Had I not been there to restrain him, Fulk would have immediately set to work crushing all the young Vermin in the cages with his mace. Fulk's terrible temper was well-known, but nothing I'd ever seen before compared to the hate in his eyes.

Life is full of tragedy, but we learn to deal with it. It's evil that we have such a problem with, and it was hard to comprehend how anyone could be so evil as to actually breed the Vermin and work toward the goal of killing millions upon millions of innocent people. Dr. Yves' work had been to try to hasten the End of the World.

I held back Fulk as he shrieked and flailed, spittle flying from his mouth, and his teeth about to crack under his gnashing and grinding. "Crush them all!" was the only intelligible thing I heard him say, surrounded by violent shrieks of gibberish.

"If you go in swinging some of them might get loose!" I argued.

"Then burn them!" Fulk shrieked. "Give me that candle!"

"They're evidence!" I shouted, yanking him away from the Vermin cages again. "Even the people of Codul can't stand by someone who breeds Vermin."

Fulk stopped flailing. "What are you suggesting?"

"We take one," I said. "Maybe one of the babies, but we leave the rest here so Dr. Yves doesn't know he's been discovered. We bring the baby Vermin to Sir Emeric, and he can present it to the Church, maybe even the Pope himself. We'll return with an army and lay waste to all of Codul if we have to, and put a final stop to all this madness."

Garbage shrugged, and said in his high-pitched, nasally voice, "This is hardly the worst thing Dr. Yves has made."

"How do you mean?" I asked. "What could be worse than this?"

"The other chimeras," Garbage said. "All sorts of bad bad monsters he's been making for years." The little homunculus shook his head, a grave expression on his face. "Ever hear of the tarasque?"

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The question sent a chill down my spine. "The one that laid waste to almost a quarter of France?"

According to legend, the tarasque was a terrible, fire-breathing beast, many stories tall. It had the head of a lion, a body like an ox, six bear-like legs, the shell of a tortoise, and a scaly tail that ended in a scorpion sting. A century ago, the beast ran wild in the countryside of France. Then, one day, it myseriously stopped. No one saw it again.

"Yes, that one," said Garbage, pointing a stubby finger at me. "Dr. Yves found its wormfood body and took some pieces. He's making something new. Something bad bad bad. A monster with many mouths. All full of fangs. All spit fire and poison."

Fulk grunted. "If he's really making something like that, can we afford to wait to kill him after the Church's army comes? By then the monster may be complete, and no army can stand up to something like that!"

"We can't arrest him now," I said. "Too many people in Codul are loyal to him."

"Cristoff, I didn't say arrest him," Fulk said darkly. He turned to Garbage, "Small one, is there a staircase from here leading up to Dr. Yves' home?"

"There is," said Garbage.

Fulk's brow furrowed. "Good. Then, would you be willing to show me the way, knowing full well that I will murder your master when I find him?"

"Yes indeed," said Garbage. "I'd love to see you bash his brilliant brains in."

Fulk nodded and sighed. "Leave it to a murderer to do what's necessary..."

"Fulk..." I said, offering a sympathetic look. "Are you sure you want to go down this path? You've come so far since then, and St. Giradin even absolved you of your sins..."

"I have to think I was put here for a reason," said Fulk, a hint of sadness in his voice. "Judas was put on Earth to betray Christ, Babylon was put on Earth to punish Israel for idolatry... sometimes even the wicked are part of God's plan."

"If that's your decision," I said, "then God be with you. I'll take a baby Vermin to Sir Emeric, you can slay Dr. Yves. I... I suspect we may never see each other again."

Fulk snorted. "Not that we've ever been the closest of friends, but... I only realized how much I'd miss Giradin after fucking Fitz killed him. It took me a long time to realize that all the thoughts of vengeance I had against Fitz were really just me hating myself... you know... for not being kinder to Giradin when he was here."

I offered my hand to shake his. "Then, this is goodbye, my friend."

Fulk grasped my hand tightly and looked me in the eye when he said, "Goodbye."

And that was indeed the last time I saw Fulk. Garbage told me about what happened to him after that, but I don't know where Fulk is now. I do so hope he still walks among the living, for as terrible as things are now, it's a fair sight better than the judgment which likely awaits him after his death.