City of Swords (16 page)

‘Um, I’ve decided I do really want to go back to Fortezza,’ she said in a rush. ‘So any ideas about getting my talisman back?’

There was a small cheer as Nick handed her a steaming mug.

‘I’m sure you’re doing the right thing,’ said Georgia.

It felt good to be approved of by this alarming girl from the year above.

‘I’ve had a lot of time to think while I’ve been off school,’ said Laura, studying her mug carefully, ‘and I think if you get chosen, the way we all have been, perhaps you just have to – I don’t know – I want to say “complete the mission”. Does that sound stupid?’

There was a chorus of reassurance at that and they were still all talking over one another when Laura asked again, ‘How can I get my talisman back?’

‘I could get it for you,’ said Vicky from the doorway.

Arianna had called an extraordinary meeting of the Council. Two hundred and forty Councillors assembled in their robes, looking grave; it wasn’t often that their young Duchessa summoned them in this way. She was generally believed not to enjoy the business of State, and most Councillors still thought of her as a girl who needed guidance, even though her father had given up the Regency.

She began by talking to them about Rodolfo.

‘As you know,’ she began, ‘Senator Rossi has left Bellezza to see what he can do to help with the situation in Fortezza. The Cavaliere has accompanied him.’

There was general muttering among the Councillors. Some of them wondered why Senator Rossi’s wife was sitting next to the Duchessa.

‘But I have not assembled you here to inform you of something you already know,’ Arianna continued. ‘I wanted to remind you of the circumstances of my mother’s death.’

There was a swell of sighs in the chamber that sounded like the small waves of the lagoon.

‘As you know, the assassin planted an explosive device in the late Duchessa’s private audience chamber,  the Glass Room. There was little that remained of the body to bury but none of us will ever forget the state funeral.

‘No one was ever charged with that crime but we believe we know where the order for the assassination came from – and who the agent was who carried it out.’

The Councillors whispered to one another that the Duchessa was about to announce a prosecution. They were entirely wrong-footed by her next words.

‘However, I can now reveal to you that the assassin was not successful in killing the Duchessa.’

There was uproar in the chamber.

‘A woman
was
killed in the Glass Room,’ Arianna continued when the Councillors had quieted a bit, ‘but it was not the Duchessa. We believe that it was the woman that the murderer would have least wished to kill. But that is not the issue.

‘Where is the old Duchessa if she is not dead? I can now reveal that the woman beside me, whom almost the whole world has believed for the last three years to be my stepmother, is in fact my real mother, your last Duchessa, Silvia Bellini.’

After a stunned silence, while the elegant unmasked woman who had married Senator Rossi rose to her feet, the chamber erupted.

Arianna and Silvia stood calmly in the middle of the storm, waiting until one of them could be heard.

‘I am sorry to have resorted to deceit,’ said the woman that all the Councillors could see now was indeed their previous ruler. ‘My situation was too dangerous to remain as your Duchessa after the attempt on my life. But this in no way invalidates your election of my daughter, Arianna. You must just think that I resigned my position, and the city of Bellezza is no less dear to me than it was when I was your ruler.’

After that, the Council meeting broke up in disarray. Some Councillors, as both women had predicted, couldn’t wait to get out of the chamber and spread the news. Others were queuing to kiss Silvia’s hand and congratulate her on her remarkable resurrection.

‘What did I tell you?’ she whispered to her daughter. ‘Bellezzans will forgive their Duchessa anything.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Vicky, looking at all the appalled faces. ‘I did knock but no one heard me.’

Nick was at her side in a moment. ‘Can you really do it?’

‘I can certainly offer to Ellen to take it into my safekeeping,’ said Vicky. ‘I’m presuming it’s some kind of weapon? She said she had taken everything sharp away from Laura.’

Laura’s embarrassment at having her problem talked about openly was overcome by her relief that here at last was a way of retrieving the paperknife that no one else could have come up with – and one with every chance of success.

‘Would you really do that for me?’ she asked. ‘And let me have it back? It would ruin your friendship with my mother if she ever found out.’

‘I would,’ said Vicky. ‘As long as you promised me, on my son’s life, never to hurt yourself with it. And if you would do something for me in return.’

‘What?’ asked Laura.

Nick was looking anguished and Georgia had noticed his expression when Vicky said ‘on my son’s life’. It was obvious he didn’t think she had meant him.

‘You will be seeing Lucien soon, if you haven’t already,’ said Vicky. ‘They call him “Luciano” in Talia.’

‘I haven’t met him yet,’ said Laura.

‘You will. Everyone does,’ said Vicky. ‘Everyone sees him but me. When you do, please tell him – ask him – to come and visit us again. Will you do that for me?’

There was a man in Bellezza who was particularly disturbed by the news that spread out from the Council chamber like the rays of the sun. He was scruffy and scrawny but wearing a reasonably new blue velvet suit. He already knew that the woman who died in the Glass Room had not been the old Duchessa because he had seen her in Giglia at the duel where Luciano had killed the Grand Duke.

And he had realised on that terrible day that the dead woman must have been his own fiancée, Giuliana, who had never been seen again. But he had taken out his wrath on the Grand Duke, on whose orders the assassination had been carried out, even though the man in blue’s immediate employer had been the person now known as Cardinal di Chimici.

He bore no grudge against either Duchessa; it was the di Chimici who were now his enemies. So he was puzzled by the other rumour in the city: that Rodolfo and the Cavaliere were going to offer their services in Fortezza to get Lucia di Chimici placed on the throne.

The man in blue had left Classe after the election of the new Duke and wandered restlessly back to Padavia for a while. But he had no job and no new mission as a spy. He had already decided to go to Fortezza as soon as he heard there was trouble brewing there. But now that he had followed the Cavaliere to Bellezza and found out that he and Senator Rossi were also on their way to the City of Swords, he made up his mind to leave straight away.

If the powerful Stravaganti were considering throwing in their lot with the di Chimici, then Enrico Poggi must do his best to stop them.

Chapter 10

The Army Moves

The handing over of Laura’s talisman went surprisingly smoothly. Vicky suggested meeting Ellen for lunch, which was not an unusual event, and Ellen herself brought up the problem of her daughter and keeping sharp things away from her.

‘I mean,’ said Ellen, ‘when you start to think about it, any house is full of dangerous implements. Especially if she makes up her mind to cut herself again. I just can’t keep everything sharp locked up. I need knives to cook, scissors for paper – there are hundreds of things.’

‘But she used to use razors mainly, didn’t she?’ Vicky had asked sympathetically.

‘Yes. I’ve had to give up shaving my legs!’ said Ellen. ‘And buy expensive hair-removing cream.’

‘You could try wax?’ suggested Vicky.

‘Ouch, no thanks,’ said Ellen, pulling a face.

‘Did you throw all Laura’s razors away?’

‘I did. But she had this – I don’t know – dagger thing. She said it was a paperknife, but the blade was much sharper than you need for slitting an envelope. It was a rather beautiful little thing too – looks like an antique.’

‘You didn’t throw that away?’

‘No, but I don’t dare keep it in the house. The only place with a lock is the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and I carry the key round with me – though it’s rather inconvenient. But I daren’t put the dagger in it in case Laura breaks the lock.’

‘So where is it?’ asked Vicky, hardly believing her luck.

Ellen drew a little package wrapped in green tissue out of her handbag and laid it on the table between them. Vicky took it up and unwrapped it, looking longingly at the little model sword made in Talia. Laura had told her that Lucien was not in Fortezza, but Vicky felt the strongest temptation to try to use the talisman herself and head for the mysterious other world where her first son lived.

‘It’s a beautiful little thing, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘Lovely craftsmanship.’

‘I know,’ said Ellen. ‘I felt mean taking it away from her, but I couldn’t afford the risk.’

Feeling pretty mean herself, Vicky said, ‘Would you like me to look after it for you?’

‘Oh, would you?’ said Ellen, her face lighting up. ‘It would be such a relief not to carry it round in my handbag any more. I’m quite worried about cutting myself on it by mistake.’

Vicky wrapped the knife up again and put it in her own handbag.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I’ll keep it for you until it’s safe for Laura to have it back.’