I learned a
if you prefer. I’m out of here. I don’t like the smell—and I don’t mean that of burnt flesh and parchment.”
The bishop merely snorted dismissively as the weather-beaten man left. When he’d gone, he turned to the knights. “Pilgrimage, my foot! More likely, that Luciano Marina went to learn the dark arts from the devil himself. Now. One of you had better go and fetch a doctor, and the other find someone to send for the other Signori di Notte. And get me someone to tidy this room.” He looked at the confetti confusion of parchment. “Might as well throw this lot away.”
Erik shook his head. “I’m sorry, Monsignor. I think we should stay with him. Whatever attacked him may come back.”
The bishop patted his crucifix-hung chain. “I will deal with it. I am, in case you cannot see, your superior in the Church.”
Erik shook his head again. “Dealing with this magic requires steel, Monsignor. Not just holiness.”
“So—as he is going to live and we don’t need your priestly services, why don’t you trot off to do the errands,” said Manfred, with all the