City of Swords (26 page)

If Luciano had been surprised to run into Nick in Islington, it was even more of a shock to come face to face with Enrico Poggi and a large horse.

‘
Dia!
’ said the man in blue, making the Hand of Fortune, when the Cavaliere materialised in front of him.

It took him a while to soothe the startled horse but he noticed that Luciano was carefully putting away in his jerkin what looked like a hugely valuable jewel.

‘That was a bit sudden, Cavaliere,’ said Enrico. ‘Where did you spring from?’

‘Never mind that now,’ said Luciano, looking anxiously at the sky. He had stayed too long at Mortimer’s and it was nearly daylight. ‘Do you think you could get me into Gaetano di Chimici’s tent?’

Enrico tapped the side of his nose as if to say, ‘Trust me,’ which Luciano didn’t want to have to do, but he hadn’t much choice.

‘I know where they
all
are,’ said Enrico.

‘Are you a spy again?’ Luciano asked him. ‘Because if you are, I’d like to know whose side you are on.’

‘Why, yours of course, Cavaliere,’ said Enrico. ‘But I wouldn’t advise you to go anywhere near the Grand Duke’s tent – hasn’t he still got a warrant out for you? And Fortezza is still a di Chimici city till proved different.’

‘Well, we are not
in
Fortezza, are we?’ said Luciano. ‘And while we are on that subject, I should think
you’d
want to stay out of Fabrizio’s way too. He knows you switched the foils when I killed his father.’

Enrico put his fingers to his lips. ‘Shh. Now do you want to find Prince Gaetano or not?’

^*

Gaetano was sleeping on a little folding bed when the intruder quietly entered his tent. Luciano slipped softly across to the bed and put his hand over his old friend’s mouth.

Gaetano’s eyes flew open and he reached for his sword.

‘It’s me, Luciano,’ whispered his visitor.

Gaetano relaxed and Luciano took his hand away.

‘How did you get past the guard?’ he asked. ‘If you’d been an enemy, I’d be dead by now.’

‘I put a glamour on him,’ said Luciano. ‘Now, listen, this is important and we haven’t got much time. Have you got a mirror?’

But Gaetano was probably the least vain person in the army and had not felt the need to bring one in his baggage.

‘We need to set up some communication between you here in the besieging force and us Stravaganti in the city,’ said Luciano. ‘Things are getting pretty desperate and we want to stop any more deaths.’

‘Cavaliere!’ came a hoarse whisper from outside the tent, followed by a thud and a shriek.

‘What’s that?’ said Gaetano, girding on his sword and going to the tent flap.

Luciano sighed. ‘I think it’s a spy you will recognise,’ he said. ‘But let him in. I think he can be trusted.’

The guard outside Gaetano’s tent, who had been so easily overcome by Luciano’s magic, had no such difficulty in capturing Enrico. Reluctantly, he released him to his superior officer and resumed his duties.

Enrico shook himself like a cat who has been picked up without permission. ‘Sorry about that, Your Highness,’ he said, doffing his cap to Gaetano. ‘But I was listening to what the Cavaliere was asking you.’

‘Eavesdropping, you mean,’ said Luciano.

‘It’s what spies do,’ said Enrico smoothly. ‘The thing is, you need a looking-glass. And I can get you one.’

‘Really?’ asked Gaetano. ‘That would be very helpful of you.’

‘You don’t go to a soldier when you want a mirror, do you?’ Enrico reproached Luciano. ‘You ask a woman.’

Luciano shrugged. If Enrico had managed to find a woman in this army of ten thousand Talian men, good for him.

‘Just get it, will you?’ he said.

‘I will if His Highness here will tell the guard to let me back in without thumping me.’

^*

Ludo stood on the wall outside his guardroom leaning against one of the crenellations, watching the dawn rise in streaks of pink and blue. He had hardly slept. He was about to give the order he had been dreading. He could see the tents of the di Chimici army spread out to the east, the rising sun glinting on the tips of their flagpoles.

Sleeping inside them were ten thousand men, but by the next nightfall there would be fewer, maybe hundreds fewer. He asked himself many times a day why he had ever started what was now unfolding in Fortezza. And he had come to the bitter realisation that it was much easier to start a rebellion or a war than to stop it. His di Chimici side had been uppermost when he staked his claim to the throne, but now the peaceable Manoush element of his nature could find no way out.

His young bodyguard, Riccardo, stood respectfully a few paces away. He understood that a military leader like Prince Ludovico needed a few quiet moments before a strike.

Ludo straightened up like someone who had made a decision and walked back to the guardroom, oblivious of Riccardo’s presence. The bodyguard didn’t mind. He felt honoured that his future prince took his presence so much for granted.

^*

In the di Chimici camp, the chaplain, Cardinal Rinaldo, was preparing to celebrate a dawn Mass. It was Sunday in Talia and his biggest moment since arriving outside Fortezza. He hated living in an encampment, which could not provide him with the level of comfort he regarded as essential.

Now he consecrated enormous quantities of the Host. Perhaps not every single man in the army would communicate, but most would, because it was not only Sunday but the day on which it was most likely that the Fortezzan rebels would attack.

He and his acolytes had set up a trestle table with a lace-edged cloth and candles, to be an altar, in the middle of the camp, out of range of cannon-shot, and the servers had lit the incense in the burners. Soldiers were coming from all over the camp to attend the service, the di Chimici princes and dukes at the front.

But Rinaldo did not know that somewhere in his congregation were the Cavaliere of Bellezza and a blue-clad spy.

Enrico had delivered the mirror as promised and Luciano had set up the link with the one in Fabio’s shop.

How is Rodolfo?
had been his first message.

Sleeping
, said Fabio.
The surgeon says he will make a complete recovery. If he doesn’t suffer further injury
, said Luciano.

You managed to get into the army? That’s remarkable
.

I’m going to leave the glass with Gaetano. But I must soon stravagate to the other world and back to you
. Only,
Rinaldo di Chimici is about to celebrate Mass
.

Don’t put yourself at risk
, said Fabio.
He would recognise you
.

I shan’t
, said Luciano.
Besides, I have altered my appearance a little
.

He was just wondering whether to go up and take Communion and see if Rinaldo would recognise him when a horrendous sound split the air.

‘The devils!’ shouted Fabrizio. ‘They’re attacking us. On a Sunday, when we are at the Lord’s work.’

The improvised altar was overturned in the rush of men to grab armour and take up position at their own guns; the Fortezzans would have an instant reply.

And in the midst of all this, Luciano had to find somewhere to lie down and sleep so that he could complete his double stravagation. In the chaos of the attack and the army’s response, he made his way back to Gaetano’s tent, which was now unguarded. He lay on the camp bed, his mind a whirl of emotions, holding the red stone and hoping it would take him back to Mortimer’s shop, from which it had brought him.

Because if not, he was going to be stuck in the middle of a battle with nowhere to hide.

Chapter 16

Old Wounds and New

Laura had her French exam the next day so did not stravagate when they all got back from Mortimer’s. After seeing Luciano back in his own world it was really hard to concentrate on what she needed to write. He had been so caught up in his ‘double stravagation’, which she was the only person who really understood, that again she had not told him what Vicky had said to her.

This gnawed at her all through the exam and she resolved to tell him the next time she saw him. She would stravagate that night.

Laura was still staying with Isabel and her family, even though she had no more exams till the following week. She kept making excuses not to go home, because she knew she would not dare take her talisman back with her. If she got Vicky into trouble it would be a poor return for her help.

But not stravagating had brought its own problems. After the shock of seeing dead bodies in the streets of Fortezza, Laura had spent what remained of the night tossing and turning and then had slept late and heavily the next morning.

The afternoon’s French exam seemed interminable but 2.45 p.m. came round at last and Laura set off for Nick’s where she had arranged to meet the others after school.

But she found Nick at the school gates, looking glum.

‘Oh, hi,’ she said. ‘I was just coming round to yours. Is that still OK?’

‘Yeah, fine, whatever,’ said Nick.

‘What’s up?’ asked Laura. ‘Have you had an exam?’

‘History,’ said Nick gloomily.

‘Oh dear, was it awful? I’d have thought you’d be good at history, being, you know . . .’

‘Four hundred years old? You might think it would help, but it doesn’t, because what I know is all different from what happened here.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Laura, falling into step beside him.

Nick was taller than her and, now that she knew he was from Talia, she could see that he still had some of that other-worldly glamour that Luciano had acquired. She wondered if Nick would ever lose it.

‘Actually, the exam wasn’t that bad,’ he was saying. ‘but I can’t concentrate after all that stuff at Mortimer’s.’

‘I’m the same,’ said Laura. ‘What do you think will happen next?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Nick. ‘That’s what we’re going to talk about, isn’t it?’

‘You don’t seem too happy about it.’

‘I’m just fed up with Talia bleeding into my world,’ said Nick. ‘Every time I think I’ve managed to shake it off and become a proper twenty-first-century teenager with my family and friends all here, something else comes bursting back in.’

‘Or someone,’ said Laura quietly.

‘You’re a girl,’ said Nick suddenly. ‘Do you think Luciano’s so incredibly hot?’

Ah
, thought Laura.
So that’s it
. I guessed as much.

‘Well, he’s certainly good-looking,’ she said out loud. ‘But not better-looking than you.’

‘Really?’ Nick suddenly seemed to cheer up. ‘I mean, I like him a lot. He was my very good friend in Talia. But I can’t tell about other blokes and what girls think of them. And every time he comes back here it’s so – unsettling!’

‘I don’t think you need to worry about Georgia,’ said Laura.

Nick was walking a lot faster now.

‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘You’re a mate. But it’s not just Georgia.’

‘No?’

‘No. It’s Vicky too.’