old

a bit amazed that he had no broken bones. Manfred’s strength was genuinely incredible. He had not so much tossed the knight into the pew as he had hurled him down upon it.
Finally, the sacristan returned, the priest close on his heels. The priest was a young man; who, like the two bridge-brats, looked as if he could have used a few more meals himself. It was a small church.
He looked in puzzlement at the scene, and then bowed to the abbot. “I am Father Ugo, and this is my parish. Why have I been called here?”
“We have called you to throw these evil miscreants out. They were defiling your church with satanic practices.”
The little priest blinked, taking in the steel, and the “miscreants.”
With a start, Kat realized she knew the little man. Of course, he’d been smaller and plumper then.
“Ugo Boldoni?” she said, incredulously.
The priest peered shortsightedly at her; then, gasped. There were some advantages to her distinctive carroty-colored hair, even if it was not fashionable.
“Kat—Milady Katerina! What are you doing here?”
Kat shrugged. “I was caught in the rain and came in to take shelter.”
“She was practicing satanic rites!” shouted one the monks, waving a threatening finger at her.
“I was sitting on a pew!” she snapped back at him. “Quietly sitting, getting some shelter from the rain—when you came in—like demons yourselves!—and grabbed those children who were playing up there. They were fooling around with one of the candles. I assumed the sacristan would come out and give them both a clout. Instead this—”
She glared at Sachs. “This foul man who calls himself an abbot came in and behaved as if they were having a black mass, instead of just fiddling with the candle wax.”
The priest looked puzzled. “But . . . but where was old Giovanni?”
“They bewitched me into sleep!” said the old man hastily. “Demonspawn they are. I’m allus chasing them out of the church. Allus up to mischief.”
The big young knight named Manfred snorted. “Smell his breath! Unless the children magicked him a bottle of wine—and if they could do that, they’d have magicked themselves