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fingers and regarded Marsh thoughtfully. "Just what were you figuring then, Abner?"

"One or two people," Marsh said. "I ain't the only one who's been suspicious, you know. And it could be you'll need more help than I can give you. I'll only talk to them I know I can trust. Hairy Mike, for one. And Mister Jeffers, he's damn smart and he's already been wonderin' over you. The rest don't need to know. Mister Albright is a mite too prim and godly to hear all this, and if you told Mister Framm it'd be all over the river inside of a week. The whole damn texas could burn off without Whitey Blake noticin', so long as his engines weren't bothered none. But Jeffers and Hairy Mike, they ought to know. They're good men, and you may need 'em."

"Need them?" Joshua said. "How is that, Abner?"

"What if one of your folks don't fancy that drink of yours?"

Joshua York's genial smile vanished abruptly. He stood up, walked across the cabin, and poured himself a drink: whiskey, neat. When he turned back he was still frowning. "Perhaps," he said. "I need to think on this. If they can truly be trusted... I have certain misgivings about the trip down the bayou."

For once, Valerie did not utter the expected protest. Marsh glanced at her, and saw that her lips were pressed tightly together, and in her eyes was something that might just have been the beginnings of fear. "What's wrong?" Marsh said. "Both of you look... queer."

Valerie's head snapped up. "Him," she said. "I asked you to turn back upriver. I would ask it again, if I thought either of you might listen. He is down there at Cypress Landing."

"Who?" Marsh asked, baffled.

"A bloodmaster," Joshua said. "Abner, understand that all my kind do not think as I do. Even among my own followers, well, Simon is loyal, Smith and Brown are passive, but Katherine-from the very beginning, I have felt the resentment in her. I think there is a darkness at the center of her, something that prefers the old ways, that grieves for the ship she missed and chafes under my domination. She obeys because she must. I am bloodmaster. But she does not like it. And the others, those we have taken aboard on the river-I am not sure of them. Except for Valerie and Jean Ardant, I trust none of them fully. Remember your warnings to me about Raymond Ortega? I share your misgivings about him. Valerie means nothing to him, so you were wrong in thinking jealousy a motive, yet otherwise right. To bring Raymond aboard at Natchez, I had to conquer him, as I conquered Simon so long ago in the Carpathians. With Cara de Gruy and Vincent Thibaut, there were other struggles. Now they follow me, because they must. It is the way of my people. Yet I wonder if some of them, at least, are not waiting. Waiting to see what will happen when the Fevre Dream steams down the bayou, and I come face to face with he who was master of them all.

"Valerie has told me much of him. He is old, Abner. Older than Simon or Katherine, older than any of us. His age itself disturbs me. Now he calls himself Damon Julian, but before that name he was Giles Lamont, the same Giles Lamont whom that wretched mulatto served for thirty futile years. I am told he has another human thrall now-"

"Sour Billy Tipton," Valerie said with loathing.

"Valerie is afraid of this Julian," Joshua York said. "The others also speak of him with fear, but sometimes with a certain loyalty as well. As bloodmaster, he took care of them. He gave them sanctuary, wealth, and feasts. They feasted on slaves. No wonder he chose to settle where he did."

Valerie shook her head. "Leave him, Joshua. Please. For me, if for no other reason. Damon will not welcome your coming, will not cherish the freedom you bring."

Joshua scowled in annoyance, "He still has others of our people with him. Would you have me abandon them as well? No. And you may be wrong about Julian. He has been in the grip of the red thirst for uncounted centuries, and I can soothe that fever."

Valerie crossed her arms, her violet eyes furious. "And if he will not be soothed? You do not know him, Joshua."

"He is educated, intelligent, cultured, a lover of beauty," York said stubbornly. "You said as much."

"He is strong as well."

"As with