20. Forbidden Spaces

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The Church is justice. The guards are its tool.

Honor them.

The Manuals of the Bunker, Vol. 1, Verse 11

 1, Verse 11

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"What's—" Amy began, but I stopped her by putting a finger on my lips.

The bishop was still looking right at our hiding place.

Had he heard her?

He moved along the gap between the last bench and the wall next to the entrance, approaching this side of the hall.

There was only one reason why he'd do that. He was coming to investigate!

Quickly, I turned to Amy and gestured forward.

Nodding, she got up, and I followed her as she tiptoed her way towards the altar wall of the temple. We walked the length of the narrow space behind the carved panels and the side walls.

A noise made me look back.

Light entered at the opposite end as if someone had opened a door there.

"Come." Amy pulled my sleeve.

She had found an exit in the panels, a small opening leading into a gloomy corridor, with a stone wall on one side. A heavy curtain ran along the other side—the tapestries. We were behind the altar now.

I stopped. Only the bishop was supposed to be in this part of the temple. No other people were allowed here.

A rattling noise emanated from our former hiding place.

We had to leave.

Amy was already far into the corridor, waiting next to a door in the stone wall and motioning me to follow. As I approached, she opened it, and we slid into the space beyond.

It was the bottom of a spiral stairway. Small, electric lamps cast a weak illumination over the worn stone steps.

As silently as I could, I closed the door behind us and then followed Amy upwards.

A dozen steps up, she stopped at a landing, from where an exit branched off, revealing a hallway with a rug on its floor. Paintings hung on both of its walls.

"These are the bishop's quarters," I whispered. "We shouldn't go there."

He was supposed to live alone, but I had heard rumors of him entertaining some of the city's women.

We continued up the stairs and reached a window. It showed a view of the roofs of the city and the fields beyond.

"We're in the Holy Tower," I said. "No one is allowed to be here but the bishop."

"No one? Holy crap!" She snickered. "If ye just had told me that earlier..." She gave me a lopsided grin and continued up the steps.

As a kid, I had always wondered where this tower went, with its top ending in the ceiling of the cavern. If the bishop had a room up here, from where he could watch over everything.

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