Robot Artists & Black Swans: The Italian Fantascienza Stories by Bruce Sterling

Author:Bruce Sterling
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Historical, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Cyberpunk
ISBN: 9781616963293
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Published: 2021-03-15T07:00:00+00:00

XI

The family met for council in the tower of the Inn of Saint Cleopha. The brick turret, with its archer slits and slots for dropping boiling oil, was not much bigger than a closet; no stranger would hear them confiding to one another. Not in the darkness, at midnight.

“So, then,” said Amedeo, “just before dawn, we break out of Turin while we can still cut our way out of here.”

“Best to make haste slowly, my son,” Ugo said. “One last bribe to good Constable Egenz at his gate. Then, a quiet escort across country from the Baron of Caselle, who is keen to trade his horses for ours. Once we cross the Savoy border, then you take command. We burst off at the gallop, in one solid charge across Italy. We don’t draw rein until the Queen of Jerusalem is safely in exile at the Court of the Pope.”

Amedeo whacked the brick wall with his mailed fist. “Any plan that is bold, brave, and powerful is better than a coward’s scheme.”

“We own the Queen of Jerusalem. We’ve lost or sold everything else. She’s all that we possess—but what a splendid prize! For her, we gladly risk everything.”

Ugolina gazed from her brother to her father. “I never thought you’d say that Amedeo made a good, sensible plan, Dad.”

“My daughter, I am no brave knight. I am a bourgeois. I have sold many things, maybe too many things that I loved. But now that I have sold every single thing I have, I am a holy pilgrim! I swore to take to the road! If I’m denied Jerusalem in Cyprus, then I will take Jerusalem to Rome.” Ugo patted the medallion beneath his pilgrim’s cloak. “My own father would have done no less. I’m not stupid!”

“We must loyally serve Queen Carlotta,” said Agnes, “because a queen in Rome requires so many nice things! She has every desire that any queen would naturally have, so she needs her regalia, her robes, her shoes, and a palace to keep them in… A royal kitchen, of course, with a cellar, a salt-store, a smoke-house, a bake-house, a fruitery…”

“Mother, please don’t be vulgar. A royal library, and royal art gallery.”

“I smuggled Carlotta’s royal crown out of Cyprus,” said Amedeo. “That little bauble’s worth a fortune. No one knows.”

“You stole her crown? The legendary crown of Jerusalem, the crown of Baldwin the Leper?”

“Dad, I’m your son. I’m not stupid, either.”

Ugo narrowed his eyes in the candlelight. “We’ll make a fake crown for her everyday use. Jewels of paste with a gold veneer. In Rome that is never a problem.”

“A palace in Rome is her due,” said Amedeo. “Everyone who favors the Crusades will seek Carlotta’s favor. Even the pagans who fear her wrath will seek her out. A Queen of Jerusalem must be fearsome.”

“Any queen is fearsome when her minions do not fear to die.”

“Well, Dad,” said Amedeo, “some of her lost desperadoes downstairs here do fear to die, but I know the ones who don’t give a damn.

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