Masquerade in Lodi

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Frontnote:  This novella falls between “Penric’s Fox” and “Penric’s Mission” in the internal chronology of the Penric & Desdemona tales.

The order of the nine current stories is:

“Penric’s Demon”

“Penric and the Shaman”

“Penric’s Fox”

“Masquerade in Lodi”

“Penric’s Mission”

“Mira’s Last Dance”

“The Prisoner of Limnos”

“The Orphans of Raspay”

“The Physicians of Vilnoc”

The curia clerk wiped the sweat drop from the tip of his nose before it could fall and blot his page.  “What could be worse,” he moaned, “than copying out letters in the Lodi midsummer?”

“Cutting up corpses in a Martensbridge midwinter,” Penric replied unthinkingly, then pressed his lips closed.

The diligent if overheated clerk paused to stare.  “What?  You did that?  ...Was it for your magics?”  He leaned slightly away, as if suspecting Penric and his resident demon of arcane midnight grave-robbery.

“Anatomy classes for the apprentices at the Mother’s hospice,” Pen clarified quickly.  “Our material was donated by the pious, mainly.”  Plus the occasional unidentified, unclaimed body passed on by the city guard.  The ones fished up from the thawing lake each spring had been the worst, if instructive.

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