Cascade (14 page)

“Only a hundred times bigger, I’d wager,” Luca said, leaning against the wall, panting, closing his eyes. He clearly felt horrible.

“No way through but through, that’s what our dad always said,” Lia muttered.

She looked to Marcello, and he stared back at her.

“We’ll pass back the stones,” Marcello said. “Gabriella, you must form them into a second wall, making it look like a cave-in behind us, so that if we are pursued, they shall come across it and believe we did not come this way.”

I nodded. Smart plan. “
Capito
.”
I understand.

“You rest for a bit,” Lia said to Luca. “Sit. There.”

He nodded.

No funny comment? My eyes met Lia’s worried ones as he sank to the ground. He leaned his head back and was immediately breathing as deeply as if he were tucked into bed at his mother’s house.

Marcello passed a stone to Lia, and she passed it to me. At first, I tossed them a way back, giving it that casual, caved-in look we were shooting for. About ten minutes later, my arms already aching, I began to be more methodical in my building method. We picked up the pace, hearing the enemy troops roar in excitement and then move forward, away from us, toward the villa. Clearly, they were making gains.

Luca was snoring now. I was glad he was getting rest—he’d need it for the journey to come. But man, did I wish we had his strong hands, arms, and back as part of our chain gang.

“We’re through!” Marcello said, looking back, panting. At the top of his pile was a tiny hole. I found it oddly encouraging.
Desperate, Gabs?

“We’re about halfway to the ceiling,” I said, looking back at the pyramidlike pile I was making behind us.

“All right. Raise that wall as fast as you can,” he said.

With renewed energy, we continued our task, hearing the forces above again make headway toward the villa. How soon until they flooded inside the gates? Found our entryway? I peered down the tunnel with each stone, as if I might be able to suddenly see in the dark. I pictured Giovanni standing guard, unwilling to let anyone pass—but even he would eventually be overcome by a hundred of his enemy.

Lia had twenty-four arrows in her quiver. She could take out a few if I ducked, before they raised a shield before them and charged. I shivered at the thought.

We’d been working on it for over an hour, and the wall was shoulder high now. Just another fifteen or sixteen stones…Lia was slowing, Marcello waiting behind her instead of maintaining our previous rhythm. “C’mon, Lia. Keep it up. We have to hurry,” I said in English.

“I’m doing all I can,” she grumbled back at me. She handed me the next stone so hard I almost dropped it. Not on purpose, I knew. Her fingers were probably trembling like mine now, weak, untrustworthy.

Luca came to a few minutes later and forced himself to his feet. He studied the nearly complete pile and stretched out his hands for a rock. “Here, allow me to assist,” he said with a grin.

I laughed. “You have,” I said, panting, “the most uncanny timing.”

He cocked a brow and smiled back, then turned around and asked Lia to stand aside. Mouth open in a pant, she wiped her forehead of sweat and nodded, backing up.

Quickly, Marcello tossed rocks past us and directly to Luca. He set them in place, finished blocking off the passageway and then added a second layer to strengthen it.

When he was done, he leaned back, looking so pale he was almost blue, and glistening with sweat in the fading light of the torch. “Thank you,” I said, touching his arm. I knew how hard it had been on him. But seriously, I didn’t know if Lia and I could’ve done any more.

A sound echoed down the long tunnel and made us all freeze in place.

Someone had tripped the door latch.

They were coming.

“Make haste,” Marcello said, waving me forward, helping me over the pile. Now holding the torch, I scrambled awkwardly across it, then leaned back to help Lia across too. Thankfully, the tunnel ahead appeared empty, the way clear. Would they buy the cave-in behind us?

We weren’t sticking around to find out. Luca came next, then Marcello, protecting us from our pursuers.

“Put the torch out!” Marcello growled.

I dropped it and stomped it to ashes. It had almost burned out anyway.

We hovered in the darkness, each listening hard. We heard a shout and then another, then the muffled sound of footfalls. Could they hear us, too? I tried to be as silent as I could as I hurried down the tunnel. Reaching out to feel the rough stones of the walls, running blind. How much farther? Would we find ourselves in the midst of an enemy camp when we emerged?

The men behind us fell abruptly silent. They must’ve reached the cave-in site. We pulled to a stop and glanced back, four mice fearful that our hole was about to be discovered by the great big cat. Their torchlight filtered through holes and cracks in the pile. We could hear the men talking, debating, then the sound of one stone falling on another.

The tunnel was surprisingly straight and uniform, and we could see the place our enemy lingered in the distance. At the top of the rocks, where it was but two stones thick, torchlight danced through the cracks.

“Stay completely still,” Marcello whispered.

They moved another stone. No doubt they could see through to the other side. To us. “Bring the torch closer!” a voice said, echoing down the tunnel.

I couldn’t bear to watch. To observe the moment of discovery. It was enough to listen. I closed my eyes.
Please, God, please, God, please, God…

“He can’t see this far,” Luca whispered.

I hoped he was right. Because I felt completely exposed and vulnerable.

“There’s another cave-in up ahead,” said the man. “Not as high.”

“They’re not down there,” said a second. “They’ve made their escape to Siena.
Above
ground.”

“Back to the mansion!” cried another. Abruptly, the soldiers turned, and gradually, their torchlight faded. Relief flooded through me, making me feel suddenly weak, exhausted.

“It’s okay, Gabs,” Lia whispered after a moment, once she was sure they were gone, pulling me in for a hug. “Maybe we should just hide here. Until they’re gone-gone.”

“No,” I said. “We have to move on. If Lord Greco takes down the villa, and yet doesn’t find us within the wreckage, or on the road, escaping, he’ll come back to this tunnel. We need out.”

I blinked slowly, as if that might clear my vision and I’d be able to see. “Shall we light the other torch?” I whispered back to Marcello.

“Nay. Let us feel our way forward. We might have sore need of that torch later. I think we are nearly to the end.”

“I hope so,” I muttered, moving forward, tapping my foot in front of me like a blind woman’s cane, my hands on the wall. The last thing we needed was to break a leg on our way out. It was slow going, but in another fifteen minutes, I could see a bit of daylight. That, or I was losing it, imagining things…

But no, there it was. The rectangular form, light on all four edges.

“A door,” I said over my shoulder, picking up the pace, feeling more confident now, with the end in sight.

But that was just before I tripped.

And landed in a deep, cold pool.

CHAPTER 14

I went under and took in a bit of water before I could make sense of it. I rose to the top and coughed, gasping for air. Marcello’s strong hand grabbed my shoulder, and then, having located me, took hold of my arm and yanked me to the rocky edge of the pool.

Lia was shushing me, freaked out by all the noise I was making. I tried to keep it down, but I couldn’t help it. I had to breathe. So I coughed several more times, shivering in Marcello’s arms, the rest of them tense in silence.

When I finally had a grip, Marcello leaned in and kissed my forehead. “I should have mentioned the water,” he said. I could hear the tinge of laughter mixed with genuine regret in his voice.

“That would have been kind, yes,” I sputtered.

“It was why the tunnel was built. To reach water supplies in case of attack.”

“Ah, yes.” It was logical. The tunnel had widened here, to give better access to the pool. I could sense it now by the way our voices echoed off the wall.

“No matter,” he said. “We’ll all get wet now. Just in far less dramatic fashion.”

I clamped my lips shut, no longer in the mood to be teased. “Lead on, m’lord,” I said tightly.

He squeezed my arm and bent to pull off his boots, and my shivering began anew without his body heat. I could hear him wading into the pool.

This would not be good for Luca, getting wet, sick as he was. I shook my head.
No way through but through.

“It is as I remembered,” Marcello whispered from the other side of the pool. His voice carried across the water, making it sound as if he were a foot away. I could see the silhouette of his head, neck, and shoulders against the daylight around the door. “Come over, but stay to the left. It’s shallower.”

Luca and Lia were making their way over, right in front of me, when I heard Luca collapse and go under. “Luca!” Lia cried, before she remembered herself.

I groaned as she splashed around. But I did not hear Luca emerge.

I slipped under the water and felt around, finding Lia’s sodden skirts first, then, a glance of Luca’s cold finger. I pressed forward, ignoring the cry of my lungs, and grabbed hold of his arm, yanking him to the surface.

It was his turn to cough, spitting out water as Lia and I dragged him across the rest of the pool, struggling to maintain our footing on the slippery rocks.

“Forgive me, m’ladies,” he said, leaning back against the rocks on the far side as if he were sinking into a feather bed. Lia and I clung to him from either side, willing our body heat into him. “My head is tilting back and forth. I cannot get it to stop.”

Dizzy. He is dizzy. His fever must be soaring…

With my eyes adjusting, I could see the dim forms of all three of my companions. I looked up to Marcello. He was leaning against the door, listening.

I held my breath a moment, trying to hear too, but between Luca’s teeth chattering and moaning and Lia’s panting, I couldn’t make out anything. I waited, staring at Marcello.

He looked back in our direction. “Can we move him?” he asked lowly.

All three of us were shivering now. Luca passed out, and we struggled to hold him. “We must,” I said between my own chattering teeth. “We must all get dry and warm. It is vital for Luca.”

He paused, seemingly digesting my words.
Vital for Luca.

“Can you manage him, between you?” He pulled his sword from its sheath.

“I think so,” I said, looking over at Lia.

“If we can rouse him,” she said.

She was right. There’d be no way we could drag his dead weight and move at more than a snail’s pace. But Marcello had to be ready to defend us. “We’ll do the best we can,” I said to Lia, encouraging her.

She turned to Luca and shook him a little as Marcello lifted the crossbar from the door and set it aside. Luca didn’t move.

“Luca,” I said, slapping his cheeks gently until his eyes blinked open. “Come, friend. We’ll get you someplace safe and warm.”

With a few grunts and groans, we reached the door.

“We’ll emerge in a small cave beside a bend in the river,” Marcello said, opening the door an inch on creaking hinges and peering out. “The most difficult part will be to get from the cave to the tree line. A hundred yards. Then, a mile or so south, there are a series of grottos and caves. We can hide there until nightfall.”

I nodded. “Let us lead. You take the big lug.”

He grinned at me and lifted his head in assent. Then sheathing his sword, he glanced at Lia. “Draw an arrow. If anyone spots us, we’ll count on you to silence his call.”

She nodded and pulled an arrow from her quiver while Marcello wrapped Luca’s arm across his shoulder. If need be, I knew he had the strength to carry his friend.

“’Tis a shame you two do not travel alone,” Lia said. “In the clothes of the mansion’s servants, you appear as none but loyal sons of Firenze. Our skirts shall draw their attention; surely there are no womenfolk this close to the lines.”

His eyes moved back and forth as he thought through something. “That’s it,” he said. “You two shall go ahead. Creep through the grass on your hands and knees if necessary. I shall follow behind, carrying Luca, as if we are Fiorentini loyalists and I am bringing a wounded man into camp. We shall cut over and into the trees to find you when we see the opportunity.”

I nodded, finding hope, even as my heart stopped at the thought of separation. “But what if…what if they capture you? Figure out your true identity? What if they imprison you, haul you off to Firenze?”

“They shall never believe that a young lord of Siena would march directly into their camp.”

“And if they do?”

He gave me another small smile. “Then my beloved lady shall have to come and rescue me.”

“Us,” Luca corrected him, slurring his words now, as if he were drunk. “Have to rescue
us
.”

He adjusted Luca across his shoulders. “Stay with me, Luca,” he said sternly.

“Can’t get much closer, m’lord,” Luca mumbled.

Marcello looked at me once more. “’Tis our only path, really. If we do not find you near the caves by sunup, you make your way back to the castello. Understand? We may be waylaid, but we’ll find our way to you in time.”

I nodded, feeling my stomach turn. I knew he’d sacrifice himself for me in an instant. Luca would too.

He gestured to Lia, and she crept forward with me following, sword drawn. The guys trailed behind us. At the edge of the cave, Lia peered around, staring for a long moment, then carefully drew back. “A contingent of ten or so men, arming a catapult,” she said to me and Marcello. “Twelve more on horseback beside it. Twenty-four men in rows before them.”

“Preparing another line of attack,” Marcello said with a grunt. “Their focus will be on the Sienese beyond the villa. See any scouts?”

“Nay,” Lia said, after a long moment of searching. “We could stay here until dark.”

Marcello shook his head. “’Tis only a matter of an hour or two before they’ll clearly see we’re not among those who remain to fight. They’ll make a second pass at the tunnel, and if they move a few stones…”

My eyes shifted from the door behind us to the trees ahead, guessing how long it would take us to cross the great expanse of knee-high autumn-brown prairie grass and at last reach the spare oaks. The sprawling trees would allow precious little cover. Beyond them was the deeper forest. That was where we had to go. In there, we could hide, at least.

I looked to Marcello. “We cannot outrun soldiers on horseback.”

“Nay. Move steadily, hunched over, and fall to the grass to catch your breath. Move carefully, so as not to attract attention.”

“Leave me here,” Luca grunted. “You should go with them, m’lord.”

Marcello ignored him. “Go, Evangelia, Gabriella.
Go
.”

We did as he told us, falling to the shelter of the long, swaying grasses, catching our breath, then steadily rising and scurrying quickly up the hill. I kept waiting for singing arrows to come arcing down on us, but none came. Halfway across the field, I dared to think,
Can we actually make it? How can they possibly not see us?

I glanced over my shoulder, finding it impossible not to look after Marcello and Luca. According to plan, they were moving straight up the hill. At the crest was a ring of white tents, Firenze’s flag proudly flying from all twelve of them, and a tendril of a smoldering fire at its center. Seriously? Did they actually intend to enter it? He was not that crazy…I hoped.

But then I saw what was happening. Six soldiers were making their way down to them, hands on the hilts of their swords. Two more followed on horseback. Even among the noise of battle far below us, I could hear them barking at our guys.

Marcello and Luca were distracting them, running interference, keeping them from seeing us.
Idiotic, wonderful heroes.
“Hurry, Lia,” I said.

We ran the rest of the way, pausing on the far side of ancient twin oaks, their red leaves chattering away above us. Lia caught sight of the men then. “They’re pointing toward the battle,” she said. “Making up their story.”

“Let’s hope it’s a good one.”

“Pray no one recognizes them.”

“I will.”

The words settled between us. As far as I knew, Lia was as much a praying type of girl as I was. And that wasn’t much. But it seemed right, here. We were desperate. And desperate people prayed, right?

“Come on,” I said. “We need to get deeper, find those caves Marcello was talking about.” I ran forward, hoping our luck would hold and no one would spot us. From this angle, it’d be tough for the soldiers with Marcello and Luca to see us. But down below, at the front line…if they turned back toward camp, it wouldn’t be hard. Our long, wet hair hung on our backs. Perhaps they would mistake us for peasant women, in our current garb, displaced from our homes by soldiers. But more worrisome was the thought that every man on the field wanted to collect the price on our heads—that they would see we were no peasant women at all.

We took no more breaks. I could sense that Lia’s urgency matched mine. If we’d been spotted, we wanted to disappear as fast as possible, deep in the woods, where no one could find us. Find a defensible position, rest there. Then make our way to the caves.

Once in the comforting arms of the forest, we paused and caught our breath. I looked back and then did a double take. From this angle— “Lia, I know this place. You do too. We’ve been here before, uh…you know what I mean.”