I heard his answer loud and clear and I was certain the others heard it too. If Louis and my mother could not hear it from me, they heard it from all the others who had heard it in my mind.

I would never do harm to you. You love me. You loved me when no one else did.

“That’s true,” I said. “I gave you my body willingly. But who are these people? Are they your people?”

I don’t know. I don’t know who they are. And I don’t know what I am, but they know what I am, don’t they? Let them come.

Silence once more.

“Well, then,” I said. “Go on the radio and give them a number by which they can reach us now.”

Armand rose at once and went off, presumably to find Benji in his studio.

“There is one thing more that must be done immediately,” said Marius.

“And what’s that?” I asked.

Allesandra began to weep again. But Marius ignored her.

“Rhoshamandes cannot be allowed to live,” said Marius. “We all know this and we knew it last year after he slew Maharet. You must proscribe him now! And let those who wish destroy him.”

“Become a virtual Sulla is what you mean! Proscribe! Is that what I’m to be in the time I have left, a dictator who proscribes! I won’t. The voice of Amel misled Rhoshamandes! The voice of Amel drove him to kill Maharet. And I will not go back on my word to him. Listen, we can get these creatures to come to us. It’s simple. I don’t care how many human elves or apprentices Rhosh has in this world, he doesn’t control the radio phone line.”

“Gregory, Seth, Teskhamen, and I can do it,” Marius said. “We can overpower him and destroy him.”

“No,” I said. I sat back. I shook my head. “No! It’s wrong. Rhoshamandes is thousands of years old. He’s seen things, he knows things….You don’t do it with my blessing, and if you do it, you don’t want a prince in me, you want a figurehead. And frankly, I think that’s what you’ve always wanted. And you would be the ruler here, Marius, not me. You do this and you become the Prince. You begin your reign when he dies.”

Spasm in my neck. Spasm in my temples. My right hand cramped suddenly. Amel was trying to make it jump. I looked down as if I were in my thoughts but I wasn’t. I was trying to defeat his move to control my hand. And when I looked up again, I saw the eyes of all at the table were fixed on me. But only Gregory, Fareed, Seth, and Marius seemed aware of what was going on. Seth was staring at my hand. Add Gremt to that. Gremt was staring at my hand as well.