Belladonna (33 page)

Siena nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, then froze.

“Cass?” The word came from behind her.

She spun around. The cell was dark, quiet. A roman numeral fifteen was painted upside down over the door. Had someone just said her name? Or had she imagined it?

A shadow stirred from inside the cell. There was a liquid sound in the dark, water being disturbed.

A man’s face appeared at the tiny grate. Siena covered her mouth with one hand. Cass swallowed back a gasp. He had a thick beard covering his cheeks and chin, but his brown eyes shined golden in the darkness.

It was Luca.

“Am I—am I seeing things?” Luca’s voice was dry, cracked. “Is that you, Cass?” His eyes were wide and staring, as though he had woken in the middle of a dream.

Cass felt like weeping. He was here. She had found him. She wanted to throw herself through the stone and press her face to his chest. Instead, she leaned close to the grate. “We’re going to get you out of here,” she mouthed.

Luca rubbed his eyes, like he still thought Cass was just a dream. He shook his head. “Impossible,” he whispered.

Cass reached for his face, barely managing to squeeze her fingers through the grate and touch his cheek. “I’ll be back. I promise.”

Reluctantly, she turned away from Luca, nearly colliding with Siena. Ducking down, Cass swept her hands back and forth in the rising water, fighting back a surge of nausea as unfamiliar slippery objects swirled through her fingers. She refused to think about what they might be. She traced a sharp crack in the dungeon floor, digging her fingertips beneath the broken stone until one of the pieces came loose. It was about the size of her hand, but much heavier. Siena mimicked Cass, and soon came up with her own jagged piece of rock.

The two girls circled away from the guard, turning two sharp corners until they had returned to the bottom of the service stairwell. They
needed
those keys, but there was no way to sneak up on him while he was awake. If they were lucky, he would eventually fall asleep.

Cass and Siena huddled in the darkness of the stairs, creeping to the edge of the cellblock occasionally to peek around the corner at the guard. He took swigs of his flask and toyed with the hilt of his sword. At one point Cass thought she heard him singing to himself. The fetid water slowly rose up to her waist, soaking her skirts, making it feel as though her pockets were filled with lead.

She chanced another glimpse around the corner. Black liquid lapped at the edges of the guard’s platform. He had slumped against the wall, his chin resting on his chest.

Now was their chance.

Cass directed Siena back to Luca’s cell. She had to be ready to pull open the dead bolts as soon as Cass had the keys in her possession.

Straightening up, Cass moved carefully through the thick, foul-smelling liquid. It sucked at her stockings as she advanced. Her shoes were bricks. Heavy. So heavy. Her skirts swirled around her in the mire. The blackness was a cloth bag—no, a coffin—that threatened to smother her. She clutched the slab of broken rock so tightly that she feared it might crumble to pieces before she made it down the corridor.

Another heavy step. And then another. She approached the sleeping guard. The prisoners were all quiet. Cass prayed for stealth, for invisibility. If one of them called out, she was a dead woman. Another step. Her whole body trembled. But there was no turning back.

Slowly, she maneuvered herself onto the raised platform. She hovered over the guard, trembling. He snored lightly, expelling the smell of liquor. Cass could see the stubble of beard. The network of wrinkles around his eyes. She could almost see the pulsing of blood in the thick vessels of his throat. Her own blood roared in her ears. She turned her head toward the darkness. Where was Siena? Was she ready? When Siena loosened the dead bolts, the guard would wake up. Unless . . .

Cass considered the heavy rock cupped in her hand and then thought about the dagger in her pocket. She looked back at the guard, visualizing the pulsing in his neck. She imagined sticking the blade through his throat, spilling his blood down the platform into the murky water. He was sleeping so soundly. She could do it.

Only she
couldn’t
do it.

She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

The keys dangled just above the guard’s head. Carefully, Cass rose to her feet. She extended her arm, for once grateful that she was taller than most every girl she knew. Luca’s freedom was at the tips of her fingers. She could save him, maybe, as long as the keys didn’t clank together.

But they would. She knew they would. And then the guard would wake.

Keeping one hand curled around the wet piece of stone, Cass slowly reached for the keys.

Just as her fingers curled around the cold metal, the guard grunted and changed positions. Cass flinched. The keys fell from her trembling fingers, landing on the stone platform with a harsh jangling sound. The guard’s eyes opened.

Both he and Cass froze. His eyes seemed focused on her throat. He blinked rapidly in the dim light as he went to draw his sword. Cass realized he was staring at her pendant, that the diamond of her lily must have reflected the lantern light oddly, rendering him blind for a precious second or two. She attacked, slamming the rock down against the bridge of his nose. He groaned, flailing sideways, tipping his lantern. The flame flickered out, but not before Cass saw the guard reach again for his sword.

She brought the lump of stone down hard on the back of his skull.

He slumped forward, hands twitching. Cass cracked him a third time with the rock, and his body went limp. The hysterical desire to laugh rose in her throat.
Please don’t be dead.

Grabbing the keys, she spun and jumped off the platform into the dark, swirling water. All she had to do was get Luca. Then they could escape back into the night. The sucking mire, the foul odor—the dungeon was starting to suffocate her.

“I saw what you did,” a prisoner cried out. “Set me free and I promise not to tell.”

Cass ignored him, but the prisoner next to him took up the same cry. “We saw it. We all saw. You have to set us free.” Fists pounded on doors. Metal slammed against metal as the prisoners swung their buckets against the grates in the cell doors. If they didn’t stop, a guard patrolling the main floor of the palazzo would surely hear the commotion.

“Be quiet,” she said sharply. “All of you be quiet, or I’ll be dead before I can set anyone free.” It was not exactly a promise—and not a lie, either.

Most of the prisoners quit their banging. The one in the cell next door to Luca pressed his face to the grate, watching her approach.

Siena was struggling with the second dead bolt. Cass used the keys to unlock the door. Leaving the keys to dangle from the lock, she pulled with Siena and the metal rod bit into the wood as the dead bolt swung loose. Luca pushed the door open from the inside.

Again, Cass was amazed at how much he had changed, how pale and gaunt he looked after only a month of being imprisoned. “You shouldn’t have come,” he said.

“Let’s go,” Cass said. She left the keys dangling from the door and used her arms to propel her body through the rising water. Siena and Luca followed. The other prisoners resumed their pounding and screeching.

Cass, Luca, and Siena ran for the stairwell, sloshing through the water. As they climbed the stairs, Cass’s serving dress clung to her skin like hands gripping her, pulling her downward. She had lost one shoe in the murk and hadn’t even realized it. She kicked off her other and went barefoot. Shoes would only weigh her down once they got into the water. Already, her chest felt like it would explode. She could barely breathe.

They hit the Hall of the Three Chiefs running, but before they made it to the servants’ entrance, a guard turned the corner into the south corridor, obstructing their passage.

“Stop!” he called, unsheathing his sword.

Cass spun around, dragging Luca with her. There had to be another door off the long hallway. The water was just on the other side of the wall, and with it, freedom.

The corridor reverberated with shouting—disembodied noises that seemed to rise up from everywhere at once. Cass was too frightened to turn around and see whether they were being pursued, or by how many. She knew more guards would come. An image flashed in her mind: she and Siena locked inside one of the watery prison cells, huddled on her stone bed as the water level rose higher and higher, threatening to overtake them. Another flash. Luca’s body falling, his neck snapping. Cass heard a scream; she wasn’t sure whether the sound was in her head.

“Here!” Luca panted out. They had found another door. Luca struggled to slide back the thick iron rods that held it closed.

And then, Cass realized Siena wasn’t beside her.

Whirling around, Cass saw Siena sprawled out in the hallway. She’d fallen.

No, she’d pretended to fall. As the guard reached her, Siena lashed out at his ankle. Silver glinted in the dim light. The guard stumbled backward in surprise.

“Hurry,” Siena screamed. She was on her feet now, moving sideways, dagger extended. The guard was favoring one leg, but his sword was still six times as long as Siena’s blade. Their dance could have only one ending.

Luca got the door open, and the warm night air rushed in, smelling of salt, of canal water.

“Come on, Siena!” Cass shouted.

Siena flung the dagger at the guard’s face, spinning around as he ducked. But she made it only two steps down the corridor before he was on top of her. It was too fast. His sword flashed behind Siena like lightning. The blade came straight through her front. Siena fell to her knees. A sea of red flowed from her chest.

“No!” Cass screamed.

Siena’s body flailed. Her eyes widened, as though in surprise, and her mouth opened. For a second, Cass was sure she would speak.

Then her head rolled forward, and her body went still.

Cass screamed again. She tried to pull her hand from Luca’s. She had to get Siena. Save Siena.

The guard was just a few steps away now. More guards were approaching from another hall, their boots hitting the marble flooring like thunder.

“No, Cass,” Luca said. He pulled her through the door and into the night.

She splintered. Part of her remained inside the Palazzo Ducale. Part of her fell to the floor like Siena. Bleeding. Dead. Floating. Spots of light blurred before her eyes. The ground vanished from beneath her feet. And then there was only water.

Shouts ricocheted off the surface of the lagoon, but Cass saw only darkness. All around her. Inside her.
Siena.
She choked back a sob. Tiny waves lapped against her chin.

“Shh.” A voice, so soft, Cass thought it was speaking straight into her mind.

Luca.

“I’m so sorry, Cass.”

She realized his arms were around her, that their bodies were intertwined beneath the frigid water. He was keeping her afloat. Without him she would sink like a stone, falling until she could go no farther.

Cass sobbed again, nearly swallowing a mouthful of icy water. Her vision sharpened. They were in the quay somewhere, west of the Palazzo Ducale, tucked beneath a private dock. Soft clouds of light floated along the darkened canal. Soldiers. Soldiers were searching for them.

Luca pressed his lips to her forehead. “We couldn’t have saved her. This is what she wanted, for you to escape. For you to live.”

“I know.” But the words were hollow; they didn’t mean anything. Luca didn’t know of Siena’s love for him. Cass wasn’t going to tell him. She didn’t want him to share her pain.

Her guilt.

Another sob rippled through her body, which Luca misinterpreted as shivering.

“We’ll get out of the water soon,” he said. “As soon as the search parties spread out.”

Search parties. As if they were going to be rescued instead of executed. “San Giorgio,” Cass whispered. “Sie—” She couldn’t even say Siena’s name. “I left some supplies there. In the woods behind the church.”

“So brave,” Luca murmured. “So smart. I can’t believe you came for me.”

“I couldn’t let you die,” Cass said.

But she had let Siena die. No. Siena had distracted the guard so Cass and Luca could escape. Siena was a hero. Cass hadn’t
let
Siena do anything. Siena had made her own choice, and it was brave.

Luca touched his lips to the hollow beneath each of Cass’s eyes. Cass realized she was crying again. “Her body,” she whispered. “We need to get her body, somehow.”

“After she’s identified, the palace will return it to Signora Querini,” Luca said.

Cass knew he was right, but that didn’t close the hole in her chest. Through a blur of tears, she watched the glow of lanterns spread out. The sharp sounds of whistles and shouts began to dwindle.

“Can you swim?” Luca asked.

Cass nodded. The Giudecca lay directly across the water, with San Giorgio slightly to the southeast. Both islands were shrouded in darkness, but Cass could easily envision the façade of San Giorgio’s church. She’d passed it hundreds of times on trips back and forth to the Rialto. It took only a few minutes to cross the Giudecca Canal by gondola, but Cass wasn’t sure how long it would take to swim. And there was no place to stop or hide in the middle of the water. If the soldiers headed back toward the Palazzo Ducale before Cass and Luca made it to the shore, they would be discovered.