Mamelukes by Jerry Pournelle

Author:Jerry Pournelle [Pournelle, Jerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Military, Action & Adventure, General
ISBN: 9781982124625
Google: CAhzygEACAAJ
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2020-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

THE YOUNG LADIES OF NIKEIS

One week before the Battle of the Ottarn River

Lucia Michaeli sat staring into the filthy canal. The place stank, but she didn’t really notice because it always smelled that way. The small fig tree arbor sheltering her table was high above the canal water, built on stone foundations that served as store rooms, but the water seemed nearer than it had even a month before. And there’s water on the Palazzo San Marco, Lucia thought. Professore Clavell says that the water will rise to the high-water marks! In a few years, perhaps less! I live in strange times.

A waiter brought a pitcher of wine and a glass.

“Will there be anything else, Signorina?”

“Another glass. My friend will join me—ah, there she is.”

Lucia felt bold to call the daughter of one of the Council of Ten a friend, but it was true. Ginarosa Torricelli had very few friends, because she was shy and awkward—and everyone was terrified of her father, who was said to be not only the Doge’s favorite assassin, but well regarded by the entire Signory. To have the favor of both Doge and the Signory was rare, and Lucia’s mother was suspicious of Ginarosa’s friendship. “The great ones do not make friends for the same reasons you and I do,” she had told her. Lucia understood the suspicion, but she was sure that it was unfounded. Ginarosa had very little guile—and she certainly had few friends. Smart enough to recognize those currying favor with her father, and unwilling to be charming for the fun of it. And not religious enough to become a nun.

She doesn’t dress very well, either, Lucia thought. If she learned how to dress and do her hair properly she’d be prettier than I am. Her mother should teach her these things, I don’t know why she doesn’t. And it’s odd that Ginarosa has so few friends. She’s open, she says what she thinks, no flattery, no little stories—but then if she learned how to flirt she wouldn’t be Ginarosa. She’s always serious, always studying the way things are done. In that she’s like my sister Catarina, but Catarina isn’t so much ignorant of the ways of men as uninterested in them. Almost intolerant. Ginarosa would know more if she thought she could . . .

Lucia smiled as her friend took a seat across from her. Their arbor was attached to a modest café and looked down on a small canal, well away from the Grand Canal and the Palazzo. The True Sun stood high overhead.

“I don’t think my father would want me to be here,” Ginarosa said. She looked around, examining the small canal. High buildings rose on each side, and clotheslines ran across the canal at third-story height. Interesting food smells mingled with the foul odor of the canal. Some large fish rose to make ripples in the dark water. A boy about two years old played in a wooden pen in one corner of the arbor. A peaceful place, not like the bustle of the Palazzo.

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