Masks (31 page)

There was silence for a moment. Mircea didn’t know what she was thinking, but he was worried. About a whole list of things: the seeping blood from several of his deeper wounds, which was sapping his strength just when he needed it most. The sound of the wind from the garden, which had lessened enough that he had started to be able to hear the crowd through it. The fact that, if the officer hadn’t come by now, he probably wouldn’t. Although that might be just as well—for him.

Because Mircea had started to put things together.

Things like the fact that the senator’s symbol was not one cobra but three: a large one with two smaller ones flanking it on either side. Things like that story she’d told him on the day of the regatta: Had she been feeling something that sparked a long buried memory? Things like Marte’s quip about children and masters.

But mostly things about what he’d seen and heard the night before. All of which should have been impossible for him. It should have been impossible for anyone, except a member of the senator’s family.

Or someone who had recently ingested a large quantity of their blood.

Marte had been watching him, with a little smile. Now she tilted her head. “But then, why not suspect Auria?”

“Auria wasn’t the one cataloguing the remains of the storeroom. Auria wasn’t the one who interrupted Sanuito and me in the courtyard. Auria wasn’t even there. But you were. And he wouldn’t talk in front of you.”

“Mmm. True.”

“And then there was the fact of why you were there: to tell me to make sure that the senator bit me the next time we were together.”

“But Auria told you the same.”

“Because you reminded her to include it.”

Marte’s eyebrow raised. “Or perhaps she asked me to talk to you that night.”

“But that wouldn’t explain my reaction to your blood, would it?”

“Blood I gave you when I saved your life.”

“Yes, because you had to,” Mircea said viciously. “You couldn’t let your carrier die, not when it would be impossible to find another in time. I remember feeling positively drunk off your blood the next day, for several days. The low-level vampire you were pretending to be couldn’t have caused that sort of reaction. Even Auria—supposedly older than anyone else in the household—didn’t affect me like that. Didn’t come close. I felt perfectly normal after drinking from her.”

An eyebrow went up. “You call what happened at the senator’s last night normal?”

Mircea licked his lips, and came out with it. “No. But we both know why that was don’t we?”

“Do we?” The slight smile was back. “That day at the regatta, which was the day after
I
bit you, you saw nothing.”

“And you know that how?” he asked, before he could stop himself.

She laughed and leaned her head back against the wall.

“In any case, I wouldn’t have,” he said, wishing they could drop the pretense. “I hadn’t seen the sun for two years. It completely dazzled me. To the point that I barely noticed anything else.”

“But you were right next to the senator,” she murmured.

“Yes, so that she could shield me. I was inside her power from the time she woke me, just before the entertainment started. Of course I wouldn’t notice it—or anyone else’s through it. And I only started to notice auras last night after it began to be crowded. But I was on the roof at the regatta, where it was not at all crowded. . . .”

“And now? Are you still seeing them?”

The question was deceptively mild, but there was something in the tone. . . .

Or maybe Mircea was being paranoid. But considering the circumstances, he rather thought he’d err on the side of caution. And be very careful how he answered.

Or avoid it altogether.

“I’ve already answered some of your questions,” he said evenly. “You haven’t answered mine.”

Marte looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, but then smiled. “All right, then. After all, you’ve already heard one side. . . .

“I was like all the others: born into a slum in one of the richest cities in the world, which only made me feel poorer. Every day, fascinating people poured through the port of ports, come to trade, come to sightsee, come just to be able to say they’d seen it.”

“But not Venice,” Mircea said, and felt his mouth go dry.

Maybe he didn’t want his suspicions confirmed, after all.

“No, not Venice,” she said gently.

She leaned back against the wall, with a sigh. “So long ago, but I remember it so well, great Alexandria. Although to me, it was mostly just a beautiful slum. Without money or connections, its opportunities stayed well out of reach.

“Until one day, my father did a favor for some minor bureaucrat, and he returned it by getting me a job at the palace. Not a good job, mind you. Not a handmaiden’s job. But a job nonetheless. And being ambitious—ye gods, I was so ambitious in those days—I worked and schemed and flattered and cajoled, until I was assigned to the queen’s own apartments.

“I still cleaned floors and emptied chamber pots, but I did it for her.

“And, in time, I thought perhaps I would be given more responsibilities, a larger role, a good match. . . . I hoped for so many things. But there was war, and she went away. And when she came back, she was changed. Moody; mercurial. Laughing one minute and throwing things in anger the next. Letters were sent and received. I didn’t know what was in any of them, but I knew they displeased her, for her temper became . . . so much worse.

“She had a tomb made for herself, out in the desert. A lavish thing, more like a small palace. She moved us to it, me and Iras, her hairdresser, and Charmion, her handmaiden. And, for a while, she seemed happier. I thought things must be going well. The rumors that had been swirling around the city were bleak, but rumors lie. And she seemed so calm. . . .

“And then, one night, she asked for me. I hurried into my clothes, ran to her room, not knowing what to expect. Had there been news? Were we going back to the city? Had her charms ensnared yet another general, brought yet another Roman to his knees?”

“No,” Mircea said, remembering his history.

“No,” Marte agreed. “Not this time.

“This time, great Cleopatra had gambled and lost. Both her bid to lead the world, and her navy, at Actium. Our fleet had been routed, and Octavian, Caesar’s heir and the victor on the day, had offered her only her life. Not her kingdom, which was to become a province of Rome. Not her lover, who was condemned for treason to the new lord of Rome. Not even the son she’d had with old Julius, who was too much of a threat to Octavian’s ambitions. But her life.

“In exchange for walking in chains through the streets of Rome, humbled before the city she had once hoped to rule. Just another prisoner in his triumphal parade.”

“She refused.”

“Of course she refused. As Octavian had known she would. Had she accepted, she would have been assassinated at the first opportunity anyway, as her son would later be. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. She would die by her own hand, she had decided, but how to do it?”

“An asp,” Mircea said. “Or so the stories say.”

“The stories are wrong. It was poison she planned to take. I can attest to it personally, for what did the great queen want with me? Why, to test it, of course. To make sure the concoction she’d come up with was as painless as she thought.

“There were three of us there that night. The legends say two, because that’s all they found the next day, but there were three. And three different brews that she administered herself, in cups of wine. I don’t know if the others knew what was in them, but I didn’t. I had no idea.

“Until we started to die.

“I was the last. I don’t know what she gave me—I never knew. But it wasn’t painless. It felt like fire in my veins and it took a long time to finish the job. The others died, she prepared her own cup, and still I lingered. And thus saw the creature who came for her, in the darkest hours of the night, the one who had determined to cheat great Caesar of his prize.

“I heard what he whispered to her, as she lay dying from his bite. What he promised. Life, and power, and riches, all the things I’d ever wanted. Why do you suppose they think only queens are ambitious? Or that only queens want to live. . . .

“He Changed her, as I lay dying. Changed her, but never once looked at me. She was a prize, a jewel, a feather in his cap. And what was I?

“Nothing. But still I lived.

“And I lived after he was gone.

“I lived when all was still and morning was hours away and there was no one there to tell me to keep to my place. Not anymore. Not ever again.

“And so I dragged myself over to her. And I found the puncture wounds, the ones all the ancient stories mention, the ones that made them assume she was bitten by an asp. She wasn’t so stupid—asp bites are painful. She meant to die by gentler means.

“I meant not to die at all.

“And so I took it from her, the blood he’d given. I closed my mouth over the wound and I sucked it out, like the wine she’d given me. I drank it down until I could drink no more, until my head was spinning and my body was so light that it felt like I might fly away.

“I’m not sure what happened then. I remember thinking I had to get away, some instinct telling me to get underground, quickly. I only know that I woke days later, buried in the desert sand, alone and confused. And so very, very hungry.”

“You really did make yourself,” Mircea said, in disbelief.

“Yes, but in my ignorance, I had botched it. She had been Changed correctly, by a being who had done it a thousand times before. I had . . . improvised. It wouldn’t have worked at all with anyone else. It’s against every law we know. But his blood was so old, so rich, even then, even fifteen hundred years ago . . .”

“But she told me that
she
was your master—”

“She is nothing to me!” Marte snapped, face flushing. “Just as I was nothing to her! Merely someone to be used. But her blood had mixed with his; it was impossible to separate them. I took in both.”

“But you went to find her—”

“I went to kill her! By then I had found out the truth of what I was—and what I wasn’t. What I would never be. Vampires are nothing without family. But I could never have one. My bite was poison, even to my own kind. Something to do with the poison in my system when I was created, or an attribute I acquired from my Sire, or how I was made—I didn’t know.

“All I knew was that I would never be able to make children, or bind ones that others had made. And a vampire without a family is nothing. All those things he promised—power, riches, position—they only come with family. Alone, we are weak, poor,
nothing
. All my ambitions, all my hopes, everything came crashing down around me. I had eternity, yes. But an eternity of the same thing I’d known in life. And more than that, an eternity of being hunted, once the fine elders she took me to see realized what I was.”

“They knew?”

“Oh, yes,” Marte said fiercely. “She hadn’t recognized me. It had been less than a decade since she’d killed me, but she didn’t know who I was—or what I could do. I wasn’t important enough to remember, just some servant child. But they knew. My little ability had cropped up once or twice before, you see, when the master Changed someone, and his decision had always been the same.”

“They planned to kill you.”

She nodded. “I heard two of them speaking of it. How they had communicated with him, how he had ordered it. Mine is a rare gift, and a rare danger. He wouldn’t risk anyone around him with the power to hurt him.”

“So you ran.”

“Yes. And I’ve been running ever since.”

“Until you came to Venice.”

“Until I came to Venice. And gave my blood to a young man who has been seeing very strange things ever since. But who, I suspect, isn’t seeing them anymore.”

Marte slid sinuously off the table. Mircea moved back, but only to give himself more room. And he kept the sword up.

She smiled. “Aren’t your arms getting tired?”

“Vampire.”

“True. If only barely.”

“The same could be said of you,” he said, and watched it land.

“Be careful, Mircea.”

“Why? We both know you’re going to kill me—if you can. You have to, or you aren’t getting back down that hall.”

“If that was so important, I could have just stayed there.”

“No.” He shook his head. “You couldn’t. You’re not that powerful. In fact, since there is no possible way you didn’t hear me coming, I’d be willing to bet you only moved there right before I arrived.”

“Did you not hear what I just said? I’m
fifteen hundred
years old—”

“Yes, but still, not powerful. If you were, you’d have killed her before now. It doesn’t take fifteen centuries to get an opportunity. Unless, of course, your bite is all you have.”

“You had my blood! You felt my power—”

“But it manifests in odd ways, doesn’t it? In your bite; in your ability to hide your age. But not in raw power, Marte. Otherwise, why would you need me? Why would you need this whole farce? If you are as strong as that—” he gestured back at the still raging storm “—her guards wouldn’t matter!”

“But she would. I would have to get past them, and then take care of her—”

Mircea shook his head. “I don’t believe you. In a life as long as yours, you could amass a fortune—look at Martina! You could hire a mercenary army, if you had to, to take care of the guards. No, Marte. You haven’t gone after her because you couldn’t. Because your one great ability wouldn’t do you any good if you couldn’t touch her, and you knew you’d never get close.”

“I was close at her court! I could have taken her then—”

“Then why didn’t you?”

She didn’t say anything, but she moved, lightning fast, going for his throat.

And met a flash of steel that left a thin, bloody line across her cheek, before she jerked back.

“You know, I can see you at court,” he said, watching her dispassionately. “I can see you thinking it would be easy. Act the fool, tell them nothing, and wait for your time to strike. But it never came, did it? You could feel it, already, how fast she was gaining strength, how quickly she was outstripping you. You hated her, but you feared her, too. You could have risked it then. It might have worked, a full out assault when she wasn’t expecting it. But if it didn’t, you’d never get another chance.

“The same is true now.

“And while I may not be much of a vampire, you’ll find that I’m a damned good swordsman.”

“Noble blood will out,” Marte sneered. “But I don’t have to best you. You said it yourself; I only have to get close. And you’ve lost your protection, Mircea. Snakes are immune to their own bite, something in their blood assures it. And you had a great deal of mine. But that was a week ago. You aren’t immune any longer. Get out of the way, and I will let you live, since your miserable future seems so important to you. But she dies.”

“No.”

“No?” She laughed bitterly. “Ye gods! Always, some fool falls in love with her—”

“I’m not in love. Not with her.”

“There is another, then.”

“Yes.”

“Then why don’t you return to her? Go! Be with your lady—”

“I can’t be with her. I’ll never be with her, not now.”

“She’s human.”

“Yes.”

“Then gain strength enough to Change her, or bribe someone else to do it for you. There are ways—”

“And what do I have to offer her? A penniless, powerless vampire, with no future. Wasn’t that your assertion?”

“Then find someone else! Why die here defending a monster?”

“She isn’t a monster, and I have no intention of dying.”

“Isn’t a monster?” She gestured wildly. “What about the thousands who fell fighting for her ambition? Do you think everyone in those wars wanted to be there? Half of them were slaves, forced to fight—”

“I think that was a long time ago.”

“So it doesn’t
count?”

“No. It counts. And it weighs—heavily. I’ve done things in war I’m not proud of, because I was told to do them, trained from a young age to do them, to think that that was how a prince behaved. Told that winning would benefit everyone, and that if lives had to be lost in the process, it was the price that had to be paid.

“But I learned differently. Before death, and especially after. I grew to regret what I had done. As she has.”

“Is that what she told you? Is that the story of the hour?” She laughed. “That’s what she does, Mircea! She finds men’s weaknesses, and exploits them. She wasn’t a child when she did what she did, she was a woman grown—selfish, ambitious,
murderous.
Remember what she did to me? She killed me, took everything from me, from one who had done nothing except to serve her faithfully! And why? She used me like a dog—”

“As you did Sanuito?”

The eyes flashed, genuine anger showing for the first time. “That wasn’t the same thing! I had a life—”

“And perhaps his life was worth as much to him as yours is to you! Perhaps he had dreams, too. And ambitions, and hopes, and loves. But we’ll never know, will we? Because you decided, as she once decided, that only your life mattered. That everyone else lives to serve you, and when they are of no more use, they can be discarded like trash. But we’re not trash, Marte—we’re men. Whatever may have happened to us, we’re people, just the same. And you murdered him—”

“I explained that!”

“—just as she murdered you.”

“Yet you would kill me to save her! Why?”

“Because last night, I saw that murderous woman save a group of men she didn’t have to save. Because, for the last two weeks, I’ve had people who know a great deal more about this world than I do, telling me that she’s long been the only curb on her Sire’s behavior, the only one upholding the law he would flout, and doing it at the risk of her life. Because she’s here today, fighting him—”

“For her own sake! She wants the power, can’t you see that?”

“Perhaps she does. I’m more concerned with what she’ll do with it. And I think there’s a good chance she’ll be a better ruler, this time around.”

“Why? Because she fucked you?”

“No. Because she’s out there, facing him according to our laws, when she didn’t have to be. If you can order an assassination, so could she. And I doubt she’d have made the ham job of it her servant did. But if she did that, she’d be no better than the consul is, using the law when it suits her and flouting it when it does not.

“I wouldn’t serve a queen like that. But I will serve her.”

“You won’t,” Marte sneered. “You’ll just be another in a long line of idiots—”

Mircea spun and clashed swords with someone behind him.

“—who died for her!”

Mircea had to spin out of the clash quickly, because Marte went for him again at the same time. And was almost decapitated by the other sword in the process, which came down onto the tabletop hard enough to rend it in two. “Get out of the way!” the officer told her. “I’ll deal with this.”

Marte got out of the way.

“You’re late,” she told him, circling around to the side.

“Sorry about that.” The officer smiled at Mircea. “Had to get another sword.”

No wonder Marte had been so willing to talk,
Mircea thought, furious. They’d both been waiting for the same man . . .

Who attacked again, using his much greater strength to his advantage. Or trying to. But Mircea hadn’t been bragging earlier; he’d practically been born with a sword in his hand, his father had seen to that. And the battlefield hones even sharp reflexes to a knife-edged sheen.

At least it does if you want to survive.

So half the hammer blows didn’t land, and most of the rest were repelled. But a few got through, because a few always get through: nicks on Mircea’s shoulder and hand; a more serious cut on his thigh; torn muscles from countering the sheer power of those blows. Whereas his best efforts in return involved a ripped shirt and a small wound to the man’s left arm, which healed almost before he’d finished cutting it.

And Mircea was getting tired.

He hadn’t fed before he left the house, not expecting to have to fight, and desperate to get here before the battle began. But that, combined with the blood loss from his earlier wounds, had already sapped him. He wasn’t going to be able to keep this up for long.

Just as bad was the fact that the battle in the courtyard was winding down. He could tell it in the sounds of the crowd, now clearly audible again. He could tell it from the house, which had quieted, with no more shuddering blows. He could tell it from Marte’s face, glimpsed in instances between ducks and dodges: excited, eager, savage.

The senator was running out of time, and so was Mircea.

And then the officer grabbed one of the torches.

He must have noticed Mircea’s vulnerability to fire in the corridor earlier. Or maybe it was his fear he wanted. Because he laughed when Mircea stumbled back, closer to the cleaved table.

“Worried, infant?” He swung the torch in a wide arc, causing sparks to rain down onto the stones around him. “You should be. I’d sooner see you burn than put any more nicks in that sword.”

Mircea didn’t have an answer for that, and had frankly never seen the point of witty comments in battle anyway. He didn’t want to impress the man; he wanted to kill him, before he tired of this game and just drained Mircea where he stood. Or where he stumbled back, having almost tripped over something.

Something that cracked slightly under his heel.

He didn’t look down. He didn’t have to. There was only one thing capable of cracking in the entire room, other than his bones. An example of exquisite workmanship that might do him no good at all, since the officer had seemed pretty impervious before.

But there was only one way to find out.

Another deliberate stagger, a toe under a delicate glass lantern, an upward fling, just as the man made another of those fiery slashes—

And, no, it seemed that older vampires weren’t impervious to fire, after all.

The cesendello hit the officer dead center of the chest, exploding in a burst of expensive glass and gleaming oil, and the sparks he was slinging around did the rest. That and vampire flammability. The whole top half of the man’s body went up like a human torch, in an audible
whoosh
that had the hair on the back of Mircea’s neck raising in horror, and his feet stumbling back.

He’d seen men burning on the battlefield, and found it a disturbing sight. But it had been nothing like this. A man on fire had time to put it out. To drop to the ground, to roll in the sand, to possibly save himself.

A vampire did not.

At least, one caught off guard did not, and once he was aflame, the instinctive panic of their kind gripped him, too hard for rational thought. But fury isn’t rational. And the officer rushed at Mircea, body suffused with running flames, face set in a snarl that was mostly bones and gaping fangs, because the skin and flesh had already burnt away, hands reaching—

And then Mircea threw a chair, the only defense he had to keep from touching the creature, and jumped back.

And thereby missed the explosion when it connected.

Burning, crisping, already-turning-to-ash-as-they-fell body parts exploded everywhere, in a gory rain that Mircea thought he would remember as long as he lived.

Which wouldn’t be long, he realized, as he was knocked to the floor by a smaller, but no less deadly, opponent.