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as a midwife.”
    There was hurt in the midwife's voice. Miriam paused with a piece of cheese in her hand. She had hardly said one kind word to the woman who had picked her up from the road, cared for her, nursed her, and taken her into her house. “I'm sorry, Mika. I'm not used to this. Maybe I should just go my own way. You shouldn't be so burdened.”
    Mika sat beside her. There was a hint of a tear in the corner of her eye, and her face looked lined and sad. “Child,” she said, and silenced Miriam's objection with a glance. “You need rest, and healing. And I'm afraid your heart needs healing, too; but I don't know how to help you there. Maybe someday, somewhere . . .” She looked past Miriam, as though she were remembering something. “Maybe you'll find an ending. But for now, listen to your midwife: don't make any decisions until you're well. There will be time enough for decisions later on.”
    There was a lump in Miriam's throat. “Please,” she said. “Can I lie down?”
    Without comment, Mika fixed a pallet for her in the corner, close enough to the fire for warmth, but far enough away for privacy. Miriam curled up under the comforter. Hands to her face, she shuddered, muffling her sobs in the thick dressings around her palms and fingers.
    After a while, she slept, and Mika silently replaced the bandages that Miriam had soaked with her tears.

Chapter Four
    To His Holiness, the Most Gracious Holy Father Clement VI, from his obedient servant Aloysius Cranby, Bishop of Hypprux, benedicite :
    As we enter into the Lenten season, renouncing worldly pleasure and frivolity so as to comprehend better the Mystery of our Savior's death and resurrection, the people of the city of Hypprux and the land of Adria extend their heartfelt wishes for Your Holiness's continued good health, and their thanks for Your Holiness's wise and just rule.
    In the letter that Your Holiness sent to me last autumn, I was requested to provide an account of my see (given unto my care by my friend, and Your Holiness's predecessor, Benedict) with regard to a most evil and pernicious heresy that has taken root here. In these grave days, we of Holy Mother Church are much assailed by Satan, as is evidenced by the spread of heretical beliefs. My friend, Jaques Fournier, (who later graced the Throne of Peter as Benedict XII) well distinguished himself in eradicating the despised Cathars in the Pyrenees: and I can but hope in my own way to carry on his work.
    In this land of Adria, which my friend Benedict XII gave into my care when he raised me to the rank of bishop, I have found heresy of two sorts: ordinary and extraordinary. That is, beliefs and practices brought about by Satan's penetration into the hearts and minds of common people, and those brought about by Satan and his representatives manifesting in material form. In describing this latter I am, of course, referring to those demons whom the vulgar call the Elves.
    Of ordinary heresy, much has been written, argued, and accomplished. Holy Mother Church has done much to differentiate between those sects devoted solely to the greater glory of God (such as the Minorite Friars and the Franciscans) and those in service of the Great Enemy. By the grace of God, Catharism is no more. The notorious Knights Templar are dead. Unfortunately, the Fraticelli, the Spirituals, and the abominable Beghards still persist from year to year.
    I have fought these latter heresies in Adria, and have, to a great extent, succeeded in extirpating them. News has reached me that there are some small villages deep in the Aleser Mountains where the Fraticelli still find refuge, but I am confident, Holy Father, that their days are numbered.
    But as it grieves me to speak of such evils, it grieves me even more to speak of the extraordinary heresy brought by the Elves. You asked me to enumerate, Holy Father, the nature of this heresy, and to tell you something of its beliefs, so that God's truth may be better known by its