Merrick (Vampire Chronicles)

Proem My name is David Talbot. Do any of you remember me as the Superior General of the Talamasca, the Order of psychic detectives whose motto was We watch and we are always here? It has a charm, doesnt it, that motto? The Talamasca has existed for over a thousand years. I dont know how the Order began. I dont really know all the secrets of the Order. I do know however that I served it most of my mortal life. It was in the Talamasca Motherhouse in England that the Vampire Lestat first made himself known to me. He came into my study one winter night and caught me quite unawares. I learnt very quickly that it was one thing to read and write about the supernatural and quite another to see it with your own eyes. But that was a long time ago. Im in another physical body now. And that physical body has been transformed by Lestats powerful vampiric blood. Im among the most dangerous of the vampires, and one of the most trusted. Even the wary vampire Armand revealed to me the story of his life. Perhaps youve read the biography of Armand which I released into the world. When that story ended, Lestat had wakened from a long sleep in New Orleans to listen to some very beautiful and seductive music. It was music that lulled him back again into unbroken silence as he retreated once more to a convent building to lie upon a dusty marble floor. There were many vampires then in the city of New Orleans -- vagabonds, rogues, foolish young ones who had come to catch a glimpse of Lestat in his seeming helplessness. They menaced the mortal population. They annoyed the elders among us who wanted visibility and the right to hunt in peace. All those invaders are gone now. Some were destroyed, others merely frightened. And the elders who had come to offer some solace to the sleeping Lestat have gone their separate ways. As this story begins, only three of us remain in New Orleans. And we three are the sleeping Lestat, and his two faithful fledglings -- Louis de Pointe du Lac, and I, David Talbot, the author of this tale. Chapte r One Why do you ask me to do this thing? She sat across the marble table from me, her back to the open doors of the caf. I struck her as a wonder. But my requests had distracted her. She no longer stared at me, so much as she looked into my eyes. She was tall, and had kept her dark-brown hair loose and long all her life, save for a leather barrette such as she wore now, which held only her forelocks behind her head to flow down her back. She wore gold hoops dangling from her small earlobes, and her soft white summer clothes had a gypsy flare to them, perhaps because of the red scarf tied around the waist of her full cotton skirt. And to do such a thing for such a being? she asked warmly, not angry with me, no, but so moved that she could not conceal it, even with her smooth compelling voice. To bring up a spirit that may be filled with anger and a desire for vengeance, to do this, you ask me, -- for Louis de Pointe du Lac, one who is already beyond life himself? Who else can I ask, Merrick? I answered. Who else can do such a thing? I pronounced her name simply, in the American style, though years ago when wed first met, she had spelled it Merrique and pronounced it with the slight touch of her old French. There was a rough sound from the kitchen door, the creak of neglected hinges. A wraith of a waiter in a soiled apron appeared at our side, his feet scratching against the dusty flagstones of the floor. Rum, she said. St. James. Brin|At the center is the beautiful, unconquerable witch Merrick. She is a descendant of the gens de couleur libris, a society of New Orleans octoroons and quadroons steeped in the lore and ceremony of voodoo, who reigned in the shadowy world where African and French - the dark and the white - intermingled. Her ancestors are the great Mayfair Witches, of whom she knows nothing - and from whom she inherits the power and the magical knowledge of a Circe. Into this exotic realm comes David Talbot - hero, storyteller, adventurer, almost-mortal vampire, visitor from another dark realm. It is he who recounts Merricks haunting tale - a tale that takes us from the New Orleans of past and present to the jungles of Guatemala, from the Maya ruins of a century ago to ancient civilizations not yet explored.--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved|At the center of Anne Rices new novel is the beautiful, unconquerable Merrick, a child--a witch with the power and magical knowledge of a Medea and a Circe. She is a Mayfair of New Orleans, descendent of a family rich in its French and Spanish past, steeped in the age-old tradition of voodoo. Into this strange and exotic world comes David Talbot, hero, storyteller, adventurer, almost-mortal vampire, a visitor from another realm of the dark world.|In her mesmerizing new novel, the author of the Vampire Chronicles & the saga of the Mayfair witches demonstrates, once again, her gift for spellbinding storytelling & the creation of myth & magic. Now, in a magnificent tale of sorcery & the occult, she makes real for us a hitherto unexplored world of witchcraft. At the center is the beautiful, unconquerable witch, Merrick. She is a descendant of the gens de couleurs libres, a caste derived from the black mistresses of white men, a society of New Orleans octaroons & quadroons, steeped in the lore & ceremony of voodoo, who reign in the shadowy world where the African & the French--the white & the dark--intermingle. Her ancestors are the Great Mayfair witches, of whom she knows nothing--and from whom she inherits the power & magical knowledge of a Circe. Into this exotic New Orleans realm comes David Talbot, hero, storyteller, adventurer, almost-mortal vampire, visitor from another dark realm. It is he who recounts Merricks haunting tale--a tale that takes us from the New Orleans of past & present to the jungles of Guatemala, from the Mayan ruins of a century ago to ancient civilizations not yet explored. Anne Rices richly told novel weaves an irresistible story of two worlds: the witches world & the vampires world, where magical powers & otherworldly fascinations are locked together in a dance of seduction, death, & rebirth.

Author: Anne Rice

Language: English

Edition: 1st Trade.

Binding: Hardcover

Pages: 320

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Publication Date: 2000-10-01