The Old Fox turned his head and gazed squarely upon his most trusted agent and adviser. 'Instruct me, Antimo. In this matter, I do not entirely trust myself.'
Bartelozzi hesitated. Then: 'Do nothing, milord. Casa Montescue has fallen on such bad times that old Lodovico Montescue will not be able to afford better than middling murderers. And'--again, he hesitated--'we may as well discover now, at the beginning of the contest, how sharp a blade your grandsons will make.'
The Duke of Ferrara pondered the advice, for a moment. Then, nodded. 'Spoken like a Dell'este. See to it then, Antimo. Pass the word in Venice--very quietly--that if either of my grandsons come to the surface, we will pay well for whoever takes them under his wing. Until then . . . they will have to survive on their own. Blades, as you say, must be tempered.'
His lips tightened, became a thin line. Those of a craftsman, gauging his material. 'No doubt iron would scream also, if it could feel the pain of the forge and the hammer and the quenching tank. No matter. So is steel made.'
PART I June, 1537 A.D. ================================
Chapter 1 =========
The silhouette of the Basilica of St. Mark was black against the paling predawn sky. The pillar and the winged lion in the Piazza San Marco could just be made out.
In the bow of the gondola Benito shifted uneasily, looking at it. 'Figlio di una puttana, woman,' he said, trying to sound older than fourteen. 'Can't you get a move on? It'll be sunup before I'm home.' He wished his voice would stop cracking like that. Marco said it was just part of growing up. He wished that that would stop too. Being bigger was no advantage for climbing or running. And if he stopped growing, he might stop being so hungry all of the time.
Up on the stern the hooded oarsman ignored him, moving slowly and steadily.
'You want me to row this thing for you?' he demanded.
'Shut up,' she hissed. 'You want to attract attention? At this time of the morning, only people in trouble are rushing.'
Benito had to acknowledge that it was true enough. Even now there were three other vessels moving on the Grand Canal. All of them slowly. He sighed. 'I just need to get back home. I'm supposed to see my brother.'
She snorted. 'If you hadn't held us up, we'd be the other side of Campo San Polo by now. And you can't be in any more of a hurry to get back to whatever rat-hole you sleep in, than I am to see the back of you. I should never have agreed to take you.'
Benito huddled down in the bow. This woman's tongue was even sharper-edged than Maria Garavelli's. The wind between the ornately facaded buildings was cold. He was cold and, as usual, he was hungry. It had been a fruitless night. Mercutio had let him down. Again.
He liked working jobs with Mercutio. His ideas were exciting, daring and, well, crazy. You always knew with any job he organized it was going to be nip-and-tuck. Skin of your teeth stuff and needing lots of luck. But somehow Mercutio always seemed to have that luck.
Benito sighed. Mercutio also had the habit of not turning up for a job. Benito had sat waiting for four cold hours for him tonight, and not a copper's profit to show for it. He could have used some more coin. All he had in the attic was a half crock of elderly fagioli stufata. It was definitely past its best. The beans were producing gas before they even hit his stomach.
* * *
His eye was caught by the body. It bobbed in the dark water under the pilings as the tiny fish plucked at it. That was a fine cloak. . . . A few knife slashes could be dealt with. His jaw dropped. The rich soft swollen white hand still had rings on it.
He turned to speak.
'Don't even look,' she hissed between clenched teeth.
'But . . .' he started to point.
She hit his hand with the oar. 'Shut it!' There was such intensity in that quiet command that Benito didn't even dare to glance at the corpse again.
They poled on in silence, the bow of the shabby gondola cutting the oily, still water, here where it was sheltered from the predawn breeze. Most of Venice was still sleeping.
When she spoke, they were a good hundred yards past the corpse. 'Despini.' Her voice shook slightly. She
