Seymour Corrigan called the roll and started the ceremony. “Since the early days of this world, our Regis holds the soul of the Coven in his heart. But before he is chosen, he must be blessed by the Seven, and so we have gathered here today for the benediction.”
It was a ceremony that went back to ancient Egypt. Except this time there would be no false beard of goat’s hair, no magic scepter, no symbolic leather whip, no crown of ostrich feathers. But the fundamentals were the same.
Warden Corrigan began the tabulation, calling out to the great houses by their names from the Sacred Language.
“What say you, Domus Magnificat?” The House of Riches was represented by Josiah Rockefeller Archibald, whose family had built the center on which they stood.
“We say aye,” he murmured.
“What say you, Domus Septem Sanctimonialis?”
“We say aye,” said Alice Whitney, who was the last of the line of the House of the Seven Sisters.
“What say you, Domus Veritas?”
Of course the Venators were represented on the council, but Mimi was curious as to why Abe Tompkins spoke for them. He hadn’t been an active Venator for many years.
“We say aye,” old Abe responded.
“What say you, Domus Preposito?”
The House of the Stewards was a title that had always been given to the family nearest to the Regis. The Llewellyns currently had that honor.
Forsyth Llwellyn smiled. “We say aye.”
“What say you, Domus Stella Aquillo?”
The House of the Northern Star was one of the biggest benefactors of art programs in the country. Ambrose Barlow looked nervously at Minerva Morgan. He bowed his head and whispered, “Aye.”
There were only two houses left. Next to her, Mimi felt Minerva Morgan’s anxiety.
“What say you, Domus Domina?”
The House of the Gray Lady. Death House, but no one called it that. The family that was in charge of the records, of the cycles of expression and expulsion.
Minerva Morgan did not respond.
“Domus Domina?” Seymour Corrigan cleared his throat. “Domus Domina?”
Minerva Morgan sighed. “Aye.”
“Domus Lamia says aye,” Warden Corrigan said, a bit grumpily.
The House of the Vampyres; an old title, and the head of the Conspiracy.
Mimi braced herself. She was next.
Warden Corrigan coughed.
“What say Domus Fortis Valerius Incorruputus. House of the Pure Blood, of the Uncorrupted, of the Valiant and the Strong, Protector of the Garden, Commander of the Lord’s Armies? What say you?”
That was Michael’s line. Gabrielle’s line. The Van Alen line, now bastardized by the Force name. Mimi raised her voice.
“We say . . .” She wavered. She thought of Minerva Morgan’s uncertainty. Ambrose Barlow, who was so old they had all thought he was senile. And yet he had brought in that piece of paper. Had brought it to her. They were counting on her. An anonymous note, but an important one. They were right. They could not discount its message.
Mimi suddenly understood that Ambrose and Minerva could not do it themselves, but they very much wanted her to. She was young, but she outranked them by far. She represented the house that had led this Coven of immortals for centuries upon centuries.
The house that would now be stripped of its power by the very ritual they were undertaking. She hadn’t thought about it until today, but it suddenly hit home that they were just going to hand over the Coven to Forsyth Llewellyn? Who was Forsyth Llewellyn anyway? Mimi scanned her memories.
A minor angel. A minor deity. A steward. He was no Regis.
She could do this. She had battled Silver Bloods and sent demons back to Hades. She would stand up when others could not.
“The House of the Pure Blood would like to render their objection to this proceeding,” she said clearly and confidently.
“Objection?” Seymour Corrigan looked confused.
“We say no.” Mimi said.
“No?” Corrigan asked again.
“No.” More clearly this time.
Forsyth, for his part, looked composed.
“I just don’t understand why we need to do this’move the spirit of the Coven to a new leader when my father is still alive?” Mimi burst out. She took a deep breath. “Therefore I must object.”
“The White Vote must be unanimous,” Warden Corrigan said worriedly. “We cannot move the Coven to Forsyth’s safekeeping unless it is a unanimous vote by the seven families.”
He looked lost, while Ambrose and Minerva looked relieved. Everyone else looked to Forsyth for guidance.
Mimi noticed that, White Vote or not, he was already their leader.
“We shall stay the installation as Warden Force wishes,” Forsyth said smoothly. “I have no desire to assume a role that not everyone agrees is mine. And I too am distressed by Charles’s disappearance. We shall wait.”
One by one they popped back into the proceedings at the auction room. Mimi realized she was still holding her hand up, as she had been in the glom.
The auctioneer gave her a brilliant smile. “And Portrait de Femme (Francoise Gilot) goes to . . . the beautiful young lady in the front row!”
She had just bought a Picasso.
CHAPTER 39
Bliss
The fall semester at Duchesne always unrolled in the same tradition, never wavering from a schedule of activities that had been set a hundred years ago, or so it must have seemed to the students who were indoctrinated into the soothing, predictable rhythms of cushy private-school life.
It started with the last week of August first-year orientation, when incoming freshmen were mildly hazed by their final-year tormentors with shaving cream pie, throwing contests in the cortile, water balloon fights from the balconies, and an epic game of Murderer. On the final orientation day, there was a solemn presentation of class rings and the singing of the school song, culminating in a decidedly extracurricular after-hours party on the roof of the head boy’s house, when the first of the May- December romances would blossom, usually between an “old girl” (what the school called female seniors) and a “new boy” (a male freshman), and not, as one would think, the other way around.
Bliss walked up the steps into the main building, nodding to a few familiar faces. Everyone was still a little tan from a Hamptons or Nantucket summer, the girls not quite ready to give up sundresses and sandals for wool and plaid, while the boys wore their broadcloth shirts untucked and their ties askew, holding their jackets over one shoulder with a rakish air.
Bliss had heard the Force twins were also back at school. She would have to try to contact them as soon as possible. Mimi and Jack had to help her. As she walked to the locker room, noting the names engraved on each metal plate, she saw that Schuyler’s and Oliver’s names were missing. Facing the truth of their absence made her sad. She’d found out finally what had happened to them, something about the Conclave doubting Schuyler’s version of events surrounding Lawrence’s death, and how the two teenagers had decided to run from the Venators rather than face judgment.
But somehow she hadn’t really believed they would be gone. During the course of the day she half expected to see Oliver sitting by the radiator in her AP European History class, or Schuyler looking up from her clay pots in Independent Art. Bliss walked to her third class before lunch period, Ancient Civilizations and the Dawn of the West. The first week of school was a shopping period, when students hopped from class to class until they decided which ones they were going to register for.
The course had sounded intriguing, a mixture of history and philosophy, studying the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. She took a seat in the middle row, next to Carter Tuckerman, who always smelled like the egg sandwiches he ate for breakfast.
The teacher was a newbie, of a different type than the usual Duchesne faculty. Most of the teachers had been at the school forever, and looked it. Madame Fraley taught French, and the students were convinced she’d been at the school since the 1880s. (She probably had, since Madame was a Blue Blood.) Or else they were recent college grads, kids who had somehow flubbed their Teach for America applications and were stuck with a bunch of preppie brats instead of needy hardship cases.