And I grieved with them, Catherine. A mere five weeks ago, with the recovery of my sanity, I realized that I had lost yourself and Vixie, my only and dearest friends.
Nomie"s hand closed cold around my own. "Sweet friend," she said, and I looked down into her blue eyes. "You can go down to them now. I will be all right."
"What will you do?" I asked her, and she smiled.
"Exactly what you and I planned for the Count. I will contact Mr. Ross, and take over the false ident.i.ties that you and your so- lovely Catherine established-and thank her for me, Ryland, thank her, and you, so much!-and travel to India, where I will live like a Queen upon men who do evil. I will never forget you, Ryland."
I smiled, my whole soul feeling light and free, with the world and eternity opening like a night-blooming flower around me in the still iciness of the night. "Never is a long time, little Nornchen." With the Count"s death, the winds, like the wolves, had been released from his grip. The clouds were dispersing overhead. The stars were like a thousand million lamps, each marking the start of an untrodden road to the future. In the stillness I felt that I could hear the earth breathe.
"I only wish . . ." she began, then stopped herself, and shook her head. She put her hand to my cheek, and whispered, "Goodby, Ryland. Kiss your Catherine for me when you see her, and your lovely daughter. One day I may meet them, by-and-by."
"When you do," I said, "they will welcome you with love. Until that time . . ."Our eyes met in the starlight. "What is it," I asked, "that you wish?"
She shook her head. "It"s better that you go."
"Tell me."
Her hands closed again around my own. Her voice was barely a murmur in the starry cold. "That you could come with me, sweet friend. That we could go to India together. That we could be friends, if not forever, at least for a very long time."
Gently-for even as a mortal man I had been strong-I took her in my arms, and our mouths met in a kiss.
We spent the rest of the night gathering all the gold we could from the four corners of the Castle, and before dawn I went down to Bistritz, to post a letter to Ross and another to my agents in Calcutta and Delhi.
My dearest Catherine, do you understand? I love you, and have always loved you-will always love you, in living or dying or the shadow-world of Un-Death. One day, when it pleases G.o.d, you, and I, and our lovely Vixie, and my beautiful Nomie will all meet, on the other side of the Veil, and after that, who knows? Who can know?
Until that time, we can only live as well as we can, and make our choices, as the ancient Persians said, for the Light rather than the Darkness. For even those of us in the Darkness do, it appears, remember the nature of Light.
I write this to you in the train-station at Varna, whence we are about to depart for Constantinople and points east. Already I seem to hear in my ears the music of sitars, and to taste upon my tongue the heady flavor of rice-beetles and the indescribable savor of white ants!
My beloved, I will write to you when we reach Calcutta. Until that time, and always, know me to be, Forever, your loving husband, Renfield