Ullar, to the guard: "Can't you be a little considerate with that man? He is wounded! Let me carry him if you refuse to take into consideration his weak condition!"

The man looks at Ullar, spits, and ignores him.

The warrior shakes his head in disbelief.

Suddenly a door opens in front of you, flooding you with the afternoon sunlight. The Genoese continue to prod you along and in your state you cannot object. Silus is knocked over several times before one of the men, cursing, hoists him onto his back and carries him. The three of you see before you a magnificent estate some ways up the hill, one that you would enjoy seeing if the situation were different. However, it is not.

Ullar, to the one carrying Silus: "Thank you, there is at least a little honour in your heart!"

The guard looks at Ullar "Shut up, you fool! I won't be next on the rack!"

The Genoese are relieved to see three more of the large Africans approach from the manor and pick each of you up, carrying you the hundred yards or so with ease. They approach the rear of the manor and you see they are taking you to a barn in the rear of the gigantic place. You are carted inside and find that the barn is no barn inside. The only resemblance to it are the large metallic items hanging from various hooks on the walls. Your basic torture chamber fare, iron maidens, stretching racks, etc. There are clever funnels carved into the wooden floorboards that seem to channel away liquids from the main attraction, a large rack that seems to have seen much use. Next to it is a small table with what appear to be modern dental tools.

The door opens once again behind you, and the still enraged face of the Bishop appears, followed by a face you had almost forgotten, Antonio Medici, who had begun this whole affair, then vanished. As one of the burly Africans hoists Silus up on the rack and begins to tie him down, the Bishop, not caring if you hear or not, begins berating Medici. "Fool! Was this our deal? To have a bunch of unknowns destroy my moment! Who the hell is this?" Pointing at Ullar, "or this?" pointing at Krige, "or this?" pointing now at Silus. "The deal was that we let a couple of the damned fey in that could resist the probe and be made an example of. Instead a dozen goddamn nothings resist it! How can this be? Your man didn't say a word about these dungheaps resisting the Cross? Incompetence! Then your damn slaves get in the way of their death sentence! And those thugs? Where the hell did you get them? Ran like children at the first hint of danger! From this!" At this, the Bishop smashes his heavily ringed hand against Silus bloody foot.

Medici begins to defend himself, but is silenced by the Bishop's glare. "It makes no difference. My men are even now going to chase them down like rabbits. And if any escape, these three will lead us to them. Won't you?" The Bishop grabs Silus foot in his hand, which is surprisingly strong, and grinds the shattered bones, elicting screams of pain, "I thought you would." He then steps away, shaking his hand with drops of Silus' blood spraying about. "For now, you'll tell me who you are, or things will get nasty right away. Trust that dying will be far preferable to what you'll face in this room if you don't talk!"

The Bishop seems to have calmed himself somewhat, and now appears rather pleased. He begins looking through the tools, then grimaces a bit, "My favorite bonesplinterer is gone! Where the hell is it?" He looks about, and a bemused look crosses his face, "Oh yes, I was using it at the house last night on one of your slave girls. Beautiful thing, she was. Oh, how she screamed!" The Bishop appears considerably better off. "I must run and get it." He scrambles up, smiling at Silus, "I won't be gone long enough for you to miss me." He then jogs toward the door, with a spring in his step.

Three of the African guards are here along with two of the Genoese and a bewildered Antonio d'Medici. Both Krige and Ullar are bound tightly and Silus is tied to the rack.

Ullar starts talking to Antonio d'Medici. "Well.. it seems that you are in the same shit we are in!"

Antonio's head is down, and it is difficult to tell whether he has heard you or not.

He pauzes for a moment, seeing if his words reach Antonio and than continues: "Do you really think that he is going to let you get away with your failure? Don't you assume that you are going to be on that rack as well?" says Ullar, while nodding towards the rack Silus is bound to.

"Antonio, if you really want anything out of your life, you should consider fighting this evil, not participating in it! It is not wealth I can promise you at the end of this 'adventure' but at least you will have gotten back your honour and pride!"

"When that Bishop is returning, there is nothing he can learn from us. NOTHING AT ALL. Since we all don't know the others who were present! And if he can't get anything out of us, he is going to indulge his anger on you, as it is clearly that he holds you responsible."

"I believe you have to power in you to resist his evil! Together we are able to do something against him. Sacrificing us will not get you anywhere!"

Ullar keeps his eyes focused on Antonio all the time, hoping for a reaction. There is no panic in his voice, but his heart is pounding like hell!

Silus' resolve weakened totally upon being brought into the torture chamber and having his smashed foot tortured by the Bishop. A quick death was one thing, but being subjected to hours and hours of torture was quite another.

"*I really would like to get out of here*" he thinks to himself.

When the Bishops leaves, Silus looks up at Antonio, breathing heavily and still wracked with pain from the agonizing wounds of his leg. Silus was about to try and get Antonio to help them when Ullar has the same idea and beats him to the punch.

Silus looks at Antonio carefully, waiting to see if he responds to Ullar's request for help.

Antonio never looks up. He is obviously deep in thought. The Genoese look about nervously, obviously uncomfortable to be in this place.

Silus whispers to Ullar and Krige out of earshot of Antonio and the guards:

"Nice try, Ullar, but perhaps he needs a little more persuasion in order to help us. Listen carefully, I have just one trick that might help us get out of here alive."

"It's a longshot, but we're not exactly drowning in options here, so it has to be worth a try."

"My Lord has blessed me with one blessing today that does not require the use of gesticulations or material components. Unless the recipient has especially good willpower, then he will obey a simply command of mine for one minute."

"What I was thinking was that one of you shouts over to Antonio and order him to untie us. Of course he won't do it, but then I will ask for my Lord's blessing and command him to 'Obey' immediately afterwards. Hopefully he should try and do it and we might have a chance."

"Even if we don't manage it, I'm sure that Antonio will be in a load of trouble when the Bishop finds out, which should take the heat off us for a while."

"So what do you think? Are you willing to give it a try?"

Ullar whispers: "Sure.. no problem! Just nod twice and I'll ask him to untie us. But, are you sure you want HIM to untie us, and not one of the African Guards?"

Ullar peers at Silus with a questioning look.

"Do the Africans understand Italian?" Silus questions. "If they don't, then they won't be able to understand the command and our only chance will be lost."

Silus pauses:

"I suppose that there is one tried and tested way of finding out."

He looks up at the closest of the Africans:

"Hey, ugly," he calls out in Italian. "Is it true that your mother was f***ed by a gorilla?"

The two Genoese look at each other and break a smile, obviously trying not to laugh. The Africans look at him and their expressions do not change in the slightest.

Krige looks at Silus and whispers:" It's a good idea. I will try. Tell me when I should shout. But what will we do when he will untie us?".

"We need to overpower the Africans," Silus replies, "and that's not going to be easy. It's the only chance we have though."

"Still, perhaps they have been told not to kill us. I can't imagine the Bishop would want us dead. If we were, then he definitely wouldn't get any information out of us."

Krige and Ullar both begin making quite a racket, sensing that the Bishop will return soon. Antonio wearily looks over at them, "Be quiet, you fools! Death will come soon enough for you. Save your strength!"

When he finally turns his attention to them, Ullar and Krige both begin ordering Antonio to release them. Antonio laughs at them, until the ringing word of "OBEY!" comes from Silus. Antonio immediately comes forward and begins untying Silus, which takes no time at all as the constraints of the rack are remarkably simple, though strong. He then proceeds to untie Krige as Silus moves quickly to untie Ullar. The Africans look on with the same implacable expression, while the Genoese look very nervous, obviously not understanding the situation in the slightest. However, they seem to be wary at disobeying Antonio as well. Just as the three are released, Antonio shakes his head and seems to come to his senses....