I let go a startled cry and jumped to my feet; the altar cloth dropped to the floor. All the nuns stopped their work to look at me. I gritted my teeth and, with a sensation of nausea, grabbed the needle and pulled hard. It came free, and I stared at the swelling pearl of blood on my thumb.
“Here,” Niccoletta said. She snatched a bit of fluff from a ball of uncombed wool in the sewing basket and pressed it to my thumb.
As she did, a distant boom caused the open windowpanes to shudder. Maddalena and Sister Pippa ran to the window and peered out at the distant plume of smoke rising into the air.
“Back to your work, all of you.” Sister Antonia’s voice was calm. “Take care of it, and God will take care of you.”
The instant she finished speaking, a second boom sounded.
“Cannon,” Niccoletta whispered.
Sister Pippa remained at the window, staring as if she could somehow look beyond the convent walls. “The Emperor’s army,” she said, her voice rising. “Seven thousand men, but we have ten.” She looked at me, her eyes bright with hate. “You’ll never win.”
“Pippa,” Antonia chided harshly. “Sit and be silent.”
The cannon sounded a third time; simultaneously a fourth rumble came from the opposite direction: Florence was surrounded. Lisabetta jumped to her feet and hurried to Pippa’s side.
Pippa’s cheeks were scarlet with fury. “They won’t let you go free.”
“Pippa!” Antonia snapped.
Pippa ignored her. “Do you know what the Republic plans for you?” She sneered at me. “To lower you in a basket over the city walls and let the Emperor’s men blast you to pieces.”
Sister Niccoletta rose urgently. “Pippa, stop it! Stop it!”
“Or to put you in a brothel so you can play whore to our soldiers. Then Clement won’t be so quick to marry you off to his advantage!”
Niccoletta lunged and slapped Pippa full in the face.
“Enough!” Sister Antonia cried. She moved between the two women; she was taller than either, and more formidable. Niccoletta sat back down beside me and put an arm about my shoulder.
Pippa stared defiantly at Sister Antonia. “You’ll regret coddling her. She’s an enemy of the people and will come to a bad end.”
Sister Antonia’s face and eyes and voice were stone. “Go to your cell. Go to your cell and pray for forgiveness for your anger until I send for you.”
In the hostile silence that followed, cannon thundered.
At last Sister Pippa turned away and left. After a dark glance at Antonia, Lisabetta went back to her chair.
“And you,” Sister Antonia said, more gently, to Niccoletta, “will need to make your own prayers when you are in chapel.”
We all sat then, and took up our work again. I had forgotten about my thumb, and in the excitement, the bit of wool had fallen off. When I gathered the altar cloth in my hands, I stained the linen with blood.
The cannonfire continued until dusk. That afternoon, Maddalena’s panicked mother came to the grate and confirmed what we suspected: The Imperial army had arrived and had surrounded the city.
That night I penned a letter to Cosimo Ruggieri. My correspondence with him had been limited to the subject of astrology, but desperation caused me to open my heart.
I am terrified and alone. I was foolish enough to think that the arrival of the Imperial troops would make me safer. But war has rekindled the people’s hatred toward me. I fear the Raven’s Wing alone is not enough to shield me from this fresh danger. Please come, and set my mind at rest.
My esteemed Madonna Caterina,
War brings dangerous times, but I assure you that the Wing of Corvus has guarded you well, and will continue to do so. Trust the talisman; more important, trust your own wits. You possess an intelligence uncommon in a man, unheard of in a woman.
Only wait, and let events play themselves out.
Your servant,
Cosimo Ruggieri
I felt abandoned, betrayed. I gave up my books, made no effort at my studies. In the refectory I sat beside Niccoletta and stared down at my porridge; food had become nauseating, unthinkable. I did not eat for three days. On the fourth day, I took to my bed and listened to the shouts of soldiers, the song of artillery.
On the fifth day the abbess came to visit. She smelled faintly of the smoke that permeated Florence.
“Dear child,” she said, “you must eat. What do you fancy? I will see it brought to you.”
“Thank you,” I said. “But I don’t want anything to eat. I’m going to die anyway.”
“Not until you are an old woman,” Giustina said sharply. “Don’t ever say such a thing again. Sister Niccoletta told me what Sister Pippa said to you. Horrible words, inexcusable. She has been reprimanded.”
“She was telling the truth.”
“She was repeating silly rumors, nothing more.”
Exhausted, I turned my face away.
“Ah, Caterina …” The bed shuddered gently as she sat beside me. She caught my hand and took it between her own cool ones. “You have been through too much, and these are terrible times. How can I comfort you?”
I want Aunt Clarice, I began to say, but such words were vain and heart-wrenching.
I looked back at her. “I want Ser Cosimo,” I said. “Cosimo Ruggieri.”
It was enough, Mother Giustina said, that she had tolerated the astrologer’s one visit and, indeed, that she had permitted me to study astrology although it was an inappropriate subject for a woman, much less a young girl. She had conveyed Ser Cosimo’s letters to me only because he had been a friend of the family. But there were rumors of his alliance with unsavory individuals, and of certain acts….
I faced the wall again.
Giustina let go a troubled sigh. “Perhaps earlier, before your aunt died, we should have tried harder…. But even then, the rebels watched our every move, read every letter sent you. We could never have gotten you past the city gates. And now …”
I would not look at her. In the end, she agreed to allow further communication.
Within three days—during which I remained abed but allowed myself a few hopeful sips of broth—Sister Niccoletta arrived at my bedside, fresh from outdoors. A bitter storm had brought freezing rain; tiny beads of ice melted upon her caped shoulders. In her hand was a folded piece of ivory paper, and even before she proffered it to me, I knew its author.
My esteemed Madonna Caterina,
The good abbess Mother Giustina has informed me of your malaise. I pray God you will soon find health and cheer again.
There is no cure for these uneasy times save caution and wit, but I would be happy to provide another talisman should it give you comfort. One under the augury of Jupiter would encourage, in some small way, good fortune, but
I crumpled the letter into a ball and, while Sister Niccoletta watched wide-eyed, cast it into the fire.
Afterward, I shunned even broth and water. Within a day, the fever came. Outside my window the wind howled, swallowing the boom of the cannon. The thrill of the sheets