Anne Rice - Servant of the Bones

“Shall I cap it off?” I asked. “By walking out of here?”

He drew himself up. His voice was shaky now. If it was not humility, it was some form of respect.

“There’s time for you to show me every trick you know, but for now, you must listen to me.”

“More interested in your schemes than seeing me vanish?” I asked.

“Alexander would be more interested in his own schemes, wouldn’t he? Everything is ready. Everything in place, and now you come, the right hand of God.”

“Don’t be so hasty. What God!”

“Ah, so you despise your origins and all the evil you’ve done, do you?”

“I do.”

“Well, then, you should welcome the world that I place in your hands. Oh, I see more by the moment. You are here to teach us after the Last Days, I see it.”

“What Last Days! When the hell are mortal men going to shut up about the Last Days! Do you know how many centuries ago men yammered on about the Last Days?”

“Ah, but I know the very dates of the Last Days,” he said calmly. “I’ve chosen them. I see no reason to delay in telling you the whole scheme. I see no reason not to make it all known. You recoil from me, deride me, but you’ll learn. You are a learning spirit, aren’t you?”

A learning spirit.

“Yes,” I said. I liked this concept.

I listened to the sound of steps in the passage. I thought I heard the mother’s voice, low and urgent, and I didn’t like it that she was still crying.

Coldly, I observed that his proximity to me did not matter. He could be one foot away or ten. I was just as strong. I was quite independent of him, which was perfect. As he watched, I covered my fingers with gold rings, and those fine stones I liked for rings, emeralds, diamonds, Eye of the Sea, or pearl, and ruby.

The mirrors were full of us. I would have bound my hair with a leather thong, and should have done it, but I didn’t care just now, and again, I felt my face, to be sure it was smooth as was his face, because for all my love of a long beard, I liked this naked skin better.

He walked around me. He took his steps silently and made a circle as if he could close me in this way, with my power. But he knew nothing of magic, circles, pentagrams.

I asked my memory: Had ever I seen a Master more excited than he was, more proud, and more hot for glory? I saw crowds of faces. I heard songs. I saw ecstasy; but those had been masses and masses, and it had been a lie. And my god had been weeping. That was no answer.

The answer was this: I couldn’t kill him, not yet. I couldn’t. I wanted to know what he had to teach. But I had to be certain of the limits of his power. What if he were to command me now as the Rebbe had done?

I moved away from him.

“You fear me suddenly?” he asked. “Why.”

“I don’t fear you. I’ve never served a King, not as a spirit on any account. I’ve seen them. I saw Alexander when he was dying…”

“You saw this?”

“I was there in Babylon and I walked past him with his men, guised as one of them. He lifted his left hand again and again. His eyes were completely ready for death . I don’t think he had any more great dreams in his head. Maybe that’s why he died. But you are full of dreams. And you do burn bright like Alexander, that is true, and I fight you yet I…I think I could love you.”

I sat down and remained still on a hassock of velvet, and I thought.

I sat there, elbows on my knees. He took his stand in front of me, allowing plenty of room, perhaps ten paces, and then he folded his arms. Take charge.

“You already love me,” he said. “Almost everyone who sees me loves me. Even my grandfather loves me.”

“You think so?” I said. “You know he knew I was there when he sold you the bones, he saw me.”

This stunned him into utter silence. He shook his head, then went to speak, then was silent again.

“I was in the room and visible, and when he saw me with his mean little blue eyes, that was when he agreed to tell you what you wanted to know of the Servant of the Bones and to sell me to you.”

The full hurt of it hit him. The full hurt. I thought he would weep. He turned and walked this way and that. “He saw you…” he whispered. “He knew the spirit could be brought forth from the bones and he gave the bones to me.”

“He knew the spirit was there in his room, and he sold you the bones in the hope that I would go with them. Yes, he did that to you. I know, it’s pain, unendurable pain to realize that such a trick could be done. For a mortal man to hurt a mortal man, that’s one thing. But for a zaddik to see a demon and know that demon can destroy you, and to pass on that demon to you—”

“All right, you’ve made your point!” he said bitterly. “So he despises me, so he did as soon as I questioned him. By twelve I was hurling my questions at him, and by thirteen gone from his house, and dead and buried in his Court.” He shivered all over. “He saw you and he passed the bones to me. He saw you!”

“That’s right,” I said.

He grew calm with amazing speed. His face took on renewed confidence and he pondered, easily shoving aside hate and hurt, as I knew that I had to do.

“Will you give me some simple facts?” he asked. His voice went lower. He was radiant with his pleasure. “When did you first see me or anyone connected with me? Tell me.”

“I told you. I came alive with Billy Joel Eval, and Hayden and Doby Eval on their way to kill the rich girl. They stuck their picks in her before I knew it. I went after them. I killed them. She saw me as she died, she said my name. Her soul went right up into the light, as I told you. Next I saw you was in the room of the Rebbe, no, as you approached, as you came towards it out of your car, with your guards all around you. I followed you into the room. The next night I did the same. And here we are. The rest I’ve explained. I became visible to the old Rebbe. I became flesh as I am now, and he struck his bargain.”

“You exchanged words with him?” he asked, looking away as if this hurt was something he couldn’t quite fight.

“He cursed me, he said he would have no traffic with demons. He wouldn’t help me. He wouldn’t have mercy on me or answer my questions. He wouldn’t recognize me!”

I left out the part that the old man had made me disappear the first time, and that on the second occasion I had left on my own.

His face truly actually changed for the first time.

That is, his next expression seemed a great leap from where he’d been in his feelings and intentions. Something was stripped away from him. It was not the humor, it was not the jubilation, it was not the strength. It certainly wasn’t the courage. But something was uncovered in him that was ruthless, and it made me think of my own fingers when they had tightened around the wooden handle of the pick and when I had shoved it into the soft swishy stomach of Billy Joel, right beneath his ribs.

He turned and walked a few steps away from me, and again I felt nothing. I watched; I felt my blood run through my veins.

I felt the flesh of my face tighten as I myself smiled a tiny secret smile that aided my thoughts.

All of this is illusion, Jonathan, but the details meant it was very good illusion! As good as now, as I sit before you. Now, it takes strength, great strength, to do it, as you know. And though by the time I came to you, Jonathan, I was used to that strength; I was not so used to it then.

Yes, I’m independent of him, I thought with a great surge of courage, but what about the bones? How does it all figure? Could it be true, that I had been destined for him? In a moment Gregory would realize that the zaddik’s seeing me and passing me on did not really contradict Gregory’s own theory that I was intended for him.