Cover

Title Page

Prince Lestat

The Vampire Chronicles #11

Anne Rice

Contents

Cover

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Blood Genesis

Blood Argot

Part I
THE VAMPIRE LESTAT

1
The Voice

2
Benji Mahmoud

3
Fareed and Seth

4
Trouble in the Talamasca and in the Great Family

Part II
THE OPEN HIGHWAY THROUGH THE SAVAGE GARDEN

5
The Story of Rose

6
Cyril

7
The Story of Antoine

8
Marius and the Flowers

9
The Story of Gregory

10
Everard de Landen

11
Gremt Stryker Knollys

12
Lestat
The Jungles of the Amazon

13
Marius
Reunion on the Brazilian Shore

14
Rhoshamandes and Benedict

15
Lestat
Be It Ever So Humble

16
Fareed
Moment of Decision

17
Gregory
Trinity Gate
Shall We Dance?

18
Lestat
Sevraine and the Caves of Gold

19
Rhoshamandes
Murder Most Foul

Part III
RAGNARÖK IN THE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

20
Rose
In the Topless Towers of Midtown

21
Rhoshamandes
The Devil’s Gambit

22
Gregory
Trinity Gate
Inheriting the Wind

23
Lestat
In the Multitude of Counselors

24
Lestat
He Who Cuts the Knot

25
Lestat
The Garden of Love

26
Lestat
Hostages to Fortune

27
Lestat
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Part IV
THE PRINCIPALITY OF DARKNESS

28
Lestat
The Prince’s Speech

29
Lestat
Pomp and Circumstance

30
Cyril
The Silence Heard Round the World

31
Rose
The People of the Moon and Stars

32
Louis
“Its Hour Come at Last”

Appendix 1
Characters and Their Chronology

Appendix 2
An Informal Guide to the Vampire Chronicles

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

TO

Stan Rice, Michele Rice, Christopher Rice

and

Karen O’Brien and Cynthia Rice Rogers

Victoria Wilson

Lynn Nesbit

Eric Shaw Quinn

Suzanne Marie Scott Quiroz

and

The People of the Page

and to my muses,

Mary Fahl

and

Jon Bon Jovi

Epigraph

From my stone pillow I have dreamed dreams of the mortal world above. I have heard its voice, its new music, as lullabies as I lie in my grave. I have envisioned its fantastic discoveries, I have known its courage in the timeless sanctum of my thoughts. And though it shuts me out with its dazzling forms, I long for one with the strength to roam it fearlessly, to ride the Devil’s Road through its heart.

—Allesandra,
yet unnamed in
The Vampire Lestat

Old truths and ancient magic, revolution and invention, all conspire to distract us from the passion that in one way or another defeats us all.

And weary finally of this complexity, we dream of that long-ago time when we sat upon our mother’s knee and each kiss was the perfect consummation of desire. What can we do but reach for the embrace that must now contain both Heaven and Hell: our doom again and again and again.

—Lestat
in The Vampire Lestat

In the flesh all wisdom begins. Beware the thing that has no flesh. Beware the gods, beware the idea, beware the devil.

—Maharet to Jesse
in The Queen of the Damned

Blood Genesis

In the beginning were the spirits. They were invisible beings, heard and seen only by the most powerful sorcerers or witches. Some were thought to be malevolent; some were praised as good. They could find lost objects, spy upon enemies, and now and then affect the weather.