City of Swords (30 page)

‘I wonder who he meant?’ said Gaetano, anxious to get back to his tent and consult the mirror Enrico had found for him.

‘What does it matter? We are going to win. I’m glad whoever it was died.’

‘But, Fabrizio,’ said his brother, ‘that offer of safe conduct to Romula must be genuine. He didn’t trust it last time, but I mean to go with him.’

‘He scarcely deserves a royal escort, but if you insist,’ said Fabrizio offhandedly.

Once he was in his tent, Gaetano took the scratched and spotted mirror and tried to focus his thoughts as Luciano had taught him.

Soon the face that stared back at him was Rodolfo’s.

I think Ludo is about to surrender
, Gaetano thought-spoke clumsily.

That is wonderful news!
replied Rodolfo.
But why now?

He said he had lost someone on his side. He seems terribly upset.

Ah, that would be Laura.

The new Stravagante? But that is terrible! Was she killed by our fire?

A new face replaced the old magician’s. This time it was Luciano’s.

She hasn’t been killed at all, just injured. She will be fine, but Ludo doesn’t know that.

It had been easy getting Laura back into the house. Nick had phoned Isabel, who had been clutching her mobile waiting for the call. She crept down the stairs to open the door while Charlie stood guard outside their parents’ room, ready to come up with some excuse if they’d heard a sound.

But it had been much harder for Luciano to get back to Fortezza.

‘I must go, Mum,’ he said. ‘I must let Rodolfo and the others know she’s going to be OK.’

‘No,’ said Vicky firmly. ‘You aren’t going till we’ve had a talk. If necessary, Nick and I will take your talisman from you and keep you here.’

He had never known her like this.

‘Not till after dawn,’ he said, trying to smile. ‘You know what will happen if I stay too long.’

Vicky gave a cry like a hurt animal and he wished immediately he hadn’t joked about something so painful.

‘Let’s go and get something to eat,’ he said gently. ‘I’m starving.’

‘But where would be open?’ she said. ‘Shall we go back . . . home and I’ll make you something?’

‘There’s a cabbies’ stand open all night at Angel,’ said Nick.

Vicky didn’t ask how he knew but let him direct her there.

It wasn’t gourmet food and there wasn’t much fresh about it apart from a bit of lettuce and tomato in the burger bun, but Luciano wolfed it down, thinking regretfully of the dead city gardener.

‘That was great,’ he said, drinking from a china mug of strong tea. It was a stall of the old-fashioned kind. ‘I wish I could take some back for the others. We’ve been on short rations since the siege began.’

‘I hate to think of you not getting enough to eat,’ said Vicky, looking carefully at him. ‘You’ve lost weight since you last scared the life out of me at Bart’s.’

‘Once a mum, always a mum,’ said Luciano then worried that he was being tactless in front of Nick, who hadn’t said a word since they reached the food stand.

‘Lucien,’ said Vicky, ‘Nick told me you are getting married soon.’

‘Yes, that’s right. Seems mad, doesn’t it? And I’m going to be a duke, apparently. But Arianna’s lovely – you’d like her.’

‘I don’t doubt it. The thing is, I have no intention of letting you marry her without my being there to see it. You’ve got to get me to Talia.’

Chapter 18

Borderlands

There was no question for Laura of any more stravagation in what was left of that night or the next. She slept late, grateful that both Isabel’s parents had jobs that took them out of the house early. When she woke, she found Isabel sitting in an armchair beside the bed, reading a book.

‘Hi,’ said Isabel. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Terrible,’ said Laura. Her arm hurt so much more than when she had injured herself. And now she was thinking about the scars she would bear – probably permanently.

She shuddered. ‘It’s so much worse when someone else wounds you,’ she said, and felt tears welling up.

‘Oh, poor Lol,’ said Isabel. ‘Shall I run you a bath? It would be easier than a shower.’

‘Where’s Charlie?’

‘Gone to school. He has Business Studies today.’

‘OK then.’

‘And after that, when you’re dressed, we can meet the others at the café. We can have brunch there.’

In Café@anytime the other Stravaganti were waiting. Only some of them knew what had happened to Laura. They were shocked by her paleness and the dark purple smudges under her eyes.

Ayesha was not there. ‘She’s doing a Law exam,’ said Matt, ‘but she sends her love.’

Laura ordered a scrambled egg and smoked salmon muffin and was surprised by how good it tasted and how hungry she was. The others waited impatiently until she had polished it off, eating awkwardly with her left hand, and drunk a first cappuccino before asking for her version of events.

‘Are you OK?’ asked Georgia. ‘Nick told me what happened.’

Laura sighed. ‘Well, I’m not going to lose my arm but I’ve felt better.’

‘Why were you with Ludo?’ Georgia asked the question they had all been thinking.

‘I’ve been trying to meet him each day I was there,’ said Laura. ‘I know, you don’t have to tell me it was stupid. And dangerous too. And I knew it might look as if I was going to betray Lucia to the rebels. But I wasn’t spying. I just couldn’t stop seeing him.’

They were all silent for a moment.

‘When will you go back?’ asked Sky.

‘Not tonight at any rate,’ said Laura. ‘I’m shattered and can’t face seeing any more bodies in Fortezza.’
Especially if one of them was Ludo’s
, she thought.
I can’t bear to think what might be happening there
. Out loud she said, ‘I’m desperate for sleep.’

General Ciampi was furious with Ludo. He had not been consulted about the surrender – just told what the decision was – and yet that was what his leader and prince was proposing to do.

‘We will lose everything,’ he said. ‘Even our lives are at risk. And we could sustain this siege for much longer.’

‘You maybe,’ said Ludo, ‘but I can’t. I have made a mistake. Although my claim is good, I have found the price of pursuing it too high.’

He looked at Ciampi’s white face.

‘I’m sorry. I have let you down. You and all the citizens and soldiers who threw in their lot with me. But I am going to accept the Grand Duke’s offer of a safe conduct and surrender the city to the di Chimici.’

‘You
might
be lucky,’ said Ciampi, his contempt visible. ‘Fabrizio di Chimici
might
honour his promise. After all, you are related to him.’

Then he left Ludo the pretender to his fate and went off to tell his men the bad news and see if he could get any of them away from the city by a back gate.

^*

William Dethridge was with Silvia and Arianna in the Ducal Palace. Rodolfo had contacted him and asked him to speak to Luciano. He had his own system of mirrors in his laboratory, but he didn’t want to do this alone.

It was unusual for the two stravaganti in Bellezza to contact the Ducal Palace in the morning but they could sense when another of their Order was trying to reach them and never more so than when its founder was that person.

Rodolfo’s face appeared first. His forehead was a mass of purple and green bruises round his injury, but the wound was clean.

Silvia gasped at the sight of him.

‘Let me speak to him,’ she said, taking the mirror from Dethridge’s hand.

You look terrible!
she thought-shouted at her husband.

I am feeling much better than I look
, he replied.
And there is good news. Luciano has been back to his old world and seen Laura. She is alive and will recover fully from the attack
.

I am pleased, for your sake
, said Silvia.
But I have never met Laura and can’t be expected to be as worried about her as I am about you!

Don’t worry about me
, said Rodolfo.
I think things are coming to a head here and will soon be over
.

And you will soon be back?
thought-spoke Arianna, snatching the mirror from her mother.
And Luciano?

Would you like to talk to him?
asked her father.
He is as eager to take my mirror as you were to have Silvia’s.

‘We should leave them in peace to talk,’ said Silvia to Doctor Dethridge. ‘They have a lot to think about.’

‘I wolde, yf thatte I colde,’ said Dethridge. ‘Bot Maistre Rudolfe himself asked mee to speake to yonge Lucian about his visits to the othire worlde.’

Arianna was think-speaking into the mirror so fast and furiously that they could almost see sparks flying from the ends of her hair. She could be as adept at it as any Stravagante when Luciano was the recipient of her thoughts. This went on for some minutes, at the end of which she relaxed and smiled.

Eventually she handed the mirror to William Dethridge.

‘Luciano wants to speak to you,’ she said.

Goode den to yow, sonne
, he said to the curly-haired young man in the mirror.

Hello, Doctor
, the face smiled back at him.

Maistre Rudolphe tells mee ye have mette your trow mothire againe.

I have.

Thatte moste have bene a sore trial for ye.

It gets a little easier each time. But it’s always hard seeing my mother and I have to sort of arm myself against her. But this time she got past my defences.

Whatte does thatte meane?