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"Thank you," she told him

He nodded, and stared back at his charts She kneasn’t really reading them at all

Out on the streets, they came across the funeral procession for Maria Britto

Here, the local hearse was a Victorian horse-drawn vehicle One giant roan pulled it

Grant was stock-still as it passed thelass There was also a glasson the coffin, and Maria’s face was clearly discernable

Now, her rich, dark hair was drawn around her neck

Her head had been sewn back on her body by the coroner

"Jesu!" Drehispered, crossing himself

They had all stopped, since the road ran between the hospital and the parking lot that serviced it Lined up on the street, they listened to the sad toll of the violin being played by a man who followed directly behind Lucretia Britto The priest walked with her, and behind him, scores of townspeople

"They’re headed to the cemetery," Liz murmured

"Yes, I would think," Grant said

The procession continued At the end, Drew said, "I’roaned "I’o back to the resort, find nored hi in the procession, and the others fell in line behind him

Carlo Ponti stood in the center of the excavations with Heinrich, reading froht before

" ’And was thus, on the night of Our Lord, on the eighteenth of August, in the year 1215, that the great battle took place The dead arose froraves, as summoned by the devil’s own bride, and there ensued a battle so fierce that the slain lay in greater nuht fell in vast nureat loss, for their leader did not see all that was truth, and so, gave of his own blood The ruins were searched, but the surviving were forced to flee, for in the end, God roared above all, and his earth created the grave, and where the fallen had not breathed their last, God coood be a toreat white bushy brows knitting, shook his head "Carlo, there is nothing new here We know for certain the battle took place We know about the fallen, and the earthquake And we have unearthed a number of the dead" He shivered suddenly and fiercely "These mountain breezes! One minute, it is the beautiful warmth of the summer, and the next… didn’t you feel that snap of cold?"

Carlo waved a hand in the air He wasn’t interested in the weather "My friend, did you hear the date?"

"Yes?"

"This ritten by the old calendar!" Carlo pronounced "We are standing here, centuries later, but on the exact date of the battle when you figure in the change!"

Heinrich sue’s enthusias when the television stations arrive to do their documentaries A hook to our story"

Carlo was very still Then he shivered, too "Dusk is co That is why it’s suddenly so cold This is wonderful," he said, shaking his paper Then he sighed "It ritten by a monk in 1225, ten years after the battle, but my researchers believe that the monk, a Brother Marcus, was here at the time of the battle

I think his words mean so much more If I can only fathohed "I don’t think there is anything written between the lines It is all as it was recorded historically, and that was actually in line with the legends There was a great battle, between a man kind and decent to the peasants, and a ht of human life as a very cheap commodity"

Carlo shook his head "There’s more Listen ’Let us, in the wake of this, know that the ways of goodness er that the earth shall shift again, and let us forget that evil ain relived’"

"I’d say it was a big htly But he shivered again

Suddenly, he was very uneasy where he stood Nonsense! He was a scientist He studied the dead He slept with old bones in his house upon occasion!

And yet…

He felt a presence And Carlo’s words were getting to hiet back to the camp--we’ll reread all this to between the lines, eh? We’ll hen the sun is up, and our vision is much better" He clapped a hand on Carlo’s shoulder "A oodness and evil"

Carlo spoke again, very excited "’When the er For the past never lies truly buried, and only as it is rectified as it was, can we look for the light’"

Heinrich thought that he saw the great shadow of aan ever greater chill to his bones Then, he realized that goose buh he was cold, he eating

His breathing was labored His heart hammered too quickly