“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.

“What is it?” she asked.

He drew a piece of paper out of his jacket and he handed it to her across the table. It was fine stationery folded in half and in half again.