Secret Books of Venus I and II: Faces Under Water; Saint Fire

Fantasy Book Club Edition. Faces Under Water: During Carnival..six weeks of gay abandon when it's illegal to walk abroad unmasked..it's not unusual for some poor wretch to wind up drowned or murdered after a night of drunken revelry. Furian Furiano makes his living hunting the canals for these corpses, bringing them to an alchemist friend for his questionable cures and experiments. But one night, Furian happens upon a finely crafted mask floating in the murky waters..and is plunged into a bizarre tangle of love, obsession and evil. Saint Fire: As a child, she had been named by her slavemaster: Volpa, vixen, for the yellow eyes and fiery hair that made her seem the devil's own familiar. Yet through her misery and hardship, the girl dreamed only of angels. Orphanged at fourteen, she would have been brutally raped save for her holy gift incited by emotion, Volpa could call down fire. Accused of witchery before the dread Eyes and Ears of God, she is saved by the warrior-priest Cristiano who brings her to the attention of his bvenefactor, Magister Major Fra Danielus, who removes her to a convent where Volpa, now Beatifica, learns the love of worship. But there is one who is eager to see her dead, her body burnt by a fire not her own...and only Danielus can save her.