“How can you be sure the Holy Lance will kill you, Lazarus?” Charles asked.
“There are no assurances in life, Heliwr,” the vampire admitted. “But it is one of the last options that I possess.”
“How do I know this is not a trick to steal the relic? What assurance do we have?”
“As I have said, you have my word.”
“You would die—quietly and cleanly—and that is all?”
“It is,” Lazarus said. “I only wish to die on consecrated ground. I have no designs to kill you, this Cardinal Archivist, or anyone else for that matter, in so long as I am destroyed and released from this perpetual bondage.” He paused. “But if you do not give me what I desire, I will see the entirety of Rome made vampire.”
“You threaten Rome now?” Berrytrill asked.
“If it prompts you to action, yes.”
Charles stared hard at the vampire, thinking. There was desperation to the creature that could not be denied. He wanted to die. The knight had seen frantic hopelessness in people before, and Lazarus possessed it. But there was a danger in letting the creature near such a powerful relic. The Holy Lance had a storied past, filled with coronations and war, with legend recounting that whoever held it controlled the fate of humanity—for good or ill. To the knight’s memory, it had vanished centuries earlier and had never been located, its whereabouts even a secret from Merle.
A previous Pope had obviously discovered it, authenticated it, and kept its power secreted away within the Vatican.
And now the witch had sent Lazarus to find it.
“If the spear is here, why did your witch not simply tell you the precise location of the spear, Lazarus?” Charles asked finally. “Surely she could have if she could divine where the Bible was located for you. Why involve the Cardinal Archivist and the book he protects at all?”
“I wished that, Heliwr,” the vampire confessed. “But she would not share that knowledge, not for any reason I could give.”
“Why not?”
“In her words,” Lazarus said, disgust on his face. “Letting the wolf loose among the sheep is far more interesting.” The vampire darkened. “My coming to these Secret Archives did have a benefit though. I now know the Spear of Longinus is the best hope of ending my curse.”
Charles weighed the dilemma. Lazarus was a formidable opponent, a creature of great power. Given the spear, he could prove insurmountable. Charles possessed the Dark Thorn and other magical abilities but were they enough to defeat the vampire if it decided to turn against him? He did not know. And given Merle’s prophetic worries earlier, Charles was even less certain of the situation’s outcome.
“You cannot be seriously considering this, Charles Ardall!” Cardinal Farina argued, as if reading the Heliwr’s mind.
“It is my role to consider all options,” the Heliwr said.
“I do not have the authority!” the Cardinal erupted. “I know not where the Holy Lance is in any case!”
“But I do.”
Everyone in the room turned.
With a look of absolute disapproval, Pope Urban IX stood flanked by guards at the entrance to the hidden room, Beck Almgren just behind. The pontiff was a middle-aged man, one of the youngest to come to the highest position within Catholicism, and while Charles had not met him, he knew Urban to be headstrong and rash in his beliefs and how he conducted them. The Pope looked at each of the room’s occupants, conviction burning in his eyes, before his gaze settled on Lazarus.
Disgust fought at the corners of his mouth. “What has entered my home?”
Charles cursed inwardly. The captain had notified the Pope. And put one of the world’s most powerful men in harm’s way.
“Your Holiness,” Cesare Farina said bowing.
“I will see this done, Cardinal Archivist,” Pope Urban said. “I have heard enough. The creature before us is evil, an evil that brings darkness on the world. I doubt God or His Son would create such a being. Lucifer has done this in some way. But it is God’s will that has brought him here and if he wishes to be destroyed, so be it. God will pass judgment on his soul, and the world will be free of an enemy of the Word.”
Lazarus said nothing but nodded to the Pope.
“But my Grace,” the Cardinal Archivist began. “It is my duty to protect you. Should you be this involved? I have to say this might be a ploy, and you should leav—”
“I will see this done. Myself,” the Pope declared. He gave Charles a look that challenged argument. “Heliwr, do you believe this abomination? Can the Spear of Destiny destroy it? Can such a one be killed in this manner?”
“Lazarus believes it to be so,” Charles said, unsure of how the pontiff would affect the situation now that he was involved. “Cesare Farina and I both witnessed a stake enter his heart, to no avail. He lives. So I don’t know if he can be killed. But I think it likely if the Holy Lance possesses the power legend accounts.”
“What does your wizard believe?”