«Here we are at last. The time has certainly come to leave for the Montefeltro territories, to fight for real, to have brave men at my orders», Andrea told his friend, walking down a long corridor, where the sounds of footsteps were muffled by carpets placed above the floor, and the noises and voices were not allowed to rumble, thanks to a series of tapestries that covered the walls. «I will do as I am commanded, but on one point, on one point only, I will be intransigent with the Duke. You, Gesualdo, will have to accompany me. You will be my guide and my right arm. I want no one else beside me on the journey from here to Rimini.»
«My young friend, you are strong and robust, while I am an old invalid. I dont think our Lord will agree to your request. Even if he hasnt summoned me for some time now and hasnt entrusted me with any more missions after the one we both know, just knowing me away from here could be cause for concern for the Duke. Listen to me. Be quiet and make no foolish demands!»
«Shut up, you! You may be old and crippled, but you fight much better and youre much smarter than a young warrior. And then...»
The words faded into his mouth, because they had reached the end of the corridor. The door wide open in front of them showed the dining room, where a long table was laid with all Gods blessings. Two reverent servants held open the heavy red velvet curtains that served as a frame at the doorway. As they passed by, the servants bowed deeply, then closed the curtains once the guests had crossed the threshold. Andrea and Gesualdo looked with wonder at the roasts of peacocks, pheasants and guinea fowl, roast potatoes and boiled vegetables. All the dishes were adorned with decorations, in a blaze of colours rare to see. Not to mention the smells, which reached Andreas nostrils to remind him of the perfumes that only in his fathers house he had appreciated at the time, and which he had almost completely forgotten. The wine in the pitchers was red, the typical dark colour of Mount Coneros wine. Andrea felt a slight elbow, a prelude to the advice whispered by Mancino.
«Go easy on the wine. For someone like you, used to Verdicchio and Malvasìa, the Rosso Conero can be dangerous. It goes straight to the head!»
«The good moment may not last long, so we must act now in support of our friend Sigismondo Malatesta», Berengario began to say to his guests as he bit into a chicken leg, holding it by the bone, while the grease from his hand slipped down his forearm. «Now that Leon X is dead, Urbino and Montefeltro must be taken away from the Medici and the Holy See! Soon all the territories of the region of the Marche, including the Marca Anconitana, will have to be restored to the right balance. Subjected, yes, to the state of the Church, but still with independent civil governments. Unfortunately, Duke Francesco Maria Della Rovere seems to have retired himself in Senigallia, renouncing to regain the Duchy of Urbino, taken from him by Cesare Borgia and then passed to the nephew of Pope Leo X. Moreover, the territories of Jesi are in total abandonment. After the death of Cardinal Baldeschi, a papal legate was sent, who seems not so much to govern the city as to finish reducing it to exhaustion, to misery, taking advantage of the vacation of a civil government.»
At these last words, Andreas heart leapt. The civil government of the city of Jesi was his by right. If the Duke of Montacuto wanted to restore the political balance, it would have been enough to send him back to his city, and he would have taken care of it and put this notorious papal legate back in the ranks. What was the point of sending him to fight for the Lord of Rimini? But perhaps the Montacutos intentions were quite different. Perhaps it would have served him well to maintain the situation of disorder in neighbouring Jesi, now that he had taken out the Council of Elders and had taken over the government of the City and the Marca Anconitana. Perhaps, at the last moment, he would have turned his back on everyone and sold Ancona to the Pope for a few tens of thousands of gold florins. Or perhaps he would have allied himself secretly with the Duke Della Rovere and would have made a common front with him, against the Pope and Malatesta himself, so that the latter would not have extended his expansionist aims towards the South. Who knows! Andrea would not have been sorry to return to Jesi and be able to see his beloved again. But if he hadnt even been informed of the death of his sworn enemy, Cardinal Baldeschi, let alone if it had passed through the Dukes mind to have him return home. So Andrea decided to remain silent and continue listening to Duke Berengarios reasoning, distractedly bringing some potatoes to his mouth and savouring their delicate goodness. Only a few years before, the existence of this delicious tuber, which had recently been imported from the New World, was not even known. A servant poured red wine into his bowl and he gobbled it to accompany the potatoes on their way to his stomach.
«The recently appointed Pope, Adriano VI, is a puppet, a puppet in the hands of the ecclesiastical oligarchy, who made it possible to wipe out the House of Medici, who were taking too much power, even in Rome. I dont think it will last long, before Giulio de Medici devises something to take him out and take back the reins of the Ecclesiastical State. So we must seize the moment before its too late. Early tomorrow morning, Andrea, you will leave for Pesaro, where you will take command of a garrison of Sigismondo Malatestas army. You will lead this garrison towards Urbino, while the Malatesta will reach the same city from the North with the rest of his army, through the Montefeltro territories. You will grip Urbino in a vice, from the north and the south, and both the Medici occupying Montefeltro and Count Boschetti, who governs Urbino on behalf of the Holy See, will have no escape. You, Gesualdo, will accompany Andrea as far as Pesaro. The road is long and risky, and you know the best ways to go. You will make sure that Andrea arrives at his destination as soon as possible. Then youll come straight back. Whether he knows that for some reason, valid or not, you followed Andrea into battle. In four days I want you back here in the castle, or else...», and two fingers crawled through the skin of his neck, simulating what a knife blade pressed against his jugular would do.
Even trying with himself not to admit it, Andrea had noticed a light of betrayal shining in the Dukes eyes as he spoke. He had never trusted him, and now even less so. When he and Gesualdo were dismissed and, on their way out, they met two ugly thugs, who had never seen each other at court before, Andreas fears were even more pronounced. Fortunately, The Mancino, in whom he had blind faith, in the hours and days to come, would be at his side to defend him at the cost of his own life.
«Who do you think those two are, Gesualdo? Assassins, perhaps? Cutthroat?»
«I dont know. Its the first time Ive seen them. But their faces dont inspire anything good. But lets not talk about that here. Come on, lets go pick out the horses for the morning. We can talk quietly in the stables.»
When Matthew and Amilcare were inside the hall, the Duke had the door bolted, then clapped his hands. Immediately some handmaids, dressed in colourful clothes, with transparencies that highlighted all their feminine graces, reached the hall through a back door and began to dance to a melody played by invisible musicians, hidden who knows where. Berengario was over sixty and, in his life, he had had three wives, all disappeared at a young age and in mysterious circumstances. Someone, at court, whispered that he himself had had them killed, once they had bored him. He had always been a lustful, as well as a lover of the delights of the table, so much so that he had doubts as to which circle of hell he would end up in after his death. But little mattered. The important thing was to enjoy the pleasures that life offered him while he could. And from that point of view, in private, he didnt want to miss anything. He reached out to one of the handmaids, the one wearing a bright red tunic, and ripped it off her, leaving her completely naked. The girl already knew what she had to do, and she was well aware that, if she did not perform her task properly, the next day her lifeless body would be found in the middle of the woods by some hunter. She approached the Duke and pulled down his stockings. Then she took the member in her hands until it was swollen, lowered her prosperous breasts down her lords belly, trying to excite him more and more. Only when she felt the man about to explode, she turned over and allowed herself to be sodomized. In the end, the Duke drove out a satisfied cry of pleasure and, as a reward, slipped a gold coin into the dimple between the young womans breasts, who was able to hold it without letting it fall to the ground.
«Come on, my dear guests! Theres food and women for everyone in here. Bring it on. Its on me, and Im generous today. And at the end, well talk business, too.»
The stables of the castle of Massignano could hold more than a hundred horses, but there were about thirty at the moment. Leaving aside the quieter and more docile mares, The Mancino drove Andrea to the area where a few brick compartments had been built, where the fiercest steeds were locked up to prevent them from getting nervous just by seeing each other.
«Stallions are harder to assemble, but they give much more satisfaction. They are much quicker and can shoot at the enemy, not giving a damn about the arrows hissing near their ears. And even if you weigh them down with trappings, their performance is very little reduced. Here it is», said Gesuald, opening the door of a shelter, where a black horse whined nervously at the sight of the newcomers. «Ruffo is my favorite. He is a Murgese, a horse from Puglia, where horses were once bred for the Emperor Frederick II of Swabia and his family.»
Andrea appreciated the beautiful shapes of the steed, then lowered his eyes to study its legs and hooves.
«You can see that its not a horse bred in green and humid plains, but on the arid and stony hills of the Murgia. We love to remember Frederick II in Jesi, because it is the city where he was born, and I had the opportunity to have in my hands his treatise De arte venandi cum avibus, where he describes how these were horses suitable for falconry, because, unlike others, the Murgese is not afraid of hawks or eagles flying around him, especially when they swoop down to return to the gloved arm of the master...»
Their speeches were interrupted by hearing voices indicating the presence of other people. The Mancino signalled to Andrea to be silent and to remain hidden, cowering near Ruffo and approaching the wooden door of the shelter without closing it completely. The two thugs just crossed paths in the rooms upstairs had perhaps had the same idea, that of coming to choose the horses for the next day. Convinced that there was no one in the stables, they spoke quite loudly, so that it was easy to hear them talking. A lump went up to Andreas throat when the guys stopped right in front of the half-closed door of Ruffos shelter. The idea of being discovered in there and having to face them werent much liking to him, also because both he and Gesualdo were unarmed.
Luckily, the two of them moved on.
«Its better not to risk riding stallions we dont know about», said the older, uglier one, a guy with a pockmarked face framed by a shaved beard. «Lets get two young geldings, instead. We have the advantage of the night anyway. Well reach the Montignano Tower at our leisure and have plenty of time to prepare for the ambush. It will be a quick and easy job and the Duke will reward us well.»
The other one accompanied the last words said by his friend with a loud and fat laugh. Under the incredulous eyes of Andrea and Gesualdo, who continued to remain well hidden, threw their miserable saddlebags on the first two horses that came into their sights, jumped on the animals backs and disappeared in the darkness of the night, leaving behind them the wake of their loud laughter and their pestilential smell.
CHAPTER 5
Culture is what most people get,
many transmit and few have.
(Karl Kraus)
That morning, too, Lucia woke up, with the first rays of the sun filtering through the shutter, in Andreas comforting arms. Her naked body, saturated of love, of the love given and received during the night, was protected by the strong and muscular arms of her beloved, which enclosed him like a shell. She had known Andrea for such a short time and yet she was so in love with him that she could no longer conceive her life without him. If at that moment she had woken up on a bed alone, she would already have found herself with a lit cigarette between her fingers, even before she got up. But now she didnt, now Andrea was there to satisfy her, and nothing else was needed. She had discovered in him a man who was passionate about culture, history, ancient and modern literature, and this made that young man the ideal companion for her, with whom to share interests and passions, beyond the home and the bed. She had asked him more than once what kind of work he did and he had always answered evasively: the anthropologist, the archaeologist, the geologist. In short, she had not yet understood exactly what his source of financial support was. In order to be a researcher, as he defined himself, he had to have support, to be a scholarship holder in some university at least, Italian or foreign. Or have funding from some important private organization interested in his studies. You knew very well how difficult it was to carry out research with the limited funds made available by the government and the Ministry of University and Research. It seemed as if Andrea had enough money to do whatever was on his mind. But perhaps he was supported by the wealth of his family of origin. Who knows, maybe the Franciolini family, over time, had managed to administer their assets in a more effective and productive way than the Baldeschi-Balleani. But what did it matter? Now she still enjoyed the warmth of skin-to-skin contact, contrasted by the coolness of the sheets that partly covered their bodies. Outside soon the sun would hit hard, but the thick walls of the ancient Palazzo Franciolini kept the environment cool even in the middle of summer, without the need to install any air conditioning splits.
She had tried to limit her movements as much as possible, but at a certain point Andrea had perceived her awakening, had just opened her eyelids slit open, had brought his lips closer to her face, had printed a kiss on one cheek and had untied her from the embrace with delicacy. At that point Lucia, though reluctantly, decided to get up. She reached the bathroom and let the lukewarm water from the shower run over her body for a long time, then, still in her bathrobe and with her hair wet, she gained the kitchen and prepared coffee for her and Andrea. She sat down at the table, with the steaming cup in front of her, greedily resuming the reading of the text she had left up there the previous evening. Attracted by the strong smell of the drink, Andrea soon appeared and pulled down his coffee from the pot and sat down in front of her, activating the tablet to read the morning news on the ANSA website.
«I don't understand why you dont turn on the television instead of ruining your view on that small screen. Theres news on certain channels all the time and...»
«Its not the same», Andrea interrupted her. «Some particular news on TV doesnt pass it on. Im following closely the events of the archaeological sites destroyed by the Jihadists, the Islamic extremists. The official news are making us believe that the situation is much more serious than it is in reality. But in any case, for me, the loss of finds thousands of years old remains a fact of extreme gravity. When some of these areas are freed, I think I might be ready to leave immediately to assess the damage and bring help to the historical reconstruction of the ancient cities. We saw last year with Nineveh that much of what the ISIS militants had shown as destroyed could be salvaged.»
«And would you leave me here alone for millennia-old ruins?» she turned to him, grabbing his hand and holding it in hers.
«If you wouldnt follow me, yes. Work is work, and I find mine very exciting. Of course, not that Id stop loving you, but I wouldnt give up my commitments anyway.»
Pretending to be a little offended, Lucia took her hands out, looked for the pack of cigarettes and lit one.