Marco's Journal - Sins of Impatience and Anger

The autumn rains had given way to the first real bite of Winter, so I had to loan Friar Giovanni an old cloak to prevent him freezing solid while begging in the street. My golden fortune in ducats dwindled quickly into a small puddle of silver once I gave alms for the care of a sick women and bought a fine mail haubergion. Now I look like a soldier again, although wearing it in the streets is asking for trouble. The Friar says that poverty is good for the soul, as it removes so many temptations from reach. He set a fine example dressed in rags and his summer sandles while I threw the last of our wood on the fire. Good firewood costs a fortune in the Eternal City, and my little pile of silver would not have kept us warm for much longer.

Then our fortunes changed, as Father Arturo stuck his head round the door and said ' Come on, Cola has given me a job to do and I need some street security'. So Rocco and I followed him to the Convent de Formosa, and met no trouble along the way. Friar Giovanni tagged along, bowl in hand, hoping for alms and a warm greeting.

We got neither, although we were finally admitted into the Convent after freezing outside for an eternity. Without the good Father being expected we would not have gotten in at all, and the Prioress did not seem pleased to see us. Nonetheless we were ushered into the presence of the Abbess Hildegard herself and offered a watery cup of wine. We let the good Father do the talking, mostly; the abbess did not take kindly to men-of-arms. Mendicants she ignored altogether.

The Abbess explained that one of her oblates was missing. The young lady had been sent by her family to the convent to negate a romantic association with one Matteo Corsini, a young man they had not selected as suitable for their daughter. Apparently young love had blossomed, and they sent her here to prevent things going any further. Now she was gone, and Prioress Maria Ascente was certain she had eloped ‘with the Corsini boy’. Apparently she recognised his distinctive hat while viewing a midnight assignation in the courtyard from a convenient window. A ladder had been found in the back street, left against the courtyard wall. The job seemed simple enough so far - find the sweethearts and bring the girl back without fuss or bloodshed.

Then things took a turn on the weird side. Father Arturo asked to speak with any other witness, and Sister Ursula enters our story. Young and foolish, she admitted her part as chaperone to the midnight tryst, but burst in tears and wailed that the oblate had been abducted by three demons from hell, and not some would-be-lover. Her despair and misery seemed real enough, however bizarre her account. After much bawling we let her go back to her prayers and then Father Arturo spent an age examining every tree in the inner courtyard as well as the ladder found outside before we left the convent.

‘Patience is a virtue,’ says Friar Giovanni, and I must confess that it is one I lack. For it seemed clear to me that the suitor must be a minor sorceror with the power to confuse weak minds with colourful nightmares, and we should move without delay to recover the missing oblate from his clutches - by whatever means were needed. But my learned colleagues were wiser than I, and insisted upon words not deeds as our next move. I went along grumbling, and impatient.

Matteo Corsini met us in an bar not far from his town-house that very evening and confirmed the same fantastic tale as Sister Ursula : whilst he declaimed romantic poetry from the top of a ladder the object of his desire was seized and dragged into the night sky by three demons from hell ! Ever since he had been searching the city for their lair, and had found rumours of unnatural birds flying by night, haunting the alleys around the Saint Angelo district. To check, we made straight for that district and discovered the same rumours from several sources; something was definitely up, and Corsini seemed on the level.

Early next morning we met Matteo and his loyal servant Noli once more. It was clear we all had a common cause and would do better as allies than rivals. So Matteo and both priests had breakfast with our friends at the Deliziosa, whilst Rocco, Noli and I investigated strange goings-on reported at a ruined mansion at the top of the hill of Saint Angelo. We helped a waterman push his cart up the hill to the ruin where someone was spending a fortune tarting up the place for a massive party two nights hence. Rocco and Noli mingled with the workers and spied out the work site while I loafed around on a break and kept a lookout.

A horde of workmen were refitting the shell of the old mansion as some sort of playhouse with a central stage. We also learned that there would be no admittance to the party without a private token, and entry to the playhouse for the 'midnight auction' was for token-bearers only. A vast outlay for a secret gathering - but what was to be sold ? Perhaps abducted virgins? The whole thing seemed bizarre and required more investigation, so we crept back after dark and dodged around the watchmen. Rocco and Noli crept about and found a door under the stage which led to a tunnel with further doors leading to a small house in a nearby street, from which a clerk ran the construction. So this ruin had a secret back entrance, and seemed to be visited by the night-devils haunting the run-down district below the hill, seeking out young women and children.

Surely Providence had led us this far with a purpose, so we all agreed to see it through - to whatever end.

So the next night saw us pick a lock and creep quietly up that tunnel to wait beneath the stage for the midnight auction. Waiting quietly for hours in darkness before an ambush is thirsty work, and it gives time for doubt to creep into your mind. What devilment is afoot here? Is the girl still alive? Will we live to see the dawn? Such is the life of a soldier. But Father Aurturo had called upon the Holy Spirit to bless our endeavour, which gave me both hope and comfort. He said we were to follow the path of the Righteous Man, and to confront the Tyranny of Evil Men with cold steel - that was good enough for me. Only Forward Now…

The murmering began as the crowd assembled around the stage, a hushed hubbub of excitement.Then the boards above creaked as they bore the weight of several men. "Welcome friends, Welcome' boomed a voice above. He sounded like a market-trader showing off his wares, confident and well-spoken. But this was no regular meat market. His patter made it plain it was an auction to buy a secret ritual to summon a 'flying monkey' and bind it to service with blood. A drop of blood from the winner, and all the blood of a young virgin. Those of a squeamish nature were advised to leave before the ritual was completed.

Down in the dark, my eyes met those of Matteo - doubts fled, and only iron remained.

The bidding started at 500 and soared to 2000 before it checked, then crept at last to an incredible 3600 golden florins - a Pope's ransom ! Now the bidder boarded the stage and the crowd gasped as the auctioneeer called out ' See my servants bring down - the sacrifice! ' Which was, of course, our call to arms and ambuscade.

We burst out from beneath, running up the stairs and on to the stage with a shout. It was a scene from a Cardinal's nightmare: three night-devils hovering above a virgin lying helpless at the feet of a sorceror - with the stage surrounded by a crowd of masked cultists.So no shortage of sinners at this party. Our path to the sorceror was blocked by two hulking axemen who felt no pain. Re-born in some necromatic vat, their mockery of God's Work had to be hacked into pieces with many blows. By the time we were done with them Rocco was limping with a smashed foot, Friar Giovanni had been scragged by a devil, and the sorceror had fled into the milling mob who surrounded the stage. But Matteo had the girl.

'Get Them !' was the cry, but the masked mob lacked the courage to face just two armed men. Maybe that was for the best, for I planned to murder, right quick, the first to set foot on that stage as a lesson in prudence for the others. 'Blessed are the Merciful, for They shall be Pardoned'says the good Friar, but I was all out of mercy for evil men who would bid a fortune to murder a young girl. In hard times and tight places, Anger is more useful than Despair. And Providence watched over us, for the mob was leaderless, and hesitated, - so we were gone back down the tunnel and off into the night a few minutes later. The Deliziosa was our refuge once more, and the girls took the drugged oblate to a bed and treated her kindly.

It was here that I must admit a sin of Anger, as Father Arturo would insist on standing in the bedroom while Matteo held her hand and whispered comforting words in her ear, safe from a fate worse than death. He had risked his life in common cause and was now my brother-in-arms; my heart said that he had earned a quiet moment with the poor girl he was obviously devoted to. 'Greater Love Hath No Man' as the saying goes. But Father Arturo kept bleating loudly about chaperones, and absolutely refusing to move, which provoked the sin of anger in my heart. By force I carried him bodily down the stairs and dumped him back at the table outside and told him to sit quiet and leave the two of them in peace. To lay hands on the holy Father was a sin, but it was Pity that moved me, so perhaps my penance will be small. After that the good Friar and Father Arturo busied themselves more usefully healing wounds by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and there was no more talk about chaperones.

My faith in Matteo was well-founded - in the morning he returned with a litter and four bearers so we could convey the oblate back to the Convent on his behalf, and bear a true witness to all that had occurred to the Abbess. This we did, receiving her grateful thanks and wonderment at the evil that men do in the Eternal City.

And so ends my tale of kidnapping and sorcery, thwarted by devoted love - and men of faith and courage. I came through all our tribulations without a scratch, by the Will of Providence. But I do confess the sins of Impatience and Anger in my part, and ask forgiveness from those I have offended.