As you like, they heard Dwane say, but make sure you get the girl. She’s key.
TRIPE AND MORE TRIPE! Ugolino shouted. THE DAMSEL IS NEVER KEY!
Still, she’s bad and I think you ought to hurt her.
I AM ALWAYS DELICATE WITH DAMSELS. WHAT’S MORE, SHOULDST I TAKE INSTRUCTION FROM A DEMON?
Dwane laughed.
Never been cammed
As Ugolino argued with Dwane, he didn’t notice Leonard and Sally trailing a block behind him. They soon arrived at a massive rounded edifice consisting of two tiers of dirty brown and white arcades plus a third, walled level up above. The theater, presumably, though Leonard could see no banners or endorsements, no certificates of amusement.
It seemed the people of this town would turn any arcade into a makeshift marketplace: here, swarthy carcass dealers shouted the benefits of their wares and gestured with enormous bloody cutlasses, their aprons smeared with effluvia. At their feet, the inner bits of beasts were gnawed upon by shameless cats.
Leonard had never seen anything so horrifying.
I’m going to stop him, Sally said.
No! Leonard said, grabbing her arm.
He doesn’t know my face. I’ve never been cammed.
The Head didn’t cam you?
Why would I let the Head cam me? and she was off behind Ugolino in a flash. Ugolino was pacing before the carcass dealers, shouting something Leonard couldn’t hear. Perhaps he was trying to find a doorway large enough to accommodate his gargantuan frame, or determine where he might create one with his fist.
Sally crept up behind him and sprayed the building with her ID scrambler.
Ugolino, alerted by the spraying sound, stepped back, bumping into Sally, who sprawled to the ground.
DEAR LADY PILGRIM! he exclaimed. I AM MOST HEARTILY CHAGRINED. ALLOW ME TO HELP THEE TO THY PRETTY FEET!
Are you looking for something? she asked, once upright, slipping the ID scrambler into her clutchbag. Can I direct you to another place very far away?
WHY, YES, PRETTY LADY PILGRIM! I HAD THOUGHT THIS TO BE THE THEATER OF MARCELLUS, FORTRESS OF THE SAVELLI, WITH ITS CURVATURED FRONT AND REINFORCED ARCADERY. HOW SADLY I AM MISTAKEN. MANIFESTLY IT IS A MUNICIPAL COMPOST HEAP VERY NEAR THE BASILICA OF ST. PETER’S!
The thronging pilgrims should be a clue, Sally said.
Ugolino looked around, confused.
YES! he shouted. I’M SURE I SHALL NOTE THEM MOMENTARILY. HAST THOU SEEN THE BOY WITH THE EBULLIENT HAIR?
He is definitely at the theater, Sally said. I saw him there myself. Causing mischief and spouting heresy. A verst down the river that-a-way, across the bridge, left at the castle fortress. You can’t miss it.
VERY GOOD, LADY PILGRIM. CANST THOU OFFER ME A KISS TO CHEER ME ON MY WAY?
I think you’re in a hurry.
Ugolino nodded and was about to stomp off when his wrist cried out.
That’s her! I hear her voice! It’s Sally! Kill her! Hurt her! Kill her!
Ugolino turned to Sally, his confusion rapidly turning to rage. He ululated and lifted his arm as if to strike her, then crumpled mightily to the ground.
Hoarfrost
Leonard had smacked Ugolino’s head with a paving stone, causing much murmuring among the carcass dealers. He now grabbed Sally and commenced to shouting:
Abulafia! Abulafia! You have to let us in! Quick! Quick! We have to talk!
Zedekiah appeared from the shadows behind the arcade and pulled them both after him, through a door into a dank, dark hallway.
Abulafia is going to have to take care of him now, Zedekiah said. You realize that? And maybe all of those carcass dealers!
What do you mean? Sally asked.
You led him here, putting us all in danger.
He led us, actually.
He is here because of you, and now Abulafia must attend to him.
Meaning what? Leonard asked.
Better not to know, Zedekiah said, then flattened himself against the wall as a freakishly tall man — or maybe a rushing spirit? — flew past them, opened the door, and touched the prostrate Ugolino with a disgusted fingertip. After muttering a few unintelligible words, the man-spirit disappeared. Into the thinnest air, taking Ugolino with him. In a moment he was back, slamming the door behind them, and again streaming past.
He was covered in hoarfrost, Ugolino nowhere in sight.
My Master says there are regions so cold that moving things lose their life there. They become still as statues. Even water ceases to move. I know! Most remarkable! He has brought that terrible man to such a place.
Abulafia left Ugolino on a polar tip?
Come this way, Zedekiah said.
The End of Days
What is this place? Leonard asked, as they walked down the narrow stone hallway, with its uneven floor, grooved by centuries of walking.
In the old days it was a theater, Zedekiah said, over his shoulder.
So I gather.
Now it is a fortress. It belongs to the Savelli, Zedekiah said.
Name sounds familiar, Sally said.
No relation to Bobolo, more’s the pity. Watch your head.
They ducked under a low-hanging lintel and walked up first one, then another flight of stairs.
The Savelli are no friends of the Jews, Zedekiah said, but they hate the Orsini more. They know of the Master’s plan to visit the Orsini pope …
Nicholas III, Sally said, stopping at the top of the stairs.
They are hoping the Master will kill him, Zedekiah said, also stopping. Or shock the pope to death with his wondrous signs, or maybe send him to a far-off world. They hope one of their own can then be elected in his place. They’ve had rather a dry spell, pope-wise. They delude themselves, of course. When the Master visits the pope, it will be to announce and, by announcing, effect the End of Days.
The End of Days? Leonard asked.
The End of Days! Zedekiah confirmed.
Awesome karate kicks
Leonard gave Sally a tender shove so she’d start walking again.
Where’s Felix? Leonard asked.
Young Asher is fine, Zedekiah said. How could it be otherwise? He is learning with the Master.
Why didn’t you just tell us where he was? Why confound us with riddles? Sally asked.
You said you were guided, Zedekiah said. It was important to know if this was true.
Why Asher? she asked.
The boy needed a Hebrew name. Obviously. Asher means happy, like Felix. For someone who is guided, my lady, you seem to know very little.
You’re not speaking as you were before, Sally observed.
Zedekiah looked at them blankly. The man was now within Abulafia’s realm, Leonard realized; the translation, somehow, came from him, not Isaac. This made Leonard uneasy: could Isaac not reach them here?
He wished he had a plan, but he was out of plans.
Zedekiah led them into an anteroom and motioned them to sit on some wooden benches.
Not till I see Felix, Leonard said.
He and the Master are studying. You have seen what the Master is capable of. Interrupt him, and he could lose concentration, and who knows where they might end up, he and the boy. Best to wait. Please, sit. No, not together!