Dave Duncan - The Alchemists pursuit

Then I turned to comfort Violetta, but she wanted no aid from me.

"Bitch!" she yelled. "She-devil! Who is she?" Spewing abuse, she scrambled to her feet and went for Alina with fingernails drawn. "Hell cat! Madwoman! I'll rip her face off…"

I grabbed her and discovered that the tarot had meant Violetta, not Matteo, when it predicted a need for strength. Fortunately, if embarrassingly for me, Luigi came to help and between us we pulled her away.

"Hippolyta!" I shouted. "Calm down!"

I had uncovered a new Violetta persona. Between us, Luigi and I forced the Queen of the Amazons into a chair, where she continued to simmer, still snarling and spitting.

Meanwhile Matteo was standing over Alina to make sure she stayed where she was. She was screaming with fury and pain. "You broke my arm! I'll see you hang for this! Animals! Do you have any idea who I am?" And so on. She was dressed in black, yes, but in the weeds of a respectable widow, not a nun's habit.

Luigi chuckled. "Loud, aren't they?"

Already the room was filling up-girls, guards, customers, madams. There had been a scuffle in a brothel and it must not be allowed to become any more than that. I caught Violetta as she tried to spring out of her chair again; I persuaded her to sit down and accept a glass of wine that happened to be handy. Then I found the dagger and its scabbard and took possession of them. A sheet of paper on the table looked to be in Alina's handwriting but signed as being from Sister Lucretzia, so I appropriated that and the envelope also.

By then Antonio had appeared and was ordering everyone out. The belligerents had fallen silent, except for sobs of pain from Alina.

"I know this woman," I announced loudly. "And her sons happen to be visiting Nostradamus in Ca' Barbolano at this moment. The doctor there can attend to her arm. Missier Grande is there also. Let's get her out of here."

"And what about me?" Medea yelled, green eyes blazing.

"You hurt?"

"No, but no thanks to you and your crazy charlatan wizard!"

"All thanks to you," I said. "I'll come back with those as soon as I can. Antonio, can you nail up that door for the night? Matteo, bring the woman."

Medea melted into Helen. "You're just going to leave me?"

"For now." I risked bending to kiss her cheek and didn't lose my eyeballs, as I would have done a moment ago. "I'll be back as soon as I can unless they throw me in jail."

I retrieved donna Alina's hat and veil from the floor and dropped them on her head any-old-how. "Your sons are waiting, madonna."

Antonio led us down to the loggia-me and a grinning Matteo shepherding donna Alina. She had refused to let him carry her, but she had fallen silent and was trembling violently, close to shock.

There were still only four boatmen there and I recognized all of them as Michiel employees. A quick peek out between the pillars confirmed that Missier Grande's boat was still tied up outside Ca' Barbolano.

I recalled some names from my experience of servant fare in the Michiel kitchen. "Zaneto, isn't it? Alfeo Zeno."

He scowled at me and my companions. "I remember you. What do you want?" He could not possibly recognize donna Alina under her veil in that light and I did not want to reveal who she was.

"This lady is a real lady, not a worker here. She fell and injured her arm. A doctor lives in that house where your masters are visiting. Would you be so kind as to ferry us to the watergate?"

"There are other visitors there, messer."

"Missier Grande, yes. But I need to talk with him also."

Left with no further argument, he helped us load our patient aboard, which was hard to do without jostling her injured arm.

"Business as usual now?" Antonio asked.

I hesitated only a moment. Vasco had wanted me to give him the book, so Missier Grande had come for the book, so the chiefs of the Ten had sent him for the book, and if the chiefs knew about the book, then they had Jacopo Fauro under lock and key.

"Business as usual," I agreed.

Our voyage took only moments, but that was long enough for me to work out the timing. Had Jacopo been arrested, he would have been left to meditate on his sins for a while before he was questioned, and even then, being Jacopo, he would very likely have tried to lie his way out of the mess. The chiefs must have learned of the book from him and their very fast response indicated that he had almost certainly turned himself in, confessing everything, fast and furious. The Maestro had predicted that the Ten would be lenient on him if he did that, a prophecy I hoped would prove to be one of his good ones.

A couple of sbirri eyed us suspiciously as we disembarked in the Barbolano loggia, prepared to prevent our entry.

"I am sier Alfeo Zeno and I live here. This lady is in need of medical attention and I have some evidence to hand over to Missier Grande."

They accepted that, but one of them escorted us upstairs.

Three more sbirri were standing near the atelier door and moved aside to let us in. Bernardo and Domenico were still in the green chairs. Isabetta sat in the red one and Nostradamus at the desk, she wearing a bandage around her head and he a puckish grin. Missier Grande stood in the center with the package under his arm. He seemed to be still asking questions, as if he had not been there long. Everyone looked around when we entered. Then the brothers recognized our veiled companion and leaped to their feet in alarm.

"The lady claims she has a broken wrist or arm," I said. "I haven't examined it." I nodded respectfully to Missier Grande. "She was attempting to kill the courtesan Violetta Vitale with this dagger, which I recognize as coming from Palazzo Michiel. This is the note she used to gain admission, written by herself and signed with her daughter's name."

By then Bernardo and Domenico were helping their mother over to the examination couch.

Gasparo Quazza, Missier Grande, is a large and inscrutable man, whose very impassivity is intimidating. One glimpse of his red and blue cloak can disperse a riot faster than gunfire. No one could like him, but I respect him and he has always played fair with me. Once, very early in my apprenticeship with the Maestro, I did him a great favor by rescuing his infant daughter. That would not stop him from hoisting me on the strappado if the Ten so ordered, but they haven't done so yet.

"And the accused's name, sier Alfeo?"

"Donna Alina Orio, these noble lords' mother. May I assist my master while he attends to her injury?"

I fetched splints, scissors, and bandages from the medical cupboard. Quazza began questioning Matteo to get his side of the story. Missier Grande is not an inquisitor. He merely carries out the orders of the Ten and might have been told little about the Michiel case. He had been sent to fetch the book and no more. He could not ignore dramatic accusations of attempted murder, but he certainly would not arrest a noblewoman on his own initiative, nor me either, unless I had blood on my hands.

Looking alien and scared, Agnesina was huddled behind the door, in what I now thought of as Sister Lucretzia's chair. Isabetta remained hunched in the red chair, looking old and haggard, with a bandage around her head. Seeing that Nostradamus no longer needed my assistance I moved out of the way of Domenico and Bernardo, who were anxious to crowd in and fuss. I went to Isabetta and dropped to one knee. She looked at me with distaste.

"How do you feel?"

"Sick. I hate brandy."

"If that's all, you were probably very lucky." Her pupils were the same size and she did not seem sleepy; both good signs.

"When you held your family council of war on Sunday, why was donna Alina not invited?" I began with a question about Alina because Isabetta obviously did not want to talk with me and I knew that there was no great affection between the two ladies in Palazzo Michiel.