City of Swords (12 page)

‘The rebel leader, Ciampi, overthrew General Bompiani, Your Grace, and most of the army followed him.’

‘So what is going to happen next?’ asked Caterina. ‘Are the princesses safe in the castle?’

‘I tell you what is going to happen next,’ said Fabrizio. ‘What is going to happen next is that I am calling out the Giglian army to lay siege to Fortezza!’

‘Excuse me, Your Grace,’ said the unfortunate messenger. ‘Princess Lucia asked me to say that if you could spare some messengers of your own to visit your other family members, the news would spread faster than I could take it by myself.’

‘Certainly we will organise that,’ said Caterina. ‘Rizio, don’t you see this poor fellow is dropping with exhaustion and fear? He must be properly entertained while you write messages for our allies. And he should not go anywhere himself until he has recovered.’

‘Of course, of course,’ said the Grand Duke. He gave the man some silver. ‘My seneschal will look after you. And I must get a message straight away to Gaetano. He won’t believe this has happened. Then Volana, Moresco, Remora, Bellona . . . There’s no point asking Classe for help now that Beatrice has betrayed the family by marrying a Nucci . . .’

Caterina quietly led the Fortezzan messenger from the room and gave orders to her staff to see he was well fed and housed. She could see that Fabrizio would be absorbed for hours in his preparations for war.

^*

As soon as the message reached Gaetano, the Prince groaned and dropped his head in his hands. He had only recently got back from Fortezza and he knew that his older brother would insist on their setting back out again.

The last thing he wanted was to mount up on his horse and ride back to Fortezza with Fabrizio at the head of an army. And he did not want to leave his wife, Francesca. She had just told him she was expecting their first child.

‘Then don’t go,’ said Francesca. ‘He can’t order you to.’

‘But he can make our lives a misery,’ said Gaetano. ‘I’ll have to go. You know I can’t bear to leave you again so soon – especially now, but I must help to sort this business out.’

‘You sound as if it were a dispute about the price of flour!’ said Francesca. ‘But it’s a war – the Giglian army against the Fortezzan one. You could be killed!’

Gaetano had to admit that was true. He wondered if he should write his will. But at that moment a footman admitted a black friar dressed in black and white robes.

‘Brother Sulien,’ said Gaetano. ‘I am so glad to see you. Have you heard the news?’

‘I was away from the city when Rodolfo contacted me,’ said the friar. ‘I came back as fast as I could.’

Brother Sulien was one of the two Stravaganti in Giglia. The other was Giuditta Miele, but she was hard at work on a new sculpture and had become absent-minded about consulting the mirrors. Sulien had told her about developments in Fortezza himself.

‘That was good of you,’ said Gaetano.

‘What will your brother do?’ asked Sulien.

‘He is mustering his army and wants me to go with him to besiege Fortezza and put down the rebellion.’

‘And you don’t want to go?’

‘No,’ said Gaetano. ‘May I tell Sulien why, Francesca?’

‘I am expecting a child, Brother,’ said Francesca.

Sulien gave them his congratulations.

‘So you see,’ said Gaetano, ‘the last thing I want to do is go haring back off to Fortezza to fight in a battle.’

‘I should like to extend my own protection to the Princess,’ said the friar. ‘While you are away, I mean, if you really have to go. I could come each day and visit the Princess and send a report to Fabio of Fortezza through our mirrors. I don’t know if you will be able to contact him when you are outside the city, but if not, I expect there will be other Stravaganti gathering at the walls of Fortezza.’

‘That would be a great relief to me,’ said Gaetano.

‘But you don’t have to come here, Brother,’ said Francesca. ‘I am not ill. I shall visit you each day at Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines. It will do me good to walk there.’

‘Then there’s nothing for it, I suppose,’ said Gaetano. ‘I must find some armour and saddle up.’

Isabel, Georgia and Ayesha were shocked by how pale Laura looked when they visited her after school two days after she got out of hospital. Her mother had not let them come before. Laura was lying on the sofa in her family’s sitting room, propped up with cushions. Her arm was still bandaged and lay across her chest as if it didn’t belong to her. Her face and hands looked almost translucent.

‘How are you?’ asked Isabel, knowing it was a silly question but needing to say it all the same.

‘Well – you know,’ said Laura. ‘I’ve felt better. The worst thing is my parents.’

‘I thought they were OK,’ said Ayesha. ‘Just worried about you.’

‘Oh, they’re that all right,’ said Laura. ‘I have to see a psychiatrist. And they’ve taken everything sharp away – including my talisman.’

She wiped tears of frustration away with the back of her bandaged hand. She seemed exhausted.

‘Well, if you’re not going back . . .’ said Georgia.

The others thought this was harsh but it got a reaction.

Laura glared at Georgia. ‘I want the option, don’t I? It should be
my
decision, not theirs. And they’re watching me like hawks.’

As if on cue, Ellen, Laura’s mother, came in with a tray of tea and biscuits. She sat down with them and poured for everyone. Isabel saw that she took a mug for herself. If she was going to stay it would be impossible to talk to Laura about Talia and stravagating.

‘Now, girls,’ said Ellen, ‘I know this is difficult for everyone to talk about, but did any of you know what Laura had been doing? I have to ask.’

‘Oh, Mum,’ said Laura, her pale face tinged with pink.

‘It’s OK, Lol,’ said Isabel. ‘I’m really sorry, Mrs Reid. I didn’t know anything for sure, till you texted from the hospital. But I was beginning to suspect something. I should have said.’

Ellen Reid relaxed as the other girls nodded in agreement.

‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘I believe you. But James and I are just so angry with ourselves that we didn’t realise how miserable Laura had been.’

She was right; it was impossibly difficult to talk about, with Laura sitting right there, her left arm bandaged from wrist to elbow, looking as if she was going to die of embarrassment.

‘One thing though,’ said Isabel, her heart thumping. ‘I don’t think Laura bought that antique paperknife to – you know. It was just an ornament.’

‘I told them that,’ said Laura wearily.

‘But you understand why we can’t let her have it back,’ said Ellen. ‘At least not till the psychiatrist says she can have it. It’s really sharp.’

Laura buried her face in a cushion. Her mother showed no signs of being about to leave the girls on their own.

Georgia cleared her throat. ‘Matt went to see, you know, Lucy, on Monday night,’ she said.

‘Lucy?’ said Laura. ‘Oh, I see, yes. Did he? Did he tell her about me?’

‘Yes,’ said Isabel. ‘He asked her to tell, um, your other friend that you’d be out of action for a few days.’

Ellen got up. ‘I can see you girls have some gossip to catch up on, Laura,’ she said, and left them to it.

‘Thank goodness,’ said Georgia, as soon as Laura’s mother was out of earshot.

‘Lucy?’ said Laura, laughing in spite of herself. ‘What would you have done with Fabio and Ludo?’

‘Ludo’s started a rebellion in Fortezza,’ said Georgia seriously. ‘The Princess is a prisoner in her own castle.’

‘I must go there again then,’ said Laura, serious herself now. ‘I can’t just opt out when it’s got so dangerous for both sides.’
For Ludo
, she thought. ‘But how can I get my talisman back?’

All over north Talia the di Chimici were mustering. Only Giglia and Fortezza had standing armies – and Fortezza had lost half of its soldiery – but every prince and duke of the ruling family could call on a pool of mercenaries to fight for them. They could afford pay and supplies and armour and weapons and forage, even horses for the few men who didn’t have their own.

As soon as the message came, even the oldest di Chimici rulers, like Ferdinando of Moresco, the nearest city to Fortezza, squeezed himself into his armour, though it was his son Ferrando who was going to lead the army. The old Prince was seventy-eight and his son forty-seven but they were determined to play their part in bringing justice, as they saw it, in Fortezza.

Jacopo of Bellona sent his son Filippo, who was eager to earn more credit with the senior branch of the family, and Alfonso, Duke of Volana, was heading his city’s forces, reluctant as he was to leave Bianca. The Pope had ordered up an army but was content for it to be led by a mercenary
condottiere
. Still, he sent his Cardinal and nephew Rinaldo di Chimici, to be its chaplain.

Princess Lucia, a virtual prisoner in her own castle, knew nothing of all these preparations, but Guido Parola, who had appointed himself her personal bodyguard, assured her that something like that would be happening.

‘Your family can be relied on,’ he promised her. ‘They will send a mighty force and the Manoush will be overthrown.’

‘And what will happen to Ludo then?’ asked the Princess. ‘I know he is a rebel and my enemy, but he is also my brother and, I think, your friend?’

‘I hardly know him,’ said Guido, ‘but he has put himself beyond friendship by his actions. My loyalty is to Your Highness.’

‘Why is that?’ asked Lucia. ‘I don’t think your old employer is friend to the di Chimici. Did we not murder her husband’s first wife?’

Guido tried hard to give nothing away by his expression. After all, he had tried to murder the Duchessa too, at a di Chimici request.

‘It was the day of the weddings,’ he said quietly. ‘From the moment I saw Camillo Nucci stab your bridegroom, my loyalty was to you. No young woman should have to witness such a thing.’

Lucia touched his sleeve. ‘You are a kind man,’ she said. ‘And I am grateful you are here. Prince Gaetano recommends you, and he said I was to send him a message if I was in trouble, but I don’t know how.’

‘Have no fear,’ said Guido. ‘You have met Fabio the swordsmith and know that he is one of a special Order. They have ways of communicating and I’m sure that the Stravaganti got the news from Fortezza even before our messenger reached your family. They would have told Gaetano.’

‘You think the Stravaganti would come and fight beside the di Chimici?’ asked Lucia.

‘I don’t know whether fighting would be their strength, but I think some of them will come and use their powers in your support,’ said Guido.

‘And where is the girl – Laura?’ asked Lucia. ‘Is she safe?’

‘I wish I knew,’ said Guido.

^*

Fabio, although loyal to the Princess, was not under guard. His skills were too much in demand. He could not refuse to make weapons for the rebel army; forging swords and daggers was his trade and he had never concerned himself before about who might be killed by them.

He had been both relieved and alarmed by the mirror-message from Bellezza. At least there hadn’t been another time-shift between Talia and the other world, which could have taken the new Stravagante far beyond his reach. But he could not really understand what had happened to her. He had seen far too many deliberately inflicted wounds bringing death, disease or mutilation, to comprehend someone willingly harming herself.