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I locked

"There was a town in which I lived," he went on,its fur as if it were the prettiest of cats, and it with its tiny eye seereat curved scythe turned doard "A lovely town it ith high thick walls, and such a Fair each year; words can't describe where all the es both far and near sent young and old to buy, to sell, to dance, to feastit seeue caate or wall or tower, invisible to the Lord's men, and to the Father in the field and the Mother in her kitchen garden The plague took all, all it seemed except thecorpses of my brothers and sisters It was a va there he found no other blood to drink but mine And there had been so many!"

"Do we not give up our mortal history for the love of God?" Allesandra asked but most carefully Her hand worked on his hair and brushed it back from his forehead

His eyes were huge with thought and ain he looked atme

"There are no walls there now It's gone to trees and blowing grass and piles of rubble And in castles far away one finds the stones which once made up our lord's keep, our finest hard-paved street, our proudest houses It is the very nature of this world that all things are devoured and time is a mouth as bloody as any other "

A silence fell I could not stopMy body quaked A ht to left and bowed

When I looked up again, I spoke

"I won't serve you!" I whispered "I see your ganation! You're spiders with your dark and intricate webs, no more than that, and breed for blood is all you know, all you know round which to weave your tiresome snares, as wretched as the birds that make their nests in filth on marble casements So spin your lies I hate you I will not serve you!"

How lovingly they both looked at me

"Oh, poor child," Allesandra said with a sigh "You have only just begun to suffer Why must it be for pride's sake and not for God?"

"I curse you!"

Santino snapped his fingers It was such a sh doorways like secretive dumb mouths in the mud walls, there caathered le

They dragged ht to dig ers ca no more

I lay down I wept I wept for my Master I didn't care if anyone heard or mocked I didn't care I knew only loss and in that loss the very size ofthe size of love could soroveled in the earth I clutched at it, and tore at it, and then lay still with only silent tears flowing

Allesandra stood with her hands on the bars "Poor child," she whispered "I will be with you, alith you You have only to call my name "