"But Father, this is most irregular!"

Parry delivered a steely stare. "Gaoler, do you value your soul?" The man gave way, grudgingly. In due course the prisoner was free. But he was unable to rise; he lay where he was, his gasps diminishing.

Parry tried to help him, but the man groaned. He had been bound so long that the circulation had suffered in his hands and feet, and his joints hardly functioned. Parry had to let him be; it was the kindest thing he could do.

"I have come to talk to you," Parry said gently. "I regret that you were put under such duress; I did not know of it until I saw you. I will do what I can to help you escape this situation, if you will return to the bosom of our Lord and tell me what I wish to know."

"I cannot!" the man gasped.

"Surely you can," Parry said gently. "G.o.d is forgiving, for the truly penitent."

"No, I cannot, for I dare not make a plea!"

Parry nodded. If the man confided that he had dealings with Lucifer, that would be confirmation of his guilt, and the savage retribution of the law would wipe him out. If he denied it, and in so doing swore falsely, there would be no salvation for him. It was certainly a difficult situation.

But the order thought there was evidence that this was a true heretic, and Lucifer had tried to prevent Parry's arrival to interview him. This could be the source of the information Parry had to ferret out. He could not let it go without making his utmost effort.

"Let me speak candidly," he said. "It is my desire to save your soul from the eternal fires of d.a.m.nation if at all possible. It is also my desire to learn certain information. I am not without influence. Cooperate with me, and perhaps your situation will ameliorate."

The man's eyes nicked to the gaoler. He looked like a hunted animal. He did not speak.

That was enough for Parry. The suspect did know something!

Parry addressed the gaoler. "Allow me to interview this man alone, if you please."

The goaler's look was crafty. "I do not please, Father. This criminal is dangerous! I must remain here to protect you from possible harm."

"This man can hardly breathe, let alone stand," Parry pointed out. "He represents no threat to me. He is alarmed by your presence; I believe he will talk more freely in private with me."

The canny look intensified. The goaler thought there might be revelation of hidden money. "I cannot-"

Parry fixed him with an imperial glare. "Leave us!"

Reluctantly, the man retreated. He exited the cell, but stood just beyond it, well within hearing range.

"Go elsewhere," Parry said, his patience fraying.

"But I cannot leave the cell unlocked!"

"Lock it, then!"

The man hauled the heavy door shut, and barred it from outside. Parry knew he was standing just beyond it, his ear straining, but was a.s.sured that low voices would not carry sufficiently to satisfy the man.

"Now the gaoler is gone," he told the suspect. "You may speak freely to me, and I will keep your confidence."

"I-wish I could," the man said.

Parry realized that the man needed help. "I understand the situation you are in. You cannot plead, because no matter what you plead, they will deprive you of your property and perhaps your life." He saw the agreement in the haunted eyes. "You have perhaps a family, who would suffer privation, and you do not wish that." Again the muted agreement. "But if there were only some way you could get out of this without hurting those you love, you would take that course."

"Yes!" the man breathed. Now he was recovered enough to struggle to sit up, and Parry a.s.sisted him.

"Therefore your problem may be material rather than spiritual. Suppose you were to be found innocent of the charge against you?"

For a moment the man brightened; then he slumped. Parry continued to read the signals. This man had dealt with Lucifer! But now regretted it.

"You were in need-your family was in need-so you did what you thought you had to do, to deliver them from grief. What did you offer Lucifer? Surely not your soul!"

"Not my soul!" the man agreed.

"But what else would the Lord of Evil desire of you?"

The man struggled. "My-my silence."

Parry concealed his mounting excitement, and spoke calmly.

"Your silence about what?"

"I-" But the man balked, hesitant to convict himself.

"And for your silence on this score, Lucifer paid in gold," Parry said, as if there had been no balk. "It came as if by accident; you found buried coins-" The man was nodding as he spoke; he was. .h.i.tting close enough to the mark.

"And when you spent them, the neighbors became suspicious, or rapacious, and turned you in, hoping to gain those coins for themselves."

"Yes!"

"And now if you confess to dealing with Lucifer, you are lost, and if you do not confess, you will be tortured until you do confess. In either case you will lose the money, and your family will be worse off than before you started."

"Yes, Father."

Parry fixed him with a gentle variant of his stare. "Did it not occur to you that Lucifer broke his bargain with you? He gave you the money-then alerted the neighbors so that you would lose it and be worse off than before."

The man's mouth fell open.

"Lucifer reneged," Parry continued relentlessly. "You owe the Lord of Evil nothing!"

"Nothing!" the man echoed.

"But you may redeem your soul and perhaps your family if you cooperate with G.o.d. G.o.d does not renege. G.o.d will welcome you back to His fold. All that He requires is genuine repentance and dedication to His will."

"My family..." the man said, daring to hope.

"First we must ascertain what we have," Parry said. "Tell me the thing about which Lucifer bought your silence, and I will see what I can do."

Suddenly it poured out. "Father, I am a historian! All my life I have studied the scrolls of the ancients, and tried to fathom the courses of mankind. I have questioned travelers, learning about their homelands, piecing together the tapestry of the mortal realm. Oh, the tragedies that abound, the wasted lives! But recently I learned of a terrible scourge that is building-"

The man paused to recover his breath. That was just as well, because Parry needed a moment to steady himself. The scourge! Here it was at last!

"And I saw that it was coming this way," the man continued. "Others have not noticed, because it is as yet far away. But it is coming here, to the ruin of us all! I sought to publish my discovery, but lacked the money, and then-"

"Then Lucifer proffered much greater wealth-for your silence," Parry said.

"Yes. He came to me in the form of an ordinary man, but I knew him for what he was. He told me where to find the coins, and said I could do whatever I liked with them, as long as I kept silent about my discovery. And I-my wife was ailing, she needed better food-"

"And you realized that if you did not agree to do as Lucifer wished for gold, he might coerce you by some less amicable means," Parry said.

"Yes. He-he frightened me! I did not want to deal with him, but-"

"My son, you did wrong," Parry said. "But your deed was understandable. What was the nature of this scourge?" He hoped that the man did not balk now!

"It is the heathen Tartars," the man said. "They come from afar, as they did eight hundred years ago, but they come in terrible strength. Then they destroyed the empire of the Romans; this time they will destroy all that remains. Already they are overrunning the lands of the Moors, making pyramids of their severed heads! The Moors are our enemies, so our kings are not concerned about their problems, but the Tartars are a worse threat than the Moors! In one, perhaps two years they will come here, and there will be carnage such as we have never seen before!"

And there it was: the scourge of which Lord Bofort had hinted! The alien Tartars-coming at last to Europe! Suddenly it all made sense. Parry had studied some history himself; he knew how ferocious had been the invasion of the Tartars before, then called the Huns.

But more information was needed, and there was not much time. One or two years? It would take that long just to prepare a respectable defense, a.s.suming the proper ears could be reached.

"You can doc.u.ment this?" he inquired. "You can prove your case to those in a position to understand it?"

"Oh, yes, certainly! But-"

"But you fear the reprisals of Lucifer or the law," Parry concluded. "Do not be concerned; I will protect you from these. You must come with me, to give evidence about this matter. We must prevent the ravaging of Europe."

"But my-"

"We shall provide for your family before we go." Parry walked swiftly to the door and rapped on the wood with his knuckle. "Gaoler! Bring the prisoner's clothing! I am taking him out of here!"

"You have no authority, Father!" the gaoler cried. "The criminal is ours!"

Parry paused to take stock. It was true that the Church did not like to intervene in secular matters directly. He realized that the gaoler and his superiors were greedy for the spoils of the prisoner's property; they would not let him go without a horrendous struggle. He didn't have time for that; he had to get the man to his Order as soon as possible.

"Jolie," he murmured.

"He has summoned guards," Jolie said, manifesting. "They will not let you take him out."

Parry nodded. "Then I am constrained to use magic."

He returned to the prisoner. "I must put you in my pocket for a time," he said. "Do not be afraid; it is temporary."

"Anything is better than the torture!"

Parry touched the man's shoulder, and transformed him to a mouse. The creature squatted on the dank floor, astonished. Parry reached down to pick up the mouse and put it in a voluminous pocket. "There is a piece of bread there," he murmured. "Eat of it, and be welcome. But make no sound."

Then he gestured at the floor, and the likeness of the prisoner appeared there, lying bound as before.

He turned and strode again to the door. "Then keep what you find here!" he called. "I'll have no further part of this."

Now the gaoler hauled up the bar and hauled open the door. His gaze darted past Parry as he spied the illusion. "I'll see you out, Father!" he said, eager to be rid of this interference so that he could resume the pressure on the prisoner.

Parry marched sedately out. Soon he was back with his donkey, riding through the town.

He went to see the local magistrate. "The disposition of the one you charge with heresy has been taken from your hands," he said. "His property is not to be attached until the Church has come to a decision in this matter. His family is blameless, and must be left alone." He knew that when the magistrate learned of the disappearance of the prisoner he would suffer all manner of frustration, but would not dare to go against the expressed wish of the representative of the Inquisition. The Church had ways of enforcing its measures.

Meanwhile, he would carry the prisoner directly to the monastery in France. The man would realize that both he and his family were better off with this separation; it would not be safe for him to show his face locally for some time.

The Tartar campaign, as Parry came to understand it, was a juggernaut; a new tribe of heathens, the Mongols, had taken over and was fashioning the most ma.s.sive and savage empire the world had yet seen. This was indeed the scourge, and Lucifer was shaping its thrust to overrun Europe in the course of 1241 and 1242. At the moment the eastern portion of the Saracen domains were captive, and the Russian princ.i.p.alities were being subjugated. The Mongols were leaving no nation untouched; they were incorporating the entire continent into their cruel empire. Their manner of dealing with resistance was simple: they cut off the heads of the resistors and potential resisters. There were no rebellions in their lands; all who might or could oppose them were dead.

Yet despite the formidable array of information Parry generated, he was unable to convince his superiors of its importance. "The kings have many troops, well seasoned in battle," he was reminded. "The Asiatics have never encountered real Christian fighting men before, and will quickly retreat before them. Meanwhile, if the Saracens are discomfited, so much the better. That may save us the effort of mounting a crusade against them."

This was sheer folly. Parry knew. But he also knew that if he could not convince those of his order, who were most concerned with heresy, he would have no better luck with the secular authorities. By the time the magnitude of the menace was properly appreciated, it would be too late. That was what had happened to the Saracens.

But he could not stand idly by while this disaster loomed. Lucifer obviously intended to reap a lavish harvest of souls as the Mongols decimated Europe. Surely evil would flourish under that cruel yoke, without the authority of the Church to suppress it. The Mongols were said to be tolerant of religion; that meant that they would permit any form of it to prosper as long as it did not conflict with their rule. Thus they were like the Holy Roman Empire, only more so. What heresy would manifest under that alien umbrella, unchecked! Truly, Lucifer had crafted a scourge.

There was no help for it: he would have to do the job of saving Europe himself. All he needed now was to figure out how.

Chapter 6.

DVINA.

By late 1241 Parry knew that the campaign was almost lost. He had not been able to find any way to stop the approaching Mongol horde. It had annihilated resistance in Poland and Hungary during the summer, and now was orienting on the Holy Roman Empire. The Mongol leader Batu was intent on conquest, and his general Subutai was a military genius. The Europeans remained generally complacent, hardly looking beyond their own borders, but Parry understood now that there was no general and no army who could stand against the Mongol thrust.

"Well, at least you tried to alert them in time," Jolie said, trying to console him.

"Even if they had marshaled the finest joint army possible in these two years, it still might not have been enough," Parry said, remaining dispirited. "The Mongols have routed every type of force, in every type of situation. They conquered the Russian states in a winter campaign; no one has done that before, and it may never be done again. I have learned that they are even now pressing for Cathay. They are simply the most effective military force ever seen, because of their training, dedication and leadership. It may have been already too late to stop them, by the time I learned of the menace."

"But surely Lucifer cannot have the victory so simply!" she protested. "If it was inevitable, why would he have worked so diligently to conceal it?"

That made him pause. It was true that Lucifer had kept the threat of the scourge hidden for years, and had tried to prevent Parry from learning of it from the accused heretic. If the decision were sure, Lucifer should have gloried in it, encouraging mortal folk to switch loyalty to him from G.o.d. Lucifer had not done that, and was not doing it now.

"There must be a weakness," he said, his pulse accelerating. "Lucifer must have reason-good reason, if that is not a contradiction in terms-to keep the secret longer. But what could it be?"

"Something that could even now turn the Golden Horde aside," she said.

"There is nothing that can turn it aside," he said. "Had any such thing existed, someone would have used it by now. Subutai awaits only the thawing of spring to move against the Empire, and thereafter France and the Papal State. Indeed, he may not wait till then; he is the master of strategic surprise."

"You keep thinking in terms of force," she chided him. "Isn't there any other way to settle a war?"

"You mean to try to buy the Mongols off? They seem to be virtually incorruptible; all they want is conquest, until nothing remains to conquer."

"Suppose something happened to their leader?"

"You mean, a.s.sa.s.sinate Batu? That is not a course I would approve, but I'm sure it has been tried. The Mongols are fanatically loyal to their leaders. The fact is, leaders do die, but the campaign continues; they really don't seem vulnerable that way."

She sighed. "Still, there must be something. Some way to stop them, that we might use, that Lucifer is hiding."