“I’m glad too,” I said. “But why did he?”

“They put it this way,” said Zenobia. “Some of them might not return from their visit to Rhoshamandes, so it was imperative that, if things went wrong, there be strong ones here, here to help you on your right and your left.” Such a sweet voice, speaking English with a heavy accent that gave it a distinctive charm.

“I see,” I said. “And Avicus?”

“Dancing,” she said with a quick smile. She made a graceful gesture with her small hand that meant “somewhere here.” She was as lovely as Marius had described her when he’d first encountered her in Constantinople so many centuries ago. And I found it especially enticing that she wore finely tailored men’s clothes—slim-waisted jacket with sequined lapels, tight shimmering pants, a silk shirt of brilliant turquoise.

We were turning in wild circles before I knew it, and then I was passed by her to the lovely brown-haired Chrysanthe in a graceful swirling white gown with diamonds on her breast that were blinding. The music was driving towards a frenzy.

“And from Gregory? Have you had any word?” I asked because surely her Blood Spouse would have let her know what he might be keeping from the rest of us.

“I’ve heard nothing,” she said. “But I’m not afraid. Yet I won’t rest easy till he returns. I wanted to go with them. But Gregory wouldn’t hear of it. None of them would hear of it.”

“I should be with them,” I said. But the others had been completely against it. Why wouldn’t Rhoshamandes on the precipice strike out at me and thereby seek to destroy all of us?

The dancing continued to be dizzyingly fast. I caught glimpses of Davis and Arjun playing instruments in the orchestra, Davis the oboe this time, and Arjun the violin, and there was Notker the Wise himself singing with his choir of male and female soprano voices, and Antoine conducting so fiercely it was a dance in itself.

There was Marius in his long red-belted tunic sitting on the sidelines in fast conversation with Pandora, and Gremt Stryker Knollys, the spirit incarnate, staring at me and watching my every move as David Talbot sat beside him, obviously talking to him, and leaving him unmoved. Gremt needing me, calling to me silently without a visible sign.

“Forgive me,” I said to Chrysanthe. “There are things I have to do.”

She nodded that she understood. But I held her hand as I motioned for David to come forward, and then I delivered her now into his gentlemanly arms. I headed in the direction of Gremt. And when Gremt saw this he rose and moved towards the open doors that led to a stone terrace. Did the young vampires think he was a vampire? Did the old vampires despise him because the Talamasca, their age-old stalker, had been founded by him? I could have spent every single night at Court talking to new blood drinkers, or encountering old ones who were forever arriving, it seemed, to put to rest the “exaggerated” rumors of their demise. Please, Quinn, my beloved Quinn, some night, if we have many nights left, come walking through these doors.