It was shaking Everard to his bones that this was Magnus, the Magnus he’d known, yes, and the Magnus who’d made the Vampire Lestat, the fledgling who’d changed vampiric history. And yes, he could somehow see through this dazzle and gloss the Magnus that he had known, that wise and brilliant alchemist who’d begged Rhoshamandes so eloquently for the Blood, that healer who’d worked miracles amongst the poor, and studied the stars with a bronze telescope before ever Copernicus had become famous for it.

This was Magnus, beloved of Notker of Prüm, later brought into the Blood by Benedict quite deliberately and lovingly. Notker was alive now somewhere, of that Everard was certain. Rhoshamandes had said that Notker’s music would be heard in the snowy Alps when a thousand older blood drinkers had gone to their fiery graves.

Magnus a ghost now.

And the other? This Raymond Gallant, who had he been?

“Are you hearing the Voice now?” asked the ghost named Raymond Gallant.

“No,” Everard answered. “He went silent right before I saw you. He’s gone. I don’t know how I know, but he’s gone. I can sort of feel it when he’s aiming his magic beam at me, as if it were some kind of laser.”

He tried not to stare so much at these two. He glanced uneasily at Teskhamen.

“Has he never said anything to you about his ultimate purpose?” asked Teskhamen. “Has he offered you secrets?”

“Mostly threats,” replied Everard. “He’s so childish, so stupid. He tries to prey on my fears, my … my being so very alone of late. But I can see through his tricks. He speaks of unendurable pain, and near blindness, and that he is powerless to so much as lift a finger.”

“He said those things? Used those words?” asked Raymond Gallant.

“Yes, he says he’s helpless on his own, that he requires my loving assistance, my devotion, my trust in him. As if I should trust him! He says I have powers in me of which I don’t dream, and he talks of blood drinkers hiding in Italy and wants me to burn them out. He’s merciless.”

“But you don’t listen to him.”

“Why should I?” asked Everard. “And what can I do if this is one of the ancient ones and if he wants to destroy me? What can I do!”

“You do know how to hide from the Fire Gift, don’t you?” asked Teskhamen. “Your best way is to simply escape. Travel away from the spot as fast as you can, using the Cloud Gift if at all possible to simply get beyond the attacker’s range. If you can go swiftly down into the earth, that’s even better, because it cannot penetrate the earth. Whoever sends the Fire Gift has to see the victim, see the building, see the target. That’s the only way it can work.”