Tributary

by Lisa Tawn Bergren

  She said nothing for a moment, only pulled her hand from his to brush the dirt from her green gown’s soft sleeves. It irritated her that he drew her in some visceral way, even in this moment. “What does it matter, be I adept or weak with weapons? I have none at my disposal.”

  “It matters,” he said, following her as she trailed the others toward the living quarters of the castello. “There is no cause for your actions unless you have devious intent.”

  She picked up her pace, scurrying across the yard. Dario, shadowing their movement, gave her an odd sense of security with Lord Greco in such close proximity. Right now, all she wanted was to be away, away from this towering knight who sent her heart to hammering. She reached for the latch of the turret door and heaved it open, but he slammed it shut. She could feel his chest behind her, his head to one side of hers. But it was his arm, and the sleeve that fell down past his elbow that drew her attention. Just peeking out was the faded blue ink of a tattoo. So he was marked too—

  He saw her staring at it and with one swift move, grabbed hold of her arm and whipped her around, pinning her against the wall. “Are you a spy? Were you sent here to infiltrate us?”

  She huffed a laugh, even though her whole body stiffened with fear. “Nay! How could I possibly do that? How could I orchestrate a fall that took me to death’s door for days? Whatever his intent, God himself sent me here. To you.” She stared back in his dark eyes. “I am Fiorentini. Make no mistake about it. Will I tell my people that Castello Forelli intends to expand? Certainly. That Lady Evangelia is as good with her arrow as they claim, but hesitates at shooting a hare? Yes. Not all of us wander from our loyalties, Lord Greco. I will remain true to my people.”

  His dark brown eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared, for several breaths. “Your people—some of your people…” He abruptly dropped her arms and paced in front of her, rubbing his face. “Signorina, you do not know of what they’re capable. What extent they’ll go to, to bring these people—my people now—to the gallows.” He raised his hand and waved over the entire part of the castello that held the living quarters. “These people who saved you. Fed you. Tended to your every need. Those in power in Firenze would gladly kill every one, given the chance.”

  “The men I know are honorable and true. They shall meet you in battle. But they will not try and kill innocent women…and children.” She paused, considering. The Ladies Betarrini? The child Gabriella carried? Would they be spared? A shaft of doubt pierced through her.

  “I know good and true men among the Fiorentini too,” he said, softening, as if remembering people he loved. “But the men you are about to know are far from honorable. Trust me. You must trust me. You arrived as a farmer’s daughter, a misplaced huntress. But you shall leave our gates a pawn.”

  “Nay,” she said, shaking her head. “I do not believe you. You have been soured in your thinking, in your beliefs. They’ve turned you completely against us.”

  “If only you knew,” he said, such sorrow in his face that Alessandra fought an unreasonable desire to try and comfort him.

  He searched her eyes, and his expression took her breath away. There was no trace of threat left within him. Only dread. Fear. Longing for understanding…

  A shiver ran down her back and she wanted to run, she was so confused. What was he doing to her? Making her feel for him? Confusing her? Forcing her to question everything she’d known, trusted, believed?

  He stepped aside, looking over at Dario, standing several paces away, then back to her. “See Signorina Donatelli to her room. And make certain that she does not leave it until I come to fetch her for supper.”

  ***

  ~EVANGELIA~

  I left my mother and followed Luca into the stables, barely able to stay silent until we were alone, but then, once we were, too furious, too confused to figure out where to begin.

  “You’re angry.” He lifted a gentle hand to brush aside a strand of my hair, but I batted it away.

  “Yes!”

  “You do not understand why I had to be so harsh.”

  “Nay!”

  He put his hands on his hips and waited for me to look up at him. “Evangelia, if you wish to put weapons in that woman’s hands, I had to be certain you and the others were safe. That is my charge. If I cannot do that then I do not deserve to be captain of the Forelli guard.”

  “I understand that,” I said, pacing back and forth in front of him. “But did you have to be that harsh with her?”

  “Yes,” he said calmly, leaning back against the wall. “I could see she was hiding her ability. Deliberately missing her targets. And that alarmed me more than if she’d hit them as well as you. She’s clearly not as swift, but I’d wager she has aim that rivals yours, my love.”

  “Don’t call me that!” I said, angry still, but his words made me begin to question her too. Why had she hidden her ability? Why not use the moment to show off? Unless…

  “Don’t call you what?” he said, moving away from the wall, toward me. He lifted his hand to my face again, as if approaching a skittish horse. I hated that I shifted away, but not out of reach. I felt powerless to avoid the draw to him. Gently, he edged over to me again and cupped my cheek. And slowly I looked up to meet his eyes. But I did not lift my lips, did not offer him the awaited kiss. I was still too angry for that.

  “Just as I have to see through my duties, I also must claim what you are to me, Evangelia. And if someone endangers you—or anyone else in Castello Forelli—you shall see my ire sparked beyond all measure.”

  His green eyes hardened and I grabbed hold of some of his fury, using it to pull away. “There could have been another way to get the information you needed.”

  “Was there?” he asked quietly.

  I couldn’t think of any suggestions, and that only infuriated me all the more. I stalked out of the stables, hoping my anger at least made Luca think twice the next time he decided to take down one of our guests.

  Gabi’d heard. She met me in the halls and together, we walked down to Alessandra’s quarters.

  Dario stubbornly stood between us and the door. Gabi looked at him steadily. “Stand aside.”

  “M’lady, I do not think Lord Greco intended for the woman to see anyone until supper.”

  My sister drew herself up, every inch the lady of the castle. “Lord Greco can speak to me directly if he takes issue with it. Now stand aside.”

  Reluctantly, Dario did as she bid and we entered.

  We stared at the empty room as seconds ticked by. “Alessandra?” I tried, hoping against hope that she was under the bed, or hiding behind the settee, but my voice echoed about the empty chamber.

  “Lia,” Gabi whispered, nodding to the high, small window. Alessandra had dragged a table beneath it. Was it even possible to squeeze through? Reluctantly, I allowed the truth to settle. She was small. It would have been tight, but possible.

  “She was probably frightened. Maybe she was worried the men did not intend to release her now. If she gets home and reports that—”

  “Or if she broke her neck coming through the other side…” I added in a whisper, staring at Gabi. Terror waved through me.

  “Or if the Fiorentini find her, fleeing from our men…” Gabi said, bringing a hand to her lips.

  “We have to find her and bring her back,” I said. “Fast.”

  “Before supper,” Gabi said. “They come to get her tomorrow. And if she’s not here…”

  I nodded. “Alessandra, please allow us to help,” I said a tad loudly, feigning conversation for Dario’s benefit.

  Gabi smiled, looking a bit like her old self. “Come now,” she added, equally as loud. “Surely you can see—”

  “Very well. Mayhap you’ll feel better after a rest.” I lumped some blankets under another, roughly forming a body in case the guard peered in. “You’ve been through a great deal.”

  “Are you certain you do not have need of anything else?” Gabi said, by the door now, not quite as loud, ges
turing for me to hurry. Who knew how long she’d been gone?

  We slipped out the door, giving Dario an exasperated look. “There’s no reasoning with her,” Gabi said. “The best thing for her is rest. See that she is not disturbed.”

  “Yes, m’lady.”

  We walked away down the hall, fighting not to appear hurried or harried. “The guys are gonna so kill us when they find out.”

  “They’d better not,” she returned. “It’s their fault. If they hadn’t pushed her, pressed her as they did…”

  We paused in the courtyard. “I’ll get the horses ready. You fetch your sword?”

  Gabi nodded, understanding my reluctance to enter the armory. We divided, trying to act as natural as possible. But adrenaline surged through my veins. If we didn’t take care of this fast, we were sunk.

  I entered the stables, cautiously looking around for Luca, and relieved to find him gone, gestured to two squires. “Lady Gabriella’s and my mount, quick as you can.”

  The boys ran off and I moved to the saddles, thinking about ditching them, but then deciding we had to depart on side-saddle, as if we had all the time in the world, or the guards would know something was up. Just an afternoon ride out to the construction site...I rehearsed it in my head, practicing tone, phrasing. Second-guessing myself.

  Gabi arrived then, her sword already in its traditional place; in a sheath at her back. But when she turned, I could see she’d also brought a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

  “Gabs…” I shook my head. “It’s one thing to mess around in the courtyard but another to—”

  “C’mon. Take them. You know that we’re going to get hassled, trying to ride out without a posse. Put it across your shoulders. A costume, of sorts. We’d be idiots to head out unarmed.”

  She was right, of course, and precious minutes were passing. I shouldered my bow and quiver, then helped the squire toss the saddle across my mare’s back, as Gabi did with her own. Then, as I was about to mount, I stopped cold.

  “What are we doing?”

  “What?” she asked.

  “You can’t come with me,” I whispered. “Gabs, your preggers, remember? And I’m pretty sure riding a horse at a gallop, chasing someone down, isn’t on the list of recommended exercises in What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”

  She paused and frowned. “I’ll be okay. It’s so early—”

  “No, it’s not,” I said, mounting, gathering confidence when she still hesitated. It was so un-Gabi, I had to be right. “You stay here. Get me through the gates. Cover for me. I’ll bring Alessandra back.”

  “I can’t send you out alone,” she said.

  I gathered the reins and urged my mare forward, passing her. “I won’t go far. I’ll surely catch up with her, long before the border. And with our patrols out, the woods have to be clear.”

  She reached out and grabbed hold of my reins. “No, Lia. You can’t even get yourself to use that bow these days. You might talk me into going solo, but I’m not sending you out, unarmed.”

  “No, I’m okay,” I said, my hand running over the smooth surface of the bow. I clenched it in my hands, striving to make her believe what even I couldn’t quite accept in my heart. It was one thing to shoot at some targets, but was I really ready to take up arms against another?

  If they endangered me or mine, yes, I decided.

  “Let me go, Gabs. I can do this. For us. For all of us. We’re wasting time!”

  She still looked unconvinced as I bent to retrieve the reins from her hands. Then, before she could argue with me further, I called out to the nearest squire to go and open the doors. “Vai! Apri le porte!”

  He scurried away, and I trotted through, then slowed my pace as I neared the front gates, waiting for my sister to stride up behind me. A guard, Patrizio, peered down at us. Mostly me, shouldering the bow. I knew it’d bummed the guys out in the last year, with me avoiding any time with the arrows. “Ah, out to do some hunting, m’lady, now that you’ve greased the wheel?”

  “A good suggestion,” Gabi called. “But Lady Evangelia merely wishes to see the progress that has been made beyond the wall.”

  I looked down, trying to hide my smile. She wasn’t lying, directly.

  “No escort?” he asked doubtfully, clearly pondering his options. He knew as well as we did that we never went out without our own version of Secret Service.

  “Most of our guard is directly round the castello wall,” she returned. “And the rest out on patrol. What shall happen between here and there? You can watch Lady Lia every step of the way. Let us not trifle with this any longer. Open the gates.”

  He paused for another nanosecond, but there really was no arguing with the Lady Forelli. She had nearly as much power as Marcello. Only Luca outranked her. Thank God he’s not around right now, I thought. I shivered, remembering how harsh he’d been with Alessandra. The only people I’d ever seen him act so tough with were enemies. And Greco, when he was bent on killing himself. But Ali wasn’t our enemy. Was she?

  The guards opened the gate and Gabi followed me to the center. “The guys are so gonna kill us,” I said under my breath. “Right after Mom and Dad work us over.”

  “They’ll be more freaked if you don’t find Ali and get back here before her father arrives. Then we’ll all be in a world of hurt.”

  I hesitated. “Maybe I should go get them now, Gabs. Tell them what’s up.”

  “We can’t. Don’t you see? Then Firenze might really see our guys as evil stalkers.”

  “Is it any better if they find me out here? Chasing her down? A She-Wolf of Siena?”

  “Not really.” Gabi’s lips thinned into a thin line. “There’s a good three miles between us and the border. If you don’t find her straight off, promise me you’ll come back for the guys. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Take this,” she said, lifting a long dagger up to me.

  “No.”

  “Take it. Just in case.”

  I sighed and did as she asked, just to get her off my back, slipping it into my waistband.

  “Go get her, Lia. I’ll be watching for you, up on the wall.”

  I moved out, circumventing the castle, half-hoping I’d discover Alessandra below her window, with a sprained ankle or something. But the road was empty. I let out a heavy sigh.

  I paused beneath the tiny window of her quarters, twenty feet above the ground, and whistled, amazed she could squirm through, and make it down alive. At the bottom were two deep footprints in the dirt that softened as she obviously took off. I traced the path with my eyes, marking her direction in the forest.

  What was I doing? I was no tracker. My eyes shifted over to the few men in sight, wishing I could ask Rodolfo to help me. But Gabs was right. If the Fiorentini found Alessandra with Lord Rodolfo Greco after her, they’d really come down hard on us. All of us.

  I casually moved out and into an arm of the forest that had not been cleared, hoping Gabi had thought to go to the wall and distract Patrizio or whoever else had it in their head to watch me. I pretended to have spotted a rabbit and pulled my bow from my shoulder. But as soon as I was hidden from view, I found a place to double-back and hit the path that Alessandra had taken.

  It was fairly easy for a while, finding clues of her path. It’d rained a couple days ago, softening the ground. And she was obviously moving fast. A turned rock here. A broken branch there. Maybe I’m learning how to track, I congratulated myself. But as I got farther away, it became less obvious. And I began to wonder if she had even come this way at all.

  I had to make better time. If I got too close to the border and an enemy patrol saw me…well, let’s just say Alessandra wouldn’t be the biggest issue. What would Gabi do?

  She’d ditch the stupid saddle.

  In under a minute I’d stepped up onto the boulder and swung my leg across, bareback now. Free to ride at a gallop like my stubborn, willful sister would do, if she were here. And, you know, unpregnant. Here we go, I told mysel
f. I am a She-Wolf of Siena.

  Part of me exhilarated in the sense of freedom and adventure. The chance to save our people from certain trauma.

  The other part of me screamed that I was heading into big, big trouble.

  ***

  Alessandra paused on the hill, listening to the forest, the sudden loss of chatter among the birds. Her eyes scanned the horizon. A quarter-mile distant, she saw ten birds abruptly rise, as if startled. Was somebody following her? She could just glimpse a corner of Castello Forelli in the distance. Castello Paratore—now Castello Greco—was closer, and quiet too. Her eyes scanned the wall, watching as bored guards made their rounds. If Castello Forelli raised an alarm, there’d be an entirely different feel here. Somehow, she was as yet undiscovered.

  Or was she? Her eyes returned to the birds as they flew off, settling on another tree. She edged through a boulder field, hovering in the shadows, not wishing to catch the Castello Greco guards’ eyes. Once under the trees again, she resumed her run. She had to get to the border. From there, she’d only be an hour’s walk from home.

  It must be close, she told herself, panting as she ran in a slightly lurching fashion. She could usually run for hours. Often did, hunting, preferring the quiet. But the squeeze through the window had strained a long muscle across her back that hurt every time she moved, and in the frightening drop outside the castle wall, she’d twisted her left ankle. Both were slowing her down.

  She studied the bit of forest where the birds had risen, wishing she had her horse now. But she wouldn’t have been allowed through the gates on her two feet, let alone on horseback. And now her path had been chosen. She just needed to get across it, to safety. To home. To her people.

  ***

  It caught Luca’s attention immediately. The patrol riding into the building site, in half the number he’d sent out. He dropped the parchment to the table and strode toward them, leaving the foreman sputtering behind him, shocked at his rude departure. But Luca’s eyes were on Vanni, the leader of the patrol.