Waterfall (18 page)

I clenched my lips and glared at him. “Could you be any more clear?”

He looked puzzled at my sarcasm.

“I understand,” I finally said. He left me then, even as Luca rode up. With his sandy hair, green eyes, and quick smile, I knew this one would charm my little sister. She always went for the California surfer-dude types. Luca was about as close as Italy could offer.

He glanced over at the rest of the girls still getting settled in their saddles. “If I may ask, m’lady, where’d you learn to wield a sword?”

“My father,” I said.

“Ahh,” he said, sorrow shadowing his eyes for a moment. “No sons, eh?”

“My father would’ve taught me to wield a sword, and my sister to shoot her arrows, whether or not he had sons.” I nudged the gelding’s flank and moved away from him, toward the others.

“Your sister is an archer?” he asked, by my side in seconds, unperturbed by my irritation.

“She is quite accomplished,” I said. Took State, last year, in the juniors….

“I must say, I like how they breed women in Normandy,” he said, cocking a brow. “I do hope we find her in Siena with your mother so we might be properly introduced.”

“Yes, well, it depends on how much you agitate me in the meantime,” I tossed back at him.

He nodded and smiled, then instantly sobered when Marcello caught his eye. The young lord was all business, his brown, intelligent eyes flicking over the retinue. I shivered a little at the sheer power of him. I’d never encountered it in a guy so close to my own age.

He turned toward Lady Rossi and said lowly, “M’lady, I beg you to leave your ladies behind. They are far safer here than on the road between here and Siena.”

“We have discussed it thoroughly, m’lord,” she said, her tone sweet but her words unbending. “It is unseemly for me to travel without them. They are willing to take the risk.”

I glanced behind us, back to the women two rows behind me. They did not appear at all willing.

Stupid, selfish girl, making them do something they don’t want to do. I looked back to Marcello and Lady Rossi. It was not my place to speak. Blend into the walls, Gabi. I reminded myself again. Make ‘em forget about you.

“Take close care, son,” Lord Forelli said, reaching up to take his son’s hand. “We will be anxiously awaiting word from you.”

“I will send a message as soon as we are in the city, and another as soon as I have any news.”

My eyes shifted back to a mule that was tied behind the last two guards. Cages with pigeons rested on either side of the mount. Homing pigeons. I had wondered if they were to be lunch, but messenger pigeons made far more sense.

“Mind the gates while we are gone, Father,” Marcello said.

A priest came out of the Great Hall, swinging what looked like a tin lamp before him, its sweet smoke trailing in a line and then spreading along the ground. The others bowed their heads, as if in prayer, and the small man chanted in Latin, crossing the air before himself, over and over. He moved down the line, continuing his litany. When he caught my eye, I hurriedly shut mine, whispering my own prayer that he wouldn’t call me out as a heretic among them. But he moved on.

His nasally prayer came to an end, and Marcello immediately set off. I glanced at Lady Rossi, who so easily kept her seat in the saddle, and shifted, hoping to find peace with my own span of cursed leather. Maybe my rear is that much bigger than hers, I thought. The things were probably meant for size fives, not my more… curvaceous figure.

“All is well with you, m’lady?” Luca asked, beside me.

“Well enough,” I muttered. I glanced at him, but his eyes were already tracing the forest, alert to any attackers huddling there. I looked down the line and saw that the other sixteen knights did the same. A shiver ran down my back. I was glad for the sword in the sheath beneath my skirts.

Let ‘em come, I thought.

But we moved on. As the hours passed and we saw no sign of any interlopers, we all relaxed a bit, enjoying the warming morning sun, the doves cooing in the dense scrub oaks. In front of me, Marcello and Lady Rossi talked, and I realized they had some semblance of an honest relationship. She smiled at something he said, and he smiled back. Maybe they were actually in love. Who was I to judge? I had no idea, really, how medieval love affairs were conducted. I thought back to the spark I’d felt the night before after I’d passed out. Had it all been my imagination, or was he a little into me? I glanced at them again. She was looking into his eyes, batting her lashes.

I shook my head. It didn’t matter anyway. I was soon outta here.

About an hour or more into our ride, everyone seemed to settle down. There was something about being halfway there that made us feel like we were going to be okay. A scout that Marcello had sent ahead returned, and Marcello brought our train to a halt. The man reported a clear road, no sign of the rogue bands of mercenaries nor the Paratores.

Marcello shook his head and glanced back at Luca. “It makes no sense. The Paratores could not have missed that we are en route to Siena. They always have spies out, watching the road.”

Luca returned his look, and then his green eyes widened. “Get down!”

Marcello immediately ducked, as did I, instinct taking over. I could hear the singing whistle of arrows. I glanced to my left. Luca tugged me down from the saddle, using our two horses as shields. They are shooting at us, I thought distantly, as if I wasn’t in my own body. Ambush.

The men had been covered with gray cloth, blending into the granite boulders above us. But the archers were only the first volley. They were now swarming down over the rocks, like an army of Gollums with uncanny agility. Marcello frowned at them and made a sound of frustration. He looked to Luca.

“They purchased his loyalty,” he said, jutting his chin toward the scout, who scurried over to the boulders.

I let out a humorless laugh. Some things never changed. For the right amount of money, one could always find a traitor.

They were getting closer.

Marcello looked back at me with alarm. “Can you keep your seat?”

“What?”

“Can you keep your seat, on your saddle?”

“Well, yes, but-“

“I need you to ride ahead with the women. Your only chance is to outride any that give you chase. I’ll send two men with you, but your best chance is to ride fast.”

I nodded, not feeling it, but seeing no opportunity, really, to disagree.

Luca tossed me back up to the saddle as Marcello did the same with Lady Rossi. They whipped our horses on the behind, and the animals lurched forward, nearly unseating me. I glanced back. Marcello and Luca were pressing through the knights and horses behind them, trying to get to the ladies, to free them, too. Our horses, sensing the urgency, were churning down the road, and from the side, I saw more men coming down the hill toward us, attempting to cut us off. “Ride hard!” I cried to Lady Rossi.

But she was already pulling ahead, much more adept in her saddle than I. She looked back over her shoulder and screamed toward her ladies. “Make haste! Make haste!”

I leaned down, trying to become one with my gelding and his gait and that crazy saddle, knowing speed was truly our only ally. We were more than halfway to Siena. If the forest was similar to what it was in a modern age, if it gave way to farmland outside the city gates, across rolling hills, we might reach safety sooner than I thought. Or at least someone to help us.

The last of the men on foot missed us by a mere eight feet, roaring in dismay, but then turning to wave their arms, attempting to make the other approaching horses rear so they could capture the ladies behind us. Lady Rossi pulled up on her reins at the next bend of the road. No one came into sight. “We cannot leave them,” she sputtered, her horse prancing in a nervous circle around mine.

“We must get to safety! There were knights with your ladies. They will do their best to protect them.”

Still, she hesitated.

“We do none of them any good by becoming captured as well!”

She chewed her lips and studied me, her wide, murky brown eyelashes fluttering prettily. The pounding of hoofbeats grew closer, then, behind us.

“M’lady,” I urged.

In response, she lifted her reins and pressed her horse into action, as did I. One benefit of the sidesaddle, I discovered-it was easier to see both before and behind. I glanced back to see who it was, behind us.

One lady. One Forelli knight.

Fantastic. Hardly reinforcements. I wished it had been Marcello and Luca. Then I might have been able to breathe. But at least it was better than none. Perhaps Marcello and Luca were fast approaching too.

We turned around another bend in the road, and I sensed Lady Rossi pulling up before I saw them. Another group of men, six of them. Two on the road, hands on their hips, two on either side. Just waiting for us. Lady Rossi’s mare again circled mine. “Come with me,” she said lowly, then pushed into the woods.

I groaned. She had disappeared through an impossibly small gap in the trees. Bending as low as I could, well aware that men were charging up the road, toward us, I followed her, as did the lady and knight behind us.

One of my feet caught on a tree trunk, which bent it back painfully, but I kept my seat, my eyes searching the forest for a glimpse of my leader. I ducked under one branch after another, seeing the rump of her horse, the gold of the cloth beneath her saddle.

But then, there she was, in a clearing before me, eyes wide in frustration and fear. We were in some ancient limestone canyon, blocked on three sides by twenty-foot cliffs. I looked back. The path in was filled by the lady and the knight, who looked around and groaned as soon as he saw our predicament. We could all hear the men crashing toward us.

“Climb, ladies,” the lone knight said. “I’ll hold them at bay. It is your only hope.”

I had to hand it to her. I thought the girl far too prissy for such things, but Lady Rossi was immediately off her horse and shoving a dagger into her belt. Her lady assisted her to the top of the first boulder, and she turned to help her up. Okay, not as selfish as I thought, either.

They turned to me and frantically waved me over. “Come! Make haste!”

“Nay,” I said. “I shall assist him,” I said, gesturing over my shoulder to the knight. The first of our attackers was now just ten feet away from him. “He cannot do it alone, and if he breaks, you two will be caught as well. Climb,” I growled, rushing to my saddle.

Lady Rossi turned and scrambled up another rock, and then another.

“You cannot hold us off alone!” barked a Paratore knight, showing his allegiance with his crimson colors. “Surrender or die.”

“He is not alone,” I said, heaving the ancient sword into the air. “You shall have to get through us both.”

The knight beside me-I thought his name was Adolfo-used the momentary surprise of the Paratore knights to lunge forward, piercing the first man in the shoulder.

I took a step back, horrified by the blood that literally spurted from the gash in the man’s cloak and flesh. But then I tensed. They were attacking now, and they were seriously cranky.

I glanced back and was relieved to see the two women, on a ledge twelve feet above us, reaching for their next perch. They were nearly to safety. At least I would die for something. Marcello needed to marry the chick for some reason.

Maybe they’ll name their first girl after me-

Two knights came closer to me, hands out in placating manner. “Now, this will not come to any good, m’lady,” said the first. “Womenfolk should never play with the weapons of men.”

“Nay, they should not play with them,” I said, adopting a guilty look and pretending to agree with him. “They should learn to wield them,” I said, already circling to gain the momentum I needed, “properly,” I finished, ramming the sword into his. He had barely brought it up in time.

I arced it upward and used the weight of it to bring it down at him again, from the other side.

Again, he narrowly blocked my blow, eyes widening in understanding that I was no pretender. “Aww, we have a lioness here,” he sputtered in a delighted but patronizing tone, beginning his attack. He was as large as Marcello, a good four inches taller than I, and far stronger. Surprise, my temporary ally, was gone.