by Ken Hood
"You ask too much, shaman! To flee before the hunters is no shame when one is not sprung from a fighting people. But not to run, or to run in circles, or to cower in a hollow and watch the pack close, ah, but you ask too much!" His antlers were visibly melting and drooping. "Think you because I will not fight that I have no honor? That I forget the ancestors?" The wilted antlers hung over his chest like ropes; and all his pride was shame. He laid his human hands on the window ledge and belled a great note of despair to the starlit night and the sea. "This is what you do to me, shaman! I will have recompense. You will suffer for this."
Castel Capuano! It was Castel Capuano!
"I will suffer," Toby said aloud, and the scene shattered in a cacophony of drums.
—|—
He sprawled on the gallery with his arms outspread and the stonework cold under his face. "No!" he said. "No, no, no! I do not remember."
"More, Sorghaghtani!" said the toneless voice of the tutelary. "He will recover and thank you for it, or he will not return to reproach you. Even madness will be better than failure."
Again the drumming swept him up and whirled him into the spirit world.
CHAPTER THREE
A forest at sunset. He stood naked before a huge and ancient oak, staring up at a hole in the trunk and a squirrel that sat on the edge of the hole, gibbering at him as the rumble of the drum faded into the distance like a passing storm.
"Go away, go away!" the squirrel chattered. It was a very red little squirrel, and it wrapped its bushy tail around itself and peered down at him with eyes like angry bright beads. "Go, go, go! Go now! Go away! They are mine."
"I only want to borrow them," Toby said.
"No! No! No! No! They are mine. They are ours, not yours, shaman. Go! Go away! Mine! Mine! Mine!"
"I will bring them back." He reached up to the hole and tried to push the squirrel aside. It bit his finger. He cried out at the pain and snatched his hand away to suck the wound. He could taste the blood.
The squirrel danced in fury now on the edge of the hole, jabbering, "Mine! Mine! Mine!," and "Ours! Ours! Ours!," and sometimes, "Go away! Go away!" It lashed its shiny tail around like a feather duster.
"I need them just for a little while. I will bring them back." He reached up to grab the brute. It ran up the trunk out of reach, clinging to the bark with its claws.
"There is nothing there, shaman. The hole is empty."
"Then you won't mind if I look?" He stretched as high as he could and felt inside the hole with his right hand. The squirrel jumped on his wrist and bit it. As he grabbed for it with his left hand, it dived into the hole, and suddenly he had both hands in the hole and they were caught there. He was trapped. Inevitably, the ground sank away under his toes then, leaving him hanging by his wrists. The tree bark was harsh and spiky against his skin. He knew what was going to happen now. This was Sergeant Mulliez's whipping post again.
The squirrel bit on his fingers a few times, then poked its head out between his hands to smile at him. "You must promise to bring them back!"
"I promise," he said.
The lash crashed across his shoulders and he gasped, but it was not quite a scream. He had made no sound before on the whipping post, and he would not now.
"Promise more faithfully!" sneered the squirrel. It was redder than ever, red as the blood he could feel streaming down his back.
"I promise!"
Crash! This time he had been ready for it.
"You are still lying. Swear, shaman!"
"I swear!"
Crash!
Someone was screaming.
"Stop that, Sorghie!" he said. "You won't get around me that way."
The roughness on his hands and face was stonework again. He was leaning against the wall with his arms over his head, still in his armor and soaked in sweat, not blood. His helmet had fallen off. He dropped his arms and turned around, but he continued to lean against the wall, for his legs were trembling. The shaman sat at his feet, doubled over her drum.
"Will nothing convince you?" she wailed.
"Not this. None of it makes any sense to me."
"Again!" commanded the tutelary. "This must be the last time. No matter what it does to him, leave him there until he stops struggling."
Toby started to say, "I've never admitted defeat in my life," but they didn't give him time to get the words out.
CHAPTER FOUR
He sat in darkness, a warm and cozy darkness smelling of loam and animal fur. He was listening to a tantalizingly familiar voice. It spoke in Italian, but slowly and clearly, a soft voice with steely undertones:
"...problem is trust. After so many centuries of disunity, cooperation is foreign to us. Even when we face a common foe, we cannot combine because no state can ever trust another. Alliances change too fast." The shape emerging from the darkness was not human. Human eyes were closer together and did not glow with that yellow light.
"Trent was a miracle, but it was a very brief miracle. One day's cooperation—yes, even Italians can agree for a single day when the enemy is in sight. But more than that..." The speaker sighed and smiled, animal teeth showing close below the eyes. "As soon as the sun sets we start conspiring again. To let another's army march across your contado is hard. To put your forces under another's command is almost unthinkable. To send them off to guard another city and leave your own vulnerable—that is an impossible concession."
The light creeping into the scene had the bluish tinge of daylight. The speaker was a fox, a very large red fox.
"Then we must plan accordingly," said another voice, one that Toby did not recognize. Nor could he see the speaker. "One day's cooperation, no marching through others' territory, no putting your forces under a stranger's command, no leaving your home city unguarded."
"If you can devise a strategy that satisfies all those conditions, then you are indeed a military genius." The fox was melting, shifting. The cave, too, was changing.
"It may be possible to come close, Your Magnificence."
Il Volpe pricked up his ears. "Indeed? How close?"
"Close enough, because no one makes alliances with the Fiend. You can trust your oldest enemy before you trust him."
"Some have tried." It... he... was becoming human, at least below the neck. The surroundings were beginning to look more like a room than a fox's earth, too, smelling less of loam and musk, more of polish, printer's ink, leather bindings, and wine.
"And lived to repent it, but not much longer. First, territory. Obviously someone will have to make a concession so that the separate states may bring their forces together. But this will not be a problem once the Fiend has already invaded, will it, messer? Any state will welcome its neighbors in if they come to drive Nevil away."
Who was this Unknown? He was using almost exactly the same words Toby himself had used many times. He was certainly no Italian.
The fox sipped from a stemmed goblet. "They may not agree so before it happens, but do continue."
"Command, then. You said yourself, that command can be relinquished for one day. It happened at Trent, it can happen again."
"One day?" The fox smiled. "That might be negotiable."
"Leaving the city unguarded—would you settle for sending your army out as long as it remained between you and the foe?"
The fox laughed. "You bargain with a gentle touch, messer! Tell me your plan." When did foxes ever concede anything? He was human from the neck down now, a fox-headed man covered with a red pelt, sitting back at his ease in a silk-upholstered chair. The earth was fast becoming a room, Pietro Marradi's little private office, which was a nook barely big enough for two, three at the most. It was lit by daylight but still dull, as if seen through smoked glass.
This was a distorted memory. The only time Toby had seen this room had been the morning when Marradi had summoned him in from Fiesole and announced that it was time to negotiate the condotta—meaning that all the sparring between Don Ramon and the dieci that had gone before was
of no importance and the matter would now be settled by the principals, messer Marradi and messer Longdirk, man to man. Which is what they had proceeded to do. At the Carnival Ball that evening, the Magnificent had forced the dieci to accept the terms, then the next morning he had gone back on his word.
But it was a false memory. Sorghaghtani was weaving lies. Marradi had never had a fox's head, and Toby had never made the absurd promises the Unknown was making. This imposter with the barbaric accent must be the mysterious Shadow, the source of all the trouble, the one who had turned Marradi against Toby, tampered with Maestro Fischart's demons so that he died, betrayed Lisa—and even stolen that missing bag of gold.
"The Fiend must strike at Italy," the Unknown said, "can we doubt it? He rules his dominions by terror and cruelty, continually stamping out dissent. He cannot tolerate another defeat, for if he ever starts to seem vulnerable, all Europe will explode under his feet. He will come in the spring, and he will bring the hugest army he can raise. If he makes those mistakes, I can break him."
The fox narrowed its eyes suspiciously. "How? Why is size a mistake?" His fur was starting to look like clothes.
"Because a great army eats greatly and is clumsy to maneuver. If he waits for the harvest, my plan may not work, but if he comes in the spring, then he must either bring his provisions with him, which will slow his advance, or else guard his supply lines. Nevil likes to move very fast. He also tends to overextend himself. He has not been caught out yet, but one day he will be. Our strategy must be to encourage his overconfidence, draw him onward, lengthen those lines, lure him into a trap."
"And what will be the bait in this trap?"
"Florence, messer."
Toby wanted to scream and could not. He wanted to shout Stop! Stop! He tried to yell a warning: Stop, because whoever he is, you are being tricked. But he uttered no sound at all. Marradi remained unaware of the hidden watcher in his future. Even so, he was not pleased at the prospect being offered.
"You presume far, comandante! You expect me to stake out my city as a sacrificial lamb?"
"I see no other way of dealing with the threat, Your Magnificence. The Fiend will send his thousands and hundreds of thousands pouring over the Alps. He will devastate the north—Turin, Milan, Venice, Parma, Verona, and all the rest. You will be overwhelmed by starving refugees; he will follow slavering at their backs. Even if Rome and Naples try to come to your assistance, by then the roads will be full of refugees, the northern powers will have been destroyed, the price of food will be—"
"Stop, stop! You give me waking nightmares. Why Florence?"
"Geography, messer. We must tempt Nevil south before he sacks Milan or Venice, or very many of the smaller cities. He may bleed off some troops to guard his supply lines, which will help us, but the main point is that when he throws his siege works around Florence, he will be between the four great powers. Milan, Venice, Rome, and Naples can move in. The jaws of the trap close here."
The fox smiled skeptically and lifted the goblet to his muzzle. "I believe the beginning. I approve of the ending. It is the middle I distrust. What lure can you dangle to attract a demon?"
"Several things," said the Unknown. "I have already presumed to make a few preliminary arrangements."
"Oh, you have, have you?" Skepticism became open suspicion. "What arrangements?"
"In confidence, Magnificence?"
"You have my word."
"Well..." The Unknown hesitated. "After Trent, the Khan wrote to congratulate me. I wrote back and asked him to appoint you suzerain."
Marradi almost leaped from his chair in horror. "You what?" Lips curled back from the carnivore teeth.
Lies! Lies!
"You know how Nevil feels about suzerains?"
"I certainly do! He pickles their heads in jars of brine."
"He must catch them first. So if there is a new suzerain in Florence, he will be very tempted. And there is myself. I do not wish to sound immodest, but I have been a nuisance to him for longer than anyone, and at Trent I did nothing to win his affections."
Who was this demon-spawned fraud, this imposter with his glib falsehoods? Obviously Marradi thought he was speaking with Toby himself.
Now he stared at the Unknown with deadly intent. "I cannot imagine what he would do to you if he took you alive, messer. You would truly stay in the city while the Fiend closed in to besiege it?"
"I will. Throw me in jail if you don't trust me. I also have something he wants very much, the only thing he fears, a certain gem. He knows I have it. I also had the audacity to suggest to the Khan that he send a personal envoy. If he complies, then Florence will contain your noble self as suzerain, me, the amethyst, plus the Khan's envoy. If your Magnificence can think of any additional bait, then we should add it to the hook."
Lisa! Poor Lisa walked into this conspiracy that very night. It was Lisa and Blanche who brought the Fiend to Florence.
The fox steepled his fingers, seeming unconvinced. "You really think this will tempt him south, leaving enemy strongholds in his rear? I am no soldier, messer, but even I would not make that mistake."
"The deception will have to be carefully staged," the imposter conceded. "We must lull him into overconfidence. For example, he is well aware that Maestro Fischart, formerly Baron Oreste, is the most skilled hexer in all Europe. To him, in truth, belongs the credit for the victory at Trent."
"He did what you told him to, you mean?"
"What I asked, yes, but he achieved it. The maestro and I are devising a fatal accident for him. If we can somehow convince the Fiend that his old teacher has perished, he will be much less inclined to suspect treachery."
"How often do skilled hexers meet with fatal accidents?"
"Rarely, alas. It will take some thought."
But Hamish's encounter with Gonzaga in Siena had created a wonderful opportunity to fake a disaster—except that this Shadow, this Unknown, this imposter, had made it into a real one! Double cross. Triple cross!
"Speaking of gramarye, Your Magnificence," the villain continued, "may I have leave to appeal to your distinguished brother, His Eminence the cardinal? No amount of strategy and courage will save us if we cannot field adequate demon power."
The fox snarled. "I have discussed this with him already, believe me! He admits that the Holy Father is being very difficult. He... my brother, I mean... will be here in about a month. Will that be soon enough?"
"I fear the matter is too urgent to delay, messer. I have ways of making brief visits to Rome, if you could arrange a meeting place for us. It would have to be in the middle of the night, I am afraid."
Ha! Wrong! The real Toby Longdirk could not go on demon rides because the hob wouldn't tolerate gramarye.
Marradi clicked his fox teeth in amusement. "Indeed, messer? You would travel by gramarye to a meeting with a cardinal of the College? I admire your audacity, if not your judgment. Certainly I can write and ask him to grant you an audience. Whether he will and whether he will then cooperate, I do not know. He was much easier to handle when he was small and I could thump his ears. Since he gained his red hat, he has developed an unfortunate independence of mind."
The Unknown chuckled politely, as one does at the jokes of the great. "Your Magnificence is most gracious."
"And you are extraordinarily devious! I thought only Italians were capable of such chicanery. But I find it hard to believe that Nevil will willingly walk into your trap." Toby did not. It was a wonderful plan. He wished he had thought of it. "The Fiend, messer Longdirk, is not stupid, and he knows now that you are not."
"He knows, also, Your Magnificence, that I am only a penniless soldier of fortune. I would cheerfully disappear altogether, but that would be suspicious in itself. It seems to me that we should announce the generous terms for a condotta that you have granted me here this morning, and attempt to hammer together a union of the states, because that is what he will expect us to do. Then everything must appear to fall apart like a puffball—which is w
hat we fear it will do. You will make it known that I am in disgrace, that you are overruling me. Block my efforts. Insult me in public. Nevil has spies everywhere. He will hear of all this and discount me."
"It will make you look like a fool!"
The Unknown laughed. "My feelings do not matter! I am not a prickly aristocrat like Don Ramon. I am not even, with respect, a burgher who must watch what his creditors think of his solvency. I have no family or close friends to suffer from my disgrace. The men of the Company know I can fight, and that is all they care about. I am a bastard peasant, the lowest of the low. Shame me all you will. In a worthy cause I can endure a few slights."
Easy for him to say, whoever he was! It was Toby himself who had suffered those months of humiliation and frustration, and apparently all that time Marradi had believed that he wanted such treatment?
The fox scratched the side of his muzzle. "You impress me with this offer, messer Tobias. I know of no other condottiere in all Italy who would submit to such an arrangement, and Nevil will never suspect that you are submitting to it voluntarily. I will not give you my unconditional acceptance now, but let us proceed with the condotta, for we must do that in any case. I shall write to my so-eminent brother on your behalf, while you go ahead and arrange that unfortunate accident to Maestro Fischart. If you can make that appear convincing, and if the College will arm you with the gramarye you need, then I may even agree to tie a noose around my city's neck as you request. Secrecy, above all, will be essential. Who else knows of this plot of yours?"
"Only Oreste and yourself, messer. The Khan knows I want to set a trap, but none of the details. His Eminence the cardinal will have to be told, and eventually the senior military leaders, men like Ercole Abonio and the various captains-general. Less than a dozen, I hope."
Unexpectedly, the fox chuckled. He rubbed his human hands and ran a long red tongue over his chops. "This is a wicked game you plan, comandante! I confess I enjoy such sport, and I am delighted to have misjudged you—as I hope the Fiend will misjudge you—for I confess I suspected your success at Trent was merely a fluke. Forgive me if I ask this, though. I have years of practice at such intrigue, but you strike me as a man more inclined to use his fists than his tongue. I shall keep your secret, I promise you, but are you sure that you can?"