going as I was pushed and pulled, Jacopo taking pleasure in my stumbles and muted cries as we went down the stairs and into the area reserved for business. Lit only by the candles carried by Signor Maleovelli and Giaconda, it was difficult to see where we were going. At first I thought they were going to throw me in a gondola, but we went through a doorway near the water-gates and down another flight of stairs, ones I never even knew existed.
They twisted around sharply and I could smell centuries of damp. In the pale light, I could see the moss and lichen growing between the cracked stones, spreading like a canker over the walls. What was this place?
Finally, after spending what seemed like minutes descending, we stopped. Signor Maleovelli stood beside an enormous, ancient door. He drew a key out of his pocket and passed it to Giaconda. He held the candle close and she placed the key in and turned it. The door opened quietly and I knew then that, wherever they were taking me, it was a place they used frequently. The key was not rusted, the hinges oiled.
The door opened onto a corridor. A frigid wind greeted us and I shivered. The cold was like a barrier we had to pass through. I began to shake. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. Jacopo’s breathing was harsh in my ears while my own strained in my throat. I could feel his stubble pressed against my cheek, the way he used this opportunity to press himself against me even though I had stopped resisting long before.
A light flickered at the end. As we stepped in, Signor Maleovelli used his candle to light a torch that sat in a sconce above us. He lifted it down.
‘Take her to him,’ he said gruffly.
Him?
Jacopo grunted and pushed me towards the light. We passed what appeared to be cells, their iron bars sparkling in the flame of the torch. They were all empty.
At the end of the corridor, Jacopo stopped and then, with cruel force, slammed me into the railings, pushing against the back of my head so my face was pressed against their algific hardness.
It took me a moment to register what I was seeing.
In the small, freezing cell was a dark shape. It was curled over on what appeared to be a large bed of straw. The smell was dreadful – a mixture of urine, faeces and sweat. I coughed and tried to breathe through my mouth.
‘Do you know who this is, Tarlo?’
I stared and blinked. ‘No,’ I said, my voice cracking.
‘Tallow?’ said another deeper and familiar voice.
I caught my breath. No.
I saw Signor Maleovelli make a gesture with his hand and the pressure on the back of my head went away. I tried to see through the darkness. Signor Maleovelli stood beside me, his torch held high. The gleam from it radiated into the cell.
Rising from the straw, the shape detached itself from the shadows and slowly lumbered towards us. The light hit its face and it threw up an arm to protect its eyes. I saw through the dirt, the clothes that were mere shreds, the food and other stains that covered almost every inch. Then the hand fell away and I had no doubt. A pair of faded blue eyes in a face ravaged by sores and scabs blinked lovingly into my own.
No. No. No. No.
‘Pillar?’ I said disbelievingly. I reached for him.
‘Tallow,’ he sighed. His voice unpractised, hoarse. He did not move.
‘Hold her!’ snapped Maleovelli.
Jacopo grabbed my hands, banging them into the bars as he wrenched them behind my back. I did not give him the pleasure of knowing the pain he caused me.
‘Oh, God, Pillar!’ I said softly, ‘What have they done to you?’
Pillar stumbled closer and I heard the splash of water, but he did not come within reach. He’d been told what to do. I could feel that now. He did not say a word. He just stared. He looked me straight in the eyes and, in that moment, I used every ounce of my talent and, resting my cheek against the iron that I now knew he too had held, plunged into his soul.
I saw pain, fear and, above all, guilt. Guilt over me. I felt the agony of his indecision, of his restlessness once I had gone. He did not know what to do, where to go. The Signori were coming; the Cardinale.