In the midst of her fear for Daoud, a pang of guilt shot through Sophia.
She had upset Rachel and then spoken gruffly to her. She rushed to her
and hugged the thin body against hers.
She kissed Rachel quickly and followed Tilia out.
* * * * *
Sophia followed Tilia through the door of Ugolini's cabinet after Tilia
thrust it open without even knocking. Ugolini's eyes bulged at the sight
of Tilia, and he threw down his pen.
He was still in a panic, Sophia saw, heartsick. Even if they could come
up with a plan to rescue Daoud, would he be willing to do anything?
"Now, of all times, you should not be here," he cried at Tilia.
Without a word Tilia marched across the Syrian carpet, her broad hips
swinging under her green gown. She went around Ugolini's desk and held
out her arms to him. With a slightly embarrassed glance at Sophia, he
stood up--he was the same height as Tilia--and let her take him into her
arms. He leaned his head on her shoulder for a moment, then handed her
into his chair.
_They really are lovers_, thought Sophia, seeing the little cardinal's
sudden wistful smile. The sight of that smile gave her new hope. Perhaps
Tilia could restore his courage. Only Ugolini had the power and
authority to do anything about Daoud's imprisonment. Tilia had to bring
him back to himself.
"Did you not want me to know, Adelberto, what happened to David?" she
demanded, looking down at the parchment he had been writing on. "What is
this?"
"I am calculating my horoscope for this day. The stars are telling me I
have overreached myself and have only myself to blame for my downfall."
"For your downfall? Dear God, Adelberto, have you given up hope
already?"
His words dimmed Sophia's hopes. He believed in his stars.
Ugolini, dressed in a white gown tied at the waist with a cord, walked
to the half-open windows and pulled the violet drapes across them,
darkening the room. A breeze made the drapes billow inward and blew out
the flame of the candle on his desk, plunging the room into a deeper
darkness. Unbidden, Sophia picked up a wax taper from Ugolini's
worktable, igniting it from the fat, hour-marked candle in the corner
away from the window, and went lighting candles in the candelabra around
the room. Talking in the dark would only drive their spirits lower.
_If only Lorenzo were here. He would have a plan by now, and be doing
something about it._
Ugolini held out his hands to Tilia. "I am doomed, and I do not want you
dragged down with me." He turned to Sophia, whiskers bristling over his
grimace. "You should have left her out of this."
_If I had left her out of it, there would be no hope at all_, Sophia
thought, sitting on the small chair facing Ugolini's worktable. She
looked with appeal at Tilia, who nodded reassuringly.
"Tilia needs just as much as any of us to know what is happening," said
Sophia. "And you need to talk to her." Ugolini's hands were trembling,
she saw. She, too, was afraid, both for herself and Daoud. Fear was a
black hollow eating away at her insides.
_Oh, Daoud, what are they doing to you?_
He might come out of the Palazzo del Podesta blind, or with arms or legs
cut off, or mad, she thought. When she saw him again, she might wish him
dead--and herself along with him.
She wiped the cold sweat from her brow with the hem of her silk cloak.
In the heavy, hot air, the scent of Tilia's rose-petal sachet filled the
room.
"Only a miracle can save us," said Ugolini, pacing and waving his hands.
"I have been praying to God that He take the soul of David of Trebizond
before he breaks under torture and dooms us all."
Sophia reeled with the pain his words brought her. She wanted to claw
Ugolini's eyes out. She sprang up from her chair, fists clenched.
"May God take _your_ soul!" she screamed at him. "And send you straight
to hell!"
Ugolini turned and stared at her as if she had struck him.
"Be still, Sophia," said Tilia quietly. "That will not help."
Panting heavily, Sophia sat down again. They needed Ugolini so badly,
and he was so _useless_. She wanted to weep with frustration.
"Of course God will damn me," Ugolini cried, throwing his arms into the
air as he paced the room, his white gown rippling. "Why should He spare
me or any of us, when we have been working against His Church?"
_It is not my Church_, thought Sophia resentfully. _It is the schismatic
Latin Church he speaks of._ Remembering that she was probably the only
person of her faith in Orvieto, she felt terribly alone.
_Almost as alone as Daoud must feel._
"It seems that you no longer know who you are," said Tilia sourly to
Ugolini.
"Eh? What do you mean?" He turned quickly and peered at her.
_She talks to him as if she were his nursemaid_, Sophia thought. _And
that is what he needs._
"You are one of twenty-two men who _rule_ the Church," said Tilia
firmly. "You will elect the next pope, and very soon, by all signs. You
are not a citizen of Orvieto, subject to this podesta." She spat the
word. "You are one of the most powerful men in Italy."
"I am the creature of the Sultan of Egypt, and soon the whole world will
know it," Ugolini moaned. "Oh, God, how I wish you had never come to me
with his bribes."
So it was Tilia who had recruited Ugolini for this work. There were
depths to this woman. If anyone could have an effect on Ugolini now, she
could. But Sophia wondered if even Tilia could reach the cardinal in his
present state.
"Are you sorry you met me, Adelberto?" said Tilia softly.
"No, no!" said Ugolini hastily.
He rushed over to where she sat at his table and put his hands on her
shoulders.
"Without you," he said earnestly, "my life would have been flat and
empty."
_Love_, thought Sophia. _He loves her. That might make the difference._
"And I helped you become wealthier than you ever dreamed possible. I
helped you buy the red hat."
"True," said Ugolini. "But Fortune raises men high only so they may fall
farther when she casts them down."
Tilia brought her large hand down hard on Ugolini's marble-topped table.
"Enough of this talk of the stars and Fortune. Look here, Adelberto, for
this little cimice, this bedbug of a man, d'Ucello, to walk into the
house of Cardinal Ugolini and arrest one of his guests--it is
insufferable! You must not permit it."
Sophia did not dare to breathe as she watched Ugolini's face for a sign
of returning strength.
"No doubt you are right," said Ugolini, nodding slowly like a boy being
taught his lessons.
"You must bring pressure to bear on this man," Tilia went on. "With most
of the cardinals following the pope to Perugia, you are now even more
important in Orvieto."
_Thank God for Tilia._ At this moment Sophia was willing to forgive
Tilia even the corrupting of Rachel.
Ugolini said, "Yes, but if last night I could not stop him from taking
David, what can I do now?" He spread his empty hands.
Another gust of wind lifted the purple drapes and sent scraps of
parchment from Ugolini's table to the carpet. Sophia saw circles and
triangles and whole constellations flying across the room.
They would have to enlist the aid of someone who had influence over the
podesta, Sophia thought, someone who was friendly enough to Ugolini to
be willing to speak on his behalf. With the pope gone, the most powerful
person in the city was--
As soon as the thought came to her, she spoke. "The Contessa di
Monaldeschi. Cardinal, you must go to her and ask her help."
Her heart rose to her throat, choking her. Tilia and Ugolini stared at
her. Would they listen? Would they spurn her idea?
"Why should _she_ help me?" said Ugolini.
"She admires you," said Sophia. "She told me so the night of the
reception she gave for the Tartars. Now that the pope has left Orvieto,
she probably feels neglected."
Wide-eyed, Ugolini shook his head. "But David is accused of involvement
in the attack on her palace. Just yesterday I saw her cackling like a
strega while her men chopped off Marco di Filippeschi's head and
murdered half his family. They even impaled a baby on a spear, and she
shouted with glee."
"That has nothing to do with us," said Sophia, though the image revolted
her. "She has no reason to connect David with the Filippeschi."
Tilia nodded vigorously, shaking her body and the chair she was sitting
in. "Sophia has an excellent idea, Adelberto. If the Contessa di
Monaldeschi pleads for David, if _she_, the injured party, is convinced
of his innocence, the podesta must yield."
Sophia felt more confident as she saw that Tilia was on her side. She
pressed the attack.
"Again and again d'Ucello has shown that he does whatever the
Monaldeschi expect of him," she urged.
"He used to do whatever _either_ family expected of him," said Ugolini.
"Until so many Filippeschi perished that they ceased to matter."
Ugolini went to the window. A blast of hot, damp wind roared into the
room, and he raised his hand protectively in front of his face.
"It will storm soon," said Tilia. "It cannot be soon enough to suit me.
A storm will break this terrible heat. As soon as the storm passes, you
must go to her."
Ugolini nodded slowly. "If I fail to convince her, I will be no worse
off than I am now."
"You will convince her," said Tilia. "You might as well start to put on
your red robes."
Real hope sailed across the sea of terror to Sophia now, and it was a
galley, a galley with sails painted a cardinal's red. She felt it
bearing her up over her dread for Daoud and for herself.
"I will go to the contessa with you," said Sophia. If he gave way to
panic again, she could stop him from doing too much damage.
"And I will return to my house," said Tilia, standing up.
"No," said Ugolini. "It was dangerous enough for you to come here. We
know this mansion is being watched. Stay here until nightfall."
Tilia smiled, went to him, and held his small, pointed face between her
hands. "I will stay. And if you succeed in persuading the contessa to
have David freed, we will have something to celebrate, you and I."
To celebrate! What a wonderful thought. Sophia had begun to feel she
would never celebrate anything again.
But moving Ugolini to act was only the first step, she reminded herself.
The contessa might prove to be against them, and Daoud might still be
doomed.
* * * * *
Sophia watched, eaten up by anxiety, as the Contessa di Monaldeschi
advanced slowly into her smaller audience chamber, leaning on her
grandnephew, a plump boy in red velvet.
"I hope you have not come to scold me, Cardinal Ugolini," the contessa
rasped.
Could this old woman really have laughed to see a baby impaled on a
spear, Sophia wondered as she and Ugolini bowed.
"Dear Contessa, scold you?" Ugolini said with a chuckle. "Whatever for?"
Sophia was delighted to see how completely he had, to all outward
appearances, cast off the terror that gripped him a short time before.
_Like all of us, when terror strikes, he needs to feel he can do
something._
"Ah, Cardinal. Surely you know." When she reached Ugolini, the tall,
bony old woman clutched at the boy's arm with both clawlike hands and
began, with an effort that made her compress her withered lips, to lower
herself to the floor. It hurt Sophia just to watch her struggle to
genuflect before the cardinal.
The contessa had aged a great deal, Sophia thought, since she first saw
her, over a year ago. She was thinner, more bent, moved with much
greater difficulty. Ugolini reached out to try to stop her from
kneeling.
"Please, Dona Elvira!" he cried. "Do not trouble yourself so."
"No, I am a good daughter of the Church," said the contessa. "And
through you I pay homage to God."
The old woman's maroon satin gown crackled as she bent her knees. Even
kneeling, she was almost as tall as Ugolini. Gold bracelets rattled
around her skinny arms, and heavy medallions dangled from gold chains
around her neck. A net of gold threads held the coiled braids of her
white hair in place.
Once she was on her knees, her grandnephew pulled off his red cap and
bowed to Ugolini with a sweeping gesture. His hair was a mass of tight
black curls. Had he, too, watched the massacre of the Filippeschi,
Sophia wondered. And what had that done to the boy?
"Please let me kiss your ring," the contessa said. She seized his hand
and planted a loud, smacking kiss on his sapphire cardinal's ring.
"It is I who should pay homage to you, Dona Elvira," said Ugolini.
Sophia immediately stepped forward to help the contessa struggle to her
feet. The boy took the old lady from the other side. Sophia caught a
glimpse of him looking at her with bright, amused eyes. Eyes that were
too old for the face of an eleven-year-old boy.
When she got close to the contessa, Sophia smelled an odor that made her
think of a damp cellar. Together Sophia and the Monaldeschi heir walked
with the old lady to a broad-armed chair, where she settled herself,
gasping. Two manservants set smaller chairs for the cardinal and Sophia
facing the contessa.
The contessa's grandnephew leaned elegantly against the back of the old
lady's chair, the fingers of his chubby hands interlinked. Sophia
glanced at him and caught his glittering eyes roving over her body. He
saw her looking at him, and smiled faintly and without embarrassment.
Contessa Elvira raised a trembling hand. "Cardinal Piacenza had been
most unkind. I had a letter from him this morning condemning me in the
rudest terms for our triumph over the Filippeschi canaglia yesterday in
the Piazza San Giovenale. He accused me of sacrilege, because I shed the
blood of Marco during a Mass. When else could I have taken him and his
foul brood unawares? God gave me the opportunity."
"Nothing happens save by the will of God," Ugolini murmured.
"Esattamente! Yet Cardinal Piacenza has the audacity to tell me that I
am in a grave state of sin and that I have led Vittorio here into sin as
well."
Glancing again at Vittorio, Sophia noticed the sword, short enough for a
boy but long enough to kill, that hung from his jeweled belt.
Ugolini shook his head. "No one has the right to say that another is in
sin. Only God sees the soul. _Judge not, lest ye be judged._"
Sophia found it hard to believe that this was the same man whose panic
she had struggled to overcome a few hours earlier. He was suddenly the
perfect clergyman, attentive, sympathetic, sententious.
"Yes, and for what should I be judged?" The contessa lifted both hands
now. "For exacting justice?"
"If you have any doubts, dear Madama," Ugolini said, "I will be happy to
give you absolution."
That was a nice touch, thought Sophia. If she confessed to him, that
would certainly put her under his influence.
But even as they talked, across town the podesta's men might be tearing
Daoud's body to pieces. Sophia felt her stomach knot. She shook her head
as vigorously as she dared, to drive away the hideous images without
attracting attention to herself.
_Hurry! Dear God, make them hurry!_
"I _have_ no doubts," said the old lady firmly. "Besides, I have my own
chaplain. I would not wish another person on earth to know me as well as
he does. But I do thank you for your kind thought, Cardinal. I am glad
to see that not all the princes of the Church think alike in this
matter."
"I am sure Cardinal Piacenza is quite alone," said Ugolini.
The contessa shrugged. "I do not know about that. Since His Holiness
left, no one has called on me. I have been feeling quite abandoned."
Now Sophia began to feel a stronger hope than ever. The old lady liked
to be flattered by princes of the Church. Perhaps she could be won over
after all.
"Surely your guest, Cardinal de Verceuil, attends you often," Ugolini
ventured.
The contessa sniffed. "That Frenchman. He is no more civilized than his
Tartars. I would rather he left me alone. The French are all rather
barbaric. Of course, that fine young Simon de Gobignon--he is most
attractive." She grinned with a lasciviousness that startled Sophia.
"This palace has not been the same since he went back to France."
"Back to France?" Ugolini stared. "I thought he, too, was going to
Perugia."
Sophia felt a ball of ice suddenly encase her heart. She had told
Ugolini, as she told Daoud, that Simon was going to Perugia. She prayed
Ugolini would not suspect that she had been lying.
"Oh, no," said the contessa. "France. He told me himself when he took
leave of me. And when he returns, I think Ghibellini everywhere in Italy
will have reason to tremble. Because the might of France will follow
him. I am only sorry he will not come in time to save Orvieto from the
Sienese. One of my sergentes just reported that the Sienese army is but
a day or two away from here."
_And Lorenzo with it_, thought Sophia. _If only he would hurry._
"What will you do, Contessa?" Ugolini asked. "As a Guelfo family, do the
Monaldeschi intend to leave Orvieto before the Sienese arrive?"
He was straying from the subject, thought Sophia impatiently.
_Never mind the damned Sienese army. They cannot do us any good._
The old lady tossed her head, her hooked nose jutting defiantly. She
laid her hand on Vittorio's.
"We will stand fast. This family has lived in this city since the days
of the Etruscans. I expect our militia to put up a good fight. After our
honor has been satisfied, we will ask, with dignity, for terms."
"Very brave," said Ugolini.
The militia of Orvieto, thought Sophia, was under the command of the
podesta. If d'Ucello was involved in fighting the Sienese, what might
that mean for Daoud?
Dona Elvira looked at the cardinal slyly. "Are you also staying in
Orvieto, Your Eminence?"
"For the moment," said Ugolini.
Sophia was surprised that Ugolini did not say more, but the conversation
seemed to be going the way he wanted it to.
"You may be able to help us, Your Eminence."
Sophia felt more elated than ever. If she wanted help from Ugolini, then
surely she would be willing to help him.
"Nothing would please me more, Contessa."
"You are from the south, from Manfred's kingdom. You might have some
influence with these Ghibellini. Perhaps a word from you would help to
keep our house and our property intact."
Ugolini threw out his arms. "Dear Contessa, anything. Of course, as a
loyal supporter of the pope I do not ordinarily have dealings with
Ghibellini."
"Of course not," the contessa agreed. Vittorio smiled. He had a small,
chiseled mouth, such as Sophia had seen on the men in ancient Roman
sculptures.
"But whatever little I might be able to do, I am entirely at your
service," Ugolini said.
"I have always considered you my very good friend, Your Eminence. Even
though you opposed the alliance of Christians and Tartars and they were
my houseguests."
That startled Sophia. The contessa made it sound as if the Tartars had
left her home.
"_Were_ your houseguests, Madama?" Ugolini asked. So, he had noticed it
too.
She sighed. "Yes, they and that boorish French cardinal left for Perugia
this morning, not long before you came. They chose a bad day to leave.
This morning's storm is not the end of the rain. Another storm is
coming. Every joint in my body aches."
"These storms clear the air," said Ugolini.
The contessa held up a sticklike finger. "Exactly as the storm yesterday
in the Piazza San Giovenale did."
Now she was bringing up her grievance, Sophia thought. Evidently she had
offended a number of cardinals with the massacre of the Filippeschi.
A servant brought a small table of some shiny black wood and set it in
their midst. Its legs were carved in the form of twisting, wingless
dragons. Perhaps it was a gift to the contessa from the Tartars. Sophia
had seen such furnishings in Constantinople and knew they came from the
distant East, where the Tartars ruled.
Another servant brought a tray with small sweet cakes filled with a
paste made of crushed white raisins. A third poured the pale yellow wine
of Orvieto into silver goblets for them. Sophia sipped her wine, but her
stomach churned with fear for Daoud, a fear held rigidly in check. She
could not drink much, and she could not eat at all.
Every so often she glanced at Vittorio di Monaldeschi, and each time she
did, she found his eyes fixed on her.
Ugolini wiped his mouth after finishing off a cake. "As Fortune's wheel
turns, all of us need friends at one time or another."
"How true," said the old lady.
"I come before you today to presume upon our friendship to ask you a
favor, Madama," said Ugolini.
"We need each other, as you have said, Your Eminence."
Sophia prayed that the contessa would agree to help.
Ugolini told how the podesta's men had arrested Daoud the previous
night. Sophia watched the contessa's face for some sign of sympathy, but
the old lady remained as expressionless as a bird.
"I am shocked that the podesta would arrest your houseguest," she said.
"But what can I do? After all, Signore d'Ucello holds the office because
he has our confidence."
_Which means that he stands aside while you murder your enemies._
Ugolini spread his hands. "Precisely because he has your confidence,
dear Madonna, I know he will listen to you. We have had no word of what
has become of our guest and friend."
"I want _everyone_ punished who had anything to do with the attack on my
palace," said the contessa, clenching her bony fist.
And what if the contessa were to discover that the man they were talking
about had incited that attack and used it as cover for his own attempt
to murder the Tartar ambassadors, Sophia thought. She would want him
torn to bits in the piazza. New waves of terror washed over her.
And she would want those who helped him punished along with him. Sophia
glanced at Ugolini and saw that he was sweating.
_Dear God, do not let him falter now._
"Of course, Contessa," he said. "That is why I have come to you. Because
you, and not the podesta, are the one truly injured. But the arrest of
David is a terrible mistake. I place before you my belief in this man's
absolute innocence. I am prepared to swear to it. He was not even here
in Orvieto when that dastardly attack occurred. He was in Perugia. There
are countless witnesses. I know this man. He is a _good_ man, a
merchant, not a warrior."
"I remember him," said the contessa. "A very good-looking blond man. I
heard his conversation with the Tartars and I began to wonder myself
about the wisdom of allying ourselves with them."
"It is probably because David did testify against the Tartars that the
podesta thinks he might be connected with the attack on your palace,"
said Ugolini. "But such a man as David would have nothing to do with
such mascalzoni as the Filippeschi. I, too, have opposed the alliance,
and yet you and I are friends. It is one thing to disagree in a
civilized way. It is another to turn to behave like a scoundrel. David
has the same horror of murder that we all do."
Remembering what she had heard about the killings in the cathedral
plaza, Sophia wondered if the contessa had any horror of murder at all.
"I am sure that is true," said the contessa. "But the podesta must have
good reason for detaining this David."
Despair overwhelmed Sophia. The tears that had been falling in her soul
sprang to her eyelids and began to run down her cheeks. She should not
show her feelings like this, she thought. But what did it matter, when
Daoud was dying and no one would lift a hand to save him?
"Why are you crying, child?" said the contessa. Sophia heard sympathy in
her voice.
"Forgive me, Contessa," she said, sobbing. "This is very rude of me."
"Does this man mean so much to you?" asked the old lady, her rasping
voice softened.
In her anguish, Sophia was still clear-headed enough to see that she
might use that anguish. She threw herself down on the terrazzo floor and
clasped the contessa around the knees.
"Sophia!" She could hear Ugolini's chair scrape as he stood up. The boy
took a step toward her.
"It is all right," said the contessa. "You love this man, do you not?"
She patted Sophia's hair.
"Yes," Sophia wept. "And I swear to you, he is innocent."
_He is, too, because he believes that everything he is doing is right._
"Your Eminence?" said the contessa. "You approve of your niece and this
man from Trebizond?"
"Oh, certainly," said Ugolini waving his hands. "He is a fine man."
"Hmm," said the old lady. "That night at my reception I thought you and
the young Count de Gobignon were attracted to each other."
Sophia felt a strange stab of guilt.
"Oh, he is too far above me, Contessa," she said. "A count. David is a
merchant. We are right for each other."
_It is true that David and I are much more suited than Simon and I._
"It makes me feel young for a moment to see a beautiful woman in love."
The contessa stroked Sophia's cheek with dry, rough fingers.
Sophia opened her eyes wide and looked the contessa full in the face.
"Please help us, Contessa, for the sake of love."
The contessa sighed and smiled. "I will send for d'Ucello. I will
request that he stop questioning your friend." She looked across at
Ugolini. "You must give me your word, Your Eminence, that this David
will not leave Orvieto until all doubts about him are settled."
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Sophia kissed the shiny knuckles, wetting
the blue-veined hand with her tears.
"Sophia, stand up," said Ugolini, touching her shoulder. "This is
embarrassing."
Vittorio helped her to her feet, holding her waist more tightly than was
necessary.
_Embarrassing? If not for my outburst, there would be no hope of freeing
Daoud._
_But I must live in terror awhile longer. Until I know he is well. That
they have not done anything to him. Oh, God, let him come back to me
healthy and whole._