Read Online The Mona Lisa Sacrifice by Peter Roman - Free Book Online
Authors: Peter Roman
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him. But this just wasn’t one of those times honesty paid off. His men did their thing again, and I did mine, and then the pope called a break.
“If you were the real Christ, you would have borne this suffering with dignity,” he said to me.
“If I were the real Christ I would have had you crucified by now,” I said. “And I would have added a hot poker up your ass for good measure.”
And then he got up off the stool and took the tools from his men and went to work on me himself. And I was forced to concede that if the pope thing didn’t work out for him he had an excellent future as a torturer.
At the end of it all he brought in the one-eyed man who’d stabbed me in the tavern.
“Find out what this thing is,” the pope told him, “and I will put an end to your suffering.”
I never did find out what the one-eyed man’s suffering was, because he came at me then and I used a little trick a fellow gladiator had shown me in the pits and caught him in my chains. He was old or weak, or maybe both, otherwise I never could have held him. Or maybe he just wanted to be caught.
I twisted the chains so hard a little gasp escaped his lips. And in that breath was a bit of grace. Just like what I’d taken from that angel in the Colosseum. When I breathed it in, my body screamed for more. I may have even screamed aloud. Every part of my body yearned for what was in his. And the grace made me stronger, so I twisted the chains even more, until the skin on his neck tore open as he struggled, and the grace poured out.
It filled the cell with light, but a light only I could see. The pope and the torturers just stared as I strangled the life out of the angel. I guess it wasn’t the sort of thing you saw every day, even in a pope’s dungeon.
And then a bit of grace splashed out of the cell and onto the statue across the hall. And a spectral face formed there above the stone body. Victory, although we didn’t know each other by name at that point. She began to shriek in Greek, and the pope and his men turned white when they looked across the hall into her cell. And then they fled and didn’t return.
I finished killing the angel and taking his grace. Then I sundered the chains and stood there for a moment, just savouring the feeling of the light in me. I didn’t feel hungry anymore. I didn’t feel empty anymore. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be whole.
I went out into the hall to the other cell and kicked down the door. That spectral head shrieked some more, but I didn’t know enough Greek to make sense of it.
“I don’t know what you’re saying,” I said, “but I’m a man of my word.” That was a bit of a stretch, but I figured no one deserved to be in this dungeon, no matter what they’d done. No one except for Judas.
I dragged Victory out of the cell and up the stairs, into a small fortress filled with soldiers. But they all ran away too when Victory screeched at them. I realized she must have been someone special indeed in her day.
So we went back out into the world. Her head eventually faded away and she was a statue again, but I knew how to summon her now. I took her to a special antiquities dealer and blew a bit of grace into her to call her back. I was learning how to use the grace. And she came, shrieking once more, but she calmed down when she saw she was in a shop instead of a dungeon cell. The dealer just nodded like he’d seen this before and dropped some coins into my hand.
“I’ll check up on you again,” I told Victory, and waved at her in case she didn’t understand. I tossed a couple of the coins back to the dealer. “See if you can teach her a language that people actually still use,” I told him, and then I gave her enough grace to keep her around for a while.
Because you just never know who your friends might turn out to be.
And then, because I knew who my enemy was, I went back outside and after Judas once more.
ALICE AND THE LOST KISS
I walked until I hit the
“If you were the real Christ, you would have borne this suffering with dignity,” he said to me.
“If I were the real Christ I would have had you crucified by now,” I said. “And I would have added a hot poker up your ass for good measure.”
And then he got up off the stool and took the tools from his men and went to work on me himself. And I was forced to concede that if the pope thing didn’t work out for him he had an excellent future as a torturer.
At the end of it all he brought in the one-eyed man who’d stabbed me in the tavern.
“Find out what this thing is,” the pope told him, “and I will put an end to your suffering.”
I never did find out what the one-eyed man’s suffering was, because he came at me then and I used a little trick a fellow gladiator had shown me in the pits and caught him in my chains. He was old or weak, or maybe both, otherwise I never could have held him. Or maybe he just wanted to be caught.
I twisted the chains so hard a little gasp escaped his lips. And in that breath was a bit of grace. Just like what I’d taken from that angel in the Colosseum. When I breathed it in, my body screamed for more. I may have even screamed aloud. Every part of my body yearned for what was in his. And the grace made me stronger, so I twisted the chains even more, until the skin on his neck tore open as he struggled, and the grace poured out.
It filled the cell with light, but a light only I could see. The pope and the torturers just stared as I strangled the life out of the angel. I guess it wasn’t the sort of thing you saw every day, even in a pope’s dungeon.
And then a bit of grace splashed out of the cell and onto the statue across the hall. And a spectral face formed there above the stone body. Victory, although we didn’t know each other by name at that point. She began to shriek in Greek, and the pope and his men turned white when they looked across the hall into her cell. And then they fled and didn’t return.
I finished killing the angel and taking his grace. Then I sundered the chains and stood there for a moment, just savouring the feeling of the light in me. I didn’t feel hungry anymore. I didn’t feel empty anymore. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be whole.
I went out into the hall to the other cell and kicked down the door. That spectral head shrieked some more, but I didn’t know enough Greek to make sense of it.
“I don’t know what you’re saying,” I said, “but I’m a man of my word.” That was a bit of a stretch, but I figured no one deserved to be in this dungeon, no matter what they’d done. No one except for Judas.
I dragged Victory out of the cell and up the stairs, into a small fortress filled with soldiers. But they all ran away too when Victory screeched at them. I realized she must have been someone special indeed in her day.
So we went back out into the world. Her head eventually faded away and she was a statue again, but I knew how to summon her now. I took her to a special antiquities dealer and blew a bit of grace into her to call her back. I was learning how to use the grace. And she came, shrieking once more, but she calmed down when she saw she was in a shop instead of a dungeon cell. The dealer just nodded like he’d seen this before and dropped some coins into my hand.
“I’ll check up on you again,” I told Victory, and waved at her in case she didn’t understand. I tossed a couple of the coins back to the dealer. “See if you can teach her a language that people actually still use,” I told him, and then I gave her enough grace to keep her around for a while.
Because you just never know who your friends might turn out to be.
And then, because I knew who my enemy was, I went back outside and after Judas once more.
ALICE AND THE LOST KISS
I walked until I hit the
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