CHAPTER 18

“Well, that’s not good,” I panted, hearing our name in the air behind us as if it had grown wings and was flying around the camp, shrieking its repetition to everyone it passed. We were the symbol of defeat. The reason they were all here. And now the sole focus of a thousand men.

We jumped from camp and into the woods, holding hands so we didn’t lose each other in the dark. We held our other hands out, guarding against branches that slowed us down, desperately seeking a path. And taking a beating while we did so.

“Here they come,” Lia grunted.

I glanced back. The forest was alive with torches, more arriving by the second.

“Burn them out!” bellowed Paratore.

“Is he insane?” Lia asked in a whisper. “He intends to burn down the forest to kill us?”

“Yeah.”

“Here,” she said. “Come on.” She yanked me to the right, and my tights ripped on a thorny bush.

“Lia. This is my only pair.”

She ignored my weak joke and we rushed on. We found our stride and tore down the path as fast as we could, one in front of the other now. After a while, freaked that they’d find the path too, we cut right and moved through the trees again. Slowly, we were making our way to the border.

I thought. Unless we were getting totally turned around in the woods.

Which was possible, since we were operating by gut instinct and in the total dark. For the thousandth time, I wished I had my cell and its compass app. Or GPS. Yeah, that’d be helpful…

We hit a patch of boulders and immediately started climbing them. Up top, we paused. We could see torches coming our way, but fewer of them. They’d divided up; obviously they didn’t know where we were.

“Which way is south?” I asked Lia, looking up. Here, away from the fires and torchlight, we were again under the blanket of a thousand stars. The Milky Way was more like the Creamy Way in Toscana; you could see her millions of glittering stars so clearly. Stargazing was so good here, in fact, that it made it harder to pick out the major constellations. Fortunately, Mom and Dad had always been big on us getting to know the night skies when we were little, dragging us out in the dark for meteor showers. But that’d been a few years…

“Big Dipper,” she said, speaking behind me. “See it?”

I turned and studied the sky with her. “Got it. So if that’s the North Star off the end, then south is…this way.”

I turned to my right, fighting the feeling that it was the wrong direction. “Right? This is south?” I picked my way down a boulder, tapping my foot out, reaching for the next.

“Right,” she said.

The assurance in her voice calmed my fears a bit. Lia had always had a better sense of direction than I.

We were halfway down the rock face—this side twice as high as the other, obviously some sort of cliff descending into a valley—when we heard voices above, not thirty feet away. They’d caught up to us, impossibly fast. Or we’d been too slow, picking our way down, trying to avoid a total freefall.

We stilled. I squeezed Lia’s hand and let her go so we could each slip into a crevice in the rocks.

“They came through here, m’lord,” said a man, looking down the cliff.

Lord Greco’s tracker. So they’d joined the party too. Super.

“Right here,” said the tracker. “They moved through these boulders and down.”

Man, I hate that dude. What? Can he see a pebble out of place?

Torchlight grew long around us, but we remained in shadow. I found myself thanking God that there was a large boulder directly above us, giving us a bit of overhang.

“Do you truly believe they made it down there?”

“They’ve proven fairly versatile in their capabilities among the rocks and forests, m’lord,” he said. He was coming down.

“True enough. They head toward Sienese lands.”

“We shall cut them off before they reach it.”

That was enough for me. Lia, too, I guess, since she was rising up and drawing an arrow.

“There they are!” cried Lord Greco. “Over here!” he shouted. “Here!”

I groaned inside but began scrambling down the rocks, too fast, scraping my palms and forearms, landing painfully hard on the rock below me when I slid. “Come on, Lia!” I demanded.

“I can hold them off,” she said over her shoulder. “You go.”

“No,” I said, alarmed at her words. “We go together. Come. Come, now.”

She shot one more arrow, and up above, I saw a knight crumple.

“Can’t you get that tracker dude?” I asked, when she reached me. “It’d be handy to get him off our tail.”

“Uh, yeah,” she said, and we slid down to the next rock. “But he’s good. He seems to anticipate my shots.”

“Like any good hunter with his prey,” I said. “That’s just super fantastic.”

We slid down the next rock, and then the next. But when we hit that one, our combined weight seemed to shake it loose from the cliffside and it gave way, striking the next, which dislodged it. “Look out!” I cried.

We were in a rockslide. How far to bottom? I thought, longing for the base to meet our feet. To be sliding, unable to see…How high was this crazy hill? Or were we on a mountain?

I grunted as I hit my injured ribs on another rock.

I didn’t need the stars in the sky. They were dancing in my head, then. Really. I always thought it was just in cartoons, but no—

We hit bottom. Pain ran up my ankles, calves, thighs. I felt a burning tear in the back of my right thigh and collapsed all the way to the ground.

I gasped for breath. “Lia? You okay?” I managed to ask.

“Yeah,” she said, rising. “Other than my feet and hands getting all torn up. Come on. At least we’re ahead of them now. They won’t want to take our express route.” I could tell from the direction of her voice that she was looking up. “But there are more probably coming around the hill,” she said. “We’ve gotta hurry.”

I forced myself to rise on my good leg. Tentatively, I tried my other. I gasped.

“Gabs…”

I panted, trying to avoid my sudden desire to cry and not stop. “It’s not good, Lia. When we hit—something happened to my leg. The big muscle in back of my right thigh.”

“Your hamstring?” I could hear the panic in her voice.

“Yeah. Not so good when you’re trying to outrun the bad guys, huh?”

“C’mon,” she said, sliding under my right arm. “Try and keep your weight off of it.”

We limped on for five minutes, now on a small road that seemed to circle the base of the hill. As much as we were making decent time on it, we knew that if those that pursued us were on it too, we’d soon be overtaken. I heard a horse whinny, and Lia looked back over her shoulder.

We dashed into the woods again, but it was slow going. She had to let go of me, the trees were so dense. I was hopping and making too much noise. She cried out once in a while, her bare feet getting cut up by pinecones and sticks and thorns. When we reached a creek, still running a couple inches deep, I sat down and looked up at her. “It’s no use,” I said.

“What?” she asked, turning to face me.

“This is where we split—”

“No, Gabi. No.”

I reached out and took her shoulders. “Listen to me. Listen!”

“No. C’mon. We can’t wait here. They’ll be here any minute!”

“Exactly.”

She stilled.

“What I saw in that tent…we have to get word to Fortino, Lia. They have twice the men that Siena anticipates. I’m sure of it. Tell them thousands are hidden, deep in the forest. They plan to send thousands around on two flanks, through Umbria and Lazio. They intend to strike on Fortino’s wedding day—and take Paratore’s castle back, along with all the other outlying castles. And tell him…tell him that I saw a map that had renamed Castello Forelli as Castello Rossi.” He could figure out what that meant and what to do about it.

“This is not our fight, Gabi,” she said, gripping my arms and shaking me back to the present.

“It is now,” I said. “There’s only one way to change Castello Forelli into Castello Rossi—and Mom will be right in the middle of it.”

She was quiet. We’d seen firsthand what came down when a castle changed ownership. I’d almost died during our last castle takeover.

“You run down this creek,” I went on. “Keep your feet in the water as much as possible. That’ll throw off the tracker. With luck, it will lead you to that river that winds between the castles, beneath the tombs.”

“And you?”

“I’ll stay here and distract them.”

“Distract them? Dis—Gabi, they’ll kill you.”

I swallowed hard. “No. They won’t. Remember? We’re worth more alive than dead.”

I could feel her peering through the dark, trying to see my face. “But, Gabs, Marcello said that—”

“I know what he said,” I bit out. “Now go! Please! Find Marcello, Luca. Rally the men. And come and find me, as soon as you can. Wherever I am. I’ll be waiting. You understand me? I’ll be waiting. I’m counting on you, just as Siena now counts on you.”

She paused. We could hear the men, again drawing near. “Go, Lia,” I said, my voice cracking.

Lia was crying now too. “I’ll come for you, Gabi. I promise.”

She hugged me then, hard. Clung to me.

“Go,” I said through my tears.

“I’ll do as you say,” she said. “But I won’t leave you just yet.” She pushed away from me and ran.

“What?” I asked.

But she did not respond. I heard the clatter of the rocks on the far side of the stream and then she was in the trees. I lost sight of her dim form.

They were upon me. Horsemen, coming out of the forest on a wide path we had not been as fortunate to find. I turned, trying to hide my bad leg, drawing my sword.

Their torchlight caught, surrounded, held me.

Three knights stared at me, as if wondering if their eyes deceived them. One opened his mouth, finding his tongue, and was about to shout, when Lia’s arrow came whizzing out of the forest on the far side and sliced through his neck. He gurgled and fell, as the other two edged away, trying to find the source of the arrow.

Another one took an arrow to the shoulder. It hit with such force that he toppled backward over the hind end of his horse.

The third shouted for help, edging his horse around and into the trees. Lia’s arrow stuck in the trunk of one directly before him. “Over here! They’re here!” he yelled.

I grabbed madly for the reins of one of the horses as it came by, pulling it up short, crying out when I was dragged a few feet, the pain rolling through me in waves. I could hear the others coming and thought about mounting, racing away. But I knew in an instant that my leg would not allow me to hold on. I’d confuse the mare with my unbalanced hold. “Lia!” I called. “Come! Take the horse! Go!”

She paused and then ran from the wood, a hundred feet downstream from me, and I slapped the horse’s flank, sending her to my sister. Lia was atop the mare in seconds. We could hear the others now, a collective roar. A hundred men.

“Go with God,” I said, watching with satisfaction as she tore off down the creek. Please, God, be with her, I prayed silently.

At least her bare feet wouldn’t suffer more abuse, I thought.

The third horseman came galloping past me before I remembered he was still there, in pursuit of Lia, still carrying a torch.

I moved without thought, drawing my last dagger from my waistband, aiming with my left, like a rifleman taking his target through the crosshairs. I let the dagger fly, visualizing it circling, end over end, toward his back. Willing it to catch up to him before he was out of range…

He cried out, dropped the torch to the ground, where it sputtered and sizzled on the water’s edge. Then he fell to the creek, obviously dead. His horse reared up.

I limped toward it, using my sword as a sort of cane.

But it was no use. In seconds, they were there—thirty or more coming—running down either bank, surrounding me.

Cheering, jeering, leering.

They closed the circle and began closing in, their eyes on my sword.

As I circled, trying to keep them at bay like a cat surrounded by a pack of dogs, I could see that they understood that I was hurt. Weak. Vulnerable.

It seemed to make them meaner. Fed their lust for death, like a shark smelling blood in the water.

I was so scared I almost peed my pants.

And that made me angry. “Yes!” I cried saucily, gesturing for them to come closer. “Draw near so that I might slice your fat throats!” My eyes widened and I smiled. “The closer you are to one another, the easier target you shall make for my sister.”

That put them off a bit. Some stared at me, seeing if I was bluffing. Others were looking around, pulling back a step, studying the woods.

“These two knights took arrows!” cried a man from the back. “She’s here, somewhere, the archer!”

“She is not here, you fools,” Lord Paratore cried from the outer edges of the growing mob. Obviously, losing the outside of his ears had not impacted his hearing. He was shoving aside men, raking his way inward toward me, as if pushing aside piles of autumn leaves. Men fell on either side, shouted, grew silent when they saw who it was.

He paused at the edge of the circle and looked me up and down. “If Lady Evangelia Betarrini were here,” he said, never releasing me with his eyes, “many more of you would be taking arrows to the gut.” He stepped forward, watching me, smirking when he saw I was favoring my left leg. “Ahh, here is the reason you divided. One She-Wolf came up lame, no?”

I could see he’d decided on his path of attack. I pushed back my hair, over my shoulder, out of my way, lifting my sword. I tried to ignore the gruesome nubs of his ears, wondering if he’d take mine as payback.

He never paused as he approached, drawing his sword as if settling in for a friendly spar. I managed to block his first blow, feeling the pain radiate down my arms and shoulders as I held him back. But his fury fueled his movements, and he focused on forcing me to my right leg, again and again. With four, maybe five strikes, my sword went skittering away over the rounded creek stones. The men cheered.

I closed my eyes, waiting for what would come next.

He grabbed hold of my hair, winding it in his fist, and I cried out, reaching up.

He pulled my face close to his. I could smell the rot of his teeth, saw again where the Sienese had knocked some of them out. “Where is your sister?” he bit out, word by word.

“I know not.”

He let go of my hair and slapped me, hard, with the back of his hand. Then hauled me up again by the hair, pulling my head back until I could feel his breath on my throat. “Where…is…your…sister?” he screamed. He knew what I’d seen on that map; he feared she was off to do exactly as I had told her. Tell Fortino. Warn Siena.

I let a smile begin to spread across my face, feeling a little hysterical, distant.

“Deep in the wood,” I said. “Across the creek. Look for her, won’t you, m’lord? She’d love to sink an arrow into your neck.”

“M’lord,” called a knight. “One man down, dagger in his back. But the two that took arrows—one of their horses is missing.”

Paratore pulled me closer. “She had better not reach Siena, or I shall slice the skin from your beautiful body myself,” he whispered in my ear. He tossed me aside, and I fell to the rocks. The pain from my thigh and ribs shook me so fiercely, I thought I might throw up.

“Fifty of you, down this creek bed. See that you find Lady Evangelia Betarrini and bring her back in chains, or don’t come back at all. She seeks to warn Siena of our attack.”

I tried to rise, but Paratore put a boot to my back and shoved me down. If I was going to throw up, I hoped I could hold it until I could do so all over him.

“Twenty more of you take to the woods, just to be certain she is not intending to make her way under the cover of trees. We all know how wolves like the shadows of the forest.”

Men chuckled. Troops set off at once. I closed my eyes, hearing the thunderous sound of all those horses, their sole task to capture my sister. Hurry, Lia…

He was behind me, stepping down hard, keeping me from breathing. The pain was so great from my ribs, I cried out with the last bit of air in my lungs. He was untying the tunic at my back. He lifted me up, leaving the vintner’s old tunic on the stones before me, leaving me covered with nothing but my thin shirt and the strips of cloth Lia had wound around my torso that morning. I faltered, hunched over, gasping for air.

He motioned for two knights to come forward. “Hold her arms.”

I focused on finding my breath as he studied his gloved hands. “Do you know,” he said, turning toward me and cocking his head, “that ’tis illegal in Firenze for a woman to dress as a man?”

“How fortunate for me,” I shot back, “that my loyalties lie with Siena.”

He stared back into my eyes. “Ahh, but you are not in Siena,” he said. He took hold of the neckline of my shirt and ripped it down the center. Cold air rushed across my torso. He smiled and then backed away, lifting a hand behind him at me, as if I were a bit of evidence for a prosecuting attorney. “This is what becomes of women who are allowed to set their feminine side aside and act as men!”

The men growled their dismay. Again, Marcello’s words of warning came echoing through my mind. Fight—

Paratore turned. “Mayhap this wench need only be reminded what it is to be created female,” he said, spitting the last word in my face. He paused and eyed me up and down, studying the knot of rope that held my tights up. Please, God, no…

“That is quite enough, Lord Paratore,” said Lord Greco, now shoving his way into the inner circle. “Lady Betarrini is my charge. The lords of Firenze asked me to fetch her and her sister.”

“And yet it is I who has captured her,” Paratore said, stepping between me and Lord Greco.

Lord Greco stared at Paratore, not rising to his bait. “You sent men after her sister?”

“Fifty. They will return with her before sunup.”

Lord Greco looked to the tracker at his side and lifted his chin in the direction of the creek. “Go and make certain that is the way of it.” The tracker set off to do his master’s bidding. I sensed Paratore bristle.

Fantastic. Caught between two dudes in a serious turf war. Could this night get any better?

“I shall make it known that it was you and your men who brought Lady Gabriella Betarrini to bay.” He moved around Lord Paratore and gruffly took hold of my arm. “The lords of Firenze will be most grateful.”

Paratore glanced back at me and eyed me up and down again, considering. At last, he spit out, “’Tis the eve of battle. I’ve already expended far too much of my strength on this wench.”

I didn’t know what freaked me out more. The idea of being at the mercy of Lord Paratore—or that they planned to attack Siena tomorrow. Tomorrow. Had I counted the days wrong?

Paratore wrenched Greco’s hand from my arm, and I tensed, waiting for him to grab me back, or for a blow. But Paratore only came close, staring down at me. Men hooted and called. Slowly, a smile lifted the corners of his mouth. I glanced to the side, away from his horrid teeth and ear holes. “You’ll go with him now, She-Wolf,” he said, his breath washing down the side of my cheek. “But after we deal this deathblow to Siena and those who serve her, I shall come and claim you as my rightful bounty. I shall teach you what it means to be a woman in my keep.”

Defiant, I dragged my eyes up to meet his.

He studied me. “Yes,” he said, nodding. “It shall be a pleasure to see that spirit beaten from your eyes. You’ll remember my dungeon, and the devices there…” He circled me, letting me remember the horrible contraptions he’d threatened Lia with. “You shall not escape me as your sister once did. And far greater will be the joy of taking Marcello Forelli’s woman as my own.”

“You shall never have me.”

He gave me a closed-lip, sly smile. “Won’t I? Don’t be so certain, She-Wolf.” He wrapped an arm around me and then pulled me to him, making me gasp with pain. I pushed against him, struggling to get away, but he held me effortlessly. He grabbed one wrist, turned it, and pushed it up, behind my back, stilling my struggle at once.

The men cheered again, closing in, enjoying this spectacle.

“I shall hunt down Fortino and cut his throat. Relieve Lady Rossi of her bridal duties, so that she can come to Firenze, where she shall be received as a queen.”

I drew back. So Romana was in on it?

“Lord Paratore,” Lord Greco cut in, but Paratore ignored him, leaning in toward me.

“But I shall allow Marcello to live. I want him to know what it is to be without his home. And even better, to know that you are in my keep. To cut your ears from your head. Or mayhap your nose.”

“Lord Paratore,” said Lord Greco, stepping in again. “Release her to me.”

Lord Paratore abruptly let me go and carefully set my hand upon Lord Greco’s arm, as if we were at a ball and Lord Greco was merely my next dance partner. Which in a crazy way, I suppose he was…

“Do not pine for me, She-Wolf,” he called, hands lifted as he backed away from me.

The men laughed and then turned to follow him. All but twelve, apparently Lord Greco’s men.

I was shaking, feeling weak. I glanced up at him. “I suppose I ought to be grateful to you,” I said. Maybe I could wiggle my way into his heart. Make him like me. Help me out. Or at least weaken his resolve—

“Ah, no,” he said, sweeping his cape from his shoulders and gently wrapping it around mine. Carefully, kindly he tied it at my neck, as if I were a child on my way out to school, then met my gaze. “While I am not the vindictive, lecherous cad that Lord Paratore is, you’ll find that I have far greater ambitions. And that, my friend, can make me quite ruthless.”

I swallowed. He was really handsome. I mean, really, really handsome. Making me think it wouldn’t be hard to pretend—pretend that I was attracted to him. But there was no warmth in his watchful gaze, and his words had sent a cold shudder of fear through me, slamming down on any hope like a gate across a castle door.

Marcello had not feared Lord Paratore when he warned me—I was pretty sure he didn’t even think Paratore was part of the mix. He had assumed Paratore was exiled, long gone.

He had feared that others in Firenze would capture me.

Men like Lord Greco.

And I was not eager to find out why.