“She’s not going to make it,” he said. “A day, maybe two.”

Janx drew one of the sheets up to hide her nudity. Tugging at the chain, he said, “We should free her.”

“We don’t have a key.”

Janx grabbed the chain and tugged with both arms. Pulling as hard as he could, he ripped the base of the manacle loose from the half-rotted wall and stumbled backward.

Not held up by the chain any longer, the girl lolled backward and collapsed on the filthy floor. Avery sighed and arranged her so that she was more comfortable.

“She didn’t get sick from the Sacrament,” Avery said.

“No?”

“See the bruises on her wrists? She’s been here for weeks, I bet. She only became infected days ago, judging from the redness.”

“I guess we know how she got infected,” Janx said darkly, and Avery nodded. Exchange of bodily fluids was a common means of transmission.

“This is how it gets them,” Avery said. “The Collossum. It gives the priests what they want, and in return they help it gather power.”

“Pieces of shit.”

“Yes.”

They pushed through several more rooms, finding beds, a kitchen, and more habitable areas. In the near distance came the sound of humming, and as Avery neared a doorway with light coming from around its edges he felt heat and humidity. He opened the door to see none other than—his mind spun—the mobster Gaescruhd, reclining on the bench of a sauna with a naked boy of shockingly young age kneeling between his knees.

Gaescruhd, fat and hairy, stopped humming and only slowly opened his heavy-lidded eyes, whereas the boy leapt up in fright.

“Go,” Avery told him, and he ran, disappearing instantly through a far door.

Gaescruhd, his member standing stiffly up, didn’t even bother to hide himself or shift position.

“I hope you’re going to finish me off, one of you,” he said, “because I have to say I was nearly there.”

Janx grinned nastily and drew his knife. “Oh, I can finish you off, all right. Gaescruhd, of all people. Huh. How many would give their fortunes to be where I am now?”

“But I’ve made many fortunes as well. For my friends,” the mobster added significantly.

“I’ll just bet you have.” Janx stepped forward. “How many folk have you sold into slavery? How many have you killed?”

The fat man chuckled. “Don’t pretend at such moral posturing, Janx ol’ boy. Yes, I know who you are, all right. You’re not a non-entity like this fellow.” He indicated Avery. “Anyway, you’re hardly better than I am, or at least you were. I don’t know anymore. But if you’ve reformed then I pity you, and laugh at you.” Gaescruhd sighed and finally changed position, scooting his butt back to push against the bench. He reached for some clothes nearby—Janx tensed—but pulled out only a cigar and a lighter. Sparking up, he said, “I had been saving this for after. Oh well.”

“I suppose you’re to thank for the slaves the priesthood abuses,” Avery said.

Gaescruhd rolled hairy, shapeless shoulders. “I’m to thank for many things.” He studied them, his gaze lingering on Janx’s knife. “And me without my muscle. Figures. Just when I need them most. But they wouldn’t accept the Sacrament, and only believers are allowed here.”

Avery noticed what he hadn’t before, that the fingers of the mobster’s left hand had fused together, and his nose had shrunk. From the redness, it appeared to be a fairly recent mutation.

“You a believer now?” Janx said. “Bullshit.”

“I believe in power,” Gaescruhd said. “The Collossum has it. By spreading his will, I have it too. Didn’t figure on getting fished, but times do change, and I know where the wind blows. Or the sea spray, perhaps.”

“You were once the go-between between Jessryl Sheridan and the Collossum,” Avery said. “Are you still?”

The fat man inhaled a plume of smoke, swirled it around his mouth, and blew it in Avery’s general direction. “Information is a commodity.”

“What do you have to trade?”

“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want something. Chances are I can help you get it. But in return ...”

“You want your freedom.”

Gaescruhd nodded. To Avery’s relief, the man’s tumescence was finally fading. Avery and Janx shared a look.

“This scum deserves to die,” Janx said. “You don’t know. You don’t live in his world, Doc. You don’t know what he’s done. I do. He needs to die.”

“I’m sure he does,” Avery said, “but we need information. Agreed?”

Janx spat again. “I’m just here to back you up.”

Regarding Gaescruhd, Avery said, “Tells us what we want to know and your life is spared.”

“Very well,” Gaescruhd said. With some amusement, he added, “Shall we shake?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary. What we want to know is where the relic taken from Atosh is. If you are still Sheridan’s go-between, you might be the one she passed it to. You might have been the one to deliver it to the Collossum.”

“So I did.”

“Wait a minute,” Janx said. “If Sheridan’s here, does that mean she accepted the Sacrament, too? She a fisher now?” To Avery, he said, “No offense.”

“She is not,” Gaescruhd said. “Visitors are encouraged to accept it, but it is optional. Only we who live here must be complete converts.”

“The relic,” Avery said. “Where is it?”

Gaescruhd gestured with his cigar. “That way. In his laboratory.”

“Whose?”

“Who else, you fool?”

“Why in a lab?”

“Ask him. Now, I have fulfilled my end of the agreement.” The mobster stood to go, gathering his clothes, and began moving to the door the boy had taken. “It has been a pleas—”

The last word ended on a wet note, as Janx tackled him to the floor, burying the fat man under his immense weight, and began plunging his knife into Gaescruhd’s broad, hairy back, again and again. Red dripped from his blade, and Gaescruhd thrashed like a stuck pig. Janx stabbed, even as Avery blanched and nearly vomited. He wanted to call out for Janx to stop, but it was too late. When at last Janx stopped stabbing, the big man rose shakily and ripped his robes off; they’d been spattered with blood. He wiped his knife on them and replaced it in its sheath.

Blood spread out from Gaescruhd’s corpse, and Janx stepped away from it, not hurriedly. He showed no disgust, only weariness.

“Why?” Avery asked him. “We had a deal.”