The Shadow Master (31 page)

He had to think. Where would the Shadow Master be but in the shadows somewhere? But in fact he found him down by the new harbour of the city, standing there as if he had been waiting for Lorenzo for some time. And he held Lucia in his arms. Lorenzo ran to them, pushing a path through the people in his way.

“Lucia,” he cried. But she did not lift her head. Then he saw she was soaking wet. Her long hair hanging damply down to the ground like her limbs. He grasped her hand in his and felt no life in it. “What has happened?” he asked the Shadow Master, more confounded by this than by the changing of the city. Had she been caught by the water in one of the tunnels? He put a hand to her cheek, still not believing what he saw. It was cold. He let go of her hand and it fell back down. Lifeless.

“Um… This wasn't meant to happen,” said the Shadow Master. “She fell from the sky and landed in the harbour. Very lucky actually. A moment before, it had been land, but changed just before she struck.”

Lorenzo looked at him but the words didn't make any sense. “From the sky?” he asked.

The Shadow Master tilted his head back and looked up. “Yes. From up there. I saw her fall. I'm sorry.”

It took Lorenzo some moments to be able to form the words in his mouth. “Do you mean… Do you mean… she's dead?” he asked, shaking his head.

“Let's not think of it as dead,” said the Shadow Master. “That's such a negative word, don't you agree. Let's think of it as just not alive.”

Lorenzo blinked. “But you said I was going to save her,” he said finally.

“And so you shall,” said the Shadow Master, laying Lucia gently down upon the ground. “Pucker up your lips.”

“What?” asked Lorenzo.

“You need to kiss her to bring her back to life,” said the Shadow Master. “Like in a fairy tale.”

“But isn't there some scientific device you can use that will bring her back to life? There must be!”

“Ah, yes,” said the Shadow Master. “That's something I need to tell you about. When you changed the city you didn't just change its physical form. You changed the world, in a way. The type of science that you are used to thinking of as science won't work anymore. That's why she fell from the sky.”

“What do you mean it won't work?”

“That's the greatest secret of the ancients. They discovered how to change the very fabric of nature. But they couldn't leave well enough alone and gambled repeatedly on achieving something better – but in the end lost everything.”

Lorenzo knelt down beside Lucia and took her hand. “Show me what to do,” he said.

“Well, what any young lover wants to do,” said the Shadow Master. “Place your hand on her breast.”

“What?” asked Lorenzo, taken aback.

“Her left breast. Just below it.” Lorenzo nodded followed his instructions.

“Now, press down on it. Put all your weight on it. And do that five times.” Lorenzo did so. “Then you must kiss her,” the Shadow Master said. “And not just a gentle chaste kiss, you need to cover her mouth with yours and pinch her nose and breathe your own life into her. Gently mind you.”

Lorenzo looked at her slightly parted lips and hesitated. “Do you want me to show you?” asked the Shadow Master. “She looks very kissable.”

“No,” said Lorenzo. “If anyone is going to do this it will be me.”

“Alright then. Go to it lover boy. Five times, then back to her breasts. This is a good technique to keep in mind for later in your life together too.”

Lorenzo pressed his lips against hers gently, waiting to feel what he had felt last time. The warmth of her entering him and something of him entering her. The beat of the butterfly wings in his chest joining with hers. But he only felt the coldness of her lifeless lips. He breathed into her, willing the life from him to enter her. Willing to feel the death enter himself in exchange for his life. He did this five times and then looked up to the Shadow Master imploring him for some sign that this was working, as there was no sign from Lucia”s limp body.

“Again,” said the Shadow Master. So Lorenzo pressed again on her breast. Kissed her again. Pressed again on her breast. Kissed her again. Breathing his life into her. “How long do I do this for?” he asked.

“Until we have a good audience,” said the Shadow Master and Lorenzo looked up to see a small crowd had gathered around them, watching in either amazement or disgust at what he was doing. “Ignore them,” said the Shadow Master. “Back to work.” Then he grabbed a young apothecary that was in the crowd and pulled him close. “Watch carefully and learn,” he said to him. “You will be able to do this yourself one day.”

Lorenzo kept kissing and pressing above her heart until he heard a stern voice above him. “What is the meaning of this?” He looked up. It was a Lorraine guardsman, sporting a huge moustache. He had clearly recognised Lucia, but did not know what the half-dressed Lorenzo was doing to her. Lorenzo heard the slither of a sword being dragged from its sheath and saw the guardsmen arming himself. Until a long sharp sword suddenly appeared at the guardsman's throat. “He is performing a miracle and is bringing her back to life,” said the Shadow Master coldly. “Now stand back and let him do his work.”

“She is dead?” asked the guardsman.

“Not at all,” said the Shadow Master. “She just lacks for life and this young man is providing that to her now.”

The guardsman scowled at him but made no further move to interrupt them. Not until another voice rang from the other side of the crowd formed about them. “What depravity is this?” Lorenzo paused and looked up and saw the bearded Medici guardsman there.

The Shadow Master sighed heavily and tossed back the sleeve on his free hand, revealing a small cross bow mounted on his forearm. “Such unimaginative questions,” he said. Then, “You are witnessing a kiss that will change the whole world.” And at that moment, as Lorenzo breathed into her body again, Lucia suddenly coughed and spluttered and vomited up water. Her arms rose up a little as her chest heaved forward. She raised her arms, several times, not unlike the flapping of a butterfly's wings it appeared to those watching, and then she wrapped them around Lorenzo, drawing him in tightly to her. As if they were one.

“What marvels is this?” the Lorraine guardsman asked.

“You will call it science,” said the Shadow Master. “Like discovering that the plague is carried by the fleas that breed on rats.” He looked to the young apothecary to make sure he had understood that. Then lowered his sword and crossbow and made a deep bow to the audience around them. “That is quite enough miracles for one day,” he said. “The Lorraine and Medici men will be dispensing gold compensation to those who have lost their houses.”

“What?” the guardsmen asked as the crowd immediately surrounded them, calling out their plight and needs. Lorenzo felt the Shadow Master's strong arms lift him and Lucia to their feet. “Follow me,” was all he said.

 

 

LXIV

Lorenzo stood with the Shadow Master and Lucia deep in a dark alley. Even though it was new, it smelled of piss and rotting scraps. He remembered everything again and wanted to sit down and rest. It always flooded back into his head too fast. He knew the Shadow Master and knew his and Lucia's role in everything. Again. He looked to the Shadow Master, who gave him a wide smile. “Welcome back,” he said.

Lorenzo shook his head. “You're a bastard,” he said.

“I think, literally speaking, you were the bastard this time around.”

Lorenzo didn't smile. He looked across to Lucia who took his hand. “You did well,” she said. She always seemed to manage the recovery better than he did.

“So, what now?” she asked the Shadow Master. “Do we leave the city in chaos?”

“No. Not this time,” he said. Lucia shot a quick look to Lorenzo. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well,” he said. “I was thinking that if you were to whisper a few words to Leonardo and Galileo to whisper in turn to the Head Councillor, Signor Pacciani, he could believe they were his own ideas and in turn suggest them to the Houses of Medici and Lorraine.”

“Is Galileo alright?” Lorenzo asked, remembering that he had left him down in one of the chambers under the city.

The Shadow Master waved his hand dismissively. “He is fine. His chamber rose to the surface of the city. As did that of those poor wretches the apothecaries were experimenting on, by the way, and they are wandering around the city somewhere right now, probably scaring people witless. Anyway, if you were to suggest that the army of the darkness be offered either banishment or the offer to stay and join the plague people at the walls, you would sort the wheat from the chaff quickly. And the plague people at the walls be offered work in the fields around the city in exchange for citizenship and food, the two Houses would agree to it as a splendid idea and a gesture of unity.”

“Why would they agree to that?” asked Lorenzo.

“Because they would be united in your plans to wed each other.”

This time Lorenzo shot Lucia a look.

“This is how it will go,” the Shadow Master said. “The Duke and Cosimo will be attacked from behind and within by their wife and mother who will tell them that they wish to hear the sound of children's feet in their households, which would be worth more than any of the wealth they have accumulated over the decades. The Duke will be the first to concede, but he will state that he will only agree to it if Cosimo agrees to adopt Lorenzo into his family so that Lucia is marrying a nobleman.”

Lorenzo pulled Lucia close to him and nodded his head a little. “Yes?” he asked. “And what will he say?”

“Well, Cosimo will call you to see him, and he will be sitting there in that chamber beneath the portrait of his father, and will ask, ‘Do you know what the riddle before me is?'”

“And what do I say?” asked Lorenzo.

“You will answer, ‘Whether any man can see the future and know what it will bring.' And Cosimo will nod, conceding that you are shrewd indeed. But he will say, ‘A decision like this could bring more trouble than benefit.' And you will say, ‘As could making no decision, my Lord.' And again he will concede that you are wise enough and will say, ‘No matter what I decide it will have some unforseen impact.' You will tell him that is true of every decision. And he will then ask, ‘But will you respect my decision, whatever it is, and retain your love and loyalty to me?'”

“I will tell him that he always has my loyalty, but that my love belongs to another,” said Lorenzo.

The Shadow Master clapped his hands. “A splendid reply. And Cosimo Medici will feel himself in great danger of smiling, and so will set his mouth into a grim line and say, ‘We have been at war with the Lorraine household for decades, but if we form an alliance with them, who would we have to fight?' And you won't hesitate to answer him.”

Lorenzo knew the line. “The greatest fight is that against those who oppose enlightenment,” he said.

“And then Cosimo will say, ‘Come back in the morning and I shall tell you my verdict.'” Lucia and Lorenzo held each other more tightly and Lucia asked, almost breathlessly. “What will he say? He will say yes, won't he?”

The Shadow Master smiled widely and Lorenzo was the first to understand. “You are a bastard!” he said again.

Lucia's shoulders sagged. “Couldn't we stay here this time?” she asked. “We could really do some good. They are going to need so much help here.”

The Shadow Master said nothing.

“It's not fair,” said Lucia. “There will be more violence and more wars. But we could broker a peace agreement. We could get the plague people working the vacant farms around the city and we could have those poor victims of experimentation settled into a home for them. We could do so much good here.” But the Shadow Master just shook his head a little. “This new world is going to need some steering,” she said. “We could do it. We could bring peace between the two Houses if we stayed here.”

“Yes,” said Lorenzo. “If we were betrothed that would bring a peace accord between the two Houses.”

“We could make a life here,” said Lucia imploringly.

“I'm sure you could,” the Shadow Master said. “But they have to work out their own future for themselves. You know that.”

“But you intervene when it suits your purposes,” she said angrily.

“Our purposes,” he said. “You know that the present is held together by the future and the past.”

“As is their present,” she said.

“Which could have been our past. Which was a dead branch of historical evolution. A dead branch that needed to be trimmed.”

Lorenzo shook his head and let go of Lucia's hand. “Maybe next time, light of my heart,” he said.

She smiled at him. “Yes. Light of my life. Maybe next time.”

And then the Shadow Master said, “Come. It's time to go. So much more to do, and so little time.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Craig Cormick is an award-winning author and science communicator who works for Australia's premier science institution, the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He is a regular speaker at science communication conferences and has appeared on television, radio, online and in print media.

As an author he has published over a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction and over 100 short stories. His awards include an ACT Book of the Year Award and a Queensland Premier's Literary Award.

craigcormick.com

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