Beneto put his hand on Raphael’s shoulder. “Be careful.”
Raphael nodded. “I will.” He swung his legs over the edge of the well and started working his way down the rope. He made short work of it, swooping into the fissure with an ease that put Caitlyn’s efforts to shame. He untied the lantern and brought it in with him. A moment later Beneto raised the rope.
They quickly moved deeper in the cave to where they could stand. The brighter light showed Caitlyn how dirty she’d already gotten. Her nightgown was smeared with mud and lichen, and was wet through.
She gestured at herself and smiled. “When you look good, you feel good.”
He wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her close for a hard kiss on the lips. “I like you dirty.” Then he scowled and gave her a gentle shake. “Don’t ever scare me like that again, swinging on the rope.”
“I won’t. I’ll find a new way,” she teased.
He gently touched her hair, his expression somber. “I’ve already lost one person I cared for deeply. I won’t lose another.”
She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “You’ll never be rid of me. Remember, even death holds no boundaries for us.”
He nodded. “Let’s go find some treasure.”
There was no mystery to which way they should go, the stone path a veritable Yellow Brick Road through the earth. The passage remained narrow for several hundred feet, sloping downward, its walls smoothed by the rushing of waters long gone. Someone had taken advantage of a natural route through the stone; there were only a few tight spots where the builders of the passage had clearly taken a chisel to the stone. The air smelled of rock and dampness, and felt cold and thick in Caitlyn’s lungs. She was quickly chilled; she wished she’d taken heed of Madame Brouwer’s warnings about the temperature inside caves and borrowed something warmer.
The fissure they’d been following ended in a low-roofed chamber decorated with cave formations. Several stalactites slowly dripped water into a shallow pool. The path wound through the maze of columns. They followed it, hunched double, both holding a hand above their head to protect against bumps.
“It’s beautiful,” Caitlyn said, as they passed lacelike crystals that covered an outcropping of rock.
Raphael made a noise of acknowledgment, but moved forward without slowing. Caitlyn followed. There would be time enough to gawk at stones on the way out.
The path led into a rabbit-hole tunnel that forced them to crawl. Caitlyn’s appreciation for the wonders of the cave quickly faded under the pressure of the stones on her knees and palms. Claustrophobia began to tighten around her as her vision shrank to nothing more than Raphael’s feet and rear in front of her and the shifting shadows of the lantern. She breathed through her mouth and tried to stay calm, tried not to think about how hard it would be to turn around in the narrow confines.
They both let out a breath of relief when at last the tunnel ended and they came out into a fair-size cavern. The path was carved into its edge, the center of the cavern falling away into darkness. They could hear a stream gurgling in its depths, the sound echoing off the stones.
“How far do you think we’ve come?”
“A quarter mile at most.”
“That’s all?”
He chuckled. “I know. It feels longer.”
“Will the lantern burn long enough for us to find our way out again?”
“Maybe. Even if not, we could feel our way.”
Caitlyn made an unhappy sound in her throat, remembering what Madame Brouwer had said about caves.
He took her hand. “We’ll be fine. Courage, my sweet.”
Onward they went, the constant movement warming Caitlyn. Or was she imagining that? How could a dead person be warmed by exercise?
A faint sound touched upon her hearing and she stopped, jerking Raphael to a stop with her. The hairs rose on the back of her neck. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “What was it?”
She held up her hand for silence and turned to face back the way they’d come. Her ears strained for a hint of sound or a change in air pressure.
Nothing.
She shook her head and shrugged. “I thought I heard movement behind us.”
Raphael looked back into the darkness. “Air?”
“Maybe.” They’d felt occasional breezes as they moved, hinting at openings to the world above.
They continued, Caitlyn keeping her ears perked for a repeat of whatever had caught her attention before. Soon, though, the rushing of another underground stream drowned out any hopes of hearing if anyone—or anything—might be following them.
Raphael suddenly stopped and handed her the lantern. “Put this behind you.”
She fumbled with it and did as bid. They were in yet another narrow passageway, and she could barely see around him. “What is it?” she whispered.
He was staring intently ahead of them. “Do you see light?”
Caitlyn set the lantern on the path behind her and cupped her hands around her eyes to cut out any glare. She caught a faint lightening of the darkness from the corner of her eye. It disappeared if she looked straight at it. “Yes!”
She gave him back the lantern, and they hurried forward. Caitlyn sensed a change in the air: it was fresher, hinting more of vegetation now than of stone.
“This doesn’t just lead outside, does it?” she asked, suddenly worried that all they’d found was a secret route out of the castle.
He didn’t answer. The path led them toward the light and it grew brighter with every step. Just when Caitlyn was about to resign herself to the disappointment of trees and fresh air, they came out of the passage into a room of dimly sparkling crystal frost, illuminated by a pool of aqua-blue water that came in under translucent limestone drapery formations that made up one wall of the room. Sunlight both filtered through the stone curtains and refracted through the water.
“Oh my,” Caitlyn whispered.
In the center of the room sat a round, obsidian altar two feet high and wide, capped with gold. Around the altar stood a circle twenty feet across, made up of twelve obsidian obelisks, each one four feet high and a foot in diameter, the tops capped in gold. Each gold cap was studded with a different color of jewels.
“It’s Fortuna’s wheel,” Caitlyn said in stunned comprehension. “The painting I told you about, that hung in the Grand Salon; in it, Fortuna’s wheel was black, with gem-studded gold medallions. It was depicting
this
.”
“This must have been Eshael’s dowry,” Raphael said. “They didn’t need five carts to carry it home from the Holy Land because it was so rich; they needed five carts because it was
stone
!”
“It must have been part of Eshael’s religion. This must be where she worshipped her goddess.”
Raphael raised the lantern, the added light refracting off the jewels and the crystal-encrusted walls. “It’s no wonder that Simon de Gagéac thought the dowry was cursed and was afraid to spend it. I wouldn’t have the nerve to pry the gold off those stones.”
Caitlyn shook her head. “Neither would I.”
Raphael went to the edge of the pool. “I think it’s your
gouffre
on the other side. So we were both right—” He broke off suddenly, his eyes focusing on something behind her. “What are
you
doing here?”
Caitlyn quickly spun around.
Ursino and Giovanni stood at the opening to the passageway, their daggers drawn.
CHAPTER
Twenty-eight
Ursino and Giovanni ignored the question, their attention focused on the circle of stones and gold.
“Holy mother of God,” Giovanni said. “It’s enough to buy ourselves a kingdom!”
“I told you God would reward us for destroying the heart of the witch,” Ursino said.
Raphael slowly drew his own dagger, his eyes wary, his knees bending to prepare him to move quickly in any direction.
Giovanni ran his fingertips over the emeralds on the post nearest him, then pried at one with a fingernail. “I didn’t think you meant it so literally.”
“So
you
two are the ones who have been trying to steal the heart, and to kill me,” Raphael said.
“Without success, alas,” Ursino said, coming into the circle of stones. “Every carefully planned accident came to naught. I was beginning to doubt God’s favor for our purpose, until I realized how strongly the witch’s power still beat in her heart. Obviously, we had to gain control of that, before we could be rid of you.”
“You won’t find it,” Raphael said, keeping distance between himself and Ursino.
“Beneto told us where it was,” Giovanni said.
Caitlyn gasped, her eyes going to Raphael.
Raphael was shaking his head. “I don’t believe you. Beneto would never betray me.”
“The old man did not mean to betray you, and certainly not so quickly,” Ursino said. “It’s just that I’m very good at delivering pain. Every man will break, if you know how to hurt him.”
Raphael’s face darkened. “Is he dead?”
Ursino shrugged. “That’s in God’s hands.”
“Just as you are in ours,” Giovanni said.
“Who’s paying you?” Raphael demanded. “Who wants me dead so badly that they could tempt you to murder?”
Ursino laughed. “Raphael, have you never understood the de’ Medicis? No one has to pay us for cleansing the family of a witch like Bianca, and her Satan-spawn daughters! Murderers and tyrants we will tolerate and even flourish through; power-hungry schemers will elevate our status; liars and thieves enrich us; but witches are beyond the pale even for the de’ Medici family. A dynasty that has spawned popes will not tolerate a witch and her offspring. When we have destroyed both you and the heart, we will deal with Giulia and Elisabeta.”
“Bianca was no witch. Better you go and cleanse the family of Catherine;
there’s
the truest witch the de’ Medici’s have birthed!”
The men laughed. “Those are lies told by the desperate against a de’ Medici they fear,” Ursino said, and gave a quick nod to Giovanni.
Giovanni rushed Raphael, Ursino moving in at the same time.
“No!” Caitlyn screamed, and tried to grab Ursino. Her hands were repelled as they had been with Beneto.
Giovanni and Raphael grappled, Giovanni knocking the dagger from Raphael’s hand as Ursino grabbed the leather bag and jerked it off of Raphael. Giovanni held Raphael’s arms pinned from behind as Ursino opened the bag and took out the crystal chest. He tossed the bag aside and put his hand on the lid.
“You had better beg for God’s protection if you think you’re going to open that and live,” Raphael threatened.
Ursino shot him a look tinged with fear, then crossed himself and said a prayer. He lifted the lid of the reliquary and looked within.
“What does it look like?” Giovanni asked warily, as the seconds ticked by.
Ursino shook his head, then chuckled in relief. “Like a withered piece of bad meat.” He laughed aloud and nodded at Raphael. “I want you to watch me destroy it.” He grinned, and lifted his dagger over the heart in the chest.
“No!” Caitlyn shouted, and threw herself at him again, reaching for his arm.
“Caitlyn, no!” Raphael cried.
She hit Ursino, for a brief moment feeling that strange repulsion she’d felt before, but then her body went cold and her vision turned gray. A moment later she was on the other side of him, stumbling to a stop. She’d gone through him.
Ursino was looking around wildly, arm still poised above the chest. “What was that?” he cried. “A cold wind, moving through me!”
“Spirits!” Giovanni shouted. “Destroy the heart, Ursino, quickly!”
Caitlyn lunged again for Ursino, and as she did Raphael spun in Giovanni’s grip and grabbed his wrist, jerking it hard. Giovanni cried out, his dagger dropping to the ground with a clatter.
Caitlyn flung herself again against Ursino and the chest.
Bianca, help me!
she silently begged, as Ursino swayed under her assault, the lid of the reliquary falling closed as he stumbled. Caitlyn once again passed through him.
Giovanni and Raphael were fighting hand to hand, their fists making thick sounds on flesh, their bodies grunting with pain and effort. Blood smeared both their faces, and they fell to the ground tangled together. They rolled together toward Ursino, and he stepped out of their way, toward the altar.
Caitlyn saw their only hope. She threw herself again and again through Ursino, keeping him off balance as he struggled to open the crystal chest. With each stumble he came closer to the altar, until he was right up against it. In desperation he thunked the chest down atop the altar for stability and opened its lid.
Caitlyn, struck with a sudden knowing, threw her body over the chest on the altar. The crystal reliquary sank into her rib cage, lodging where her own heart was beating. Caitlyn heard the sound of it, suddenly amplified, ring throughout the stone chamber:
thu-THUMP, thu-THUMP!