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Traveling from the Kalzov Valley to Venice on a good horse takes two days. We would take three. That gave Allura and I a lot of "girl talk" time, and Allura started us off.
"You don't know me as well as you think you do, Amoletta, my dear. I was once as young as you are, and just as beautiful. Oh yes, you are stunning, and I know it, even if you don't believe it! When I was young, like you are now, I had passion, like you do now. But I had passion for people and causes, not science and bugs."
She paused in thought, then spit out, "I had passion for causes! I want to do right! So much right!"
She got wistful again, "But my love for doing right was my downfall. I fell in with evil people who talked passionately of doing right, and I sopped up their evil like a sponge! 'The ends justify the means!' intoned my evil friends, 'Any act becomes heroic if it is an act against tyrants.' they said time and time again.
"I lived in Milan then, and my friends and I crusaded for democracy. Time and time again the democracy we sought for Milan was blocked. My friends and I came to blame Milan's oligarchs, and we sought ways to break their power. I have a talent for persuasion, as your father has recently discovered, and you as well, my dear. At first I used that talent to turn one oligarch against another -- I would meet them at parties and balls and pass on deeply spiteful and highly believable stories, and they would fight to avenge their honors. Then we discovered it was even quicker and deadlier to turn an oligarch against his own family -- father against son, nephew against uncle. Then the most evil scheme of all was hatched by the most ruthless of my friends, the one I loved... and the one who survives to this day. He would murder the wife of an oligarch, and then I would step in and marry the new widower. Not too long after the marriage, he too would have an untimely demise, usually blamed on the redressing of some family vendetta, but in reality the work of my evil friend... or me. My passion for doing right did not prevent me from mastering the evil tools of my love... as long as the ends justified the means.
"I would inherit wealth. I was young then, and so, so foolish. With the first two husbands I gave the wealth to my friends and the cause. My friends used it for debauchery and risky pet projects, and democracy in Milan advanced not a whit! As we maneuvered victim number three into marriage, my self-doubt about the rightness of this terrible tactic grew and I became uncertain. We got him, but the work was sloppy and my reputation was damaged. The will, which left everything to me, was fiercely contested.
"Over those years when I was being The Black Widow of Milan, the cause was not good to my friends. They argued constantly about the right way to pursue the cause, and died steadily... of being foolish themselves, or of becoming the victims of other people who justified killing them as a means to further their own ends. Our wonderfully passionate crusading team was nearly at an end, we only got husband four because his family was the weakest in Milan and he was senile. And with Number Four all of Milan could see the pattern of my marriages. I got nothing when he died, nothing but death threats. Instead of an inheritance, I got a ticket out of town.
"I wandered for years, hiding from my reputation in Milan. It was a harsh time for me. Then, five years ago, I met up with a rich widow from Venice who had been away from the city for ten years. My! My! We traveled together for a while and talked and talked until I knew all about her. Then I killed her and came 'home' to Venice as Allura Vinzeta." Allura smiled at me.
"So.... do you know me, my dear? Do you think your father or that bumpkin Baron can figure out who they are up against? I think not."
"So, why do you keep me alive?" I said.
She looked at me with a very distant look in her eyes, "Oh... I don't have good reason to kill you yet, I suppose. And, in truth, I find you quite likable, my dear. I know you dislike me intensely, but you have been very good about not insulting me or trying to smear me. I like that in a person. You have good character, very good character and I admire that. In fact, I envy you for it.
"Beyond that, an interesting wrinkle in our fates has come up. It seems my once lover did not self-destruct as all my other Milan friends did. In fact, instead, he is now a very powerful person there... perhaps the most powerful... but very quiet about it. I only just discovered this when I found this Italian trip that at your father and the Baron are on was to research me, and they had gone to Milan -- they had discovered some bits and pieces of my past, and they wanted to fill out the picture. I think it was your Baron's plan to do this so that the 'scales would fall from your father's eyes' and he would call off the wedding. Such a pity!"
"How did the Baron make a connection between you and Milan?" I asked.
"He's a mage, you know, a rather powerful one."
"A what?"
"A user of the dark arts. Oh, he likes his science, too, but I've been to his library. I've seen his tools. He's a practitioner."
This was not something I wanted to hear, not something I wanted to think about right now. It could explain some of his mystery, but I'm a science person. There is no magic. Perhaps she was just saying this to spite me. She knew I liked the Baron... and maybe she just wanted to hurt me... maybe.... On the other hand, it explained well how he could find all those exotic plants and animals on our field trips. I thought... then I put it out of my mind! There were more important issues right now.
"... Will he find us, now?" I asked. It was a really spooky question. It didn't sound polite to ask, and I was sure I wouldn't like the answer, but it was so critical to know.
"He may... I worry about it... and you should, too. If he does, you die instantly. My plan at this point is to get you and me to Milan. There, you may be of interest to my old love, and we may find safe haven."
She yawned a bit, a stress yawn, not a sleepy yawn, "I admit it. I was caught off-guard when your Baron made a connection to Milan. I'm not sure how he did it. He has my respect for that. If he hadn't made that connection, I would be happily settled in Venice with enough to maintain my style."
"In Venice?"
She smiled at me, a dreamy smile, "Oh, I still get romantic notions, dear, and your father is a good persuader himself. He talked to me of the green wonders of the Kalzov Valley, and for a while I quite imagined myself fitting in among its wondrous green forests, neat farms and mysterious old hills. But after I came, and saw for myself that it was just another remote valley populated with in-breds and rustics.... I'm a city girl now."
"You think my father would have gone to Venice?"
She smiled at me, "I am still the Black Widow. The question is not whether your father would have come to Venice, but whether you would have, dear? I like you, and you spent many years in Venice. Would you have enjoyed a return? Would you have enjoyed becoming a Lady of the City? You have no family there, so no one would have been arranging your marriage for this or that advantage. Would you have found a tall, dark stranger there to fulfill your deep fantasies... perhaps more than one?
"But that is all moot, now. Now you are a hostage, and we are on the run." She sighed slightly and looked out the window, and our conversation died.
Allura napped. I thought hard about working the knots on my wrists, and jumping out of the carriage when I was free and running and hiding in the woods. I probably should have, I'm good in the woods... but somehow, I didn't.
When Allura woke, she undid the rope around my wrists. "You are showing good sense, my dear. This will be a long journey and I'm happy to see you are not going to attempt foolish escapes. Do I have your word that you will not attempt something foolish if we stop at an inn for some decent food?"
"You do." I sighed. I would not attempt foolish escapes, but any opportunity with a good chance of succeeding I would take.
But I was deeply frustrated. Once again, my fate was not my own. I was not a child this time, but a hostage.
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