A Student's Dream (Twisted Cogs Book 1) (22 page)

Carlo was looking rather nice himself. The white garzoni uniform he normally wore had been left behind, replaced instead with the best clothes he owned; a pair of pants and an opulent shirt and vest, all in dark colors. Though he despised the hassle of wearing layered clothing, he wouldn’t look out of place as a noble in the Milian Courts. He seemed uncomfortable in the rich clothes, especially with the bulky splint and bandage on his arm, but Carla was touched by his effort.

“
I had worried we had seen the last of you when your friend Niccolo brought that unfortunate girl here,” Marchelli said when he stopped by their table, “the gentleman and his Echo are out enjoying the town today yes? Shall I bring menus for the good friends?”

“
Niccolo trusts your judgment, I will too,” smiled Carlo with a wave. Even after all these years, the label of “Echo” and all it implied gnawed at Carla. As usual, Carlo seemed to not even pick up on the implication, “something romantic, if you could. We’re actually on a date, you see.”

Carla closed her eyes for a brief moment, waiting for the censure or the stunned silence. To her grateful surprise, the statement didn’t seem to phase Marchelli at all.

“
Something romantic then, something you both shall enjoy,” Marchelli said with a conspiratorial wink, “and a wine that will not leave you both snoring I think.”

“
You seem on edge this evening,” Carlo noted when Marchelli had left, “I thought you were looking forward to this evening.”

“
I have been!” Carla looked at him fondly across the table. Did he not notice the people who gave nasty looks at a Stormtouched in a relationship with his Echo? It was as if the thought never crossed his mind that someone might wish him ill, a trait she found equally adorable and infuriating. “If nothing else it’s nice to be out of the studio. Maybe it’s just all the provisionals running around, but that place seems a million times more chaotic recently.”

“
I don’t know why you seem to have such a problem with the provisionals. It wasn’t so long ago that we were provisionals, you remember what it was like.”

“
I don’t have a problem with the provisionals! I don’t have a problem with anyone.”

“
It didn’t seem like it this morning, when you were scolding Leanarda.”

Carla thought about it as Marchelli brought a glass of wine and lit two candles at their table

“
I wasn’t trying to scold her. I just don’t really care about anything she had to say, and neither should you,” she finally said. “She can’t help us at all, there’s no point in helping her, and being seen to associate with Leo and Leanarda will taint your reputation in the Studio. It’s the same reason I said we should keep our distance from Elena, or Lorenzo if he ever approached us. We don’t want anyone thinking we’re on anyone’s side.”

“
I understand that. Keeping ourselves away from that kind of personal entanglement worked well for us last year, it’ll work well for us this year. It doesn’t mean you have to be rude.”

“
We’ve had this discussion. Being rude keeps them away from us. It lets us keep our head down and stick to the painting.”

“
It also keeps us from making any friends or connections in the studio.”

“
You’re not here to make friends Carlo!” Carla said exasperatedly, “you’re here to become an Artifex!”

“
And I will, with your help,” Carlo grinned, a half smile unique to him, and Carla’s heart melted a little bit, all of her exasperation forgotten.

“
You know that I love you, Carlo. I’m in this with you one hundred percent.”

“
I know, I know. I just think you’re too defensive of me sometimes.”

“
Well obviously, dummy,” Carla said affectionately. “If I don’t defend you then who will?”

“
Are you alright, Elena? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Ele whispered.

“
No, just dreamed of one. Of several,” Elena shivered, then sat up in bed to look around her, ensuring that there were no ribbon-faced men or girls with too-wide smiles on blank faces lurking in her room.

“
You know, we could just go back to sleep. This is our last chance to
not
do something. Last chance to choose to stay in bed and let the full garzoni keep their secrets.”

She was so tired that her eyes stung, and the prospect was certainly appealing, but Elena shook her head and set her lips in an obstinate line.

“
If they didn’t want a curious garzona, they shouldn’t have let a Fabera in.”

“
I don’t know why I expected anything different.”

***

It was eerie walking the streets of the city of Milia so late at night...or perhaps so early in the morning. Apparently the city
did
sleep at some point, but Elena had never been awake to see it. The streetlamps were still lit, but no one walked outdoors, and the windows in the shops and houses in the road were dark. Far down at the end she could see the figures dressed in whites with yellow scarves wrapped around their lower faces, her fellow De Luca garzoni and their Echoes as they made a left through an alley.

“
Stick to the sides of the street so they won’t be able to see you if they look back,” Ele murmured, “and try to stay in the shadows of the buildings.”

“
Are you sure? Because I figured I’d walk in the middle of the street.”

“
What? No that’s a horrible idea-oh,” Ele frowned, and as angry as she was at the garzoni Elena couldn’t help but giggle at the expression on his face.

“
Ele you’re really high-strung about this, aren’t you?”

“
Whatever happens in the dead of night is between these full garzoni, but that doesn’t mean we’re automatically safe,” Ele said darkly. “The last time we got tangled up in whatever this is, I got hit in the face and knocked out. It’s not an experience I’m exactly excited to repeat.”

The pair cut through the alleyway, and Elena stopped at the corner to look around them, catching sight of the others as they took a connecting road towards the Street of Blue Artisans. Frederica was accompanied again by her giant wooden spider, and Elena shivered.

“
Did you notice they’re wearing scarves?” Ele murmured.

“
All yellow,” Elena said, “yellow masks. The archer who shot me was wearing a green mask over her eyes.”

“
Is it too much to hope it’s a coincidence?”

“
There’s no way it’s a coincidence. Besides, we’re heading towards the Street of Green Artisans.”

“
Avenging you and Vittoria perhaps?”

“
I doubt it, you didn’t hear them in Carlo’s room yesterday. If they have a reason for choosing the studio on the Street of Green Artisans, it’s not because of me,” Elena glowered. They followed the group of De Luca garzoni down several more streets before she noticed Ele giving her a strange look. “What?”

“
You’re slowly becoming more cynical, that’s all.”

“
Isn’t that what you told me I was supposed to do?” Elena snapped.

“
It is. I’m just not sure I like it now that it’s happening.”

“
Stop. If they’re going to the studio on Green street they’ll have stopped here.” Elena peeked around the corner of the alley, and sure enough the group had stopped at the studio. “Who is the master of this studio? Crivelli?”

“
No, Crivelli is on the Street of Red Artisans,” Ele murmured back, “Street of Green Artisans is Tomasia Gritti.”

Master Gritti’s studio was made up of two L-shaped buildings, with a heavy-looking wooden gate connecting them in the front. Elena assumed the open space in between them served as a courtyard.

“
Are De Luca’s and DaRose’s the only studios without gates?” she wondered aloud in a whisper, watching the garzoni as they discussed something among themselves. Niccolo and Vittoria seemed to be arguing a point that Frederica disagreed with, and the Caelator kept pointing at the top of the gate.

“
Maybe that’s why we were attacked,” Ele whispered back, “we’re an easy target. I thought De Luca was supposed to be smart.”

Elena’s reply was cut short when the garzoni seemed to come to an agreement. Frederica made a motion, and the giant wooden spider sprang forward and began scaling the gate, its long legs finding some hold in the wood that Elena couldn’t see. At the same time, Nicci, Vi and Fred stepped forward, the three Echoes passing through the gate as if it wasn’t there. The spider reached the top of the gate and dropped down behind it.

“
It’s happening,” Elena breathed, “I’m about to find out what happens.”

“
I don’t like this,” Ele said. “I don’t like this at all, Elena. We have enough pieces to figure this out now, let’s go back.”

“
We might have enough pieces, but we don’t
know
.”

“
We don’t need to
know
, we have enough to make an educated guess.”

The gate swung open, and Niccolo and Frederica entered without a backward glance. Vittoria paused and withdrew a piece of parchment from a pouch that hung at her side, attaching it to the wall just next to the gate. Elena was too far away to see what was written on it, but Vittoria followed her fellow garzoni, pulling more parchment from the pouch as she went.

The entry into Gritti’s studio had been very quiet, but for some reason the street seemed even more eerie and silent after the garzoni had left.

“
I’m going in there,” Elena stood from where she had been crouched in the shadows.

“
Are you crazy?” Ele hissed, “Elena, this is too dangerous, you don’t know what we’re getting into.”

“
I’ll be fine.”

“‘
Fine’ like Carlo?” Elena had crossed the street to be on the same side as the studio, but Ele’s words stopped her short. “Unlike you, Carlo actually knew what he was getting into, and his arm still got broken.”

“
That’s...we don’t know what happened there...”

“
Exactly. We don’t know anything. Going into someone else’s studio, armed only with the knowledge that we’re not supposed to be there and that bad, dangerous things can happen sounds like an incredibly dumb thing to do.”

Elena bit her lip, looking back and forth from the studio to where Ele stood in the shadows.

“
They might need my help,” she said uncertainly.

“
Then they should have told you what was going on and
asked
for your help. Come on, Elena, tell me that a part of you doesn’t want to go back to sleep.” Ele’s words were persuasive, but Elena still hesitated. “Your broken wrist is
just now
healing. Imagine how painful a broken arm would be.”

It was something of a low blow, but Elena realized he was right. She hadn’t dealt with the pain of her wrist well at all, and the first week or so had been agony. With a sigh she turned and crossed the street again, returning to the shadows where Ele hid.

“
You’re a scaredy-cat Ele,” she pouted.

“
Fine. I’m whatever you want to call me if it gets you to make the rational decision.”

Ele made his way back into the alley they emerged from, and Elena slowly followed, glancing behind her one last time.

“
Ele! Look, up on the rooftops!”

“
What is it?” Ele didn’t come back to look, but he turned at the other end of the alley.

“
It’s the archer! The woman who shot me!” The figure was unmistakable even from the long distance, her blonde hair spilling out from the green mask, a small black crossbow hanging down from her belt. She was focused on something happening in the courtyard between the buildings, drawing an arrow from the quiver at her back.

“
That’s even more reason to leave
now
,” Ele insisted, “you already know how it plays out when you go head to head with her.”

“
We can’t leave! She’s on the rooftops, the others won’t know she’s there, she can pick them off one by one!”

The sudden sound of a woman’s scream sent Elena’s feet moving almost involuntarily. She had no clue what a scream from Vittoria would sound like, and she couldn’t even picture Frederica screaming, but she couldn’t just stay behind, she couldn’t leave. She was angry at her fellow garzoni, she could almost convince herself that she hated them, but they were
her
studio mates. She could convince herself that they had abandoned her to ignorance, but she couldn’t convince herself to abandon them, and she reached the studio gates in less than a minute.

The gate hung half open, though Elena wasn’t sure how the spider had managed the chain that lay on the ground. Before she entered, Elena glanced at the parchment Vittoria had put up by the door. It was a very rough sketch of a man she didn’t recognize, the lines hurried and ugly except for the eyes. So much time and attention had been spent on the images eyes that Elena could easily imagine the man was watching her, and the effect did nothing to dispel the eerie atmosphere around the studio.

She slipped between the doors of the open gate without touching either one. As she had suspected, the space between the two buildings was a courtyard, but it was silent and empty. The sounds of heavy dull impacts rang from the building on her right, and there was vague shouting coming from the wing that lay across the courtyard from her. Elena paused.

It had been easy to make the decision to follow her fellow garzoni into the studio, but now that she was here she wasn’t exactly sure what she should be doing. She had no weapons, no clue of what was going on, and didn’t even know where the others were. Whatever was making the heavy impacts, Elena wanted no part of it, and the shouting across the way sounded like multiple people, none of whose voices she recognized.

“
There’s a ladder to the roof back behind this corner,” Ele’s whisper made Elena jump, “since you’re resolved to be stupid, maybe you can catch the archer off guard and push her off the roof.”

“
I can’t push a girl off of a roof!” Elena hissed, but she moved towards where he had indicated anyway, “and I thought you thought this was a stupid and reckless idea.”

“
I do. But if I didn’t stand by you when you were being stupid or reckless I’d never see you.” Ele grimaced. He waited until Elena was halfway up the ladder to start climbing behind her. “And I’m not sure if you’ve aware of this, but the girl who is getting in position to raining death on your teammates from above might not share your reservations about pushing girls off of rooftops.”

Elena shook the problem from her mind. She was good at thinking under pressure. Whatever happened she was sure she could figure out a way to help without
killing
anyone. The very thought of it made her shiver, and her heart was racing when she climbed out onto the roof.

The slant of the roof was slight, but enough to make her aware that she was treading on precarious ground. The archer and her Echo both stood on the corner of the roof at the far end, quietly talking to each other as she sighted down the crossbow at something below. Elena crept forward in a crouch, holding her breath and expecting either of them to turn at any time. She was grateful for the soft slippers she had been sleeping in, and the loose white sleeping clothes that didn’t flap in the wind.

“
I have a shot at Balance,” the archer murmured.

“
Don’t,” her Echo said quietly in his deep voice. Unlike the archer, he wasn’t wearing his green mask, and the back of his bald black head was hard to make out in the dark of the night.

“
Went back inside. Blast, Bello, I could’ve gotten that shot. I owe him one.”

“
If you missed Balance you would’ve let them all know we’re up here and you lose the element of surprise.”

“
Bello” is entirely too calm for the situation
, Elena thought as she crept closer still. A few quick steps would bring her to them now, and she still didn’t have any idea what she would do when she reached them.

“
I don’t mind alerting them,” the archer seemed momentarily distracted by something in a window below, but then returned to tracking the crossbow back and forth across the courtyard.

“
Alright, if you missed Balance then you’d annoy Master Gritti for wasting the most expensive bolts in the world, how about that then?”

“
That’s a much better point.”

The idea came to Elena in a stroke of inspiration. The archer had a quiver slung over her shoulder, about twenty arrows sticking out of it. Elena wasn’t sure exactly how much an arrow cost to make, but if they cared enough to worry about risking
one
, then surely the entire bundle would keep their attention. She lunged forward, grabbing the bundle of arrows and yanking them out before taking several quick steps back again. The archer was turning, and Elena saw the crossbow spinning towards her as if in slow motion.