She glanced from one man to the other. 'We will have time to meet properly on another occasion,' she said to Ezio, with the air of a woman not leaving men to their business, but of having business of her own.
'Stay a little, tesora mia.'
'No, Barto, you know I have to see the clerk. He always manages to bungle the accounts somehow. And there is something wrong with the water supply. I must see to that, too.' To Ezio she said, 'Ora, mi scusi, ma…'
'Con piacere.'
Smiling at both, she remounted the stairs and disappeared.
'What do you think?' Bartolomeo asked.
'Charmed, truly.' Ezio was sincere. And he'd also noticed how his friend reined himself in, in her presence. He imagined there'd be very little barrack-room swearing around Pantasilea. He did wonder what on earth she saw in her husband, but then, he didn't know her at all.
'I think she'd do anything for me.'
'Where did you meet her?'
'We'll talk about that some other time.' Bartolomeo seized the decanter and two glasses and put his free arm around Ezio's shoulders. 'I am very glad you've come. I've just got back from campaigning, as you must know, and as soon as I heard you were in Rome I was going to send men out to locate you-I know you like to keep your lodgings secret, and I don't blame you, especially not in this nest of vipers. But luckily, you've beaten me to it. And that's good, because I want to talk to you about the war. Let's go to the map-room.'
'I know Cesare has an alliance with the French,' Ezio said. 'How goes the fight against them?'
'Bene. The companies I've left out there, who'll be campaigning under Fabio, are holding their own. And I've more men to train here.'
Ezio considered this. 'Machiavelli seemed to think things were…more difficult.'
Bartolomeo shrugged. 'Well, you know Machiavelli. He-'
They were interrupted by the arrival of one of Bartolomeo's sergeants. Pantasilea was at his side. The man was in a panic. She was calm.
'Capitano!' said the sergeant urgently. 'We need your help now. The Borgia have launched an attack.'
'What? I hadn't expected that so soon! Excuse me, Ezio.' To Pantasilea, Bartolomeo cried, 'Throw me Bianca!'
She immediately tossed the greatsword across the room to him, and, buckling it on, Bartolomeo hurled himself out of the room, following his sergeant. Ezio made to follow, but Pantasilea held him back, grasping his arm firmly.
'Wait!' she said.
'What is it?'
She looked deeply concerned. 'Ezio. Let me get straight to the point. The fight is not going well-either here or out in the Romagna. We've been attacked on both sides. The Borgia are on one flank, the French under General Valois on the other. But know this: The Borgia position is weak. If we can defeat them, we can concentrate our forces on the French front. Taking this tower would help. If someone could get around the back…'
Ezio inclined his head. 'Then I think I know a way I can help. Your information is invaluable. Mille grazie, Madonna d'Alviano.'
She smiled. 'It is the least a wife can do to help her husband.'
EIGHTEEN
The Borgia had launched a surprise attack on the barracks, choosing the hour of the siesta to do so. Bartolomeo's men had fought them off, using traditional weapons, but as they drove them back toward the tower, Ezio could see Cesare's gunmen massing on its battlement, all armed with their new wheel locks, which they were training on the condottieri swarming below.
He skirted the melee, managing to avoid any confrontation with the Borgia troops. He circled and made his way around to the back of the tower. As he'd expected, everyone's attention was focused on the battle going on at the front. He clambered up the outer walls, easily finding footholds in the rough-hewn stones of which it had been built. Bartolomeo's men were armed with crossbows, and some had matchlocks, for long-range work, but they would not be able to withstand the deadly fire of the sophisticated new guns.
Ezio arrived at the top, some forty feet above the ground, in less than half a minute. He heaved himself over the rear parapet, sinews straining, and silently lowered himself to the roof of the tower. He stalked behind the musketeers, moving one quiet step after another closer to the enemy. He silently drew his dagger and also unleashed his hidden-blade. He stole up on the backs of the men and, in a sudden frenzy of movement, dispatched four gunmen with the two blades. It was only then that the Borgia sharpshooters realized that the enemy was among them. Ezio saw a man turn his loaded wheel lock toward him-the man was still some fifteen feet away, so Ezio simply launched his dagger through the air. It pirouetted three times before embedding between the man's eyes with a sickening thud. The man fell, but in doing so squeezed the trigger of his musket-luckily for Ezio the barrel had slipped away from its intended aim. The ball shot to the man's right-hitting his nearest colleague-but passing clean through his Adam's apple and embedding in the shoulder of the man behind him. Both men fell- leaving only three Borgia gunmen on the tower roof. Without pausing, Ezio leapt sideways-and with the flat of his hand slapped the nearest man across the face with such force that he toppled backward over the battlements. Ezio grabbed his weapon by the barrel as the man fell and swung the gun, butt first, into the next soldier's face. He followed his colleague over the wall with an agonized yell. The last man raised his hands in surrender-but too late-Ezio's hidden-blade had already found its way between his ribs.
Ezio grabbed another rifle and bounded down the stairs to the floor below. There were four men down here, firing through narrow slits in the thick stone walls. Ezio squeezed the trigger, holding the musket at waist height. The farthest went down with the impact of the shot-his chest exploding with red gore. Taking two strides forward, again, Ezio swung the gun like a club, barrel first this time, connecting with another man's knee. He crumpled. One of the remaining men had turned sufficiently to take a shot. Ezio rolled forward instinctively-he felt the air searing as the ball missed his cheek by only a matter of inches and embedded in the wall behind. Ezio's momentum sent him crashing into the gunman-the man lurched backward, his head crunching into the thick stone battlement. The last man had also swiveled around to tackle the unexpected threat. He looked down as Ezio was springing up from the floor, but only for an instant, as the hidden-blade skewered under the man's jaw.
The man whose knee Ezio had shattered stirred to reach for his own dagger. Ezio simply kicked the man's temple and turned, unbothered, to watch the battle unfolding down below. It was resolving itself into a rout. With no overwhelming firepower on their side anymore, the Borgia soldiers fell back fast and soon turned tail and fled, abandoning the tower to the condottieri.
Ezio descended the staircase to the tower's main gate, encountering a handful of guards, who put up fierce resistance before succumbing to his sword, but no one else. Ensuring that the tower was now clear of Borgia men, he flung open the gate and went out to join Bartolomeo. The battle was over, and Pantasilea had joined her husband.
'Ezio! Well done! Together, we sent those luridi codardi running for the hills!'
'Yes, we did.' Ezio exchanged a secret, conspiratorial smile with Pantasilea. Her sound advice had won the fight as much as anything.
'Those newfangled guns,' said Bartolomeo. 'We managed to capture a few, but we're still working out how to use them.' He beamed. 'Anyway, now that the Pope's dogs have fled, I'll be able to draw more men to the fight on our side. But first, and especially after this business, I want to reinforce our barracks.'
'Good idea. But who's going to do it?'
Bartolomeo shook his head. 'I'm not much good with these things. You're the one with an education, why don't you approve the plans?'
'You got some drawn up?'
'Yes! Engaged the services of a pretty brilliant young man. Florentine like you. Name of Michelangelo Buonarroti.'
