The Exiled Blade: Act Three of the Assassini by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Read Free Book Online Page B

her. The fact he wore the duke’s ring, which had been relegated to a copy, since a copy had been declared the original, hadn’t escaped her, though. The duchess had noticed, too, and Tycho was impressed by her refusal to ask where the ring came from. “You wait for me to tell you.”
    “How long will Giulietta sleep?”
    Alexa’s face softened. “Until tomorrow. Do you want to see her?”
    “She’s not in her chamber?”
    “She’s in mine. And there she’ll stay until I’m happy she won’t harm herself.”
    “Yes,” she said, seeing Tycho’s shock. “She threatened to kill herself.
First my husband, now my child. Why would I want to live?
”
    Because I’m still alive?
Wrenching his thoughts from the cut Alexa’s words inflicted, Tycho wondered if it was cowardice or common sense that made him change the subject to something safer. “What do you know about the nurse? Apart from the fact she came from the mainland . . .”
    “Walk with me,” Alexa said.
    The family chambers were on the floor below, with government offices on the ground floor below that. The civil service used the
procuratie
buildings along one side of Piazza San Marco, the customs had their own offices on the far side of the Grand Canal and the mint was in a small building next to the campanile. With the guards sent home, Ca’ Ducale felt as empty as a drum, their footsteps chiming on cold marble as Alexa led Tycho towards the main stairs.
    “The nurse,” Tycho reminded her gently.
    “I asked Giulietta when the poppy was just beginning its work. She said Francesca recommended her and she was Francesca’s cousin. My niece trusted Francesca and took her recommendation. Why wouldn’t she?”
    “Francesca thought the baby was to be abducted.”
    “Did she now?” The duchess considered that point. “No doubt her man was loyal to Alonzo. But she was Leo’s nurse so she was told Leo would be taken and he was killed instead. What worries you about her replacement?”
    Tycho tried to pin down his thoughts.
    “Tell me later,” Alexa said. “We’re here now.” She opened the door to her chamber and waved Tycho inside. There was a guard by the window. A sergeant whom Tycho recognised from his time in the palace. A hard-faced man with cropped hair who nodded abruptly and opened the inner door at Alexa’s command.
    “I’ll join you later,” Alexa told Tycho.
    The guard shut the door behind him. The clothes and rolls of cloth that had filled this tiny wardrobe were piled in one corner, and one of Alexa’s servants sat in a chair. She almost tripped as she scrambled to her feet. “My lord . . .”
    “Stay there.”
    Smoke thickened the air from herbs charring on a brazier. A silver goblet was sticky with residue, and Tycho dipped a finger into the tar. His skin sizzled slightly where it touched the silver.
Opium . . .
He knew the taste and the effects, which would last far longer on Giulietta than him. His body sublimated wine, opium and other drugs. The girl he loved was so deep in dreams he doubted she could find the door between worlds even if he called her. So he knelt by the bed, folding her fingers into his and wished he could do more. “Go,” said a voice behind him. It was Alexa dismissing the servant.
    “You love my niece, don’t you?”
    “Of course . . .”
    “There’s no ‘of course’ about it,” Alexa said cuttingly. “Most men want Giulietta for her lands, her fortune. Even the fools have worked out she’ll probably be Regent after I die. The clever ones have worked out she might be duchess.”
    “Marco’s dying?”
    “We’re all dying. Well, most of us.” Alexa’s voice was dry.
    Sometime in the last few months she’d decided she could talk to him freely. Perhaps she hadn’t had anyone to talk to since her husband had died – except there had been Lord Atilo, obviously. Tycho’s old master had been her lover. The fact she now felt free to talk to Tycho was a compliment. It was also