I gave her a tender smile, waiting for her to catch up with herself, realize she was making a scene because of some weird reaction-slash-phobia spawned by Dad’s death, when Luca reached out and grabbed her around the waist. She clawed at his hands, trying to escape, but then she was shrieking in laughter as he tickled her and tackled her to the straw.
Luca sat back and looked down at Lia. “Do I appear as a specter to you, m’lady?”
“Nay,” she said, sitting up beside him. “You are very much alive. And I aim to keep you that way.”
“Ahh, ’tis up to you, now? To protect a knight of Siena?”
“Si, ’tis up to me,” she said softly.
Marcello pulled me around the corner and out into the yard, giving them a moment of privacy. He smiled as I grinned. “It pleases you,” he said, nodding toward the open stable door.
I lifted a brow. “Does it not please you?”
“It is beyond pleasure,” he said, taking me into his arms, “to not only know love, but also to know that those I love know it too.”
My eyes widened with hope. “Do you believe it? Truly? That it is love?”
He shrugged. “I know ’tis for Luca. What of your sister?”
I shook my head. “I know not. Never before has she had strong feelings for a man.”
Marcello grinned. “Well if there’s one thing Luca does for a person, it’s elicit strong feelings.”
We set off as dusk gave way to dark, passing the forest border and then making our way through a valley, stealing from farm to farm. We had rubbed dirt into every possible inch of the gown, but the silk still had a luminescent quality to it that made me feel like a glowworm at night.
And I still had nothing but a dagger to hold on to. I longed for the comfort of my sheath, the steady weight of my broadsword at my back. While the straps had chafed my shoulders, grown heavy after a long day out, forming a lump of protest in the muscles, I would have taken that any day to this feeling of nakedness, vulnerability, traveling without a weapon.
Because the closer I got to home, the more intent I was to never be taken away again. I longed for the comfort of Castello Forelli’s high, grand walls. The warmth of the great hall, her men gathering and laughing, eating and drinking within. I even missed my cold, high-ceilinged, nunnerylike room, with the long hallway outside that led me so often to Marcello. Get us home, Lord, I found myself praying as we hurried along a path. Just get us home. Somehow.
I thought about what Luca said, about dying happy if he could be with us forever. And of that concept itself, dying happy. Had Dad died happy? Not wanting to die, obviously, but content, fulfilled, knowing he’d done his best?
And was that why I was latching on to this place, Castello Forelli, as home? Here, there was nothing to reflect Dad, bring up memories of him. Here there was a reprieve from the sadness. The thought of it made me feel both thankful and guilty.
In some way over the last few days, between starvation, and thirst, and narrow escape from those wishing to kill me, I started to think about the life beyond. The forever place. Heaven.
Is it real, God? Heaven? Or just something we make up so we can deal?
I didn’t know if it was a fable, a collective dream that we all willingly fell into, but deep down I knew that the thought of heaven, a place where Dad was now, where I would be someday—along with Mom and Lia and Luca and Marcello, in time—was not something to fear. It was a comfort. A dream I wanted to keep believing in.
We slept the following day in a shallow cave, stacked together like sardines in a can, one of the men in front of Lia and me, the other ten feet away, on guard. We had narrowly missed a long line of Fiorentini soldiers who were wearily making their way north, hauling wounded, dying, dead. I decided it was their grim task that kept them from seeing us, plain in the morning light. But then, they did not expect the enemy here, so far from the border; even Sienese soldiers would have left them alone, in the odd code of honor among those at war. They were, in effect, retreating.
It gave us hope. Had Siena turned more than this stream of men back?
We set off come nightfall and skirted a vast camp of Fiorentini knights. One glimpse brought back unpleasant memories for Lia and me. We would’ve run, but my leg couldn’t tolerate it, and Lia was sticking closer than ever, constantly holding my hand.
Marcello and Luca seemed to know this land now, walking steadily along a stream for a time, then rounding a hill and heading directly south. “We are just north of Castello Paratore,” Marcello said. “In but half an hour, we should be able to see her, and beyond her to Castello Forelli.”
We hurried the rest of the way, ducking beneath a stone bridge as a patrol of six knights crossed it. I was glad the creek bed was dry. The whole soggy dress thing? Yeah, I was totally over that.
Marcello paused when they had passed. Luca and Lia looked back at us, questioning his hesitation. “What is it?” I asked in a whisper.
He shook his head, barely visible in the narrow moonlight. “They were not on alert,” he returned. “They fear no spies or enemies about.”
A shiver of fear ran down my back. Mom.
Knights of Firenze not on alert? So close to the border? Only having gained significant territory would put them so at ease…and we were within reach of Castello Forelli’s. I tried to give him a comforting smile, but it probably came off more as a flash of teeth in the dim moonlight. “They are most likely fools, or drunk, or thinking as we are—only of home,” I offered. “Besides, we are still on the wrong side of the border, right? A quarter mile farther, and we’ll see Firenze’s men on guard…”
He rose, but I could feel his lingering concern. We quickened our pace. Hunched over, rushing, we reached a cliff that descended to the river, the river that ran between the two castles. We crawled through the bramble to the edge of the rock and looked out.
There, a stone’s throw from us, was Castello Paratore.
I frowned. Crimson flags again flew from her parapets, lit by torches.
Worse was what I could see beyond it.
Castello Forelli. No. No, no, no.
Her entire front wall was collapsed. Fires blazed within.
“Mom,” Lia cried, her voice garbled. She was on her feet in seconds, and Luca chased after her.
I stared over at Marcello, just making out his profile, knowing there was no way I could catch up to Lia.
And when he turned his face to me, my heart stopped.
CHAPTER 28
Disbelief. Fury. Sorrow. Agony, as if he felt the castello’s devastation physically, himself.
“I thought…I believed…” I said stupidly, staring back out, “she was impenetrable.”
“Obviously not,” he bit out, shoving himself to his feet. “The Rossis somehow saw to that.” He barely paused to help me up before running down the goat path Lia and Luca had made their way down moments before.
“Marcello, wait,” I called in a stage whisper, conscious of the noise he was making in his rush.
He stopped, reluctantly, and waited for me to reach him. He sighed heavily. “Forgive me,” he said, offering his hand. “But please, we must make haste.”
“To do what?” I asked, pulling him back when he started off again.
“I know not!” he grumbled. I gave in, trotting behind him in my lurching, limping way, until we reached the bottom of the canyon—and Luca and Lia, who were arguing face-to-face in a whisper.
“Evangelia, she is not there!” Luca said, obviously repeating himself, holding on to her arm when she tried to go again. “None of our people are there! We can only pray to God that they fled and reached safety before the castle was breached. What we need to do now is find out what has happened. Who lives. And where.”
She angrily shook off his hand, as if he was the reason for this new pain.
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I put a hand to my head. All along I had forced myself to imagine that Mom was back here, safe. Home. In our home away from home. Waiting on us. Worried about us. But never, I thought guiltily, had I worried for her. Too obsessed with your own situation…
“Come on. We must make it to a Sienese camp and find out exactly what has transpired,” Marcello said, pulling me into motion again. I could hear Luca and Lia follow behind. We crept along the shore of the riverbed, where we could easily duck into cover among the trees and brush if necessary, but also where we could cross the most ground in the least amount of time.
We put some distance between us and Castello Forelli, fighting every desire within us to rush toward it, make certain our eyes had not deceived us. But no, through the trees, above the parapets, well lit by triumphant torches, were the crimson flags of the evil, conniving, lecherous, murderous jerk.
I shoulda killed Paratore when I had a chance. Not that I regretted gaining the prisoners’ freedom. But I should have tried harder, found a way. Because never had I hated another human being more than I hated Paratore in that moment.
As we set off running again, one thought brought me up short.
Lia looked back at me, a question in the cock of her head.
“Lia,” I said, fear flooding me like a dive into a frozen pond.
“What?”
“What if…what if he has Mom?”
She turned from me and ran harder than before. A few times, I thought I had lost them. But Luca—when he wasn’t trying to keep Marcello from diving headlong into a battle he could not win—circled around to collect me. We caught up, finding both Marcello and Lia pacing like wild cats caged just off the savannah.
After a couple of miles, we crested a hill and saw the Sienese encampment just below us. Marcello seemed to make himself stop, wait for me, despite his agitation. The closer we got, the more I was convinced that Paratore had Mom, had everyone I’d ever cared about in the castle, in fact…Cook, Giacinta, Fortino…
We hurried down the hill, and a scout gave out a warning cry. “Who goes there?”
“’Tis I, Sir Marcello Forelli,” he called back. “I bring with me Luca Forelli and the Ladies Betarrini!”
The scout repeated the report, and the camp erupted with activity.
Twelve knights rode out to meet us, the men dismounting and clasping both Marcello and Luca’s arms, before bowing, with shy grins, to us. We were ushered into camp amid their praises.
“Saints be praised!”
“Alive, despite the reports!”
“Bet they are smarting, letting you four slip from their gates.”
More came out to greet us, and we realized that the camp held not only knights, but also women and children, people from the villages and farms about us, as well as the servants from Castello Forelli. Refugees. I looked from face to face, returning smiles, but anxiously seeking the one I wanted to see most: Mom.
Giovanni was there, then, in front, greeting the men, grinning over at us. I noticed he held his shoulder stiffly, as if he’d been injured—from Villa Orci? But then he bent his head and discussed the fall of the castle with Marcello. Marcello wrapped his arm around his friend’s good shoulder, and they walked a few feet away, followed by Luca. I pressed closer, wanting to hear. “Words cannot be uttered that would bespeak my sorrow over it, m’lord,” Giovanni said, shaking his head. “We did all we could.”
Marcello waved down his apology, but his tone was dull. “From the looks of her, you faced a catapult. Not many men can succeed against such an attack.”
“We might have withstood it.” He hesitated a moment. “But there were traitors within the gates, m’lord, those loyal to Lord Rossi. They made a way and, in tandem with the enemy, struck fast at our men inside a mere hour after we’d heard from Lady Evangelia,” he said, nodding in her direction as she joined our smaller group. “There was simply no time to rout them. Had we had more…everyone fought so bravely, I—”
“I know,” Marcello said, nodding. “I know. What news have you of my brother?”
A darker shadow crossed Giovanni’s portly face. He shook his head. “We’d sent him word of the Rossis’ duplicity. Fortino was attempting to make his way back here this morning when he and his men were surrounded and suffered severe attack.”
Marcello swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Is he—?”
Giovanni shook his head. “I know not. Try as we might, we have not been able to obtain word. There are so many injured, m’lord, so many dead…”
“And Lady Rossi? Lord Rossi? Where are they?”
“Presumably still in Siena, m’lord.”
Marcello frowned.
“Giovanni, what of our mother?” I asked, glancing back at Lia. I couldn’t bear to wait another moment.
“Your mother?” His face broke out in another big smile, and he shook his head. “We now know where the She-Wolves of Siena get their fighting prowess. She took out five or more men as we fought our way free of the enemy. And she’s been a godsend in the camp, taking her healing to—”
“Wait. M-my mother?” Lia sputtered. “She’s here? She fought in the battle?”
“Your mother,” Giovanni repeated with a gentle smile.
“But she wields neither sword nor bow,” I said. Did he have her confused with someone else? Mom had always bowed out of our swordplay and archery lessons with Dad. She’d called herself a pacifist.
“Nay, I do not wield either sword or bow,” Mom said from a few feet away, her long fingers wrapped around the hilt of a staff that was as tall as she was.
“Mom!” Lia cried, rushing to her waiting arms. I limped after her and fell into their shared embrace.
“Oh, girls, my girls, how glad I am that you are back with me, safe.” She backed up and touched my face, then Lia’s, then returned to me. “You are whole? Unharmed?”
“Nothing that won’t heal in time,” I said. “And you?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, moving a hand to her arm. She’d been injured. How badly?
I shook my head and reached for her staff, checking out the scary-looking points on either end, the weight of it. I looked over to her. “I thought you said you could never hurt another living thing.”
She gave me a small smile. “There is something about having your daughter abducted, your other daughter racing to save her, that makes a woman willing to inflict harm.” She shook her head. “I did not enjoy it, but every man I removed, I saw as one fewer between us.” She pulled us into her embrace again. “Oh, girls, I don’t know what I would’ve done had anything happened to you.”
“Thank God we are all well,” I said, thinking over the words only after they were out of my mouth. I studied Mom’s face. She seemed so broken, vulnerable, open. Looking at me and Lia like…I didn’t know. She was just different, new somehow. But then, facing death did that for a person. It made them appreciate life in a whole new way.
My heart was full, my sense of gratitude almost moving me to tears. And I did believe God had something to do with it. There had been so many opportunities for us to fail, turn the wrong way, be captured again, die. Clearly, our Maker had something else in mind for our future. And I, for one, was overcome. I reached out to wrap an arm around Mom and Lia, and with Marcello and Luca nearby, my heart swelled.
So many ways it could have gone wrong…My mind moved to Paratore. “Mom, tell me about the night Castello Forelli fell.” We sat down on a log and looked out over the men as Mom spoke.
“The men fought hard, sending arrows into the forest every time an enemy knight dared to show his face. But they knew there was only one way into the castello.” She paused to glance at me. “They knew if no one was letting them in, they had to break down the gates. The archers were merely distractions. The catapult was firing by morning, massive boulders th
at battered the gates. At the same time, fifteen men inside turned on us, killing many of our men before we realized that we had traitors within our ranks. Pietro had sent for reinforcements the day before, but Siena was in need of assistance on all sides, including fortifications at the front. There was no way to fend off those who attacked us, from within and without.”
“How did you escape with your lives?” I asked. Knowing Paratore, he had probably envisioned total devastation. If Marcello and I returned, it would be to every one of our loved ones dead. He was hardly known for acts of mercy, especially when he was so bent on revenge.
“Pietro,” Mom said, nodding over to the man. “He and his men held a line so that every one of the castle’s people could escape.”
“But it wasn’t free and clear for you.”
“Nay,” she said, shaking her head and staring at a nearby torch as if remembering that night all over again. “There were so many. And they did not wish us to escape. So bloody…again and again I saw men die. Again and again I narrowly escaped. It was there that I was forced to either fight or die. As your mother,” she said, “I seemed to be a particularly attractive target.”
I gave her a sad smile. “Sorry about that.”
She reached out and squeezed my shoulder and Lia’s, too. “Such is the burden I must bear, having raised two heroines and, therefore, enemies.” She shook her head. “I could not be more proud of you.”
“Who taught you to use this?” I asked, picking up the staff.
“Once you were gone, I could not spend all my time in the library. I was going nuts. And after I got word that you’d been exposed to the plague, I had this terrible sense of foreboding, fear. I wasn’t sleeping at all. So I asked the men to choose a weapon for me. Given my height, this apparently was a good choice.”
She took it from me and dug one end into the dirt between her feet, then passed it back and forth in her hands.
“Your weapon will become like a second skin,” I said, simply. “Whenever I’m without my sword, I feel naked. Which I am right now. Any idea where I might get another?”
The River of Time Series Page 55
