“Why does she have to leave?” Gremt asked me. “Why can’t she stay? Gregory begged her to stay and so did Seth and so did Teskhamen. After you left last night they offered her the moon. Gregory said he would build whatever laboratories she wanted in Paris, that she could have whole floors of one of his buildings, that no one would ever pry into what she did. But she said no, that they had to go off, come to terms with one another, get to know one another. What if we never see any of them again?”

“Now that might be the very best thing that could ever happen to us,” I said. “But what’s to stop you from going with her?”

“But that’s just it. She won’t tell anyone where she’s headed. She kept repeating, ‘Not now, not yet, not now.’ ”

“Maybe she has to test us, Gremt,” I said. “Maybe she has to make certain that we aren’t playing with her, that we will let her go. And we have to meet the test. If we don’t, everything we told them about kindred loyalty is a lie.”

He didn’t answer. “I’m spent,” he whispered. “I have to find my bed and lie down.”

Of course. I’d taken enough blood to knock a mortal down to the threshold of death.

I helped him to his feet again and gestured to Cyril. “Take him to his rooms,” I said. “He needs to sleep now. Get him anything that he wants.”

Without a word Cyril took Gremt in hand.

It seemed the music had risen a notch in volume. Something radiant and inviting was standing in front of me. It was my Rose, her long full burgundy skirts swirling around her, feet in dagger heels and jeweled straps.

“Father, dance with me,” she said. Her teeth were white against her red lips. I couldn’t refuse. And suddenly she was leading me in great circles all through the shifting crowd, and we were dancing faster than I’d ever danced. I had to laugh. I couldn’t stop laughing. The blood of Gremt had quickened me. All around us people were bowing and applauding. Rose sang the long monosyllabic chant of Notker’s singers, and the orchestra seemed to swell in volume or size. This is our place, I thought, our ballroom, our home. We, who have always been despised, we who have always been loathed, we who have always been condemned—this is our Court.

Round and round the floor we went, and I saw nothing but Rose’s upturned face, and her red lips and her glowing eyes.

Hope…that you’ll get us all through this.