My heart pounded furiously as I detected a sharp escalation of hostility in the gravelly voices carrying on above us. I longed to leap out of the cellar and silence those voices with bullets, but I knew that such a course of action would only get us killed.

Despite how gracious a host the priest had been, I couldn’t afford to risk my life trying to save his, and I don’t believe he’d have wanted me to make the attempt.

Minutes after the shouting and breaking of things finally ceased, and the heavy bootsteps faded, the door scraped across the gritty, sandy floor, once again admitting light into the cellar.

The priest’s face, no worse for the wear, popped into view.

“It’s alright, they’re gone. I managed to convince them that I’d never heard of you.”

He helped us up and out, and I looked around. The statues had been…