It startled me,and then Irealized that he was gone.Old tricks!I said aloud,wondering if he were still near enough tohear me,or whether he had shut up his ears to me as fiercely as I shutmine to the outside world.I looked off,wanting the quiet,dreaming of bowers suddenly,no

54、t inwords but in images,the way my old mind would do it,wanting to liedown in garden beds among growing flowers,wanting to press my face toearth and sing softly to myself.The spring outside,the warmth,the hovering mist that would be rain.All this I wanted.I wanted the swampy forests beyond,but I wan

55、tedSybelle and Benji,too,and to be gone,and to have some will to carryon.Ah,Armand,you always lack this very thing,the will.Dont let theold story repeat itself now.Arm yourself with all thats happened.Another was nearby.It seemed so awful to me suddenly,that some immortal whom I didntknow should int

56、rude here on my random private thoughts,perhaps to makea selfish approximation of what I felt.It was only David Talbot.He came from the chapel wing,through the bridge rooms of the conventthat connect it to the main building where I stood at the top of thestaircase to the second floor.I saw him come

57、into the hallway.Behind him was the glass of the doorthat led to the gallery,and beyond that the soft mingled gold and whitelight of the courtyard below.Its quiet now,he said.And the attics empty and you know thatyou can go there,of course.Go away,I said.I felt no anger,only the honest wish to have

58、mythoughts unread and my emotions left alone.With remarkable self-possession he ignored me,then said:Yes,I am afraid of you,a little,but then terribly curious too.Oh,I see,so that excuses it,that you followed me here?I didnt follow you,Armand,he said.I live here.Ah,Im sorry then,I admitted.I hadnt k

59、nown.I suppose Im gladof it.You guard him.Hes never alone.I meant Lestat of course.Everyones afraid of you,he said calmly.He had taken up aposition only a few feet away,casually folding his arms.You know,its quite a study,the lore and habits of the vampires.Not to me,I said.Yes,I realize that,he sai

60、d.I was only musing,and I hope youllforgive me.It was about the child in the attic,the child they said wasmurdered.Its a tall story,about a very small little person.Maybe ifyour luck is better than that of everyone else,youll see the ghost ofthe child whose clothes were shut up in the wall.Do you mi

61、nd if I look at you?I said.I mean if youre going todip your beak into my mind with such abandon?We met some time agobefore all this happened-Lestat,the Heavenly Journey,this place.Inever really took stock of you.I was indifferent,or too polite,Idont know which.I was surprised to hear such heat in my

62、 voice.I was volatile,and itwasnt David Talbots fault.Im thinking of the conventional knowledge about you,I said.Thatyou werent born in this body,that you were an elderly man when Lestatknew you,that this body you inhabit now belonged to a clever soul whocould hop from living being to living being,a

63、nd there set up shop withhis own trespassing soul.He gave me a rather disarming smile.So Lestat said,he answered.So Lestat wrote.Its true,ofcourse.You know it is.Youve known since you saw me before.Three nights we spent together,I said.And I never reallyquestioned you.I mean I never really even look

64、ed directly into youreyes.We were thinking of Lestat then.Arent we now?I dont know,he said.David Talbot,I said,measuring him coldly with my eyes,DavidTalbot,Superior General of the Order of Psychic Detectives known as theTalamasca,had been catapulted into the body in which he now walks.Ididnt know w

65、hether I paraphrased or made it up as I went along.Hedbeen entrenched or chained inside it,made a prisoner by so many ropeyveins,and then tricked into a vampire as a fiery unstanchable bloodinvaded his lucky anatomy,sealing his soul up in it as it transformedhim into an immortal-a man of dark bronze

66、d skin and dry,lustrous andthick black hair.I think you have it right,he said with indulgent politeness.A handsome gent,I went on,the color of caramel,moving with suchcatlike ease and gilded glances that he makes me think of all thingsonce delectable,and now a potpourri of scent:cinnamon,clove,mildpeppers and other spices golden,brown or red,whose fragrances canspike my brain and plunge me into erotic yearnings that live now,morethan ever,to play themselves out.His skin must smell like cashew nu