The Dark City (13 page)

Bianca ran her fingers over the door within the painting. The painting didn't have much depth, but she could definitely feel something solid. She pulled the paintbrush from the jewelled purse that hung over her shoulder and held it up to her lips. ‘Hidden rooms, secret passages, second city,' she whispered, and the familiar
clickclickclick
sound began as the tiny copper key unfolded from its hiding place inside the handle of the brush.

Bianca's heart sank, despite herself, when the key fitted easily into the lock. The door swung open to reveal the familiar maze of passages. Their dim, flickering torchlight seemed bright in comparison to the permanent darkness of Oscurita.

‘Wow,' said Marco softly. Bianca turned to see him holding the map to the passages. While she'd been opening the door he had slipped away to fetch his bag. She felt a stab of heartache when she realised it must have already been packed.

Marco held out the map so she could see that another line had magically appeared – this one shooting off from another passage into what looked like the fields to the north of the city.

‘So opening doors here puts their doors into the passages,' Marco muttered. ‘That's amazing. Master di Lombardi was a genius.'

Bianca nodded silently.

Marco rolled up the map and shouldered his bag. ‘I'll be off then.'

‘All right,' Bianca said. She didn't mean it to come out as a whisper, but it did.

Marco put one foot through the door, and then suddenly turned back to face Bianca. ‘You have to come back to La Luminosa,' he said. ‘At least visit. Soon. Promise?'

‘I promise,' Bianca said.

‘Because only you can open the doors. I can't come back here without that key,' Marco went on. ‘If you don't come back we'll never see each other again.'

‘OK!' Bianca felt a smile stretch across her face, and it was as if someone had lit a bright torch in a dark room. ‘I really promise.' She hesitated, and then grabbed Marco into a hug.

‘I'll always be around if you need me,' Marco muttered. Then he pulled away and climbed into the painting. Bianca waved, and he waved back, and then the door closed between them.

Bianca went back to her private garden and sat staring into the trickling fountain for a few minutes, waiting for Lady Margherita to realise her embroidery wasn't in her room. But instead of being cross and red-faced, when her chaperone burst back into the garden she looked even paler than before – her cheeks were white as bleached bone.

She laid eyes on Bianca and clutched at her heart as if she was having an attack.

‘Lady Bianca, I am very, very sorry to have left you alone for so long!'

Bianca blinked, surprised by Lady Margherita's sincerely worried expression. In fact, her chaperone actually looked a little  …  scared.

Could she really be that worried about not finding a bit of sewing? Bianca's heart thawed – maybe her attempt to impersonate Duchess Catriona's intimidating glare had been much more successful than she'd thought.

‘Oh Lady Margherita, I'm glad you're back,' she said. ‘I found my embroidery. It was here all the time. I'm so sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase.'

Lady Margherita nodded, her heaving chest starting to slow. ‘I'm just glad nothing untoward happened to you while you were alone with that  …  that boy. Where is he, anyway?'

‘He left,' Bianca said quietly. ‘He  …  we decided it was time for him to go home.'

‘Oh! Well, I really think that's for the best, don't you?' Lady Margherita said, brightening considerably. ‘Now, let's see your needlework.'

She settled down on the bench and Bianca reluctantly joined her and fished out the rumpled, knot-ridden embroidery. It was a black handkerchief that she was supposed to be edging with a bright golden flame pattern – but her flames looked more like jagged shards of glass.

She saw Lady Margherita cringe, but then rein in her reaction.

‘That's very  …  interesting, Your Highness. But I'm sure you can do better. Why don't you unpick it and start again?'

After a few minutes of work, Lady Margherita spoke again.

‘Yes, that's right, if you find a knot just snip it with the scissors. Oh, and Lady Bianca  …  there's no need to tell your mother that I left you alone for so long,' she added, in an overly bright and cheery tone of voice. ‘You know she worries so. But nothing happened, so there's no need to say more about it, is there?'

‘No, no need at all,' Bianca said. She felt Lady Margherita relax beside her.

Bianca shook her head and bent over her needlework. She had to admit, Marco was right about the odd way things were done here.
What did she think I could get up to by myself for a few minutes?
she wondered.
Or did she really think Marco was secretly an assassin?

Bianca tried to focus on her sewing, but everything she did seemed to make it worse. It was so frustrating she started to fantasise about running over to one of the torches and setting fire to the stupid thing. If it'd just been boring, repetitive work it might not have been so bad – Bianca had spent plenty of hours trying to mix exactly the right blue or painting a hundred perfectly even lines of brickwork onto a picture. But, unlike the embroidery, those things she'd been able to do; she'd accomplished something.

What if they really won't let me paint ever again?

She couldn't think like that. She just had to wait, then her mother would talk to her and everything would be fine.

Bianca used her embroidery scissors to snip a few of the
lux aurumque
flowers while Lady Margherita wasn't looking. She slipped them quickly into her jewelled purse. She was just wondering if she might have time to experiment with making her own magical paints later when she heard the clicking of several pairs of delicate shoes on stone. She turned, and her heart skipped a beat at the sight of Duchess Edita, flanked by a group of courtiers. The long, sweeping gowns that hid their feet made them look a bit like ghosts floating into the garden.

‘Curtsey!' hissed Lady Margherita, snatching the embroidery from Bianca's hand.

Bianca got to her feet and dropped into the most graceful curtsey she could manage. It wasn't very graceful.

‘Your Royal Highness,' Bianca said meekly. She kept her head down, waiting for Duchess Edita to speak.

This isn't what I thought having a mother would be like
. She hadn't dared to expect much – she'd thought her mother might reject her or even have her thrown in jail. But to accept her as the lost princess and then leave her here, bound up in beautiful gowns and guarded by a chaperone  … 

Duchess Edita didn't speak, and the blood flushed to Bianca's cheeks as she stared down at the grey stone. How long should she stay like this? She hadn't been told the protocol for looking up if the Duchess didn't give her permission.

Then a purple gown swept into view under her nose. Duchess Edita reached out and touched Bianca's face, slowly raising her chin until she was standing up straight and looking into her mother's eyes.

The Duchess smiled softly. ‘My dear, I'm so sorry. Come, sit.' She took Bianca's elbow and led her to another bench. They sat together, and Edita slipped her arm around Bianca. Bianca felt all the tension of the last few days falling away, and she started to well up again as she smiled at her mother.

‘I've wanted to talk to you,' she said.

‘Oh, me too,' said Duchess Edita. ‘I'm sorry I haven't been able to spend much time with you. I've been so busy. I'm sorry to say that Oscurita is not the safe, happy place it once was. But let's not talk about that now  …  I want to talk about
you
! How are you, my love?'

‘Oh, I'm  …  I'm very well,' said Bianca.

Duchess Edita frowned. ‘Truly?'

‘Everything's marvellous,' Bianca said, but she heard the tightening in her own throat as she said it, and Duchess Edita obviously heard it too. Her eyebrows twitched. She stared at Bianca for a second, and Bianca felt as if everything she was feeling was written across her face in bright red paint.

Duchess Edita looked up and smiled at her entourage. ‘I think we need to have a chat. Mother to daughter.'

Bianca felt her heart lift as the Duchess's courtiers and Lady Margherita curtseyed and bowed out of the garden.

Duchess Edita put her arms around Bianca and hugged her close, wrapping her up in folds of purple silk and strands of dark, flowing hair.

‘Tell me everything, darling,' she said. ‘I've been terrible to leave you alone this long. I want to know everything about you.'

Bianca smiled as she looked into her mother's deep brown eyes.
This is all I ever wanted.
Bianca would give up everything to stay here, like this, with her mother.

‘But the smoke was too much for him,' Bianca said, sniffing back tears. ‘And he died. He was poisoned by the traitors. The ones I've been trying to –'

‘How
terrible
,' Duchess Edita said. ‘My poor dear di Lombardi. And he never told you anything about where you'd come from or about your family?'

‘Nothing,' said Bianca. ‘Until he left me a message in his will.'

‘And the medallion?' Duchess Edita asked. ‘That was when he left you the medallion, too?'

‘Yes,' Bianca said. ‘The message showed you giving me to him, and then it showed me growing up in La Luminosa and coming back here with the medallion. Then it turned into a map so I could find my way between the magic paintings to the one that opens into Oscurita.'

‘And you came,' said Duchess Edita. She looked away, but Bianca saw the tear as it rolled down her cheek before she wiped it away. She turned back and clasped Bianca's hands in hers. ‘I can't believe it – my daughter, so clever, so talented. I'll never forget di Lombardi's kindness in helping return you to me. And saving my medallion, too.'

‘The medallion's yours?' Bianca asked.

‘Oh yes. You see, it's not just a piece of jewellery. It will help me secure the safety of Oscurita! Did you bring it with you?'

Bianca flushed. ‘I thought it was safer to leave it in La Luminosa. The Baron –'

‘Well, never mind!' Duchess Edita pulled Bianca close again and planted a kiss on her cheek. ‘Perhaps one day you can fetch it. But not now. The medallion means nothing, as long as we're together.'

Bianca smiled into her mother's shoulder. Despite the corset and the embroidery and the curtseying, she would never regret coming to Oscurita.

A low, resounding bell rang out and Duchess Edita pulled away. ‘I must go, it's time to dress for dinner. I'll see you there, darling.' She kissed Bianca's cheek again and left her alone in the garden, watching the flickering lights of the
lux aurumque
flowers and breathing more deeply and calmly than she had for days.

‘Now, remember your protocol,' said Lady Margherita, walking a few steps ahead of Bianca as they approached the great hall. ‘Stand whenever the Duchess stands. Speak equally to the people sitting on either side of you. Be careful not to confuse your cutlery, and never drink with your left hand.'

Bianca nodded, but she wasn't really listening – almost all her concentration was focused on just walking in a straight line in the incredible gown she'd been strapped into. She thought she'd been stiffly bound up with lace and corsets and stockings before, but now she realised that had just been practice. This evening, Lady Margherita had presented her with a dress that was as beautiful as anything she'd ever seen Duchess Catriona wear, but weighed almost as much as she did. The corset kept her back pulled up straight and the layers of underskirts felt like walking through a field of silk with every step. The long lines of the flowing bright blue gown made her feel tall and lithe – neither of which she'd ever felt before – and the heavy dark blue velvet coat dragged her shoulders back and down. And then on top of that, her forehead and neck and arms wore a jingling waterfall of silver chains dripping with sapphires and onyx and glittering diamonds.

‘You look like a real princess,' said Lady Margherita with a genuine smile as they reached the door to the great hall.

‘I feel like one, too,' said Bianca.
Apparently real princesses feel like they're about to topple over
, she added, but only inside her head.

The doors swung open.

‘Her Royal Highness, Lady Bianca di Oscurita,' announced the footman. A few of the courtiers whispered to each other or turned their heads away, while others smirked a bit too widely.

She stepped inside, keeping her back tall and trying to walk with confidence, and looked up at the high table at the far end of the room to find her mother.

She was sitting between two men, their heads bent close together so Bianca couldn't make out any of their faces. The Duchess was listening to some intense counsel. Then one of the men pushed back his black hair from his forehead. Bianca's stomach dropped into the pointy toes of her velvet shoes.

It was the traitor, Filpepi.

Bianca picked up her heavy skirts and ran the last few feet to the high table.

‘ …  patience,' she heard her mother say. ‘There's no profit in rushing this.'

‘But Your Highness, we must begin soon,' said the other man.

The Baron da Russo.

‘You!' Bianca yelled. A mutter of shock and scandal went up from the courtiers, but Bianca ignored them.

‘Bianca! Are you all right?' Duchess Edita asked as Bianca approached the high table.

Bianca sucked in the deepest breath she could manage – the corset was laced so tight she was barely able to breathe even if she
wasn't
trying to run. ‘Mother, these two are traitors! The two traitors I tried to tell you about! They're criminals! They –' She paused to gasp, silently cursing whatever idiot had come up with the idea of corsets in the first place. ‘They only want power!' She glared at Filpepi. ‘Don't you remember me, Filpepi? '

Filpepi said nothing, but gazed calmly at Bianca, a supercilious smile playing on his lips. The Baron puffed out a heavy sigh.

‘Duchess Edita, this girl knows nothing,' he said.

‘Don't listen to them!' Bianca pleaded. ‘They killed Master di Lombardi, and they tried to kill the Duchess of La Luminosa!'

A gasp of shock echoed around the room.

‘Silence!' Duchess Edita commanded, getting to her feet. The court instantly fell silent, until the only sound was the rasping of Bianca's breath in her throat. ‘I won't have my court disrupted by such talk. Filpepi, da Russo – I think it's best if you leave for now.'

The two traitors rose and bowed deeply to Duchess Edita. Bianca felt sick as they smiled to each other and walked out of the hall.

‘Send the guards after them!' she said. ‘Who knows what damage they can do in the castle if they're not watched?'

‘Bianca, I won't imprison or spy on any of my subjects without knowing what crime they're supposed to have committed. Why don't you sit down and tell me everything?'

Bianca sank into the chair beside her mother. ‘I've told you most of it already – you just didn't know they were the ones I was talking about! They were going to kill Duchess Catriona, and they poisoned di Lombardi
and
tried to burn him alive. Marco and I would have died in that fire too if di Lombardi hadn't shown us the way out!' Before she could go on, her mother reached over and took her hands.

‘These crimes sound terrible!' Bianca's shoulders sagged with relief. But her mother hadn't finished. ‘But they were not committed here. I understand you are fond of the City of Light, but it isn't even in my world, let alone within my power.'

Bianca's jaw dropped. ‘How can you just let them get away with murder? Simply because it happened in La Luminosa and not Oscurita?'

‘That is the way it is, sweetest,' Edita said, reaching up to stroke back one of the elaborate braids in Bianca's hair that had untwisted itself.

‘But, Mother,' Bianca pleaded. ‘If they betrayed Duchess Catriona for her throne, how do you know they aren't plotting to steal yours too?'

‘Ah, if they showed any sign they were traitors to
Oscurita
, then I certainly could do whatever I liked with them,' said Duchess Edita. ‘But I don't believe they will.'

‘Why on earth not?' Bianca asked, feeling totally at a loss.

‘The Baron and Filpepi were visitors to La Luminosa, but they are citizens of Oscurita – just like you are now. They felt no loyalty to the little child duchess in the City of Light – but they have always been exceptionally loyal to me.'

‘I can't believe it,' Bianca muttered.

‘I don't have to just believe,' said Edita gently. ‘They've both proved themselves to me. How much did Annunzio tell you about the Civil War?'

‘Nothing,' Bianca said. Then she remembered the first few scenes of the painting. ‘But the story did show the city under attack when you smuggled me out. What happened?'

‘Only a few days after you were born, a vile pretender to the throne took the opportunity to attack me. I sent you with Annunzio because I was afraid you were their next target. Years of war tore the city apart. Even now, supporters of the pretender lurk in the city, plotting to kill me and take my throne. During the war, the Baron da Russo and Master Filpepi both proved their loyalty to me many times over.'

‘But how?' Bianca asked.

Duchess Edita shook her head. ‘You don't want to hear those stories,' she said. ‘They're not for children.'

‘I do!' Bianca protested. ‘How can I trust that they're really loyal if I don't know the truth?'

Her mother looked at her and smiled softly. ‘Dearest, you trust
me
, don't you?'

‘Well, yes  …  but –'

Duchess Edita snapped her fingers, and Lady Margherita materialised by her elbow. ‘Lady Margherita, I think Lady Bianca would rather have her dinner in her rooms tonight,' she said.

Bianca bristled – wasn't her mother even going to ask how she felt about it?

The weight of her outfit seemed to double as she let Lady Margherita escort her out of the great hall. It took almost as long to get her out of it as she'd actually spent wearing it, but as soon as she could do without Lady Margherita's help Bianca shooed her out of the room with her best imperious glare.

She paced the room, strewing underskirts and slinging silver chains over the backs of chairs and the edges of mirrors, until she was down to the base layer and she could finally move freely. She sank down on the edge of her bed, clenched her fists in the black and purple silk eiderdown and punched the feather pillows.

This wasn't right, not at all. She had to believe her mother's statement that Baron da Russo and Filpepi had been loyal citizens of Oscurita, once. But they'd been loyal to La Luminosa too, or pretended to be. The Baron had even been Duchess Catriona's regent, in charge of running the city until she came of age. He'd bided his time. The Baron was a
schemer
. Whatever he was doing, he'd be in it for the long haul. Bianca knew it in her bones. One day, maybe not this week or this year, but one day, he would work his schemes on her mother too.

She got up and walked through to her drawing room, looking out through the distorting glass to the faint glow of the
lux aurumque
flowers in the garden beyond.

If only she could prove just how long the Baron had been scheming with Filpepi to take over La Luminosa, if she could just show her mother
why
they were on the run  … 

Bianca turned, slowly, looking up at the painting of the old lady with the white hair.

They're on the run. That's it.

Filpepi and the Baron had escaped to Oscurita with Captain Raphaeli and the palace guards right on their heels – and she knew for a fact that Filpepi's study had been left just as it was, because clearing it was a job she'd been avoiding!

If she searched his room, and the Baron's room at the palace, maybe she could find some evidence that would sway her mother. Maybe whatever they were planning could be stopped before they could put it in motion!

It had to be worth a try.

Bianca hurried back to her room and changed into her old dress. She tipped out the contents of the jewelled purse and stuck the paintbrush key into her pocket. She paused, picking up the
lux aurumque
flower she'd snipped from its stem in the garden earlier. It obviously held a life force of its own, because the petals were still fleshy and glowing, casting a shifting golden light around the room. She smelled it – its scent was strange, a bit like a sunflower, with a strange undertone of
ether
and heavy oils. She carefully slipped it into her pocket as she opened the door behind the dragon lady.

‘I'll be back,' she promised herself, as if she was speaking to the old lady. ‘I'll come back and make those traitors pay for what they did to Master di Lombardi.'

The old lady didn't move, but Bianca could almost imagine that her half-smile was a sign of approval.

She stepped into the passages and closed the door behind her.