‘But where is he?’
Serafina Machelli smiled, and the sore skin of her face cracked. ‘You’re looking at her.’
Duchessa Machelli laughed again, a sound like cool water skimming over smooth pebbles. ‘Don’t look so shocked. Is Capitana Rosa not a soldier? Is this not the great bone builder of Siena?’ She gestured at Mamma. ‘Am I not the duchessa? So why not a doctor?’
‘But . . .’ Hesitation was writ large in Ghino’s voice. ‘If you are the doctor, why have you . . . why is your . . .’
‘Why have I not cured myself?’ Duchessa Machelli rounded on Mamma, anger twisting her scarred features. ‘Because the cure is beyond science. I needed this woman’s skills, and yet she sought to keep her gift for herself. She lied and lied and lied, but no more!’
She spat at Mamma’s feet, a gesture Sofia would never have expected from a duchessa. But now she saw she was wrong about so many things.
‘I won’t,’ said Mamma defiantly. ‘Because I can’t, Duchessa Machelli. I cannot do as you ask.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ snapped the duchessa. ‘Why don’t we ask your daughter to convince you?’
Sofia froze. Did the duchessa know they were there?
Mamma’s voice shook. ‘Please, no.’
‘Oh, they led us on a merry chase. We caught up with them eventually, though,’ said Duchessa Machelli, her eyes intent on Mamma. ‘Caught them both in the palazzo’s magpie tower.’
Sofia bristled. The duchessa was lying! But there was no way to let Mamma know. Mamma looked breathless, on the verge of tears.
‘No,’ she croaked. ‘I don’t believe you.’
‘You don’t need to,’ said Duchessa Machelli. ‘I can prove it.’
She held up the lock of hair that the huge magpie, Orsa, had ripped from Sofia’s scalp. It throbbed in memory, and Sofia rubbed it soothingly.
‘What have you done with them?’ Mamma cried.
‘Nothing,’ said Duchessa Machelli. Her eyes flashed. ‘Yet. And if you help me, I’ll let them go.’
‘I can’t,’ said Mamma, tears in her eyes. ‘Please—’
‘Rosa,’ said Duchessa Machelli, seeming to lose patience. She was a magnificent actress. If Mamma called her bluff, what would she do? ‘Fetch the girl.’
‘I’ll do it!’ Mamma collapsed against Capitana Rosa, all her fight leaving her. A sob escaped but Sofia saw her taking deep breaths to stay calm, just like she’d taught Sofia and Ermin.
Duchessa Machelli smiled triumphantly. ‘I knew you would come to your senses.’
The duchessa nodded at Capitana Rosa and she released Mamma. She stumbled forward, eyeing the soldier’s blade.
‘Don’t try anything,’ snapped the captain.
‘I have brought your final reliquary,’ said Duchessa Machelli, gesturing to the table where Sofia and Ermin hid. ‘And the water is freshly drawn from the well you made me.’
‘Why not you,’ said Mamma. ‘Why the boy?’
‘You know why,’ hissed Duchessa Machelli. ‘Show me how you heal him, and then you will heal me, too.’
Sofia understood at last. Duchessa Machelli wanted Mamma to heal her scars, as she had healed Ermin of the pox. Why had Mamma not helped her, not agreed to it, and avoided all this? She listened as Mamma lifted the reliquary, her feet close enough to touch.
‘Hurry,’ said Duchessa Machelli, hunger in her voice. ‘The sun is rising. That is the best time, is it not?’
The whole room was burnished and brilliant with colour. How did the duchessa know about Mamma’s skills; know that she needed sunrise, and bones and water? The thought of Mamma telling anyone but her family about her gift felt wrong to Sofia.
‘You know she’s using you,’ said Mamma sadly, eyeing Ghino. ‘You’re an experiment, like the rest of them.’
‘The rest?’ Ghino stuttered.
‘Don’t play innocent,’ purred Duchessa Machelli. ‘You knew we were taking children. You helped me collect them in my orphanage.’
‘I thought you were giving them a home. I didn’t know . . .’ began Ghino, but Duchessa Machelli held up a slim finger.
‘Hush! You don’t need to excuse yourself. I understand what it is to be shunned for the way you look, to feel like an outcast. In the years since my looks were taken, I have sought a way to restore them. The orphans have been useful to test my methods.’
‘This is wrong,’ moaned Mamma. ‘They’re children.’
‘Parentless children,’ said the duchessa dispassionately. ‘No one will miss them. No one has missed them.’
Sofia’s heart was thudding so hard she wondered how they could not hear it, could not feel it shaking the knee-bone floor.
‘You’re a monster,’ said Mamma.
‘You think I don’t know that,’ said Duchessa Machelli, gesturing to her face.
‘Not because of how you look. Because of what you’ve done.’
‘You are not blameless,’ hissed the duchessa. ‘You helped me with this room, with the locks.’
Sofia saw tears on her mamma’s cheeks. She longed to run to her, to throw her arms round her. ‘You told me nothing of your true plan. I spoke in theory, only. I never thought—’
‘I know that’s a lie,’ hissed Duchessa Machelli. ‘You are a visionary, Renata, like me. You are clever. You must have had some idea when you told me what I wanted was perhaps possible, but only with bones, that I would find a way to make it happen.’
‘I didn’t—’
‘Enough!’ spat Duchessa Machelli. ‘The sun will soon be up. The crowds will come for the Palio. Today I will reveal myself to them, beautiful as a duchessa must be. You delayed this once, but now you are out of time, bone builder. Show me, or I will drown this boy right in front of you.’
She reached down and snatched a handful of Ghino’s hair, making him gasp in pain.
‘I can’t,’ said Mamma desperately. ‘Please, I can’t do it!’
Sofia didn’t understand. Duchessa Machelli was tilting Ghino’s face towards the water. She was going to kill him and all Mamma had to do was heal him the way she had healed Ermin, the way Sofia knew she could.
‘Fine,’ said Duchessa Machelli. ‘First this boy, then your girl.’
And she plunged Ghino’s face into the water.
‘No!’
Before she could think, before she could even register her voice leaving her mouth, Sofia launched herself out from the table and straight on top of Duchessa Machelli.
She had the element of surprise. The locket tumbled from her pocket as she knocked the duchessa sideways, freeing Ghino, who lifted his head from the water, gasping.
Capitana Rosa had reacted instantly, drawing her sword, but Ermin was close behind Sofia and he threw himself at the soldier’s knees, bringing her to the ground. Her head hit the floor and the sword flew from her hand. Ghino kicked it right into the well. It sank instantly in a whirl of bubbles.
Mamma joined Sofia in restraining the duchessa.
‘Sofia,’ she gasped. ‘I thought—’
‘There’s no time!’ Sofia could hear Orsa scrabbling at the door, cawing to be let inside. ‘We have to get out of here!’
But there was only one exit. Capitana Rosa was already stirring groggily, the duchessa was kicking and the giant magpie was battering at the door. They were too high up to jump from the window and there was no way they could swim down the well. They would have to run for it.
‘Get her veil!’ Sofia shouted, and Ghino darted to the table where the duchessa’s veil lay. From all Sofia had heard, she guessed the woman wouldn’t follow without it.
‘Go!’
Ermin flung open the door as Duchessa Machelli clawed at Ghino, tripping in her desperation to reach the veil. She fell and narrowly avoided the well as Orsa wheeled into the room, screeching.
Duchessa Machelli pointed furiously. ‘Attack!’
But they were already out of the door, Mamma slamming it behind. They had a head start, but not for long. Sof
ia felt like she flew down the stairs, following after Ghino and Ermin with Mamma on their heels as they passed landing after landing, unlocked door after unlocked door. Sofia’s heart was leaping from her chest to pound in her mouth, her ears.
Too soon she heard the bang of the door above them as it was flung open, followed by Orsa’s screech. The magpie was after them.
They broke out into the map room, tearing right through the map of the hidden river, and into the cathedral.
Now Sofia could hear the crowds, the buzz and chatter of a thousand citizens amassed outside. As they crossed the slabbed floor to the exit, Sofia chanced a look back. The map room door was thrown open, crashing hard against the wall and echoing round the cathedral. Orsa swooped out followed by Capitana Rosa, blood dripping down her forehead and her finger stretched out in an awful admonition.
‘Stop them!’
They plunged out of the door. Sofia’s head span as she took in the scene before them. It was like she’d travelled back in time. The piazza was full of people, the ground again packed with soil brought from the surrounding hills, so that the horses’ hooves would not have to contend with the hard stone surface of the raked square.
The second Palio was about to begin.
It brought their last visit spinning back and she gripped on to Mamma and Ermin, determined not to be parted from them. Despite herself, Sofia looked round for Ghino and spotted movement coming from a grate set low into the cathedral steps. It was slightly askew, and Sofia watched as nimble fingers pulled it straight. She caught a glimpse of a wide-eyed, pock-marked face staring back at her.
And then, he was gone.
‘Mamma,’ Ermin panted. ‘Where are we going?’
Mamma looked at him desperately, and Sofia realized that their mother had no idea what to do.
Capitana Rosa was snarling behind them as Orsa soared overhead. The giant magpie was gaining fast on them now and Sofia felt a shadow, vast and cold, blot out the sun. She braced herself, imagining armoured talons outstretched, plunging deep into her flesh.
‘The magpies!’ The cry was tossed round the piazza, and Sofia snatched a look up.
Corvith was there! Their crow dived down – and trailing him, like a scarf of endless silk, was a flock of magpies. They came pouring from the sky over the palazzo, turning the air shadowy with their wings. Hundreds and hundreds of the creatures, chasing the bird that had escaped them the previous day.
As Corvith plummeted so did they, blocking Orsa’s advance. The crowd shrieked and scattered as the feathered mass bore down and as soon as Corvith plunged into Sofia’s outstretched hands, Sofia broke the barrier into the Palio arena.
The ground was vibrating, and a quick look to her left showed her why. The horses, startled by the magpies, had begun to run. The trumpeter was desperately blowing, trying to stop them, but the horses were terrified. Sofia looked behind her. Capitana Rosa was forcing her way through the feathery chaos, her eyes intent on Sofia. Beyond her, all was pandemonium. The magpies had their blood up and, as people ran, they dived and scratched, pecked and shrieked. Guards were pouring from the palazzo, and the horses were coming.
Capitana Rosa was only an arm’s length away, and behind her a tide of horses closing in.
‘Capitana!’ she shouted. ‘Capitana, watch out!’
The woman could not hear her. As she threw herself towards Sofia, blinded by fury, Sofia only just had time to move out of harm’s way before the horses bore down on Capitana Rosa, trampling her into the dust.
Sofia was shaking. She could not bring herself to look. Corvith nibbled her ear gently.
‘So?’
‘Her!’ said a guard. ‘Seize her!’
Sofia couldn’t run any more. She threw Corvith into the magpie-blackened sky. ‘Go home, Cor, quick!’ Corvith took off, chittering and crying, just as the guards reached her. There was no sign of Mamma and Ermin, but she knew the crow would find them.
She allowed herself to be carried through the crowd and up a massive set of steps. Amid her confusion Sofia saw a set of doors open before her, all her thoughts dark, messy, and tangled as her hair. The palazzo. Would they take her to the magpie prison, to the cell where Mamma had dropped her hairpin?
The guard steered her through the grey stone entrance hall, into a wide room that glimmered gold from tapestries hung about the walls. Around the high ceiling was a thin metal tube, exactly the same as the one in the orphanage. There was a fine oak chair, arranged next to a broad, throne-like seat. Beside this was a table, upon which was set a sliding lever, of the kind she had seen Capitana Rosa use in the sewing room.
There was a deliberate tread on the floor behind them and the guard stood to attention, gripping Sofia tightly, as Duchessa Machelli swept into the room. She had a different veil on now, a gold one, and her eyes burned into Sofia.
‘Sit.’
She gestured at the oak chair topped with an embroidered cushion, and settled herself on the throne.
The guard stood back from the door, and a moment later Orsa soared into the room. The bird was panting, her beak dipped in red. Sofia shuddered.
Duchessa Machelli dismissed the guard. ‘Orsa will handle her if she tries anything.’
He bowed and departed, closing the door behind him. The sounds from outside were extinguished, the fine tapestries cocooning them in silence. Sofia felt as though she was in a cage with a serpent. Though Orsa was the one with talons, this woman’s cruelty was sharper than any blade.
Duchessa Machelli removed her veil once more. Just as with Ghino’s wounds, Sofia found she was already used to the duchessa’s. The woman’s actions frightened her far more than her scars. Her mouth was set in a pitiless smile as she dropped Sofia’s locket on to the table beside the lever.
‘Now, Sofia.’ Duchessa Machelli drew out the syllables of her name, musical and threatening. ‘You caused quite a commotion just now, killing my captain.’
‘I didn’t mean—’
‘Silence.’ She said it quietly, but with such force and venom that Sofia felt winded. Duchessa Machelli tilted her head, a predator considering its next meal. ‘Sofia Fiori. Your mamma has told me so much about you.’
Sofia somehow dredged up her voice from somewhere deep in her belly. ‘She . . . she did?’
‘No,’ said the woman flatly. ‘No, she told me nothing about you. I knew she had children, but she never spoke of you. I admired that. I assumed she was a woman like me, a woman who cares not for children and drudgery but for her work.’
Sofia shifted angrily on her beautiful chair. She knew Mamma loved both: she, Ermin and Corvith were just as much a part of her as bone binding was.
‘And then,’ said Duchessa Machelli, ‘I realized she is full of the same frailties as so many of my fellow women. She proved that today – willing to let that boy die to protect her brood.’
‘She wouldn’t have let you kill him,’ protested Sofia.
‘She would,’ sneered the duchessa. ‘You saw it yourself. She did nothing when I near-drowned him. She would not even try to share her gift until I threatened you.’
Sofia could not think what to say. Mamma’s refusal sat uneasily with her – she did not understand why Mamma would not have healed the duchessa in order to escape home to them.
‘And then I realized,’ said the woman calmly, ‘that despite all her lies, she told the truth about one thing. She could not help the boy. She could not help me. She is a fraud.’
‘She is not!’ shouted Sofia, and her voice was swallowed instantly by the thick tapestries. Orsa cawed menacingly. ‘She is the finest bone builder in the world. I saw what she did. I saw the room she created.’
‘That is not the gift she lied about.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Oh, it’ll be much more fun if she tells you.’ She pulled the lever beside her and spoke to the room. ‘Guard? Fetch the bone builder. I’m sure she’ll be on her way east, to her home. Tell her I have her daughter. Truly have her, this time. I
f she does not return immediately, I shall arrest them all and gift their crow to Orsa.’
Sofia could hear her voice reverberating round the palazzo, carried through the pipes. Unlike the one at the orphanage, this had two different slots. One must be for the palace, and the other? She remembered the day of the first Palio, when the disembodied voice had pursued her mamma. The other was to speak to the piazza outside.
‘Now, while we wait,’ said Duchessa Machelli, stroking Orsa with a long, elegant finger, ‘I wonder if you can guess what we have been doing here.’
‘Stealing children. Killing them, for all I know,’ snapped Sofia.
‘I do not waste life without purpose,’ replied the duchessa smoothly. ‘I value life. I value beauty, and health. That is what my work is here. Your mamma considers herself an artist, does she not?’
‘She is an artist,’ said Sofia defiantly.
‘Well, I am something far more important,’ said Duchessa Machelli, and her voice was as soft as spider’s silk. ‘I am a doctor, a scientist. While artists spend their time making fripperies – shallow objects – I decode the world. I decide the world.’
‘If Mamma’s work is so shallow, why are you obsessed with having your looks back?’ snapped Sofia.
Pain flashed across Duchessa Machelli’s face. ‘Because what is a woman if she is not beautiful? What true power can I have when I look like this? It is the way of the world.’
‘But you claim to decide the world,’ said Sofia. ‘Why do you not help change it?’
Duchessa Machelli let out a throaty chuckle. ‘Some things are beyond changing. You saw how that gutter rat was treated.’
Sofia bristled. Ghino might be a traitor, but he was still a person.
‘A defenceless child,’ continued the duchessa. ‘Cast out because he was too damaged.’ Her green eyes slid to Sofia’s. ‘If they will not help a child, you can be sure they will not help a woman.’
‘Not everyone is like that. Not everyone judges people by their face.’
‘No,’ said Duchessa Machelli. ‘Your mamma is only interested by what’s under the skin.’ She rested her slim hand on the locket. ‘And doesn’t she work marvels. Why don’t you tell me about this?’
A Secret of Birds & Bone Page 12