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L&039;ESORCISTA

It was the rankest superstition to suppose a varound Every scrap of earth had been consecrated to so unable to step on holy turf would h seas, outside territorial waters In her centuries, Genevieve had been in nuraveyards, shrines, churches, cathedrals, mosques, and temples Always, she felt a certain frisson, the thrill of harmless trespass However, this was a different prospect She and Kate stood on Viale Vaticano, outside a church that was also a city

Swiss guards were stationed at the tall gates It was the evening and the Vatican Museuone away, but the area swarh she kneas silly, Genevieve was uncoh history to know the Vatican as a temporal institution They only admitted the infamy of the Spanish Inquisition to play down the memory of the even more atrocious Roenerates had occupied the throne of St Peter as had held any other high office

But this was the Church

She predated the Reformation In her tierous heresy Just after her turning, she&039;d been excoh it re with a soul

&039;Coed Kate She was a Protestant, of course And clainostic on top of that

Kate took her arm and they crossed the road

As so way) from it, was she more or less likely than a heathen like Kate Reed to combust when she set foot on Vatican territory? When did the holiness start? There ought to be a line in the road At some point, she must cross it

She did not explode

So She did not put that down to an angelic ly Kate explained that they had an appointuards was a vampire Without Dracula, a lot of Carpathians were unemployed Mercenary forces like the Swiss Guard and the French Legion d&039;etranger would get some unexpected recruits

They were admitted into Momo&039;s famous spiral ramp, which wound up fro of footsteps froreet them She was not a nun, but a lay worker with ave Genevieve the creeps She said her name was Viridiana and offered to lead theh the corridors of the Belvedere Palace, deeper into the Vatican itself They hurried across the Cortile Ottagonale, and off the tourist track, proceeding fro-faced priests and scarlet-robed cardinals drifted past like ghosts, all turning piercing eyes at the interloping female nosferatu

Historically, the Church had been dead set against her kind The coht a blasphemous parody of the rite of mass It struck her that the real reason for the enmity was that the Church and the vaht and vampirism was resistant to rational explanation, then she was possessed of more demonstrably miraculous powers than the parish priest, who merely turned wine to blood And an institution which traded in an immortality to come must be embarrassed by the prospect of easily-obtained iht them into the basement that was a maze of locked bookcases This was not the Vatican Library, but one of the Church&039;sif this here they kept the pornography A few lights shone in thecondition The lay worker led the a switch every thirty paces Weak bulbs strung overhead lit the book-lined corridor only up to the next switch and automatically shut off after five seconds They had to hurry to keep up with the light

They ca Viridiana indicated a row

&039;Father Merrin is along here,&039; she said, strangely reluctant to go further &039;He is waiting for you&039;

Kate thanked the girl

They walked between tall cases Kate took over the switch-flicking Books as old as she was caught Genevieve&039;s eye, thick brassbound spines, pages the colour of tanned skin

Kate had explained that Father Lankester Merrin was a priest and scholar, an anthropologist He was an associate of the controversial Catholic evolutionist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and also - it was rumoured - one of the Church&039;s last vampire hunters Apparently, he&039;d performed rites of exorcism in Africa and banished some local predator to the outer darkness He&039;d been there when Dracula died

The priest was indeed in a pool of light at the intersection of several shelf-lined passageways He sat at a desk, orouspolitely

&039;Father Merrin, this is Genevieve Dieudonne&039;

&039;I a a hand

Genevieve hesitated

&039;I don&039;t think my touch will burn,&039; he said

They shook hands

&039;I a him her pal blue eyes were full of humour Whatever her opinion of his Church, she had to concede this was a real priest

&039;Thank you for agreeing to see us,&039; said Kate

Merrin accepted the thanks without trivialising the favour asked of him This archive wasn&039;t open to scholars outside the Church, even by special appointnifier of the priest&039;s status within the Vatican that he was empowered to invite them here

&039;What do you know about the Mother of Tears?&039; Kate asked

Merrin nodded, as if he had been expecting the question It was Genevieve as shocked When Brastov hadto set a train of thought in motion, but all that had happened since had kept the train stubbornly derailed Now she reht in Brastov&039;s lair, that the spyone to a lot of trouble to drop a name

&039;You are interested in the Mother of Rome?&039; asked Merrin &039;The eternal feminine of the eternal city Mater Lachry up&039;

Merrin sht draught Pages lifted and settled A building this large must have its own internal weather

&039;She has many aspects,&039; said the priest &039;Soin, ument identifies her with Circe, Medea, or Medusa She is the secret empress of Rome Officially, the Church says she was a witch, like her two sisters, long dead and forgotten&039;

&039;What do you believe?&039; Kate asked

&039;Belief is infinitely complex I have made no special study of Mater Lachrymarum A few scholars in recent years have proposed such a venture but found no support It&039;sthat the Vatican and the Mother of Tears are wary of each other, and choose not to go head to head Our centres of power are on opposite banks of the Tiber The few volumes that make mention of this creature are not currently available to me&039;

Merrin indicated the darkness of one stack

&039;What does the Mother of Tears look like?&039;

&039;Traditionally, she has four aspects A child, a young woman, a mature woman, and a crone Of these, the child is the most terrible, for she is an innocent and has the ruthlessness of innocence She is also, under certain circu woman is a saint, the mature woman a harlot, and the crone a prophetess The child is half-blind, but the crone sees all The saint tells the truth, but thewhat she was told