Mask of Aribella

by Anna Hoghton

  ‘And the Doge?’ she asked.

  ‘Resting,’ Marquesa replied. ‘Back at the palace. Ten years of harbouring the soul of Zio has taken its toll, but after examining him I am satisfied that he will recover well in the care of his own physicians.’

  ‘He ordered the immediate release of your papa, Ari,’ Seffie added, ‘and arranged for him to be taken home to Burano, cleared of all charges.’

  Aribella’s heart leapt as the burden of guilt and anxiety about her papa finally lifted. Clara gave her hand a squeeze and Aribella looked up at her, unable to find the right words. She leant back against her freshly plumped pillows and struggled to put the remaining pieces of the puzzle together. ‘What about Zio?’

  ‘Gone,’ Rodolfo assured her.

  ‘At last,’ Clara added. ‘Ten years ago, when I tried to trap him on the Island of the Dead, I should have known that his soul would escape.’

  ‘And you ended up as Luna?’

  Clara nodded. ‘We both escaped the Island at the last moment, but our souls split in the process. I wanted to stay close to you, Bella, until the Mask of Venice was brought to the island again, and I could return to normal.’

  ‘And cats do have nine lives!’ exclaimed Seffie. ‘So you knew you wouldn’t be hurting her or anyone. Not like Zio used the Doge.’

  Clara smiled and looked down at the cat in her lap fondly. ‘She was the perfect host. But she’ll need a new home now.’

  Seffie’s eyes popped. ‘Oh, can I have her as my companion, Rosa? Please?’

  Rodolfo and Rosa exchanged glances. ‘Novices aren’t allowed pets, as you know,’ Rosa said. ‘But I think we can make an exception this time.’

  Seffie looked as if she was about to explode with happiness.

  ‘Could Zio do it again?’ Aribella asked nervously.

  Rodolfo shook his head. ‘No. The Mask of Venice broke last night, thanks to Aribella’s strength and refusal to give in. It was destroyed. Zio is gone.’

  ‘For good?’ asked Seffie.

  ‘For good,’ Rodolfo replied firmly.

  ‘Yay!’ Seffie exclaimed, giving Fin a high five and clapping Aribella on the back. ‘Well done, Ari!’

  Aribella smiled, despite the pain it caused her. She was so relieved. ‘What happened to you after you left me, Seffie? How did you get Nymeria to fly?’ she asked, remembering the incredible sight of the golden lioness soaring over the Island of the Dead, with Seffie and Fin riding on her back.

  ‘When the dolphin took me back to the Halfway, the Elders were already in the lobby,’ Seffie explained. ‘They already knew something was wrong because Nymeria had recovered from Ursula’s sleeping potions and was up on her feet roaring. As soon as she saw me, she growled and said, “Climb on.” So while the other Elders were getting their gondolas, me and Fin climbed on to Nymeria’s back. Her fur is so soft, Ari, you wouldn’t believe it! Then she ran outside to the jetty and took off into the sky! It was amazing, Ari!’ Seffie’s eyes shone with pride. ‘We flew so fast. But I was still so worried we wouldn’t get there in time, until I saw Rodolfo’s gondola in the mist and I realized she wanted to lead him to you.’

  Rodolfo nodded. ‘It was very hard to know the way in the mist. But Nymeria was my guide.’

  ‘I’m so glad we made it,’ Seffie added, her voice thick. ‘Helena helped with that bit.’

  Everyone turned to Helena, who shrugged sheepishly. ‘Just a little,’ she said, smiling.

  ‘Thanks, Helena,’ Aribella said.

  ‘No problem. From what I hear, you were doing a pretty good job on your own.’

  ‘Did you see all this in the stars?’ Aribella asked Rodolfo.

  Rodolfo nodded. ‘I’m sure you must have thought I had abandoned Venice, but I assure you, I never did. For many months, I’d seen hints in my star readings of what was to come, but it was only a few weeks ago that I finally understood. The stars are curious guides. Everything is possible until the moment it happens, if that makes any sense, and often if one variable changes a completely different set of events are set in motion . . . Are you following this?’

  ‘Yes,’ Fin and Helena said at once.

  Aribella and Seffie exchanged looks.

  ‘Kind of,’ Aribella said slowly. ‘So you’re saying that if one thing didn’t go how you’d seen it happen in the stars then the rest of the sequence would cease to come true too.’

  ‘Exactly. There are normally many ways to reach the same end. However, in this case, I was dismayed to see that while there were hundreds of possible sequences where the boundary was destroyed, there was only one way for events to unfold where the mask would be destroyed and the boundary could be saved. And that was down to you, Aribella. I had to let things unfold in the only way they could to save Venice. You had to be there alone. If I had been there, I would have helped – or tried to. So I had to keep silent and hope that you would trust yourself and your power.’

  So Rodolfo had known what was going to happen. He’d let her go to the Island of the Dead, let her face Zio alone. Aribella wondered if she should feel angry but, if the events of last night were the only way to defeat Zio and destroy the Mask of Venice for good, then she would do it again, a thousand times over. And Rodolfo had come to help in the end, she reminded herself, at the moment she needed it most.

  ‘As soon as I discovered the truth, I knew that Ursula must not find out that I knew. In case she told Zio that you were capable of destroying the mask,’ Rodolfo continued. ‘If he’d known he would have killed you as soon as you stepped foot on the Island of the Dead, maybe even before. And once Jacapo threatened to take my mask I knew I had to leave the Halfway. I hid on an island on the lagoon, watching the stars, waiting for my time to help. I knew that, when the next blood moon came, I would need to be there in the final moments, but that if I intervened before then, Venice was doomed.’

  Aribella nodded but Seffie didn’t seem satisfied. ‘Couldn’t you have told us anything?’ she huffed. ‘A little warning would have been nice!’

  ‘Ursula would have read anything he told us in our thoughts,’ Fin said.

  ‘But Aribella almost died!’

  ‘I do understand your indignation, Persephone. I must ask you to forgive me – and you, Aribella – for the danger I put you in. But I knew it was the only way to save other lives. And I knew that you were strong enough to fight Zio. Do you know why you could still use the Mask of Venice even when its true owner, Zio, was there?’

  ‘Because I bonded with it when I was little,’ Aribella replied.

  Rodolfo shook his head. ‘That’s why you could use it. But it chose you because your power was stronger than Zio’s.’

  ‘No it wasn’t!’ Aribella protested. ‘He had a whole army of spectres.’

  ‘You were stronger because your power came from love for your friends. Zio was driven by fear: fear of being forgotten, of becoming powerless.’

  Aribella nodded, thinking she understood. She reached for Clara’s hand. ‘Did you know Clara was my mama? Is that why you came for me alone that first night, without telling the other Elders?’

  Rodolfo nodded slowly. ‘I suspected. Remember, all the Elders believed Clara to be a murderer. I was not sure how they’d take to her daughter. I wanted to see what you knew first in case I needed to warn you to keep quiet, or worry about Ursula hearing anything in your thoughts. But you knew nothing about her so I deemed it safe to bring you here.’

  Aribella suddenly felt exhausted trying to connect everything in her head. She was sure it would all make sense later but for now there was too much to understand.

  ‘Well, that is a lot of information to take in on an empty stomach,’ said Rosa. ‘I propose a breakfast feast. What does everyone say?’

  ‘But it’s lunchtime,’ said Helena.

  ‘So what?’ said Rosa, and Helena smiled.

  ‘So what,’ she agreed.

  Seffie and Fin cheered.

  ‘Thank goodness!’ exclaimed Fin. ‘I’m starving. Ridin
g a flying lioness really gives you an appetite!’

  Twenty minutes later, they were all in the dining room, tucking into the best breakfast the Halfway Hotel had ever seen. There were stacks of all Aribella’s favourite pastries, plus cream cakes with cherries, chocolate éclairs and two types of pancakes drizzled with lemon and sugar or chocolate and strawberries. At Rosa’s insistence, Clara was sent to have a bath and change into a clean dress. Her face was shining when she entered the dining room in a pale blue gown and she looked more beautiful than ever.

  ‘Ten years of eating fish scraps,’ she groaned. ‘I’ve missed the Halfway’s pastries.’

  ‘I still can’t believe you were Luna,’ Seffie marvelled. ‘No wonder I couldn’t understand you. I was worried my power was failing or something!’

  ‘Yes, I must have perplexed you. The thing is, I had no idea how to speak cat!’

  ‘It’s not that hard,’ Seffie teased.

  Clara laughed. ‘Is that right? I wish we could have swapped places!’

  ‘Me too!’ Seffie smiled. She and Clara seemed to like each other already.

  Outside the hotel windows, the sky lightened, fading from indigo to cyan, and as the sun rose it painted the windows gold.

  Seffie shot to her feet. ‘Listen! Can you hear that?’ she exclaimed, running to the windows and flinging open the balcony doors.

  Everyone fell silent and listened. It started with a few tweets, then a few dozen, and soon a cacophony of birdsong billowed into the room. It was such a beautiful, bright and happy sound. Aribella’s heart lifted. The birds had returned!

  Everyone crammed on to the balcony to watch as hundreds of birds of all shapes, sizes and colours swooped over the Grand Canal. Aribella hadn’t even known such an amazing variety existed in Venice.

  But it wasn’t just the birds that made them all cry out with delight. The water of the Grand Canal was back safely between its banks, and all the parts of the city that had previously been submerged – the narrow, winding calli and open, paved campi – were safely above water again.

  Seffie was tweeting away. ‘My friends are back for good!’ she reported gleefully. ‘Now the danger has passed and the city is safe again.’ She hugged Aribella and Fin and Helena. Fin went bright pink and Helena looked pleased.

  Clara pulled Aribella into her arms too. And the words that Aribella had been waiting to say finally came out as tears spilt down her face.

  ‘I missed you so much, Mama.’

  ‘I missed you too, my Bella. But I was always there watching over you.’ Clara pulled her closer and stroked her hair. Aribella felt so safe and warm that she could have stayed in her mama’s arms for ever. ‘Shall we go and see Papa and your friend Theo?’

  ‘Oh yes!’ Aribella said, then hesitated. ‘But what will you tell Papa?’

  Clara smiled. ‘I’ll think of something. I imagine it’s going to be quite a shock for him.’

  ‘It will be, but he’ll be so happy. I’m so happy,’ Aribella replied firmly.

  ‘Me too.’

  Jacapo appeared on the balcony. He regarded Clara fearfully. Aribella had to remind herself that Jacapo had thought Clara was a murderer for many years. It was going to take many of the Elders a little time to get used to the idea that she wasn’t. Aribella supposed she couldn’t judge Jacapo too harshly, given she’d briefly considered the idea that he had been the one helping Zio.

  ‘It appears some apologies are in order,’ he said stiffly. ‘To both of you,’ he added, his eyes flicking towards Rodolfo.

  But both Rodolfo and Clara waved his apologies away.

  ‘You were trying to protect Venice,’ Rodolfo insisted, which Aribella thought was very good of him.

  Jacapo nodded. ‘Rest assured, Zio’s portrait has been removed from the building. Clara’s, which I’ve learnt you kept without permission, Rodolfo –’ he stopped, as he struggled to hold himself back from telling Rodolfo off for this – ‘will be put back in its rightful place on the Halfway’s walls.’ Jacapo turned to Aribella. ‘Thank you, Aribella. For your service to Venice.’

  ‘Perhaps a reward is in order?’ Rodolfo suggested.

  Jacapo’s lips pursed. ‘The Cannovacci do not protect the city for reward, Rodolfo, as you well know.’

  ‘But a small one might be nice. Given the pain Aribella’s family has been caused.’

  Jacapo looked as if he wanted to protest, but instead he sighed. ‘What do you suggest?’

  ‘Anything you’d like, Aribella?’ said Rodolfo, his eyes twinkling.

  Aribella was about to shake her head when a thought occurred to her. ‘Signore, if it is all right, I do have one idea . . .’

  Soon, their pockets stuffed with pastries, Aribella and Clara were gliding along the Grand Canal, each steering a gondola.

  Clara had Rodolfo’s permesso to use his gondola, and Aribella was steering Ursula’s old gondola, which had also been found on the lagoon by Nymeria, floating close to where Aribella and Seffie had left it. The gondola was unrecognizable as hers. The pink cushions and cabin had changed to plain wooden benches.

  ‘Rodolfo, really,’ Jacapo had spluttered when Aribella had stated her requested reward. ‘Do you really think that’s wise?’

  But in the end, he’d relented, and even provided the new permesso.

  As they reached the mouth of the Grand Canal, the bells of Venice began to toll. At first there were just a few, and then others joined in, so that it felt as if the whole city was singing.

  ‘What are the bells for?’ Aribella called.

  ‘Probably to celebrate the flood passing and the sudden return of the Doge’s health,’ Clara replied. ‘There’ll be parties tonight! Oh, you won’t believe how much I’ve missed rowing a gondola. You are pretty speedy, especially for a Novice! Let’s see just how fast you can go. Race you to Burano!’

  Aribella laughed and rowed as fast as her aching limbs would allow. They arrived at Papa’s cottage breathless and exhilarated, their eyes shining.

  When Papa opened the door, Aribella’s heart leapt to see him safe. He looked thinner, but he was well and his face softened with happiness as he looked at Aribella. But when he caught sight of Clara, his eyes filled with astonished tears that began to pour down the lines on his face like rivers. Aribella had never seen Papa cry. In mourning, he’d been an empty shell, but he was not that person any more. It was as if he’d come alive again and all the tears he’d held inside for years were pouring out. He grabbed both of them, kissing Aribella’s head and cheeks, before breaking down in Clara’s arms.

  ‘Oh, how are you both here? It is a miracle! Oh, Bella. Oh, Clara, my love. I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t cope without you.’

  ‘Hush,’ Clara soothed, tears falling from her eyes too. ‘It’s all right. Everything is fine now.’

  They hugged each other tightly, squeezing Aribella between them. Aribella thought her heart might explode from happiness. It felt like the sweetest dream.

  Eventually, Clara whispered, ‘Ari, why don’t you go and give Theo his gift now? Your papa and I have a lot to discuss.’

  Aribella did not want to leave her parents ever again, but she knew their talk would be easier without her there, and she couldn’t wait to see Theo. So she gave them both one final squeeze, and then ran down the street to Theo’s cottage. She pummelled on the door, no longer afraid of who might see.

  ‘Who’s that?’ Theo’s papa appeared. ‘Aribella?’ He stared at her in surprise.

  ‘Is Theo in?’ she blurted.

  ‘Yes, but I’m afraid he’s had a rather rough night. He was caught in another storm out on the lagoon . . . He’s lucky to be alive.’

  ‘I know . . . I mean, can I see him, please?’

  Theo’s papa was eyeing her with distrust, but Aribella felt as if she was wearing a protective armour of joy. No one could ever make her feel like an outsider again.

  ‘Who is it, Papa?’ Theo appeared at the door.

  ‘Theo!’ Aribella exclaimed.


  ‘Ari?’ As soon as he saw her, Theo’s face lit up and he pushed past his papa and hugged her tightly. ‘You’re alive! I was so afraid. I had this rotten dream last night. It was really weird, so real. I dreamt we had this stupid fight on the lagoon and there was this horrible island . . . And I woke up thinking something awful had happened.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m just so pleased you’re all right. Where have you been?’

  ‘I’ve got something for you,’ she said, dodging his question. ‘Come with me!’

  When Theo saw the gondolas at the harbour, his mouth hung open and he blinked very fast.

  ‘Whose are they?’ he gasped.

  ‘One of them’s yours. A gift.’

  Theo’s eyes widened. ‘It can’t be . . . You’re winding me up.’

  ‘I’m not.’ Aribella grinned, pointing to the gondola that had been Ursula’s.

  Tentatively, Theo edged forward and ran his fingers along the smooth black hull. ‘Where did you get it?’

  Aribella shifted from one foot to the other. ‘I can’t really say.’

  Theo turned back to face her, his forehead creased. She recognized the earnest look in his eyes. He was about to ask her something difficult. She steeled herself for hard questions, but what Theo said next surprised her.

  ‘You don’t have to tell me, Ari. I know that . . . something is going on with you. I didn’t get caught in a storm last night. I thought so at first, but then these other memories came back to me. They weren’t a dream, I’m sure of it.’

  So Marquesa was right; the Four Thieves Vinegar hadn’t worked so well the second time. It had cleared the spectre bite, but not Theo’s memory.

  ‘You were there,’ he continued, ‘and something happened on the lagoon. Something bad . . . I won’t tell Papa. Or anyone. But I know you saved me from something terrible. You came to help me when I needed you. And that’s what matters. So, if you can’t tell me, then don’t. Just promise you won’t disappear on me again.’

  Aribella smiled. Oh, good, wonderful, kind Theo! Even now, when he was so bewildered, he was making things easier for her. She loved him so much it was like an ache deep inside her. She put her arm round his shoulder.