Excerpt… Provins, October, 1325 “I’ve been thinking about how we get into L’Arête,” Johanna said. Most of them had made comfortable nests against and among the bales and bundles on deck, but this statement brought everyone into an upright, attentive position. She smiled a little. “It’s not that startling,” she said. “Alaric has told us…
Excerpt… Milano, fall, 1324 “She lied to us!” Alaric said. “We owe her nothing!” “Alaric!” Jaufre’s voice cracked like a whip. “She bargained herself for us, traded herself for our freedom. There was nothing to stop him from killing us and burying us there. No one would ever have known.” Alaric’s gaze dropped and a…
Read more “She’s his wife. She has no choice in the matter.”
Lombardy, summer, 1324 Alaric spat. “Mongols,” he said, the word itself an epithet. “Never trust them.” Jaufre thought of the Mongol Baron Ogodei, and didn’t disagree. “Yes, well, when the Mongols didn’t come, Robert told us it was over.” His smile was wry. “We didn’t believe him, of course.” “Wilmot did,” Alaric said. “But you…
Lombardy, summer, 1324 THEY SOON DISCOVERED that travel in Europe was nothing like travel in Cathay, or in Persia for that matter. The Road was marked by steles built by the Great Khan. Each of the cities along its many routes had clean, well-maintained caravansaries for travelers and their livestock, or at the very least…
Venice, May, 1324 “Get ready,” Gradenigo said. “Are we too close?” Jaufre said in a low voice, rising to his feet, hands at the tie of his robe. “He’s an old man, how far can he throw?” Gradenigo said. The old man’s arm raised and Johanna saw the tiny gold ring in his hand, illuminated…
Venice, spring, 1324 Both of them turned to see Donata Polo standing there in her luxurious dark robes with not a fold out of place. She was attended on her right by a serving woman who looked every bit as censorious as her mistress and on her left by the man who had shut the…
Read more “I will say what pleased your father and what did not!”
Excerpt… “Your eyes,” Jean de Valmy said hesitantly to Shasha. “These are how eyes are made where I come from,” she said. “And where would that be?” “Cathay.” “Cathay!” Jean de Valmy’s eyes lit up. “Is it true that jewels rain from the skies in Cathay?” “Only when the moon is full for the second…
Read more “Is it true that jewels rain from the skies in Cathay?”
Excerpt… Venice, December 1323 “THE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER, who is still at home,” Peter had said. “You may find you have something in common.” Like a face, Johanna thought. They met at the taverna where she had met with Peter the first time. It was convenient for both their lodgings and the alewife remained as professionally…
Read more “Of all my father’s fabulous fables, of course this was the one he chose to leave out.”
Excerpt… Venice, December 1323 The goliard had taken himself and his lute to the largest of the local inns and was there to be heard singing songs of the Princess Padmini and the night it rained emeralds, and telling floridly embellished tales of the hedonistic life lived in Cambaluc and Kinsai. Very little exaggeration was…
Excerpt… Venice, December THE BEST THAT could be said about winter in Venice was that the colder temperatures suppressed the smell of the canals. There was, however, no known advantage to the constant fogs that lay heavily on the Laguna Veneta, ghostly tentacles of which slithered up the canals to enfold the city in a…
