was heard. Wood breaking, very far away. Maybe a door being forced open. At the other end of the house, probably two stories down on the first floor.
“Can you smell that?” Iole’s voice was almost drowned out by animal roars, which were louder now. “Something’s burning.”
For a moment Rosa forgot Valerie and the pistol. “They’re trying to smoke us out. They’ve started a fire.”
An expression of satisfaction came over Valerie’s face. “Looks like your fairy-tale castle will go up in flames. What a shame.”
Rosa could have told her how little she cared about that. How she had toyed with the idea of burning the place down herself. And that she had enough money to buy a new property somewhere else—not to mention all the apartment buildings owned by the Alcantaras.
At the same time, she realized that she did mind what happened to the house. These walls were part of her inheritance. She had grown fond of this cold, dark, damp palazzo, she suddenly realized, and she wondered how that had happened. Had she become more of an Alcantara than she thought?
You have so much of your grandmother in you, Trevini had said. It’s you here in front of me, but Costanza looks out of your eyes.
“Stay where you are!”
Valerie’s voice made her spin around. Without knowing it, Rosa had taken several steps toward the balcony. She had to see exactly where the building was on fire.
“You won’t shoot again,” she said furiously.
Iole anxiously bowed her head. “Maybe she will, though.”
“You bet your life I will,” said Valerie.
Rosa’s hand still lay on the place where the needle had gone in. She tried to concentrate on shifting. But the serum was in her blood by now. She’d missed her chance.
From her standing position, she ran toward Valerie.
Valerie tore the pistol away from her hostage, aimed in Rosa’s direction, and pulled the trigger. Whether on purpose or by accident, the bullet hit the ground right in front of Rosa, tearing up part of the wooden flooring.
“Don’t move!” shouted Valerie.
Rosa stopped.
“One more step and you’re both dead.” There was about fifteen feet between them. Not much. But enough to give Valerie the chance to fire again.
“Michele won’t come now,” Rosa warned her. “He and Alessandro…they’re fighting. Damn it, Val, you can hear them, too!”
“Desperation doesn’t suit you.”
“Are you really that dumb? He’s been using you! And now he has what he wanted. He and Alessandro met somewhere in the house. And the Hundinga have set fire to the whole place under our feet. Are you planning to wait until it’s too late to get out of here? Do you really hate me so much that you’d rather burn to death with me than stay alive?”
“I’m not going anywhere without Michele.”
“Then you’ll have to go to him. Even Michele isn’t crazy enough to run up to the third floor of a burning building just to…” She hesitated. “Just because he promised to.”
A vague gleam came into Valerie’s eyes.
At that moment Iole dropped to the ground, collapsing as if she had fainted. Except that she was fully conscious. And once again she turned out to be smarter than anyone would have expected.
For a moment Valerie’s attention was distracted. She couldn’t make up her mind whether to grab hold of Iole again, shoot her, or simply ignore her.
Rosa lunged forward.
The muzzle of the pistol swung in her direction again.
Iole kicked Valerie in the backs of her knees with all her might. Valerie cried out and lost her balance, pulling the trigger of the gun, but the bullet missed Rosa by several feet and hit the ceiling. Stucco exploded in a white cloud.
Furious, and helpless in her rage, Valerie spent a fraction of a second too long wondering whether to fire at Rosa or at Iole.
At the same moment, Rosa was rushing at her. They were both roaring like the big cats and the Hundinga down in the house. Iole rolled over onto her side, was kicked in the stomach, and doubled up in pain. Rosa dropped on top of Valerie, who felt as thin as a pile of twigs below her. Screeching, the weakened Valerie fought back, hitting and kicking and scratching like a madwoman. Rosa had to protect her eyes, but at the same time she rammed one knee into Valerie’s lower body; then she rolled aside, taking Valerie with her, and got on top of her again.
By now the pistol had dropped from Valerie’s fingers. Rosa didn’t know where it had fallen, and she had