Shadow of the Lion hoa-1

by Mercedes Lackey

  The priest twitched his shoulders irritably. "I am well aware of that."

  Apparently, the answer did not satisfy Evangelina. "You may not--"

  He waved her silent with an abrupt motion. "Please! I have no intention of violating the sanctity of counseling. I just wish I knew who she was. If we could find out anything about what happened to Dottore Marina . . ."

  For a moment, Evangelina seemed to shrink away from his intent gaze. The priest recognized the expression which lurked half-hidden in her face. He had seen that same expression many times now, in the years since he received what he thought of as his "calling." Respect for his well-known learning and piety, combined with uneasiness--almost fear--at the intensity of his convictions.

  He suppressed a sigh. Then, managed a smile. Whatever else he was, Eneko Lopez de Onez y Guipuzcoa was also a superb politician. He needed to maintain good relations with the Petrine clergy in Venice, whatever his misgivings concerning the laxity of their faith.

  "Please relax, Gina. I assure you--again--that I have no intention of violating the sanctity of counseling. I neither asked the girl's name nor did I make any attempt to see her face. I have no idea who she is--I wouldn't even recognize her on the street if she walked past me."

  Evangelina's lips quirked. "You'd recognize her voice readily enough, if you heard it again. Don't deny it, Eneko!" A soft laugh emerged from her throat. "Your acuity is already a byword in Venice, even in the short time since the Grand Metropolitan sent you here."

  Lopez returned her words with a rueful little smile of his own. "True enough," he admitted. "It's odd, really. As a young man, before that cannonball ruined my leg, I was rather notorious for being hard of hearing. But since I gave up a soldier's life--"

  He broke off, twitching his shoulders with exasperation. "I'm hardly likely to encounter her again in casual conversation, Gina! So I think you may set your fears to rest. I am simply, as always, frustrated by the lack of clarity which seems to surround everything in this city. I can't tell you how much I wish the Grand Metropolitan had allowed me to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, instead of sending me here."

  He stared at the door through which the girl--whoever she was--had left the church, his lips pursing. "And that young lady was quite right. The things her family transports may not in themselves be evil. Tomb-dust is not evil. But it can be put to evil use, and I do not share her naive belief that all Strega are simply harmless healers. It is good that she has her medallion, but--as you well know--magic can be shielded from detection by other magic."

  He rubbed his crippled leg, in an old and absentminded manner. "I just wish it were all less . . . murk and shadows."

  The sister laughed, a bit ruefully. "It is a foggy city, after all, as often as not."

  Eneko shared in the laughter and then produced still more laughter by recounting several amusing anecdotes concerning the ways in which a rural Basque priest had often found the metropolis of Venice a most confusing place. By the end, whatever doubts Sister Evangelina might have had concerning his own intentions seemed dispelled.

  * * *

  She departed, thereafter, leaving Eneko alone. He drifted over to the wall where the frescoes depicted John Chrysostom, the Golden Preacher, and stared up at the panels. A few minutes later, he heard the footsteps of two other men coming into the church.

  He did not turn around. Eneko Lopez knew those footsteps as well as he knew the arhythmic sound which his own limp produced.

  He gestured with his chin toward the frescoes above him. "He was a false man, you know, in many ways. Intemperate, harsh, often arrogant, full of error and wrong-headedness. Still, they made him a saint. And do you know why?"

  He swiveled his head to bring his companions under his gaze. Diego and Pierre said nothing. After a moment, Eneko looked away.

  "They made him a saint," Eneko said harshly, "because whatever his faults the Golden Preacher understood one thing clearly. There is such a thing in this world as evil. Not simply--"

  The next words came out almost like a curse: "--error and misunderstanding."

  Brother Pierre spoke, in his heavy Savoyard accent. "True enough. And what is your point, Eneko?"

  The Basque priest's lips twisted wryly. Then, he turned his head again and looked at the other priest.

  "Brother Diego, I need you to begin an investigation. I have been led to believe that the Strega Grand Master was once the tutor for a girl in this city. Fourteen years old, she was, when he disappeared. Find out who that girl is. It should not be too difficult. Only a very wealthy and prominent family could have afforded his services as a private tutor--and would have dared employ him, for that matter."

  Brother Diego nodded. "What was the source of your information? That might help me in my search."

  "I have no doubt that it would. I also have no doubt that you don't wish to know."

  Diego looked at the counseling booths. Sighed. "Can you offer me any other clues?"

  "And how do we know she is not a witch herself?" asked Pierre.

  Eneko smiled faintly. "Oh, I think not. Whatever that girl might be, I rather doubt you will find a witch."

  "You never know," countered Diego. "We are surrounded by evil here."

  The Basque nodded, his eyes returning to the frescoes. "No, you don't; and yes, we are. Still--"

  The hawk eyes of John Chrysostom gazed down upon him. He did not seem to find the weight of them hard to bear. Not in the least. "Still, I doubt you will find a witch there."

  * * *

  Casa Montescue looked--from the outside--as if it belonged to one of the wealthiest families in all Venice. It was only once you got inside, thought Katerina bleakly, that you realized what a hollow front that was. She walked the long corridor moodily. It was a case of too much grandeur . . . and too little upkeep. Show was very important in Venice, but more than one Case Vecchie family had found that keeping up appearances could be ruinous. This place needed an army of servants just to keep it clean. Without them it deteriorated fast. There had been six upstairs maids when she was a child. Her father had once told her there'd been ten when he was young.

  Her musing was cut by the sound of her grandfather's voice.

  "--nothing to do with us! It was Fortunato Bespi who killed her. He was a Montagnard assassin. She must have fallen out with her masters."

  Another voice, higher pitched. "Nonetheless you spent a great deal of money pursuing her sons, Milord Montescue. Money long outstanding with our house."

  The first voice, again: "And now we discover that you just recently hired yet another assassin! Such men do not come cheaply, even incompetents like the ones you apparently employ." There came a snort of derision. "The man's body was found just this morning, you know. Imagine--a blade man poisoned by his target. What kind of assassin--"

  Kat winced. Grandpapa's obsession with taking his revenge on the Valdosta family disturbed her deeply. More for its unhealthy effects on the old man's state of mind than the Montescue purse. But she hadn't realized he'd started hiring assassins again. And, wincing again, she could just imagine what kind of fumble-fingered dimwits the old man could find with the few coins he had available.

  The second voice continued: "We were promised a payment within this month, and that is very nearly at an end. We really don't want to inconvenience such old and valued clients, milord, but the truth is you're far behind."

  "We've had a delay," growled Lodovico Montescue. "Not a reverse--a delay." He said the words with a confidence which was far from what his granddaughter was feeling about the matter. Grandpapa was talking about the money they'd get from the parcel she'd had to drop into the water outside the Imperial embassy. What if that urchin Benito had stolen it? What if water ruined the contents? What if they couldn't find it?

  "Milord. We can't give you endless time . . ." said the unfamiliar voice.

  "Damn your eyes, man!" snapped Lodovico. "We've always paid at least the interest. We should have a tranche of cash in the next three da
ys."

  "I really hope so, milord. We'd hate to even think of foreclosure."

  Katerina turned away. If she went in now she'd tear that moneylender's head off. He was being polite--which, she'd gathered, wasn't normally the case. The trade they were in did make some powerful people beholden to them, people she was sure had protected them in the past. Things must be dire now.

  * * *

  She came back some time later, intent on at least trying to cool her grandfather down. He was sitting at his desk, staring at a piece of paper. Not looking angry, just morose. His craggy face seemed more lined than Kat could ever remember it; his hair, thinner and whiter. Even his dark eyes--almost coal black, normally--seemed muddy-colored.

  "What sort of mess are we in, Katerina?" he said grimly. "First that damned moneylender. Now this. They want their 'supplies'--but they're too scared to even sign their names." He waved the letter. "Your great-grandfather always told me 'stay out of politics and stay out of religion. Make money.' But he got involved in politics, because he had no choice. And we are involved, against our will, in religion. Still, I think my father's backing of Rome was the start of the rot. He granted the first mortgages."

  Kat groped for his meaning. She understood the general point. The principalities of Italy were a maze of shifting alliances. But there were always two poles. Rome--and Milan. The Milanese under the Visconti were, officially at least, Montagnards--believers in one united Christian realm, under the aegis of the Holy Roman Emperor. Not without reason, their neighbors viewed this lofty and always-distant goal as little more than an excuse for the Visconti dynasty's insatiable lust for immediate conquests of territory in northern Italy.

  Rome's priorities--which was to say, the priorities of the Grand Metropolitan of Rome--were more nebulous, beyond opposition to having northern Italy absorbed into the Empire. But those priorities had more than once involved taking occasional territory; always for the good of the people, of course. Grandpapa had said before that his father's politics--the Montescues were traditionally allied with the "Metropolitans," as the anti-Montagnard faction was called--had gotten Casa Montescue into trouble. But she hadn't realized the trouble had extended to their relations with the family's financial supporters.

  "It can't be that bad, surely, Grandpapa?"

  He sighed. "I'm afraid it can, dearest Kat. Floriano's--and we've borrowed money from Floriano's since I was a boy--have actually started talking about foreclosure."

  Kat put an arm around him. The feel of her grandfather's still-broad but bony shoulders brought sadness. She could remember, as a girl, thinking that her grandfather must be the strongest man in the world. "Can't we sell off the farm? Or this place, for that matter? We can't keep it up, anyway."

  He shook his head, sadly. "No. The truth to tell, we dare not sell anything. We haven't just borrowed from Floriano's. Much of what we have is double mortgaged. If we show any signs of failing . . . the gull-gropers will be onto the flesh of Montescue and rip it to shreds. There will literally be nothing left. We've been in difficulties for twenty years. . . ."

  He leaned back from the desk, pushing himself away with arms that had once been heavy with muscle. Only the size of his hands reflected any longer the strength which had once been a legend in Venice. One of those hands reached around Kat's waist, drawing her close.

  "The worst of it, of course, has only been in the last three years, since your father left. Vanished at sea. He borrowed heavily for that venture."

  She felt the hand squeezing her. The slight tremble in the fingers was heartbreaking. "I don't know what I would do without you, Kat," the old man said softly. "You have been the mainstay of this family since your father . . ." Sadly, and for the first time, he whispered the word: "Died."

  Kat didn't know what to say. Her thoughts were fixed entirely on a parcel at the bottom of a canal. Hoping desperately that it was still there; and hoping, just as desperately, that a street urchin named Benito could be relied upon to save the fortune of one of Venice's four oldest and--once--wealthiest and most powerful families.

  Chapter 5 =========

  When Marco returned, there was no Benito at the dock--just a scrap of dirty paper wedged beneath it. Got a job. Come tamarra. Which left Marco to go back to his hide again, wondering if the "job" was a real task, or something Benito made up so he could enjoy another night of the festival.

  Or . . . a ruse to lure Benito into the clutches of Them. Surely not. Surely They wouldn't go to all that trouble. Surely Benito would smell a rat if they tried.

  By this time, Marco felt faint with hunger, and on his way back to shelter spotted a lone marsh-mallow just at the edge of what he knew to be dangerous mire. He took a chance, and worked his way out to it--but he had to stop just out of reach, when the hungry mud beneath the water sucked at his foot and nearly pulled him down. He stared at it in despair. He hadn't eaten in two days now. . . .

  There was no way to reach it.

  Choking on tears of frustration, he turned his back on the tantalizing plant, and headed for the hide again.

  He crawled inside, too cold to shiver, wrapped a scrap of blanket around himself, and waited for the sun to warm the hide a little. There was just enough room under the lumpy dome for him and a few precious belongings. Sunlight filtered through the mass of enmeshed weeds at the entrance as he got feeling back into his toes and feet. Finally, for lack of anything else to do, he picked through his packets of herbs and oddments to see if he might have left a scrap of food in there.

  Nothing. Except a single fishhook and a bit of line, left from the times he had something to bait the hook with.

  He paused, with his hand over the packet.

  It wouldn't be much of a sin. Maybe not any sin. Even in Milan--

  Even in Pauline-dominated Milan, fishermen got blessings on their nets to increase their catch.

  But he wasn't a priest, to give such a blessing.

  On the other hand, if he passed out from hunger, he wouldn't be able to warn Benito.

  Saint Peter--you were a fisherman! Blessed Saint Peter, send me a sign!

  There was an angry squawk and a commotion just outside and above his hide--a thump, a splash--

  He shoved his head and arm outside, just in time to wave frantically at the gull about to recapture its dinner from the water at his door--lost in a fight with the other two gulls circling overhead. He snatched the hand-sized gray mullet out of the water and withdrew back into his protection as the gull stabbed at him with its beak.

  Thank you, Saint Peter!

  He took his knife and worried slivers of flesh from the bony fish, eating them raw, and thankful that once again he had been saved from committing a sin.

  * * *

  He spent a terrible, anxious, miserable day in the hide, not even prepared to go and share his fear with Chiano and Sophia. With the dusk he was off to wait again.

  * * *

  This time he was rewarded. There was a pad of bare feet overhead--then tiny sounds that marked someone who knew what he was doing and where he was going, climbing down among the crossbeams.

  "Hi, brother?" Benito's whisper.

  "Right here."

  "Be right with you." A bit of scratching, a rasp of wood on cloth and skin, and someone slipped in beside him with a quick hug, and then pulled away.

  "Riot out there tonight. Sorry about yesterday. I couldn't get here in time. I tried but I got held up."

  "Benito--I've got to go under cover again. One of Them nearly got me yesterday. Assassin. He was waiting for me, Benito. He knew who I was and where I was going. It has to be Them."

  Swift intake of breath. "God--no! Not after all this time! How'd you get away?"

  "I just--outran him." Don't let him know what really happened. He'll think he has to share the danger. Marco had been careful never to let his brother even guess that he'd had to kill--and more than once.

  "All right." The voice in the dark took on a new firmness. "That's it. You're not gonna run any mor
e, big brother. Running don't cut it. You need a protector, somebody with weight."

  "Get serious!" Marco answered bitterly. "Where am I going to find somebody willing to stand up for me?"

  Benito chuckled. "Been thinking about that. New man in town--got contacts, got weight--everywhere, seems like. Been watching him."

  "Big fat deal--what reason is he going to have to help me?"

  "Name's Aldanto. Caesare Aldanto. Familiar?"

  Marco sucked in his breath. "Lord and Saints . . ."

  "Thought I 'membered," Benito replied with satisfaction.

  Marco did indeed remember that name--it went all the way back to their being exiled to Venice, an exile that Grandfather Dell'este thought would take them out of the reach of Mama's pro-Milanese friends and of her lover. Caesare Aldanto had been one of the Milanese agents in Ferrara--a friend of Mama's lover Carlo Sforza. Carlo was (presumably) Benito's father--that was probably why the name 'Aldanto' had stuck so fortuitously in Benito's memory.