The Exiled Blade (The Assassini) - By Jon Courtenay Grimwood Page 0,87

I should have told you m . . .” His hesitation this time was even longer. “I should have told you many things.”

“You did,” Giulietta said.

He looked happier but no less puzzled.

Rumour mongers visited taverns and rookeries to trim the gossip according to Marco’s orders, which reached the rumour mongers through so many levels of secret whispers that few realised where they originated. Venice was not allying with Sigismund (which would cause problems with Byzantium). However, Lady Giulietta and Prince Frederick were firm friends. After the tragic death of his wife and child, even Emperor Sigismund would be glad the boy was coming out of himself.

No one talked of Alexa’s will because few knew of it and those who did were too shocked to mention it elsewhere. Pietro produced it, still tied with a ribbon and sealed with Alexa’s own seal. He’d brought it to the map room where Marco, Lady Giulietta and Frederick were peering at a fresco of the countries bordering the Adriatic Sea. Marco had just said something.

“The elder goddess cleft?” Frederick asked.

Lady Giulietta blushed.

“The world’s cunt,” said Marco. He looked at his cousin. “That’s what it’s called. That’s what everyone calls it.”

“You know where it is?”

He smiled, pulling a small book from the shelves. He was about to open it when he noticed Pietro in the doorway. “Your page,” he said.

“I don’t have a . . .” Giulietta stopped.

Pietro bowed clumsily. At least half his clumsiness was because he didn’t want to dislodge the dragonet draped around his neck. Given the sharpness of the little lizard’s claws and the tenacity with which it clung that was a wise move. “The duchess told me to give you this.”

“What is it?” Frederick demanded.

Pietro shrugged, realised that was rude and muttered, “Don’t know, sir.”

Lady Giulietta waved the boy into the room. “Did she say when you were to give it to us?”

“Sometime later,” Pietro said.

Marco laughed loudly. “S-so like her.” He took the scroll and raised his eyebrows at the seal. It had Chinese characters inside a square. At least Giulietta thought that’s what they were. She wondered why Marco didn’t banish Pietro and wondered if she should do it herself. The question was answered when Marco ordered the page to sit quietly in the corner with his dragonet.

“It’s h-hungry?” Marco asked.

“It’s always hungry, sir.”

Marco laughed. Returning to the scroll, he freed its ribbon and unrolled the parchment, his eyes skimming line after line of his mother’s writing. At the end of it, he sighed. “She was r-rich in her own r-right, I should have realised . . . All those opportunities to influence my f-father, all those d-decisions to be made in Council when she was co-R-Regent. And my f-father gave her land when they m-married.”

“It concerns personal matters?” Frederick was asking if he should go. Giulietta noticed him chew his lip as he waited for her cousin to reply.

“Nothing my m-mother did was p-purely personal.”

Frederick nodded.

“She leaves m-money to me. That lizard and the r-rank of armiger to the b-boy. She leaves Giulietta a m-mansion in Corte di M-Mmillioni, plus its contents. A h-house I d-didn’t even know she owned. She leaves L-Leo vineyards on the m-mainland. You, she leaves her h-horses.”

“Me?” Frederick said.

“A s-stud south of Milan. She thinks you’ll l-like it . . .” Marco hesitated. “Tycho becomes a c-count, and gets her silver m-mines in M-Montenegro. She thinks h-he’ll appreciate the irony.” Frederick looked at Giulietta, who looked at the floor.

“When did she give you this?” Marco demanded.

“The night she was . . . The night she . . .”

“G-gave you the dragonet?” The duke realised the boy didn’t know that Tycho, who had been his old master, was acting on orders. Abandoning the book he’d taken from the shelves, Marco went to crouch in front of the boy. They spoke quietly and Pietro’s face changed as Giulietta watched. By the end he was wide-eyed and wondering, half in tears and half smiling as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his thin shoulders, which it had.

How did her cousin know how to do that?

“So,” Marco said. “We can t-take it she wrote this k-knowing she was going to d-die. It r-really is her last will. H-her expression of intent.” He lowered his voice, and Giulietta realised he was trying to avoid being overheard by Pietro.

“She wants Alonzo d-dead.”

“I should leave,” Frederick said.

“N-no,” said Marco, “you should s-stay. Alonzo has signed a t-treaty with Byzantium agreeing an alliance once he t-takes