"Make it uncommon, " she said. She was growing impatient. "If you are evil, how can voluptuousness and debauchery be your enemies? Don't the world, the flesh, and the devil conspire equally against man?
" He shook his head, as if to say he did not care.
"You are more concerned with what is spiritual than with evil, " I interjected, watching him closely. "Is that not so? "
"Yes, " he said at once.
"But don't you see, the color of wine in a crystal glass can be spiritual, " I continued. ' "The look in a face, the music of a violin. A Paris theater can be infused with the spiritual for all its solidity.
There's nothing in it that hasn't been shaped by the power of those who possessed spiritual visions of what it could be. " Something quickened in him, but he pushed it away.
"Seduce the public with voluptuousness, " Gabrielle said. "For God's sake, and the devil's, use the power of the theater as you will. " "Weren't the paintings of your master spiritual? " I asked. I could feel a warming in myself now at the thought of it. "Can anyone look on the great works of that time and not call them spiritual? "
"I have asked myself that question, " Armand answered, "many times. Was it spiritual or was it voluptuous? Was the angel painted on the triptych caught in the material, or was the material transformed? "
"No matter what they did to you after, you never doubted the beauty and the value of his work, " I said. "I know you didn't. And it was the material transformed. It ceased to be paint and it became magic, just as in the kill the blood ceases to be blood and becomes life. " His eyes misted, but no visions came from him. Whatever road he traveled back in his thoughts, he traveled alone.
"The carnal and the spiritual, " Gabrielle said, "come together in the theater as they do in the paintings. Sensual fiends we are by our very nature. Take this as your key. " He closed his eyes for a moment as if he would shut us out.
"Go to them and listen to the music that Nicki makes, " she said. "Make art with them in the Theater of the Vampires. You have to pass away from what failed you into what can sustain you. Otherwise-there is no hope. " I wished she had not said it so abruptly, brought it so to the point. But he nodded and his lips pressed together in a bitter smile.
"The only thing really important for you, " she said slowly, "is that you go to an extreme. " He stared at her blankly. He could not possibly understand what she meant by this. And I thought it too brutal a truth to say. But he didn't resist it. His face became thoughtful and smooth and childlike again. For a long time he looked at the fire. Then he spoke:
"But why must you go at all? " he asked. "No one is at war with you now. No one is trying to drive you out. Why can't you build it with me, this little enterprise? " Did that mean he would do it, go to the others and become part of the theater in the boulevard? He didn't contradict me. He was asking again why couldn't I create the imitation of life, if that was what I wanted to call it, right in the boulevard? But he was also giving up. He knew I couldn't endure the sight of the theater, or the sight of Nicolas. I couldn't even really urge him towards it. Gabrielle had done that. And he knew that it was too late to press us anymore. Finally Gabrielle said:
"We can't live among our own kind, Armand. " And I thought, yes, that is the truest answer of all, and I don't know why I couldn't speak it aloud.
"The Devil's Road is what we want, " she said. "And we are enough for each other now. Maybe years and years into the future, when we've been a thousand places and seen a thousand things, we'll come back. We'll talk then together as we have tonight. " This came as no real shock to him. But it was impossible now to know what he thought. For a long time we didn't speak. I don't know how long we remained quiet together in the room. I tried not to think of Marius anymore, or of Nicolas either. All sense of danger was gone now, but I was afraid of the parting, of the sadness of it, of the feeling that I had taken from this creature his astonishing story and given him precious little for it in return. It was Gabrielle who finally broke the quiet. She rose and moved gracefully to the bench beside him.
"Armand, " she said. "We are going. If I have my way we'll be miles from Paris before midnight tomorrow night. " He looked at her with calm and acceptance. Impossible to know now what he chose to conceal.
"Even if you do not go to the theater, " she said, "accept the things that we can give you. My son has wealth enough to make an entrance into the world very easy for you. "
"You can take this tower for your lair, " I said. "Use it as long as you wish. Magnus found it safe enough. " After a moment, he nodded with a grave politeness, but he didn't say anything.
"Let Lestat give you the gold needed to make you a gentleman, " Gabrielle said. "And all we ask in return is that you leave the coven in peace if you do not choose to lead it. " He was looking at the fire again, face tranquil, irresistibly beautiful. Then again he nodded in silence. And the nod itself meant no more than that he had heard, not that he would promise anything.
"If you will not go to them, " I said slowly, "then do not hurt them. Do not hurt Nicolas. " And when I spoke these words, his face changed very subtly. It was almost a smile that crept over his features. And his eyes shifted slowly to me. And I saw the scorn in them. I looked away but the look had affected me as much as a blow.
"I don't want him to be harmed, " I said in a tense whisper.
"No. You want him destroyed, " he whispered back. "So that you need never fear or grieve for him anymore. " And the look of scorn sharpened hideously. Gabrielle intervened.
"Armand, " she said, "he is not dangerous to them. The woman alone can control him. And he has things to teach all of you about this time if you will listen. " They looked at each other for some time in silence. And again his face was soft and gentle and beautiful. And in a strangely decorous manner he took Gabrielle's hand and held it firmly. Then they stood up together, and he let her hand go, and he drew a little away from her and squared his shoulders. He looked at both of us.
"I'll go to them, " he said in the softest voice. "And I will take the gold you offer me, and I will seek refuge in this tower. And I will learn from your passionate fledgling whatever he has to teach me. But I reach for these things only because they float on the surface of the darkness in which I am drowning. And I would not descend without some finer understanding. I would not leave eternity to you without .
. . without some final battle. " I studied him. But no thoughts came from him to clarify these words.
"Maybe as the years pass, " he said, "desire will come again to me. I will know appetite again, even passion. Maybe when we meet in another age, these things will not be abstract and fleeting. I'll speak with a vigor that matches yours, instead of merely reflecting it. And we will ponder matters of immortality and wisdom. We will talk about vengeance or acceptance then. For now it's enough for me to say that I want to see you again. I want our paths to cross in the future. And for that reason alone, I will do as you ask and not what you want: I will spare your ill-fated Nicolas. " I gave an audible sigh of relief. Yet his tone was so changed, so strong, that it sounded a deep silent alarm in me. This was the coven master, surely, this quiet and forceful one, the one who would survive, no matter how the orphan in him wept. But then he smiled slowly and gracefully, and there was something sad and endearing in his face. He became the da Vinci saint again, or more truly the little god from Caravaggio. And it seemed for a moment he couldn't be anything evil or dangerous. He was too radiant, too full of all that was wise and good.