Starling (89 page)

A rogue wave tossed the ship sideways, and Cass fell, tumbling
toward the edge of the deck. Her mother and Belladonna both dived
toward her, each grabbing one of her hands. She wrapped her fingers
around theirs as the boat twisted her body left and then right.

Another pitch. More sliding. The ship keened sharply, and her
body rolled from the hard deck onto nothing but air. Cass opened
her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. She was dangling over
the edge, held fast to the boat by nothing but her grip on her mother
and Belladonna. Cass didn’t know where the ship was headed, but
knew that she would die if she didn’t make it to her destination. She
would die if either woman let go of her. Her hands grew slick with
sweat.

And then came the spiders. They trickled from Belladonna’s
cuffs, one after the next. Cass felt their tiny legs on her flesh and
shrieked. She let go of Belladonna’s hand. Above her, her mother
cried out. She couldn’t hold Cass by herself. Belladonna looked
down with her wide feral eyes. She flicked a spider from her hand
down onto the bare skin of Cass’s cheek. Cass screamed again. Her
body twisted violently.

And fell.
She plummeted toward the black sea.
“Signorina. Signorina, wake up.”
Cass’s eyes snapped open.
The guard stood in front of her cell, his mouth twisted in a grimace. “Everything all right?” He turned and left without waiting for
a reply.

A thin shaft of daylight spilled into their makeshift prison through
the doorway that led into the rest of the workshop. She was relieved
to see Falco right where he had been the previous night. Even in the
worst of circumstances, Cass was grateful not to be alone.

She went to the bars that separated her from Falco and watched
him sleep, soothed by the rhythmic rising and falling of his chest.
The wounds on his face had swollen and discolored overnight. She
didn’t know if he was going to be able to see out of either eye today,
but she prayed that he would. They would need all of their senses if
they were going to escape. Today might be the day Piero’s spiders
arrived and he began to take their blood. With each bloodletting,
Cass and Falco would grow weaker, and the possibility of survival
would grow slimmer.

Falco groaned and rolled over onto his side, but didn’t wake. Cass
stared at his back, at the muscles in his shoulders that pulsed gently
with each breath. She slid as close to him as the bars would allow.

Her eyes flicked over to the empty cell. For a moment the pile of
blankets seemed to move, as if Minerva were still alive and yesterday
had been a nightmare. But Cass had watched the courtesan’s body
turn gray. Bloodless. A shell. The bowl filling up, and then the chalice. She wondered what had happened to Minerva’s blood, whether
Belladonna had bathed in it as she had bathed in the blood of Tatiana de Borello in Florence.

At midday, the guard brought food. When he unlocked Cass’s cell to
hand her the tray, her skin itched at the thought of freedom. But once
again, it wasn’t the right time. She and Falco might escape the guard
only to go out in the hallway and find Belladonna and Piero blocking
the door. Besides, today he stood at the door with the tray. Cass
needed to get him farther into her cell to try to incapacitate him with