The Shadow Master (25 page)

She walked ahead steadily for a short distance and found another lantern on the wall. She allowed herself a small smile. That was good. That meant she was on the right path. Then she heard faint noises ahead of her. Not rats. Something else. She slowed and listened carefully. Was it people? Was she so close to being saved?

She took a few more cautious steps. Then slowed. For she realised that in her haste there was another path that the lanterns could be leading her on. One that went deeper underground. She stood there for some moments pondering. Reason did not help her here, so she tried to feel which would be the right way. But she could equally feel and fear that the way forward was right and was wrong. She took a few more cautious steps and came to another set of stairs. These led up. That was good. They ascended about a dozen steps or so and then there was a curve in the passageway. She edged around it slowly, the noises ahead of her louder now.

She passed into a chamber that had other dim lanterns in nooks in the walls and they illuminated statues about her. But then she saw them move. She stopped and swung around, waving the lantern about. They were not statues. They were people. Chained to the walls. And the stench about her was that of humans, not rats and sewage. She gave a small shriek and the figures about her stirred as if woken from a spell. She kept turning, looking at them and looking away again. They were nightmarish people. Horribly deformed. Some had no faces. Some had no limbs. They looked to her and reached out their arms, trying to touch her. Their arms were covered in plague sores. “Help us,” said one of the figures, holding a grasping hand out to her. She stepped back from his reach and as another figure grasped her by the hair, she pulled away from him and lifted her hair, revealing the plague scars. And the man in front of her, or whatever it was, began crying. “You are one of us,” he said. Hearing that quite unnerved her. She stifled another shriek and ran past them.

But then she was in another chamber, infinitely worse. All around her were children, also tied to the walls, but they were half human and half animal. She could see the heads of dogs and cats and limbs of animals and birds. They turned their heads and looked at her and she could not walk on. She felt her knees buckling and had to fight not to fall.

One of the cat-faced children mewed at her, pitifully and a dog-faced child whined. She felt her breaths coming in shorter and shorter gasps. Felt panic overwhelming her, as if they had surrounded her and were going to keep her with them forever. “So pretty,” said a voice to her left. She spun and saw one of the children, a young girl with the legs of a goat or something, was looking at her and her face was full of pain. “So pretty,” she said again and reached out a hand towards Lucia.

She was running from the chamber now holding a hand against her mouth, tears filling her eyes, and only stopped when she stumbled and fell to her knees. It took her some moments to get back to her feet and she felt her whole body trembling. What nightmare was this? It had to be a horrific dream that she was going to wake from shortly. She would even welcome waking in the home of the Nameless One to find this was not real. But the pain in her knees from where she had fallen told her this was real. The smell in her nostrils told her. The quiver in her arms told her. All her senses told her.

And now she also knew she had come the wrong way. She needed to turn around and go back the way she had come. But she could not bring herself to pass back through those horrific chambers again. “Oh, Lorenzo, please find me,” she muttered as if a prayer. “I need you. Please find me.” But again, she knew she had gone too far into this netherworld to be easily found by anybody. She gathered her courage and walked on, trusting her belief that to keep moving forwards was the only way to escape this increasing horror. And then, presently, she saw another faint light ahead of her. This one flickered like a real flame. That meant people. That meant somebody was down here searching for her. It might even be Lorenzo. She opened up that small locket of hope insider her and ran towards the light.

 

 

XLVIII

Lorenzo was sitting between the Duke of Lorraine and Cosimo Medici as they planned for war. And they were asking his advice. For who else was there to turn to? They had sent for Galileo and for Leonardo and messengers came back to tell them that Leonardo had been attacked and was unconscious and Galileo was missing from his chamber and there were signs of a struggle. The madmen had undoubtedly abducted him too.

“If they fear our science so much,” said Cosimo, “then that is how we will attack them”

“But if these madmen have my daughter, as you suggest, then she must be saved,” demanded the Duke. “I will not risk the loss of a single hair from her head.”

Cosimo rubbed his chin. “Are you prepared to strike a deal with these fanatics to have her released? That will put the power into their hands.”

Lorenzo watched the way the two men worked together, neither willing to commit too much of their preferred tactics to the other, trying to find weaknesses in the other, as they supposedly cooperated. “There is always a way,” said the Duke. “But we must learn more about them first.”

“We do not have the luxury of time,” said Cosimo. “We must act now and be decisive.”

The Duke glared at him. “It is easy to demand action when you do not have the lives of any family at stake.”

“Have I not already lost a dear brother to these madmen?” Cosimo asked.

“An action that you were quick to blame the House of Lorraine for.”

Cosimo fought down his reply and said, “That was an error and I believe I apologised for it. But I was grief-stricken and it clouded my judgement.”

“Do you imply that my judgement is also clouded because they have my daughter?”

“We must act quickly if we are to act at all.”

The Duke said nothing for a moment and then Lorenzo said, “If science is their weakness, you must be willing to share your secrets.”

Cosimo frowned at Lorenzo for speaking on his behalf, but then considered it and looked to the Duke. “Yes,” he said. “You will have to show the boy what Leonardo was working on.”

Now the Duke frowned. He asked, “And to whom in my household will you show what Galileo has been working on?”

“I will share what I learn with both of you,” said Lorenzo, cutting through the increasingly hostile air about them. Cosimo Medici gave him a quick, warning glare, letting him know that he was still a Medici man, and should not presume to make such statements without his approval. “There is no other way for this to work,” Lorenzo said, returning his stare.

Cosimo ground his jaw. The youngster was growing as impudent as his teacher.

But the Duke quickly said, “I agree.” Cosimo ground his teeth again, and then nodded his head.

“Both Houses must put their trust in me,” Lorenzo said.

“That is a big ask,” said the Duke. “You are a Medici.”

“In this you can consider me also a Lorraine,” said Lorenzo.

The Duke scowled. “What do you mean?”

“I will save Lucia because I love her.”

“You dare!” said the Duke almost rising from his seat in indignation.

“Yes, I dare,” said Lorenzo softly, not meeting the Duke's eyes.

“Yes! He dares,” said Cosimo, smiling at the way the youth had now unsettled the Duke. “Clearly our young man has both courage and motivation we have not anticipated.”

The Duke thought on this and then nodded his head. It was true, any upstart who would dare tell him to his face that he loved his daughter had courage, and if he was infatuated with Lucia he would go out of his way to ensure she was not harmed. “A young man capable of surprising us may be just what we need to surprise these fanatics,” he said at last. Then he remembered what Lucia's handmaiden had said about there being a young man in her chambers. He would have to get to the bottom of that when he had the boy alone.

“Then take him to Leonardo's chambers at once,” Cosimo said, “and show him what secrets the old man was working on, and with those of Galileo he may formulate a way to quickly and easily defeat these madmen, cleanse our city of them and save your daughter.”

The Duke nodded and waved a hand for one of his men to escort Lorenzo to his house. “I will not disappoint you,” Lorenzo said as he went.

“The confidence of youth!” Cosimo mused, after he had gone.

“The audacity of youth!” said the Duke.

“And if he fails, are we agreed that the blame will fall solely upon his head?”

“Of course.”

“And will we ready our soldiers to invade the tunnels and flush out these vermin with fire and water and steel and whatever else it takes?”

The Duke stared at Cosimo and met his defiant glance with his own. He knew what stakes were involved here. And knew he would have to answer to his wife on whatever he decided. Then finally he said, “Yes. Whatever it takes.”

 

 

XLIX

Lucia followed the passage towards the light of the dim flickering flame as if it was sunlight. But as she rounded the next corner she almost ran into two men walking towards her. Her first thought was that she had been found and would be rescued, but then she saw the knife and the hard features on their faces, and the one with the flaming torch reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Got you,” he said.

“You'll have some explaining to do,” said the other, regarding her carefully. “What are you doing in our tunnels?”

Lucia dropped the lantern in her hand in trying to struggle free and then managed to pull her wrist free from the man's hold. “Come here,” he said lunging for her, but he was slow and she was not prepared to give him a second chance. She turned and fled, trying not to stumble on the stones beneath her feet or run into one of the walls. The brightness of the flame had reduced her vision in the dark and even the sparse lanterns on the walls did not provide enough light for her flight. Twice she ran into the walls, spinning her around as she ran, only her held-up arms protecting her. She heard the men calling out to her and running after her as she found herself now seeking the darkness that she had so recently fled from.

She was running through the chamber of chimera children before she knew it and then into the second chamber, when she stumbled again. She fell sideways, but arms grabbed her before she could hit the floor. She looked up to see who had caught her, but saw the shadowy shape of a malformed head, and knew it was one of the creatures chained to the walls here.

“Let me go,” she said, trying to pull herself free, but other arms had her now. Hands covered in plague sores grabbed at her clothes and she heard one rasping voice say, “You belong with us.”

She slapped at the hands that were grabbing for her and then felt the chamber fill with light. The men had caught her. The pitiful souls against the walls threw up their hands to cover their faces from the heat and the light of the torch and shrank back, turning themselves towards the dark stone walls.

Lucia was free for but an instant before one of the two men grasped her, this time with two hands, forcing her arms behind her back. “No running and no screaming,” he hissed into her ear. “May the plague tickle your privates,” she said, in anger and frustration.

Both men laughed and then forced her to walk in front of them, leading her back the way they had come. The light of the torch showed the walls here were ancient, and in places in poor repair. There was mould, and cobwebs, across many areas, but at least she saw no rats, though she heard them ahead of her. They clearly feared the flame.

“Where are you taking me?” Lucia asked at last, turning her head towards the men behind her.

“You'll see presently, my lady,” one of them said.

She wondered if they knew who she was. If they were Medici men, they would not treat her ill and would ransom her to her father. But if they were not Medici men, and were bandits or criminals of some kind, they might treat her worse if they found out. Soon they had reached another chamber. This one was filled with torches and a two dozen men, all robed in rough cloth monk's attire. She was bundled over and sat on a stone seat next to another figure. He was tied with ropes. She looked across at him and said, “I know you. You are Galileo.”

“And you are the Duke's daughter,” he said softly, “though I don't think it will benefit you to make that be known amongst these men.”

“Who are they?” she said. “What do they want of us?”

“They only want ill of us, I fear,” the old man said. “And they are madmen all.”

“Silence,” called a loud voice from the front of the chamber and Lucia looked up and saw the priest standing there. He had his arms spread out wide, with a dagger in one hand and candle in the other. He looked at her and then looked to Galileo. “The trial will now begin,” he said.

 

 

L

The Nameless One's wife awoke at the touch of his soft kiss and looked up to see him standing there holding a pillow over here. “What is it my love?” she asked.

“Lift your head,” he said, and then slipped the pillow under her neck. “That will be more comfortable for you.”

“You are so good to me,” she said. Then, “Your face. You have a cut on it.”

He gave her a small smile and turned he head away from her. “Just a scratch. Nothing to be concerned about.”

“Why are you still dressed?” she then asked him.

“I must go out for some time,” he said.

“Oh no,” his wife said. “Not now. Stay with me, please.”

“I wish I could,” he said. “But I have some urgent business.”