Nikolai finally said, "Go, Sebastian. Tell Myst I'll return after this."
When Sebastian traced away, Conrad said, "You believe me?" "I... don't." Nikolai ran his hand over the back of his neck. "I don't know if I can accept everything you said." "Then why?" "For whatever reason, you need this badly, and you came to me for it." Nikolai cast him a stern look. "Because I'm still your goddamned brother." 42 St. Louis Cemetery #1, New Orleans In the third cemetery they traveled to, the tombs had seen better days. Many were storm-damaged, with crumbling stucco and rusted iron fences. Markings were eroded. Spates of rain were sporadic; it was well after midnight. And still this haphazard maze of tombs was busy. Drunken ghost tour patrons laughed raucously as they smoked cheap clove cigarettes and marked Xs on a tall pediment tomb. Nikolai muttered, "That's not even Marie Laveau's crypt. Though Myst says that the priestess does get a kick out of it." Conrad roared at the group. "Leave - us!" After a moment of thunderstruck silence, tourists shoved each other down into the wet gravel as they fled. Once the place was emptied, Nikolai said, "Conrad, you have to prepare for the possibility that you might not find what you're seeking. Or that you might locate her grave only to find what this woman... what she once was." Her remains. Conrad shook his head hard. "I understand," he said, then he went still, holding his breath to listen for N