Brotherhood

FIVE

When Ezio entered the great hall of Mario’s citadel, the shadows of evening were already gathering, and servants were beginning to light torches and candles to dispel the gloom. The gloom accorded with Ezio’s increasingly somber mood as the hour of the meeting approached.

So wrapped up in his own thoughts was he that he did not at first notice the person hovering by the massive fireplace, her slight but strong figure dwarfed by the giant caryatids that flanked the chimney, and so was startled when the woman approached him, touching his arm. Immediately he recognized her, and his features softened into an expression of pure pleasure.

“Buona sera, Ezio,” she said—for her, a little shyly, he thought.

“Buona sera, Caterina,” he replied, bowing to the Countess of Forlì. Their former intimacy was some way in the past, though neither of them had forgotten it, and when she had touched his arm, both—Ezio thought—had felt the chemistry of the moment. “Claudia told me you were here, and I have been looking forward to seeing you. But”—he hesitated—“Monteriggioni is far from Forlì, and—”

“You needn’t flatter yourself that I have come all this way just on your account,” she said with a trace of her former sharpness, though he could see by her smile that she was not entirely serious, and, for himself, he knew that he was still drawn to this fiercely independent and dangerous woman.

“I am always willing to be of service to you, Madonna—in any way I can.” He meant it.

“Some ways are harder than others,” she countered, and now there was a tough note in her voice.

“What is it?”

“It is not a simple matter,” continued Caterina Sforza. “I come in search of an alliance.”

“Tell me more.”

“I am afraid your work is not over yet, Ezio. The papal armies are marching on Forlì. My dominion is small, but fortunately or unfortunately for me it lies in an area of the utmost strategic importance to whoever controls it.”

“And you desire my help?”

“My forces on their own are weak—yourcondottieri would be a great asset to my cause.”

“This is something I will have to discuss with Mario.”

“He will not refuse me.”

“And nor will I.”

“By helping me, you will not just be doing me a good deed. You will be taking a stand against the forces of evil we have always been united against.”

As they spoke, Mario appeared. “Ezio,Contessa, we are gathered and await you,” he said, his face unusually serious.

“We will talk more of this,” Ezio told her. “I am bidden to a meeting that my uncle has convened. I am expected to explain myself, I think. But afterward—let us arrange to see each other afterward.”

“The meeting concerns me, too,” said Caterina. “Shall we go in?”