A scathing reply:But who is she?
The dismissive answer:The innkeeper’s daughter. You remember, don’t you? Keeps to herself.
And then, faintly outraged,Shocking her family let her participate.
The swirl of conversation grew louder, but Signor Luni dragged her up onto the dais. Ravenna stared back at the many glaring faces, finally seeing her family at the back of the piazza.
“Good people of Volterra, we have found our winner,” Signor Luni exclaimed. He half turned to her and demanded, “What is your name?”
“Ravenna Maffei,” she said, staring at her brother. He gazed back at her, his fist pressed against his forehead, shoulders shaking. He was laughing, the kind of hysterical laugh that came after a close call. She’d seen him do the same thing when they’d found their youngest brother, Stefano, after searching for him the whole of one morning.
The memory gave her renewed courage to raise her voice. “I would like my boon.”
Signor Luni looked at her narrowly. “Your boon. Of course. What is it?”
She pointed to Antonio. “The release of my brother, Antonio Maffei, and all charges against him dropped.”
The crowd rumbled at her answer, but she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to her then was freeing her brother.
“As you wish,” Signor Luni said, and he airily waved his hand in the direction of the cage. Several of his servants sprang forward tocomplete the task. Someone lowered the cage to the ground, and then others hacked at the padlock.
It was over and done within minutes.
Antonio climbed out of the cage, then spun to face her with a broad smile. Her parents rushed toward him, their younger children in their wake. Ravenna turned toward the stairs, intent on joining them, but then Signor Luni stepped in front of her.
He blocked the view of the crowd, the dais, her family.
“And now, Signorina Ravenna,” he said, lips curving into a slow, calculated smile, pale eyes gleaming with a cold satisfaction that sent a tremor down her spine, “you are coming with me.”
His words didn’t register at first, as if he’d said them underwater. She shook her head, as if to shake the words dry. “What?”
Signor Luni snapped his fingers, and a young man bounded onto the dais. Without taking his eyes off Ravenna, the duke said, “You have the honor of becoming our artist in residence. Our home is now your home until the foreseeable future.”
They were speaking underwater again, and she was yanked into a fast-moving current. “Your home is inFlorence.”
“As yours will be.” The corners of his mouth lifted in a way that chilled her through. “We have high hopes for you.”
“I don’twantto leave Volterra.”
“But you shall.” Signor Luni looked off to the side and motioned for the young man to join them. “This minute.”
“You can’t do this,” Ravenna said.
“This city is ruled by the Republic of Florence, and we may do as we wish with its citizens.” He smiled at her, his brown eyes wild and feverish. “There is work that needs to be done.”
Ravenna felt as if someone had dropped her a thousand feet. “Work? Whatwork?”
“The work of a miracle.”
She gaped at him.Good Samaritan, Saturnino had called her. But she was no saint. Ravenna must not have heard right. But before shecould ask him, Signor Luni swept off the dais, and in his place stood the young man.
“I am Tomasso, the steward of the Luni famiglia,” he said, with a slight gesture toward his attire, and Ravenna recognized the same navy and silver color palette the family had worn while standing in a row on the dais. Collectively they had shone like a glimmering constellation under the gathering storm clouds. Their servants and attendants and guards would reflect the same constellation, and altogether, they formed a nebulous galaxy. “I have a carriage waiting for you at the edge of the piazza.” He took ahold of her arm. “You are to come with me now.”
Ravenna stared down at his arm as if it were a venomous snake. They meant totake her away.Panic bubbled up her throat. It tasted like acid. She tried to tug free, but he had her wrist in a viselike grip. “No,wait.Please. My family—”
“It’s a long day’s ride to Florence,” he said. He took Ravenna down from the dais, where two guards waited. One of them gripped her other arm, while the other trailed after them, keeping her out of sight from the rest of the crowd. Her family shouted her name, shouted for her release, but they dragged her out of the piazza and down one of the ruined side streets. She stumbled to keep up, glancing over her shoulder, frantic.
“Antonio!” she screamed.
