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The church was dark and cool, a cross-shaped structure with low rafters and the heavy scent of incense cloaking the air Luce picked up an English pamphlet from the entryway, then realized she didn’t knohat the na--Daniel would have known--she walked up the narrow nave, past row after row of elass Stations of the Cross lining the high s

Though the piazza outside had been bustling with people, the church was relatively quiet Luce was conscious of the sound of her riding boots on the marble floor as she passed a statue of the Madonna in one of the s either side of the church The statue’s flatand thin, pressed together in prayer

Luce did not see the halo anywhere

At the end of the nave she stood in the center of the church, under the great doht brush through its towering s A ray robe kneeled before an altar His pale face and white hands--cupped to his heart--were the only parts of his body exposed He was chanting in Latin under his breath Dies irae, dies illa

Luce recognized the words from her Latin class at Dover but couldn’t remember what they meant

As she approached, the man’s chant broke off and he lifted his head, as if her presence had disrupted his prayer His skin was as pale as any she’d ever seen, his thin lips almost colorless as they frowned at her She looked away and turned left into the transept, which forive the man his space--

And found herself before a forel

It was a statue, sculpted froels Luce had come to knoell There was none of the fierce vitality she found in Cam, none of the infinite complexities she adored in Daniel This was a statue created by the stolidly faithful for the stolidly faithful To Luce, the angel see up, toward Heaven, and his sculpted body shone through the soft ripples of fabric draped across his chest and waist His face, tilted skyward, ten feet above Luce’s own, had been chiseled delicately, by soe of his nose to the tiny tufts of hair curled above his ear

His hands gestured toward the sky, as if asking forgiveness froo-coiorno" A sudden voice made Luce juth black robe, had not seen the rectory at the edge of the transept, froed

He had a waxy nose and large earlobes and was tall enough to tower over her, which made her uneasy She forced a s to steal a relic froht about that before in the piazza? She couldn’t even speak--

Then she remembered: She could speak Italian She had learned it--h the Announcer into the front lines of war near the Piave River

"This is a beautiful sculpture," she said to the priest

Her Italian wasn’t perfect--she spoke o but had lost her confidence

Still, her accent was good enough, and the priest seemed to understand "Indeed it is"

"The artist’s ith thechisel," she said,

spreading her ar the work, "it is like he freed the angel fro her wide eyes back to the sculpture, trying to look as innocent as possible, Luce took a spin around the angel Sure enough, a golden glass-filled halo capped his head Only it wasn’t chipped in the places Daniel’s sketch had suggested Maybe it had been restored

The priest nodded sagely and said, "No angel was ever free after the sin of the Fall The able eye can see that, as well"

Daniel had told her the trick to releasing the halo fro wheel and give it two firlass and gold, it had to be added to the sculpture later So a base is carved into the stone, and a --but careful!--twists" That would loosen it frolanced up at the vast statue towering over her and the priest’s heads

Right

The priest came to stand beside Luce "This is Raphael, the Healer"

Luce didn’t know any angels named Raphael She wondered if he was real or a church invention "I, uuidebook that it dates back to before the classical era" She eyed the thin beael’s head "Wasn’t this sculpture brought to the church during the Crusades?" The priest swept his ar loose sleeves of his robe bunched up at the elbow "You are thinking of the original It sat just south of Dorso-duro in the Chiesa dei Piccolos Miracolis on the Island of the Seals, and disappeared with the church and the island when both, as we know, sank into the sea centuries ago"

"No" Luce sed hard "I didn’t know that" His round brown eyes fixed on hers "Youhere crumbles into the sea It isn’t so bad, really How else would we becoel, ran his long brown fingers across the marble plinth "This one was created on commission for only fifty thousand lire Isn’t it remarkable?" It wasn’t remarkable; it ful The real halo had sunk into the sea? They would never find it now; they would never learn the true location of the Fall; they would never be able to stop Lucifer froun this journey and already it seemed that all was lost

Luce stu the breath to thank the priest Feeling heavy and unbalanced, she nearly tripped over the pale supplicant, who scowled at her as she walked quickly to the door

As soon as she crossed the threshold, she broke into a run Daniel caught her by the elbow at the fountain

"What happened?"

Her faceaway She relayed the story to hiot to the way the priest had bragged about the bargain reproduction, a tear was sliding down her cheek

"You’re sure he called the cathedral la Chiesa dei Miracolis Piccolos?" Daniel said, spinning around to look across the piazza "On the Island of the Seals?"