Chiara – Revenge and Triumph (75 page)

"Just enjoying the beautiful countryside. I’m visiting a brother who is with the garrison at Porto Longone."

"Is he with the Governor?"

She decided to distract him. "Yes. Tell me, is there a riding path to the northernmost tip of Elba?" And it worked. He gave her detailed instructions. By then she had finished her meal and rode off in the direction he had described. Its first part was the one she would have taken anyway, namely back to the ridge from where she would descend to Simone’s hut for another rest in anticipation of the night to come.

* * * 

Chiara was in the ravine before the moon reached the keep of the castle below. For ease of movement, she did not wear the cassock, but only Alda’s long pants and a woollen top. Her short hair was gathered in a pony tail. Stuck under her belt were her four knives, on her back the quiver with six arrows. In her pocket was the key and a small flask of oil for the gate. She held the bow in her hand, waiting. All seemed quiet in the castle; no lights in any windows. She saw Brutto and Catto roam in the garden.

Luca arrived first, a heavy axe swung over his shoulder. He held up both hands, showing nine fingers. One by one other men, she guessed mostly in their thirties and early forties, appeared out of the dark. She nodded to them, aware of their curious glances. When one started to murmur, she touched him with her bow, shaking her head. After the ninth arrived, she signaled them to come close.

"Thank you for coming," she whispered. "This is my plan. There’s a tunnel from the bottom of the wall up to the garden. It’s locked by an iron gate. I have the key. I’ll go first, alone, and open the gate —"

"— the dogs," somebody cut in.

"Please, listen without interrupting. The dogs know me and I’ve already met them last night. They won’t bark. You will see me when I come into the garden. If I wave with one hand only, then wait here. If I wave with both, you follow Luca — you know where the entrance is?" He nodded. "Luca will lead you to the tunnel and up into the garden. The passage turns right after four steps. Its very dark, so place your right hand on the wall to guide you. It is crucial that you make no noise or dislodge any stones. That also goes while you approach the entrance through the forest. I’ll be at the top of the stairs and let the dogs sniff each of you. Hold out a hand, like this. Then you go to the positions I assign you. I’ll make the dogs bark. When the guard opens the door, I’ll take him out —"

"How?" questioned Luca.

"With a knife. Then you follow me inside, without any noise. Luca, you take six people to the sleeping quarters behind the hall. I’ll take the other two upstairs. If any of Sanguanero’s men resist, kill them, but do not harm the servants. Now, for this to work, it’s absolutely essential that you follow my orders. And that goes also in the unlikely case if something goes wrong. I repeat: follow my orders strictly. You got that?"

She looked around the circle of heads and they all nodded.

"All right. I’m going."

She carefully went to the bottom of the ravine and then over to the tunnel. As she got closer, she heard a muted growl of the dogs. They were waiting for her at the gate. She briefly patted them, then applied oil to the hinges and the key. It took a considerable strength to open the lock and the gate only budged with a short squeak after she gave it a forceful push with her shoulders. Both dogs stood up on her, licking her face. If she had not been leaning against the wall, they would have pushed her over.

"Brutto, Catto, heel," she said and both followed her obediently to the top of the stairs. She briefly checked that everything was as expected and then waved vigorously with both arms. While she waited, she stroked the dogs. They could not get enough of her.

After a while, Catto growled. She crouched next to both and said softly "quiet" and waited for the men to appear. As each issued into the light of the moon, she murmured "quiet" and let the dogs sniff the top of the hand held out to them. She assigned seven of the men, including Luca into the shaded corner to the left of the kitchen entrance and told the other two to stay behind the slender cypress on its right. It was mostly done with hand signs.

Then she retreated four steps into the shade of another cypress, such that when the kitchen door was opened, she would have a clear view of the person. The dogs were at her side.

"Rough, rough," she said. Both dogs barked furiously.

"Quiet." They stopped.

She counted to six. "Rough, rough." She let them bark a bit longer, until she heard somebody swear inside the kitchen.

Bolts creaked, the door opened slowly, a guard, holding a torch in one hand and a sword in the other, appeared on the door sill, swearing at the dogs under his breath. She raised her hand to throw the knife, when she was distracted by a man rushing forward from behind the cypress with a wild shout. Oh, no, no, she cried silently, too late to stop her hand from completing the throw. The guard had jumped back inside and slammed the door shut. Her knife embedded itself in the wood. She heard him yelling: "Attack, attack, attack."

She was fuming. She would have liked to kill the fellow who ruined it all. All her men now came out into the open, shouting too.
I should have known that they lack discipline.

"Quiet!" she shouted over the hubbub. "Shut up, all of you! … The next one who goes against my strict orders can find himself another landlord. I have no use for fools."

The men fell quiet, avoiding her gaze, looking to the ground, embarrassed.

More clamor came from inside the castle. She heard the familiar scraping of the shutters of her old room. Almost by instinct, she readied her bow. When a head appeared between the half-open shutters, she let go. There was a low groan and the man slumped onto the window sill, slowly slipping down inside.

She pointed at three of the men. "You guard the main entrance. If the doors are opened, whistle immediately and prevent anybody from getting out. Got that? Beware. They might shoot at you from inside." She pointed at three others. "You stay here and do the same… Luca and you two, follow."

She ran to the spot below her open window. "Stand against the wall." She shoved two to the wall. "Luca, help me up."

"Lady Chiara, you can’t do that," he said.

"Luca, do as you are told! Your hands!"

Reluctantly, he held them together. She stepped up and a second later was on the shoulders of the other two.

"You all stay below and catch me if I fall."

As fast as she dared, she found the hand and foot holds that she had burned into her mind almost four years earlier and climbed up to the window. Before going inside, she searched the darkness. The man she had shot lay lifeless just inside the sill, the arrow sticking from his head. He was alone. She entered and went to the door, opening it slowly. It took her a moment to recognize the smell. Then she saw the glow at the bottom of the stairs. Niccolo’s men had set the house on fire, which meant that they had withdrawn to the safety of the keep. As she rushed down the stairs, the smell of smoke grew stronger. At the bottom, she carefully looked into the hall. It was empty. The cupboards on either side of the kitchen entrance were ablaze. Through the open kitchen door she could see flames.

The servants? Are they still in their quarters or did they take them into the keep?
Should she look for them first or open the main entrance? She ran to the impressive iron studded front door and slid the bolts away, opening one side. She had the presence of mind to stay behind the door, just in case one of her own men mistook her for one of Sanguanero’s.

"It’s Chiara da Narni," she shouted, before she showed herself. "You there, get all the others, then fight the fire."

The other two immediately ran to the bucket next to the kitchen entrance — as was the case in most houses, buckets full of water were kept in all rooms for just such an emergency — and threw their content into the base of the fire.

"Knock the shelves down," she shouted and then ran to the servants quarters. The door was locked. She banged on it. "Open up, for heaven’s sake. The castle is on fire. Bettina, I’m Lady Chiara da Narni, open up!"

The door opened and eight frightened people came out. By then all her men were inside.

"Help fight the fire. Get buckets from upstairs. Quick!"

She called Luca and another to follow her outside to the kitchen entrance.

"Break it down."

While she watched them attack the door with their axes, she also kept an eye on the small top window and firing slits of the keep, an arrow ready in her bow. She perceived movement two windows up.

"Hide," she shouted, taking aim at the same time. A second later they heard a scream, quickly joined by swearing. "It’s clear again."

She now concentrated on watching the keep, just in case somebody else might try again. It seemed to take an interminable length before the kitchen door finally split open, revealing a raging fire inside. It seemed hopeless. Luca arranged a bucket relay and bucket after bucket of water was thrown into the flames. Later he reported that the fire in the hall had been extinguished and that two people were keeping a watch that it would not reignite from the kitchen. The floors of the rooms above the kitchen, her brother’s and her grandmother’s old rooms, were also regularly flooded with water to prevent the floorboards from burning through.

Chiara foiled a second attempt from the keep.

* * * 

There was a hint of dawn on the eastern horizon when the kitchen fire was reduced to smoldering ruins. Water dripped through the cracks of the floorboards of the rooms above. She guessed that they, as well as most of the beams and parts of the walls in the kitchen would have to be replaced, and all because of one fool who wanted to be brave.

She ordered everybody to avoid being in the firing line from the keep. Four of her men were guarding the entrance to the keep, which was covered by a stone slab that could only be removed from above. Another two kept the tower under observation from outside. All had strict orders to call her if anything happened.

As dawn broke, she was finally able to greet Bettina and four other servants who had served under her father. From them, she learned that only the steward and six of his people had remained behind. They also told her that one man had been found bled to death in her room. With one wounded, that left only five able-bodied defenders.

She was resting near the fountain in the garden, wondering how to flush out these six men, while absent-mindedly stroking her two dogs who had barely ever left her side, when Luca approached, cap in hand.

"Lady Chiara, I’m sorry about what happened. I had my doubts about the man, but took him because he is the strongest in the village."

"A good head beats strength most of the time, and it only needs one fool to ruin the best plan. We could have overpowered them easily. Instead, I now face a mess and my home is badly damaged."

"Lady Chiara, we’re but simple men and most only remember you as the young girl who always rode out with her father. Maybe if they had known that it was you who killed the two men, it might have been different."

She did not answer, swallowing the bitter words on her tongue.

"It will be different from now on. I’m convinced of that."

"I do hope so. When the Santa Caterina returns, we can’t afford another mess like this one. First, though, we must take the keep."

"Couldn’t you simply starve them out?"

"That’s one option, but I’m an impatient woman. I’ll think of something that works faster."

However, it reminded her of another thing she could do right away to make life in the keep difficult. She could cut off the water supply. It would also cut the castle and garden’s supply, but she had to risk that. The water trough was again full and they could always carry drinking supplies in. She asked Luca to come with her and showed him the hidden water intake. They disconnected the intake pipe from the source.

At daylight, she went from room to room with him, more and more appalled by the dirt and neglect she found everywhere. A large patch of partially coagulated blood marked the place where the man she had shot had lain. It did not feel like her castle anymore. The only room that still had some wall hangings was her father’s old bedroom, the biggest of all the upstairs rooms. From the clothing in the chests and cupboard, she guessed that it was used by Niccolo.

In the armory they recovered a number of weapons, swords, pikes, and half a dozen crossbows with a score of arrows. In their hurry to withdraw to the keep, Sanguanero’s men had failed to take some of their best defensive weapons along.

After that, she sent Luca to Nisporto to tell the people there what had happened, to calm wives, mothers, and children, to announce that she was back and in charge of things, and then bring a dozen men up to take over from the nine. He should also send one of his children to get the horse and her things from Simone’s hut, as well as the horse in the quarry.

She checked with the four guards on duty and drilled into them that they were not to leave their posts, except for one to report to her if anything happened.

Luca was back about an hour later and with him most of the people in Nisporto and Sant’Anna, it seemed to her. When some ventured into the garden, she ordered Luca to keep them out. It was not safe from the keep.

Whether she felt like it or not, she had no choice but to address them.

"People of Nisporto, I am Chiara da Narni." The actor took over, carrying her voice, she hoped, even to the ears in the keep. "The daughter of the late Seignior da Narni." The news that her father was dead drew gasps. "Yes, my father died two years ago and it took me that long to recover what once was his, or rather what is left that was once his." She could not quite keep the bitterness out of her voice. "A tribunal in Piombino has awarded ownership to me, and if Signor Sanguanero is apprehended, he will stand trial for attempted murder."

"I know that you have suffered badly under his rule and I will try to make up for some of the things, at least those that can be remedied with money. I will not ask for any tithe from you for this and next year. But in return, I expect to get your full loyalty."