by Lisa Bergren
The tears crested then, understanding beginning to seep through the frozen facade of her face. "How did you know where I was? Where to come?" she asked.
"I spoke with your Nuncio. In his last moments, he asked me to come to you, to tell you..." I stopped, belatedly remembering that he hadn't had time to tell me exactly what he wished to say. I remembered his face so clearly, the emotion etched in every pore.
"What?" she asked, bringing her other hand to mine and squeezing. "Please. Tell me. What did he want you to tell me?"
I looked at her, remembering her husband, the earnestness of his face. His intent. I knew what he had wanted to say. What she needed to hear. He simply hadn't had time to utter the words. "He said to tell you he loved you," I said. "He asked you to forgive him for not being able to return to you. That all he wanted was a long life beside you." I smiled through my own tears.
Her eyes went back and forth, searching my own. "Bless you, m'lady," she said. "Bless you for coming to tell me."
"It was the least I could do," I said. "Do you have family within reach? A mother? Father? Siblings?"
She shook her head, a small sob escaping her throat.
"No matter. We shall see to your needs until you find your way. I don't wish for you to fret. I shall send food, supplies for your cottage, your garden. Your payment to the landlord...whatever you need, you come to me. Do you understand? Your husband paid with his life to aid us. I shall make sure his widow doesn't suffer further."
She nodded, tears still running in twin streams down her cheeks.
"I know it must feel horrible, Bibiana," I said. "But somehow, some way, someday, you shall find peace, joy. It might be a long time from now. But it will be well. I promise."
As she nodded and released my hands, as I rose, I wondered what sort of madness made me think I could promise such things. I was a She-Wolf, not God.
And somehow, I felt like I'd just wandered into territory that was His alone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
~EVANGELIA~
We were riding home, sad and somber after our visit to Signora Mancini, and only the men shared quiet words between them. For Gabi and me, I think it just felt too real, too close, to be with a girl about our own age who was grieving her man. Only one thing comforted me—the guys we'd fallen for rocked this whole fight-for-your-life thing. Again and again, I'd seen Luca and Marcello escape impossible situations. As had Gabi and I.
Don't rehearse your problems, Dad always said. Meaning, we were only supposed to go through our problems when they were actually upon us. Which was good advice. Because thinking about going to visit Luca's grave, as Signora Mancini would eventually visit her husband's, just about made me want to burst into tears right then.
Luca caught me looking at him, my eyes actually wet with tears—of all the idiotic things—and dropped back to speak to me. "M'lady?" he asked. "May I be of assistance?"
"Nay, I was only..." I said, shaking my head, sniffing. I was only what? Thinking about how sad I'd be if you died? "'Tis nothing," I said, shaking my head again.
"Are you certain?"
I nodded, trying to smile brightly, assure him. He was peering at me, as if wondering if he should force me to tell him what was going on, when his chin lifted and he wheeled his horse about, scanning the horizon.
"Luca?"
I smelled it, then. Smoke.
"There," I said, pointing to our left. North. A curving column of black rose above the forest and continued to climb.
Luca's eyes met Lord Greco's as he and Captain Pezzati rode up from their scouting position. "That's near Castello Santi, if not the castello itself."
They nodded in clear agreement. Gabi and I shared a long look. Lord Santi? We'd bid him farewell but a few hours ago.
"Escort the women back to the castello," Luca said to the twins.
"Nay," Gabi said, slipping from her saddle and motioning for me to do the same. She quickly unbuckled the belly strap and yanked the saddle off her mare's back.
"M'lady, what do you think you're doing?" Luca said in exasperation. He dismounted and strode over to her.
"We shall ride with you. They'll need help. From all of us," she said, her tone brooking no argument. She tossed her saddle behind a big boulder. "You cannot send Georgii and Lutterius with us. You need them. And mayhap we can be of assistance too."
"M'lady," Luca said, rubbing his mouth in frustration. "Fire may mean the castello has suffered attack. I cannot very well lead you into that."
"Nay," she said, climbing the boulder and tossing her leg over the horse's bare back. "I shall lead you there."
I laughed under my breath. Trust my sister to put a man in his place, every time. I wished I could do it half as well. The others bit back smiles while I hurriedly unstrapped my saddle. Luca grabbed Gabi's reins.
"Gabriella," Luca said in exasperation, looking up at her, "what would Marcello have you do?"
"Permission, sir, to go on ahead," Lord Greco interrupted.
Luca lifted a brow and, with a flick of his chin, let them go scout it out. Greco and Captain Pezzati took off at a gallop. Luca sent two others after them.
"Marcello would ride to the aid of his friends," Gabi said. "And enlist every able body he had at his disposal. Come, we waste time. We're armed, just as you are. Cease your fretting. And release my horse."
He dropped her reins, his hands lifted in resignation, his mouth in a grim line. She whipped her mare around and headed down the road after the others. Luca motioned to five knights. "Off with you, then. Stay with her."
Luca turned doleful eyes on me as I prepared to mount my horse from the same boulder Gabi had used. "I suppose it would be folly to believe you, at least, shall return with the twins to the castello?"
"Forgive me, Luca," I said. "I cannot." I nodded after my sister. "Where she goes, I go."
"I feared you would say that," he said. With one easy move, he grabbed hold of his saddle horn and mounted. "Do not let any harm come to Lady Evangelia," he said firmly to the twins. "Or you shall answer to me."
"Yes, sir," Georgii said.
Luca kicked his mount's flanks and took off after Gabi, leaving me with the brothers.
"All is right with my world," Georgii said, trotting beside me.
"How so?" I asked.
"The She-Wolves are back in the wild."
I laughed under my breath. But I quickly sobered as I caught the tension of the men beside me. The smoke was thick in the woods, making it appear almost foggy. As we slowed, I eased my bow from my shoulder and nocked an arrow, my eyes burning as I scanned for enemies. Where were Gabi and the others in our party? Still ahead?
We heard a woman scream, and then the keening of someone crying in grief, perhaps a quarter mile distant. But the sounds came to us as if ghosts carried them along in the smoke. The crack of a branch brought all our heads around, the men moving to guard me. It was then we saw the deer, running away. We all let out uneasy laughs and sighs of relief.
As we neared the end of the woods, the smoke grew thicker. And when we finally exited the trees, we saw the small castello, her lone tower engulfed in flames. A servant milled about outside, hand over her mouth; another knelt between the bodies of the dead, weeping.
At first, I thought it had just been a fire. Fires started all the time, given all the candles and fires for warmth and kitchens that relied upon wood-fueled stoves. Castello Forelli had a whole "fire brigade" pantry filled with buckets and blankets to wet down. But as we got closer, I saw an arrow through the chest of one man, a knight, and another man with a clear sword wound. And other knights dead in the courtyard now visible through the gates.
"Stay close, m'lady," Lutterius said, seeing it too.
"I shall," I said dimly. "But we must find the others." Where was Gabi? My eyes scanned the rest of the crowd. I spotted Ziti, her mare, munching at a hay pile, seemingly unconcerned about the fire. Then Greco and Captain Pezzati's mounts.
I slid from my horse, as did the knig
hts, each coming to either side of me.
A woman stumbled out of the front gate, her face black with soot, a small child in her arms. She let out a sob, gasping for breath—from the smoke? From grief? Tears washed away twin tracks down her cheeks.
"Oh no," I said, rushing toward her. I took the boy from her arms, wondering if I might resuscitate him with mouth-to-mouth—deciding Mom and Dad could just deal with me using twenty-first-century emergency care—but then I saw the long, thin, bloody line across his throat.
The child had been murdered. I nearly dropped him.
I fell to my knees and hurriedly laid him down and backed away, staring at him in horror.
"Ezio Santi," choked out the woman. "M'lord's only heir."
Gabi, Greco, and Captain Pezzati came out then, helping men and women, and behind them came our other knights, carrying bodies or helping others escape. Last came Luca, carrying a woman's body. All of them were coughing, faces covered in black.
All of them wept. Every one.
Luca gently set down the woman, and I rushed over to him, wrapping my arm around his shoulders as he shook. She, too, had been murdered.
"You knew her?" I asked, crying now, myself. Never had I see him cry before. Never.
He pulled up the bottom of his tunic to wipe his eyes and nose. "Lady Nerina Santi. Marcello and I grew up with her."
"Where is Lord Santi?" I asked, reliving memories of last night, seeing him laughing, drinking.
Luca shook his head. "The fire...it was too hot. He was..." He rose and went to the servant weeping over the little boy. "Who were they? Who attacked you?"
The woman looked up at him. "They came disguised as merchants. And once inside, they poured out from their wagon, eight men. I'd never seen so many men, so bent on killing. We ran and hid after the first knights fell before them. God help us," she said, choking back a sob. "We ran and hid!"
He reached out to touch her shoulder. "Had you not, you'd be dead too," he said. "Be at peace. Lord Santi would have wanted you safe."
I looked past him. He was right. There were five dead maids laid out, several footmen, several more knights. In a castle this size...how many more had been lost? But Lord Santi had departed Castello Forelli with a good twenty men, just hours ago. "Where are the other knights?"
"Most of them dead, inside," said the maid bitterly, glancing over her shoulder at the fire licking away at the timbers between stones. "They surprised us so. The men had just disarmed and went to their barracks—"
"Most?" Luca asked, his brow furrowing. He was wondering the same thing as I—how had eight men overcome so many trained knights?
"Most, m'lord. Others fought the fires. A few gave chase but they have yet to return." She looked over to the woods, her expression bleak.
"Were the men Fiorentini?" Luca asked.
"'Twas impossible to tell," she said, her eyebrows curved into an anxious arc. "But they left this mark on the servants they killed." She rose and, sobbing, pointed to a maid's ankle. On it, was a bloody cut in the shape of a triangle.
I swallowed hard.
A triangle.
Luca stared at it for a long moment, and then to the woods, as she had done. "How long ago did they depart?" Luca asked, turning a hard gaze back on the servant. "In which direction did they go?"
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, sir. By the time we left the gates, they were long gone."
Luca swore under his breath and paced, his eyes moving back and forth as if his mind was whirling.
I took his hand. "Retribution?"
His eyes met mine, and the fear I saw made me shudder inside. He nodded a little. "By all appearances."
Gabi, Lord Greco, and Captain Pezzati neared us. Greco knelt by the maid's ankle and then looked up at Luca. "Every one of us, as well as any we love, are in grave danger," he said.
"You know who did this?" Luca asked, his brow lowering.
Lord Greco gave a slight nod. "I believe so."
"Who? Who are they?"
"An elite force of Firenze. Like none you have seen. Barbato's men." His dark eyes flicked to the woods. "I'd heard talk of them. But I've never seen them."
Luca paced away, hand on his head. "They intend to murder us all. If they cannot kill us on the battlefield, they shall hunt us down where they can reach us. Eradicate the chance that we might draw together again to defend one another."
"Weaken us from within," Lord Greco said grimly.
"How can they be so foul?" I asked. "To kill even a small child?"
"No future heir to pick up his father's sword," Luca mumbled, looking over at the boy, the woman. He shook his head. Fresh tears ran down his face. "But I thought even they were incapable of such brutality."
Clearly, our enemies wished to send a message. No one was immune to their wrath.
"We need to warn the others," Gabi said. "Get ahead of any other Fiorentini, if we can."
"I think not," Luca said, laughing under his breath without a hint of joy. "You and Evangelia are to return to the castello without delay," he said. "From there, we shall send our fastest riders."
I shifted my weight from one leg to the other. I couldn't deny it. Looking at the slit throats of the woman and child, the bloody ankle of the maid, I suddenly wanted nothing more than Castello Forelli's solid gate shut between me and the world. The Freakiness had just reached a Whole New Level. But my eyes went to this home's flaming towers, her open gates. They'd let them through. Would someone be able to steal into Castello Forelli, too?
No, we had to rout this enemy. Take them down. Before they found their way to us. Ours. My eyes met Gabi's, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.
"We reached out to ten of your brothers during the battle," Gabi said. "Seven answered our call, but it stands to reason that all ten may be in grave danger. How many more of their women and children might die this day?"
"They do not know the identity of all in the brotherhood," Luca said, shaking his head, his mind clearly whirling. "They were but some of many who rode to our aid in the battle."
"You do not believe so," I said, "but what if they tortured Lord Santi before they killed him?"
"He wouldn't divulge such information. Even unto death." He gave me an irritated look. "We are brothers. Willing to die for one another."
"But what if they were threatening his wife? His son?" Gabi asked quietly.
Luca lifted bleak eyes in her direction.
"Do we need to go to all ten, Luca? Without delay?"
He gave her a slow, grim nod.
"We need to divide and ride ourselves, as fast as we can, if we are to save them."
Luca was shaking his head, hands on his hips. "Nay. By no means."
"Luca," she pleaded, "We have no time for this! You cannot spare the men to escort us back to the castello. Assign Lia and I each to a different guard." She reached out to touch his arm. "If we do not try and warn them, and they are attacked as the Santis were," she said, shuddering, "if more children die, I could not live with myself. Could you?"
He stared into her eyes, chewing on his lip, debating for a long moment. "Marcello shall hang me," he groaned.
A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "He shall not," Gabi said, striding toward her mount.
"And if he does," I said, "I shall cut you down."
"Small comfort, that," he mused, rolling his eyes. "You shall ride with me, Evangelia. I don't want you out of my sight."
"And Gabi?" I asked, wishing she could stay with me too.
His eyes immediately moved to Lord Greco and then onward. "Captain Pezzati shall attend her. The others shall ride out alone."
He put out his hands in stirrup fashion, and I stepped into them. He easily lifted me up, and I wrapped my skirts around my legs, trying to protect them from the chafing of riding bareback. It was one thing to do so for a short ride, another to plan on riding miles that way. Luca's eyes lingered on the skin of my ankle.
But there was no lust in them.
&n
bsp; Only fear.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~GABRIELLA~
"I'll go north to our brother there," Rodolfo said, giving Luca a meaningful look. "I know it best."
So there are still some on the wrong side of the fence. One of the missing three?
I looked away. Of course Greco'd volunteer for that. Crossing the border. Risking his life. Him and his stupid Death Wish.
But Luca merely clasped hands with him. "Go with God, brother. And return to us."
"If it be His will," Greco said, eyeing me for just a second. Then he whirled and galloped down the western road at breakneck speed. Apparently he'd head north at some point down yonder.
Georgii went tearing down the same road after him, intent on warning Conte Lerici, who lived in the northwest of Toscana. Could he reach them on the road before they were ambushed? Even with their astonishing archery skills, if they were surrounded in a wood, attacked where bows would not be adequate defense... Rodolfo's form was already small in the distance, his cape flying behind him. Help him, Lord, I prayed silently. Help us all to save them.
"We shall go to the two southernmost contacts. I shall take Lady Evangelia to Villa Gallo, and you, Captain Pezzati, shall take Lady Gabriella to Castello Colombo. Obviously, if there are men who dare to steal across our border and commit such atrocities," he said, waving at the dead and wailing servants, "they would dearly love to capture or kill our She-Wolves. Keep close watch."
"We shall see to our task and immediately return to Castello Forelli," the older man said in solemn promise.
Castello Forelli. My heart skipped a beat. I thought of Marcello, Mom, and Dad. "Need we not warn our own?" I asked.
"Baldovino shall go to them," Luca said, his mount prancing back and forth, sensing the tension. We all looked at the youngest, most inexperienced knight in our company. Luca was clearly sending him home to get him out of harm's way—but couldn't risk sending one of us with him. "The guards have likely seen the smoke in the distance and closed the gates." He lifted his hand, shushing my fear before I spoke it. "We've been infiltrated once," he said firmly. "Our men know that they need to be extra vigilant about any 'merchants' attempting to enter in covered wagons. But Baldovino can also alert Marcello, and he shall send out additional patrols to come to our aid."
