Stravaganza: City Of Secrets Part 26

The word was that the Governor was ashamed in the face of such bravery but stood firm on his verdict.

It had never been expected that the first prosecution and execution would involve such a large number. Even if they were burned in groups, a great quant.i.ty of fires would have to be built. The whole of the Piazza dei Fiori was filled with men and brushwood preparing for the grisly task.

Constantin saw it on his way to visit the anatomist, Angelo Angeli. He stopped, filled with disgust at what human beings were capable of doing to one another. In the next square preparations were going on for the evening's festivities celebrating the Church's Festival of the Dead. There would be feasting and drinking and fireworks as soon as the evening services were over.

So close, thought Constantin, to the place of execution and so unmindful of what would happen there in two days' time. He had lived long enough to accept life and death as inextricably woven into the pattern of the world but such callous indifference to the fate of fellow human beings shocked him.

Professor Angeli had rooms off the market square. He was delighted to see Constantin. He poured wine for them both and rubbed his hands in antic.i.p.ation.

'Have you come about the book?' he asked as soon as it was decent to do so.

Constantin took a volume from his canvas satchel.

'Here it is Angeli the Teoria Anatomica I have brought you one copy. Nando has the rest hidden, ready for sale.'

The Professor put on his reading-gla.s.ses, the very latest invention.

'But this is quite wonderful,' he said, greedily turning the pages. 'The engravings are magnificent!'

Constantin inclined his head and drank deeply from the wine gla.s.s.

'You seem downcast,' said Angeli. 'Is it always so when you have completed the production of a great work?'

'It is not that,' said Constantin. 'It is the coming deaths of nearly thirty people old and young, for practising their religion.'

'I heard about that,' said Angeli. 'It is a terrible thing. But they did break the law.'

'Which they believed to be wrong,' said Constantin. 'Ah well, you will have plenty of opportunity on Thursday to observe the effect of fire on human bodies.'

'Do not say so,' said Angeli. 'It will not be an occasion for rejoicing.'

'We can't just let them die!' said Luciano, pacing up and down the room. 'They've done nothing wrong. And these are Aurelio and Raffaella's people. Ludo is my friend.'

'I have no intention of letting them die,' said Rodolfo. 'The only question is, how best to save them? There is no loophole in the law it is very clearly worded and they broke it.'

'Whatte aboute an appeal for clemencie?' asked Dethridge. 'The Governour seems a decent manne. Mayhap we could appeal to his sense of honour? Atte least for the femayles and childer?'

'I think that Antonio is deeply regretting pa.s.sing those laws,' said Rodolfo. 'But he has very little room to manoeuvre.'

'I have escaped the fyre myselfe,' said Dethridge. 'And I shalle notte stand aside and watch othires suffer yt.'

'That's it!' said Luciano. 'You escaped to Talia, using your talisman. We must get talismans for all the Manoush, so that they can do a . . . a sort of ma.s.s stravagation to my old world.'

'And then what?' asked Rodolfo, but not unkindly. 'Who will look after thirty such travellers in your old world and give them food and work? Do you come from such a civilisation that all of them would be made welcome and kindly treated? And could they survive, taken from the rest of their people?'

Luciano saw all the problems, collecting thirty talismans for a start, then explaining to two and a half dozen terrified people about stravagating to the world of the twenty-first century. He had a flashback memory of Eastern European women with toddlers begging on the Tube, carrying little bits of cardboard with a few words giving their history written on them.

What could the Manoush write? They would be the most displaced persons ever in the history of London. And although it would be true that their lives would be in danger if they were sent home, how could they ever explain that to the authorities?

'Well, perhaps not. But then what are we to do?' he asked Rodolfo.

'I wolde helpe him collect the talismans,' said Dethridge eagerly. 'Yt wolde not be so badde to goe agayne. I have seene whatte yt is lyke, now.'

'I think we must have a different plan,' said Rodolfo. 'If the Manoush are to be taken away, it must be to somewhere nearer here.'

'Where?' asked Luciano.

'Bellezza,' said Rodolfo. 'If only there were a Stravagante there now. But we are all here.'

'My wife is there,' said Dethridge. 'I have taught her how to use the mirror.'

'And my wife is there too,' said Rodolfo. 'Leonora can go to her for help.'

'I'm sure Arianna would want to help,' said Luciano. 'But we've got to rescue them first.'

Dethridge was counting on his fingers. 'I have yt!' he said. 'The execution will be in two days' time. Yf we have enough of our friends to unbind them, I canne warrant thatte we wille be able to do yt. There wille be a riske, of course, bot yt canne be done.'

Rinaldo was flushed and excited at the success of the trial, as he saw it. He had sent his long-suffering messenger with a letter to Fabrizio in Giglia, telling him that around thirty 'pagans' were to suffer the full force of the new laws. Laws that he, Cardinal di Chimici, had influenced the city's Governor to adopt.

He could still not report any success in getting Luciano to incriminate himself by committing magical acts. And he doubted whether he should say anything about Filippo's unintentional short trip to the other world.

The two cousins had experimented with holding the book and hitting each other but with no result except one black eye (the Cardinal) and one split lip (Filippo). They gave up their experiments by mutual agreement, glaring at each other.

The servants gossiped among themselves about how the two n.o.ble cousins had clearly been in a fight and one of them a churchman. It was a matter of great satisfaction to the footman that Matt had attacked.

The di Chimici were no nearer to discovering how stravagation worked but Filippo was definite that he had been transported to another world and that it was connected to the book. Neither man had any idea that the original book had been switched by Enrico.

But Rinaldo had decided to investigate what the spy had told him about Professor Angeli. He paid a visit to the Anatomy Theatre, which was not in use over the three-day holiday, and looked at the room which held the bodies before dissection and examined the mechanism by which the table rose up into the theatre.

The porter who showed him around, a man called Gobbi, explained that the corpses for dissection were those of recently executed criminals, though they must be those born outside the city.

'What if there are no executions when the Professor wants to demonstrate to his students?' asked the Cardinal.

'Well, then he would postpone the demonstration till there were some, Eminence,' said the porter. 'Or use an animal.'

Rinaldo was getting nowhere; he decided to see what the power of silver could discover.

On Wednesday, two days after Chrissie's party, Matt sought out the other Stravaganti in a corner of the common room.

'You're looking better,' said Georgia.

'I feel it,' said Matt. 'I got a good night's sleep last night, instead of stravagating. How about you guys? Have you recovered from Monday?'

'Yeah,' said Nick. 'More or less, except that Alice still isn't talking to Sky.'

Sky glared at him.

Matt noticed that the fair-haired girl wasn't sitting with them. She was usually so quiet that he didn't notice whether she was there or not. But now he could see that she was over the other side of the room, having a heart-to-heart with Lucy. She wasn't Matt's type at all but he could see that Sky was a bit upset.

'Sorry,' he said. 'I seem to have caused a lot of trouble.'

'You couldn't help getting caught,' said Georgia. 'Can you tell us more about it now?'

Ayesha had orchestra practice, so Matt was able to tell them the whole story, not leaving out the beating this time.

'That's awful!' said Georgia. 'But you went in Luciano's place?'

'Maybe that's what you were sent to Padavia for?' said Sky. 'My mission turned out to be about saving his life in Giglia, though it wasn't by any act of bravery.'

'I don't know,' said Matt. 'I'm going back tonight to find out. The thing is, I wonder why my bruises don't show here in this world? Alice told Ayesha that you two got stabbed in Giglia and your wounds came back here with you.'

Sky and Nick exchanged glances, their animosity of a few moments ago forgotten as they remembered how they had fought on the same side in the Church of the Annunciation and both received sword cuts. Surrept.i.tiously they both rolled up their sleeves to show Matt their scars. Sky's was much more noticeable against his dark skin.

'I don't know why you left your injuries in Talia and we didn't,' said Sky. 'Maybe it's because our wounds were deep and Brother Sulien had to st.i.tch them?'

All three of them peered at Matt's face.

'I can sort of feel them,' he said. 'I mean I know they're there but they don't really hurt and there's nothing to see.'

'My cousins are brutes,' was all Nick said. 'I never liked Rinaldo but I thought better of Filippo.'

'I think he's acting on orders from above,' said Matt. 'No offence, Nick, but I think your big brother's behind it.'

Georgia put her arm round Nick. 'You can't help your family,' she said quietly. 'Remember how nice Gaetano and Francesca are? And Fabrizio and Filippo are their brothers.'

Matt remembered something else. 'It must have been Filippo who stravagated to the party,' he said. 'He was holding the book while that thug was. .h.i.tting me and his face got in the way. Filippo was knocked out but only for a few seconds.'

'Do you think they know what that means then?' asked Georgia. 'Do the di Chimici know that all you need is a talisman and losing consciousness while thinking of the other world?'

'I don't know,' said Matt. 'But they haven't got a talisman any more.' He drew the book from his jacket pocket. 'This is the real thing.'

Fabrizio read his cousin's letter eagerly.

'Thirty G.o.ddess-wors.h.i.+ppers!' he said. 'They will have to burn them two or three to a pyre!'

He felt that the tide was beginning to turn in his favour. That the whole uncontrollable ma.s.s of magic and superst.i.tion, which it was his duty to stamp out, had received a significant blow.

And surely now was the time to strike to get rid of the young Bellezzan? He and his family had been too restrained so far.

The Grand Duke took up his pen to write to Filippo and sent the messenger for refreshment.

'The d.u.c.h.essa of Bellezza must find herself a new lover,' he muttered. 'The Cavaliere Luciano Crinamorte's days are numbered.'

Chapter 23.

The Condemned When Matt arrived in the studio the next morning, he was still wearing the clothes he had stolen from the di Chimici palace. Worse, his face throbbed with all the aches and bruising he had been s.h.i.+elded from in his own world.

There was no sign of Constantin. The presses in the Scriptorium were still and there was no sound from the secret room. Matt knocked on the cupboard that hid the secret door but here was no answer from inside. He went back into the studio, wondering what to do next. It was the third day of the Church's Festival of the Dead and so the Scriptorium was enjoying its last day of rest. So he couldn't understand why Constantin wasn't working in the secret room, taking advantage of the holiday.

He tried the door of the Scriptorium but it was locked from the outside. Matt had only two choices: stravagate back home or climb out the window of the studio as he had done the last time he was here. Curiosity dictated his decision.

As soon as he was out on the street, Matt wasn't sure he had done the right thing. He had lost his hat at Filippo's and pa.s.sers-by stared curiously at his short hair. Then they did a double take at the sight of his face. Matt thought he must look pretty bad.

He wanted to keep out of Filippo and Rinaldo's way and the University was shut; in the end, he went to Cesare's lodgings, in the hope of finding the Remoran and getting hold of the news. The streets were strangely silent, with hardly anyone about.

Matt walked through the market square, which was still without its stalls and traders. There seemed to have been a big party there the night before; people were picking up litter and putting it in canvas sacks. He saw the burnt-out ends of rockets and Reman candles scattered on the ground and there was the smell of gunpowder in the air.

Feels as if Padavia itself is hung-over, he thought.

What he saw in the next square pulled him up short. He stared unbelievingly at the ten huge bonfires which had been built there. Rising starkly out of each were three wooden stakes and it didn't take much imagination to guess their purpose. Each pile of brushwood had a long ladder propped against the side.

Matt hurried to Cesare's and rapped on the door. The woman who answered it was one he had seen on a few other occasions but she didn't seem to recognise him; in fact she shrank back and tried to close the door.

'It's all right, signora,' said Matt. 'I am looking for my friend, Cesare Montalbano. I have been here before.'

She opened the door wider and peered at his face.

'You have been in a fight, I see,' she said. 'And seem to have come off worse.'

'You should see the other bloke,' said Matt trying to smile but it ended in a wince and a groan.

'We don't want any of your student vendettas here,' she said.

'I promise I am Cesare's friend,' said Matt. 'And there is no one else with me or behind me. Is he in?'

The woman let him in rather grudgingly and Matt went up to Cesare's room.

'Dia, you look terrible,' said Cesare.

'Do I really look that bad?' asked Matt. 'I haven't seen myself in a mirror yet.'

Cesare gestured to a gla.s.s propped up on a chest in his room. Matt bent down and inspected the damage. His eyelids were no longer swollen and his lip had gone down a lot too, but he had a rainbow of bruises around his eyes and along his jaw.

'I see what you mean,' he said. 'There's nothing to see in my world, you know. My face is completely normal. I suppose I should be glad they didn't break my nose or knock a tooth out. That might have been difficult to repair during stravagation.'

'Have you heard what's happened?' asked Cesare.

'I haven't spoken to anyone,' said Matt. 'Constantin isn't at the Scriptorium and the streets are deserted. What's going on?'