Taltos (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #3)(85)
Author: Anne Rice

“Aaah, you are, Mary Jane.”

“Not Rowan and Michael?”

“Absolutely not. They must now be perceived as the enemy. But there are things I have to ask Rowan, I have to know from her, but she doesn’t have to know what’s going on with me. I have to think out the purpose for my questions. As for Gifford and Alicia, they’re dead, and Ancient Evelyn is too sick, and Ryan is too dumb. And Jenn and Shelby are too innocent. And Pierce and Clancy are simply hopeless, and why ruin normal life for them? Have you ever put much of a premium on normal life?”

“Never.”

“I guess I’m depending upon you, then, Mary Jane. ’Bye now, Mary Jane.”

“Then what you’re saying is, you don’t want me to call Rowan or Michael in London and ask their advice.”

“Good heavens, no.” Six circles had formed, and the dance was beginning. She didn’t want to miss it. “You mustn’t do that, Mary Jane. You absolutely mustn’t. Promise me you won’t, Mary Jane. Besides, it’s the middle of the night in London and we don’t know what they’re doing, do we? God help them. God help Yuri.”

Mona was floating away. Ophelia, with the flowers in her hair, moving steadily downstream. The branches of the trees came down to stroke her face, to touch the water. No, she was dancing in the circle, and the dark-haired one was standing in the very center and trying to tell them, but everyone was laughing and laughing. They loved him, but they knew he had a habit of going on and on, with such foolish worries….

“Well, I am worried about you, Mona, I should tell you …”

Mary Jane’s voice was very far away. Flowers, bouquets of flowers. That explains everything, why I have dreamed gardens all my life, and drawn pictures of gardens with crayons. Why are you always drawing gardens, Mona, Sister Louise asked me. I love gardens, and First Street’s garden was so ruined until they cleared it and changed it, and now, all clipped and kept, it harbors the worst secret of all.

No, Mother, don’t …

No, the flowers, the circles, you talk! This dream was going to be as good as the last one. “Mona?”

“Let me go, Mary Jane.”

Mona could barely hear her; besides, it didn’t make any difference what she said.

And that was a good thing, too, because this was what came out of Mary Jane’s mouth, far, far away … before Mona and Morrigan began to sing.

“… you know, Mona Mayfair, I hate to tell you this, but that baby’s grown since you went to sleep out by the tree!”

Eighteen

“I THINK WE should leave now,” said Marklin.

He lay on Tommy’s bed, his head resting on his clasped hands, studying over and over the knots in the wood of the bed’s coffered canopy.

Tommy sat at the desk, feet crossed on the black leather ottoman. This room was larger than Marklin’s, with a southern exposure, but he had never resented it. He had loved his own room. Well, he was ready now to get out of it. He had packed everything of importance in one suitcase, and hidden it under his own bed.

“Call it a premonition. I don’t want to stay here,” he said. “There’s no reason to stay longer.”

“You’re being fatalistic and a bit silly,” said Tommy.

“Look, you’ve wiped the computers. Stuart’s quarters are absolutely impenetrable, unless we want to risk breaking in the doors, and I don’t like being under a curfew.”

“The curfew is for everyone, may I remind you, and if we were to leave now, we wouldn’t make it to the door without a dozen questions. Besides, to walk out before the memorial service would be blatantly disrespectful.”

“Tommy, I can’t endure some tenebrious ceremony in the small hours of the morning, with a lot of preposterous speeches about Anton and Aaron. I want to go now. Customs; rituals. These people are fools, Tommy. It’s too late to be anything but frank. There are back stairs; there are side stairs. I’m for leaving here immediately. I have things on my mind. I have work to do.”

“I want to do what they asked us to do,” said Tommy, “which is what I intend to do. Observe the curfew they have asked us to observe. And go down when the bell is sounded. Now, please, Marklin, if you have nothing insightful or helpful to say, be quiet, will you?”

“Why should I be quiet? Why do you want to stay here?”

“All right, if you must know, we may have a chance during the memorial, or whatever it is, to find out where Stuart is keeping Tessa.”

“How could we find out that?”

“Stuart’s not a rich man, Marklin. He’s bound to have a home somewhere, a place we’ve never seen, some ancestral manse or something. Now, if we play our cards right, we can ask a few questions about this subject, out of concern, of course, for Stuart. Have you got a better idea?”

“Tommy, I don’t think Stuart would hide Tessa in a place that was known to be his home. He’s a coward, perhaps, a melodramatic lunatic even, but he’s not stupid. We are not going to find Stuart. And we are not going to find Tessa.”

“Then what do we do?” asked Tommy. “Abandon everything? With what we know?”

“No. We leave here. We go back to Regent’s Park. And we think. We think about something far more important to us now than anything the Talamasca can offer.”

“Which is?”

“We think, Tommy, about the Mayfair witches. We go over Aaron’s last fax to the Elders. And we study the File, we study it closely for every clue as to which of the clan is most useful for our purposes.”

“You’re going too fast,” said Tommy. “What do you mean to do? Kidnap a couple of Americans?”

“We can’t discuss it here. We can’t plan anything. Look, I’ll wait till the damned ceremony starts, but then I’m leaving. I’m stepping out at the first opportunity. You can come later if you like.”

“Don’t be stupid,” said Tommy. “I don’t have a car. I have to go with you. And what if Stuart’s at the ceremony? Have you thought of that?”

“Stuart’s not coming back here. He has better sense. Now, listen, Tommy. This is my final decision. I’ll stay for the beginning of the ceremony, I’ll pay my respects, chat with a few of the members, that sort of thing. And then I’m out of here! And on, on to my rendezvous with the Mayfair witches, Stuart and Tessa be damned.”

“All right, I’ll go with you.”