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Armana was snattered, broken, on his knees, the blood tearsrunning straight down his cheeks, horrid streaks on the white flesh.
Humbled and confounded, David merely watched. Keenly, hestudied the veil as it moved through the air, her hands still stretchingit wide. Keenly, he studied my face. He studied the slumped, broken,sobbing figure of Armand, the lost child in his exquisite velvet andlace now stained with his tears.
"Lestat," Dora cried, tears gushing, "you have brought me theFace of my God! You have brought it to all of us. Don't you see?
Memnoch lost! Memnoch was defeated. God won! God usedMemnoch for his own ends, he led Memnoch into the labyrinth ofMemnoch's own design. God has triumphed!""No, Dora, no! You can't believe that," I shouted. "What if itisn't the truth? What if it was all a pack of tricks. Dora!"She shot past me down the corridor and out the door. We threestood stunned. We could hear the elevator descending. She had theveil!
"David, what is she going to do? David, help me.""Who can help us now?" asked David, but it was withoutconviction or bitterness, only that pondering, that endless pondering.
"Armand, take hold of yourself. You cannot surrender to this," he said.
His voice was sad.
But Armand was lost.
"Why?" Armand asked. He was just a child now on his knees.
"Why?"This is how he must have looked centuries ago when Marius hadcome to free him from his Venetian captors, a boy kept for lust, a boybrought into the palace of the Undead.
"Why can't I believe it? Oh, my God, I do believe it. It is the faceof Christ!"He climbed to his feet, drunkenly, and then he moved slowly,doggedly, step by step, after her.
By the time we reached the street, she stood screaming before thedoors of the cathedral.
"Open the doors! Open the church. I have the veil." She kickedthe bronze doors with her right foot. All around her gathered mortals,murmuring.
"The Veil, the Veil!" They stared at it, as she stopped to turn andshow it once more. Then all pounded on the doors.
The sky above grew light with the coming sun, far, far off in themaw of the winter, but nevertheless rising in its inevitable path, tobring its fatal white light down on us if we didn't seek shelter.
"Open the doors!" she screamed.
From all directions, humans came, gasping, falling on their kneeswhen they saw the Veil.
"Go," said Armand, "seek shelter now, before it's too late. David,take him, go.""And you, what will you do?" I demanded.
"I will bear witness. I will stand here with my arms outstretched,"he cried, "and when the sun rises, my death shall confirm themiracle."The mighty doors were being opened at last. The dark-cladfigures drew back in astonishment. The first gleam of silver lightilluminated the Veil, and then came the warmer, yellow electric lightsfrom within, the lights of candles, the rush of the heated air.
"The Face of Christ!" she screamed.
The priest fell down on his knees. The older man in black,brother, priest, whatever he was, stood openmouthed looking upat it.
"Dear God, dear God," he said, making the Sign of the Cross,"That in my lifetime, God . .. it's the Veronica!"Humans rushed past us, stumbling and jostling to follow her intothe church. I heard their steps echoing up the giant nave.
"We have no time," David said in my ear. He had lifted me off myfeet, strong as Memnoch, only there was no whirlwind, only the risenwinter dawn, and the falling snow, and more and more shouts andhowls and cries as men and women flooded towards the church, andthe bells above in the steeples began to ring.
"Hurry, Lestat, with me!"We ran together, already blinded by the light, and behind me Iheard Armand's voice ring out over the crowd.
"Bear witness, this sinner dies for Him!" The scent of fire came ina fierce explosion! I saw it blaze against the glass walls of the towersas we fled. I heard the screams.
"Armand!" I cried out. David pulled me along, down metal steps,echoing and chiming like the bells pealing from the cathedral above.
I went dizzy; I surrendered to him. I gave up my will to him. In mygrief, crying, "Armand, Armand."Slowly I made out David's figure in the dark. We were in a dampicy place, a cellar beneath a cellar, beneath the high shrieking hollowof an empty wind-torn building. He was digging through the brokenearth.
"Help me," he cried, "I'm losing all feeling, the light's coming,the sun is risen, they'll find us.""No, they won't."I kicked and dug out the grave, carrying him with me deeper anddeeper, and closing the soft clods of earth behind us. Not even thesounds of the city above could penetrate this darkness. Not even thebells of the church.
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