Then Jackson turned and walked away, heading for Kat and her fallen Gargoyle.

“Have I?” Kamen asked quietly. “Have I become a creature of good intent, or have I just been trying to right a single wrong? What of all the other wrongs I have committed?”

“Remember them. Learn from them. Make sure you’ve left such behaviors in the past and move into the future without them,” Viève said.

“I’ve been a selfish being for so many lifetimes now,” he said to her, searching her gray eyes for answers, hoping she could provide them. “Am I suddenly changed?”

“What do you think? I can’t stand here trying to convince you of your goodness. That’s something that has to come from within. But I can tell you this. You have been good to me. So good. Better than anyone has ever been to me. No one told you to do that. You weren’t trying to make up for past mistakes. You were unselfish and kind and so good to me.”

“You are wrong,” he said softly. “I was more selfish than I have ever been before. I wanted you. I took you. All without regard for the consequences of my actions.”

“I’m so very glad you did,” she breathed.

Kamen seemed to suddenly remember where they were and he drew away from her.

“Come. No one can heal a Gargoyle better than the man who created him.”

He left her and walked over to Kat and Ahnvil. Viève watched him go and felt sorry for him. Sorry that he couldn’t seem to come to terms with the man he now was versus the man he had once been. He saw no difference, though everyone else was seeing a world of difference.

Kamen knelt beside Ahnvil and laid a hand over the gaping wound that was on his chest. Kat looked up at him through tearful eyes and he saw hope spring up within them.

“I can heal him to consciousness,” he told her. “Once conscious he can change to his grotesque state and it will accelerate his healing.”

“He…he’ll be all right then?” Kat asked. “He won’t die?”

“I won’t let him,” Kamen said firmly.

Kat burst into fresh tears.

Kamen began to speak the healing words.

Chapter 25

Over the years the Politic had designed prisons to hold Templar criminals if they were captured. There were several all over the world. Jackson sent groups of Templars to all of these prisons with the understanding that the prisons would become their homes temporarily. They would earn their freedom as any prisoner would. Through evaluation and good behavior.

It took some time before everyone made it back to the house in Portales. There they held one last meeting on the front lawn of the house.

“Thank you,” Jackson said to them all, “for all that you have done for us. You have helped end a serious threat to us all and, in the process, ended a civil war that has lasted hundreds of years. We cannot possibly express appropriate gratitude. You are all welcome to stay for as long as you want, but I am sure many of you long to go home at last and would hurry on your way. I will not be offended in the least if this is what you choose to do. Please know that you take with you our wishes to see you well and safe wherever your travels take you.”

The group then broke up and people began to go their separate ways. Viève approached Jackson.

“What of the Wraiths?” she asked him. “The Doyen?”

“I think we’ll just let the Doyen stew in his own juices, wondering what the Nightwalker races will do in retribution for his bad choices.”

“What will you do?”

“Nothing. As long as they get the message and don’t move against any other Nightwalkers in any other way. But if they persist in harming others we will be forced to take a unified action against them.”

Noah approached them and Jackson said to him, “I wish to have a meeting with all the rulers of the various Nightwalker races. A summit meeting, if you will. Do you think that can be arranged?”

“I think I can get the message out to the other rulers. Technology doesn’t work so well with many of the races on our side, so we’ll have to figure a way around calling. We’ve always sent ambassadors to foreign courts. Will you accept the same?”

“Of course,” Jackson said readily. “Send whomever you like and all the other courts can do the same.”

“I think I will leave one of the dragons behind,” the Empress of the Mysticals said as she came up on them. “If that is suited to you?”

“Very much so. I will welcome all ambassadors from all courts and will arrange to send ones from our court if they are welcome.”

“My father will be happy to send someone,” Dax said. “And receive the same. There are different rulers for each continent with the Night Angels, but I am sure we can agree on one person that would suit them all.”

“The same goes for the Djynn.”

The group turned with a collective gasp to see Grey leaning casually against a wall.

“Grey! You’re alive!” Viève cried out.

“I phased out long before the deathtouch could affect me,” Grey said with a cocky smile.

“Oh, but I always knew you could not be dead!” Paulette cried as she threw her arms around him and hugged him. Grey grinned a bit sheepishly, but he didn’t stop her display of affection in the least.

There was more discussion of ambassadors, and it was sometime then before Viève made a quiet retreat. She would let the rulers decide amongst themselves what their next actions would be. Her concerns were of a different nature.

She sought out Kamen.

It was a full hour before she found him. Actually, he found her, in their rooms. He streaked into them from wherever he had been.

“Where were you?” she asked him as she came up to him and tried to give him an affectionate greeting. He turned away from her.

“With the Phoenixes, returning the bodies of their dead.”

“Oh,” she said, suddenly understanding why he had rebuffed her. He had no doubt been through a very unpleasant experience. “Did they say anything?”

“Only that we should not bother them again. Contact with the outside world cost them too dearly. They prefer to remain in their wild habitat safe from all the machinations of the world.”

“Who could blame them? I wish I could escape to the wilds with them. It would be so much easier.”