Signor Luni eyed her bitterly. “Even if you were to succeed, we haven’t found a witch. They’ve all gone into hiding, thanks to the pope’s penchant for burning them at the stake. It’s been months since we’ve been able to find a single one.”
“I know a wizard who can perform the spell,” Ravenna said. “But he will only agree if we can bring the pope to Florence on our terms when he’s not on his guard.”
“A wizard,” Fortuna repeated. “I don’t believe this. How doyouknow a wizard?”
Ravenna leaned forward. “I thought you all wanted to live another hundred years. Wasn’t that the whole point of kidnapping me?” She placed her hands flat on the table. “Accept the deal.”
“Let’s say we manage to convince Lorenzo to issue a formal apology,” Signora Luni said. “And let us also say the people accept thisdecision. What you have not explained is under what pretext the pope will come to Florence, if not for the purpose of war.”
“He will come for a jousting tournament in his honor.”
“A jousting tournament,” Signor Luni echoed flatly.
Saturnino nodded. “Hosted by Lorenzo de’ Medici.”
“You have already been making preparations for one,” Ravenna pointed out.
There was a long, unsettling beat of silence. Ravenna waited, her hands clasped in her lap. Saturnino reached for her under the table, his thumb drawing circles against her thigh. She glanced at him, and in his eyes she heard everything he couldn’t say.
I believe in you, in us, no matter what they think.
“The pope will not come for—”
“He will come because he knows who and what we really are,” Saturnino said quietly. “He knows we are his missing statues. And he also knows that the spell ends on the tenth of May.”
Signor Luni fell back against his chair, aghast. “He will come to collect us himself, then.”
“The jousting tournament is the perfect setting for his assassination,” Ravenna said. “I have the power to kill him. And once he’s gone, the wizard will perform the spell to extend your lives.”
“And on what day will the tournament take place?” Fortuna asked. “I suppose it had better be sooner—”
“Don’t forget that the pope knows what day the spell ends,” Saturnino cut in. “He will demand the tournament be held on that day.”
Another silence. Ravenna fought the swell of impatience crowding her. “Do you have a better option? Another plan to try?”
“Fine,” Signor Luni said. “Fine.We’ll do it your way, Saturnino. We will speak with the Medici, tell them the plan. They will want to involve key allies to be present at the tournament. A champion must be selected to participate in the joust, all for show—”
“I will do it,” Marco said.
“No,” Signor Luni said with a scoff. “Saturnino will, he’s thebetter competitor. He will need to defeat the pope’s champion; it would be an effective and demoralizing distraction. A humiliation.”
Marco’s jaw dropped. “I have been herethe entire time, not Saturnino, who has been gallivanting with a known traitor. I’m capable of defeating whoever I’m up against—”
“You are achildunable to control your temper,” Signor Luni said, dismissive. “And on that day, we will need a winner, not a child.”
Next to her, Ravenna felt Marco seething. His desire for glory ruled every one of his impulses. He glanced at Fortuna, who lifted an indolent shoulder, as if to say,You know it’s true.Signora Luni was no better; she offered not a single word in opposition. Marco folded his arms across his chest, sinking deeper in his chair, a scowl marring his brow. A hot flush crept up from underneath the collar of his doublet, a brush of blue gray.
“Then it’s decided,” Signor Luni said. But he turned a stern eye toward Ravenna. “But you will remain here with us until the day of the tournament, and you will work day and night to free the Nightflames.”
Saturnino shook his head. “She will stay with m—”
“Saturnino,” Signora Luni said sharply. “We have made concessions, we have agreed to your plans. The human will stay with us or we renegotiate. Choose wisely.”
Ravenna turned Saturnino’s hand, palm facing upward. She clasped it in her own. “I will stay.”
In the coming days, the city of Florence came under fire. With the interdict, every church was closed. No one could bury their dead in consecrated grounds. Weddings, baptisms, and last rites were forbidden. The Medici addressed citizens from the Palazzo della Signoria, explaining they all had to repent in order to lift the veil of excommunication.
Saturnino and Ravenna watched from the palazzo windows as the people rioted up and down the streets. At least one hundred people were hunted down following Giuliano de’ Medici’s violent murder,and bodies were hung in the Piazza della Signoria or thrown into the Arno River. Saturnino tried to shield Ravenna as best he could, but nightmares frequented her sleep, Antonio’s bloody face turned toward her as he screamed for help.
