The Mongoliad: Book Three

blood, but he could still move. He could still fight.

Unlike his opponent.

The knight was struggling to turn over, but his brain hadn’t quite realized how useless his right arm was. The hand had been punctured by Lakshaman’s knife, and the elbow was bent at a hideous angle. The maille sleeve was already dark with blood. If he was spared the ignominy of death in the arena, he would be maimed for the rest of his life.

Lakshaman was reminded of something he had seen as a boy, an odd memory of a time before he had become a fighter. One spring morning, he had stumbled upon a butterfly as it struggled to emerge from its chrysalis. He had watched it wriggle out of its sheath and tumble to the ground. Its wings never opened properly, and the fall had caused its crumpled wings to harden stiff in a wrinkled mass that would never carry it aloft. He remembered crouching over it, staring intently at this tiny creature whose life was over a scant minute after it had been born.

The knight flopped onto his back, clawing at his helmet with his good hand. He was screaming and crying inside the metal cap; he couldn’t get a good look at what was wrong with his arm. He knew something was wrong, but the pain had to be so intense that his martial resolve had been swept away. He was like the butterfly, lying on the ground, struggling to fly but unable to understand why it couldn’t.

Lakshaman retrieved his other knife from the sand and knelt beside the downed knight. With a grunt, he shoved his blade through the eye slit of the man’s helmet. The man thrashed for a moment and then his limbs stilled.

Just like the butterfly when he had crushed it with his thumb.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sequestered

There had been so much confusion when they had arrived at the Basilica of St. Peter. The second wagon, the one carrying the mad priest, had disgorged its passengers in a frenzied rush. Bonaventura had been screaming something about the Devil’s handiwork and da Capua had climbed down as if transfixed by a heavenly vision. By the time Fieschi had joined the others, the wagon was empty of all its passengers but Father Rodrigo.

The priest sat in the back of the wagon, arms splayed loosely at his sides. His attention was on the shapes crawling on him, and shouldering his way past de Segni, Fieschi had seen that they were scorpions. Rodrigo was covered with them, and appeared to be unharmed.

“It is a miracle,” da Capua offered, and Fieschi whirled to the incessantly romantic Cardinal to quiet him, but paused as he caught sight of the expressions on the faces of the two mischief-makers, Colonna and Capocci.

“Yes,” Colonna said, putting his large hands together in front of his quirking lips. Capocci had the benefit of his bandages, making it much easier to hide his own smile.

The Master Constable, unmoved by the sudden presence of divine intervention, hollered at the guards to rescue the bescorpioned priest. “The rest of them,” the Master Constable said, pointing at the chapel behind them, “will be sequestered in the Chapel of the Crucifixion until morning.”

“No.” Castiglione placed himself in front of the Master Constable. He swayed slightly, and his face was flushed. All of this excitement is taking its toll, Fieschi mused.

In the cart, several guards were trying to figure out if they could use the tips of their swords to pick the scorpions off without accidentally cutting the dazed priest. One guard leaned forward, flicking a scorpion off the priest’s robe, and the flung arachnid nearly struck one of the other guards, who yelped in fear and nearly stumbled off the back of the cart.

“The Senator has decreed that we will cast our vote by morning,” Castiglione continued, oblivious to what was happening in the cart. “And while I do not condone his authority or this egregious manner in which he forces the Church, I will acquiesce to the point that God has not chosen to show His displeasure at the Senator’s demands.”

“I beg your pardon, Your Eminence?” The Master Constable asked, his attention distracted by the guards in the cart.

“We have been treated like rough animals. If the Senator wishes our obedience- however temporary-he would do well to seek it from us as men.” Castiglione pointed to the tall building-the Castel Sant’Angelo-behind the Master Constable. “Food and shelter,” he said, “that is what we require now more than prayer and incarceration. If the Senator wants us to vote, then we will only do so after a meal that we do not have to eat out of a trough, and a night of slumber on a bed that is softer than the old bones of Rome herself.”

Colonna and Capocci applauded Castiglione’s mettle immediately, with an eagerness-Fieschi noted-that masked the delight with which they had been watching the cart. The other Cardinals joined in, and the Master Constable-swiftly assessing the shift in the Cardinals’ mood-acquiesced.

After the guards managed to extricate Father Rodrigo from the cart and the Cardinals were led toward Castel Sant’Angelo and a night of more humane conditions, Fieschi tarried by the now-empty cart. A pale shape squirmed along the boards and he inspected it carefully.

The scorpion lacked a stinger.

The priest had never been in any danger. However, Fieschi mused, as he strolled after the others, that did not make the incident any less a miracle.

It was a matter of convincing the right individuals.

In the morning-an hour or so before dawn-it took two dozen of Orsini’s men to roust the Cardinals from the rooms the Master Constable had found for them. Like herding sheep back to their pen, the guards drove the Cardinals into the Chapel of the Crucifixion. Colonna and Capocci cheerfully stepped into the round chamber and took their seats; Fieschi, stiff from a night of sleep on a real bed, strode in after them and sat on the opposite side of the chamber. Rinaldo and Stefano, the two de Segni Cardinals, stumbled in next, Rinaldo still whispering to his younger cousin; while Bonaventura and Castiglione, the two candidates for the Pontiff’s chair, both appeared unsettled and vaguely disturbed by what might come to pass in the vote. Torres and Annibaldi were unruffled, especially in comparison to the younger da Capua, who had all the appearance of a spooked child.

Fieschi had spoken to him briefly in the hallway outside their rooms. A few earnest words, a bit of quoted Scripture, and a conspiratorial air was all it took to lay the seed of an idea in the younger Cardinal’s mind. What had happened the day before in the cart was a demonstration of God’s Grace-an incident that could, given a proper poetic treatment, turn into the basis of…

Of a miracle, da Capua had breathed.

In the voting chamber, there were ten chairs set up, backs against the walls, equidistant and too far apart for any prelate to communicate with any other during the voting process.

A priest followed the Cardinals in while some of them were still deciding where to sit; he carried a tray on which sat a chalice, paten, several quills, a horn of ink, and strips of paper. He set these on the altar, bowed deeply to the Cardinals, then left the room.

There was a thudding sound as a bolt slid home outside the door.

“This is much more comfortable than the Septizodium,” said Colonna, into the sudden silence. “We really must thank the Bear for this… indulgence.” His friend Capocci smiled at the ecclesiastical pun, but the other Cardinals looked uncomfortable. Some glanced around the room, staring at one another, as if seeking some kind of omniscient paternal reassurance.

“Where is our friend?” asked Capocci. “Did he survive his trial with the scorpions only to be lost to us in the night?”

“He is not a Cardinal,” said Fieschi dismissively. “He has no right to vote. I asked the Master Constable to