really a woman now, was she? Any more than I was a man. For one silent second the horror of it all bled through.
"Come, I want to take to the roofs again," she said. "I want to go to the boulevard du Temple. I should like to see the theater, the one that you purchased and then shut up. Will you show that to me?" She was studying me as she asked this.
"Of course," I said. "Why not?"
We had two hours left of the endless night when we finally returned to the Ile St. Louis and stood on the moonlit quais. Far down the paved street I saw my mare tethered where I'd left her. Perhaps she had gone unnoticed in the confusion that must have followed our departure.
We listened carefully for any sign of Nicki or Roget, but the house appeared deserted and dark.
"They are near, however," she whispered. "I think somewhere further down ... "
"Nicki's flat," I said. "And from Nicki's flat someone could be watching the mare, a servant posted to watch in case we came back."
"Better to leave the horse and steal another," she said.
"No, it's mine," I said. But I felt her grip on my hand tighten.
Our old friend again, the presence, and this time it was moving along the Seine on the other side of the island and toward the Left Bank.
"Gone," she said. "Let's go. We can steal another mount."
"Wait, I'm going to try to get her to come to me. To break the tether."
"Can you do that?"
"We'll see." I concentrated all my will on the mare, telling her silently to back up, to pull loose from the bond holding her and come.
In a second, the horse was prancing, jerking at the leather. Then she reared and the tether broke.
She came clattering towards us over the stones, and we were on her immediately, Gabrielle leaping up first and I right behind her, gathering up what was left of the rein as I urged the horse to go into a dead run.
As we crossed the bridge I felt something behind us, a commotion, the tumult of mortal minds.
But we were lost in the black echo chamber of the Ile de la City.
When we reached the tower, I lighted the resin torch and took her down with me into the dungeon. There was no time now to show her the upper chamber.
Her eyes were glassy and she looked about herself sluggishly as we descended the screw stairs. Her scarlet clothes gleamed against the dark stones. Ever so slightly she recoiled from the dampness.
The stench from the lower prison cells disturbed her, but I told her gently it was nothing to do with us. And once we had entered the huge burial crypt, the smell was shut out by the heavy iron-studded door.
The torchlight spread out to reveal the low arches of the ceiling, the three great sarcophagi with their deeply graven images.
She did not seem afraid. I told her that she must see if she could lift the stone lid of the one she chose for herself. I might have to do it for her.
She studied the three carved figures. And after a moment's reflection, she chose not the woman's sarcophagus but the one with the knight in armor carved on the top of it. And slowly she pushed the stone lid out of place so she could look into the space within.
Not as much strength as I possessed but strong enough.
"Don't be frightened," I said.
"No, you mustn't ever worry on that account," she answered softly. Her voice had a lovely frayed sound to it, a faint timbre of sadness. She appeared to be dreaming as she ran her hands over the stone.
"By this hour," she said, "she might have already been laid out, your mother. And the room would be full of evil smells and the smoke of hundreds of candles. Think how humiliating it is, death. Strangers would have taken off her clothes, bathed her, dressed her -- strangers seen her emaciated and defenseless in the final sleep. And those whispering in the corridors would have talked of their good health, and how they have never had the slightest illness in their families, no, no consumption in their families. `The poor Marquise,' they would have said. They would have been wondering, did she have any money of her own? Did she leave it to her sons? And the old woman when she came to collect the soiled sheets, she would have stolen one