Chapter 32

"I think God must be sad."

"Not the word I was thinking of," the Bishop said. "I think you got a glimpse of the reality we've shaped when you took the Cauldron. We still don't know how you managed that. But nonetheless, I think it made you very nearly one of us."

"We could take you the rest of the way," the Master's daughter said. "You could rule the world with us."

"All we want to know is who is helping you," the Bishop said.

"God," Paul said. "He came to visit me in my kitchen."

"Impossible!" the Bishop shouted.

"Try again," the Master's daughter said. "There must be a serpentine playing its own game with the world. Who is helping you?"

"God," Paul said again.

The Bishop snarled and slammed the spike into Paul again.

"If we leave it there long enough," he said, "maybe even you will die."

He took his companion's arm and led her out of the dungeon.

Paul's heart refused to stop beating no matter how much he asked it to.