"Go to sleep, Victoria. We have nothing to worry about."
"But did you not hear him? We are in trouble, signora, they know where I am-"
"Silenzio, Victoria. You know that man's mind is a thousand places."
"Signora, per favore!" I begged to Adriana consistently, the fear I was trying so hard not to admit to rising slowly in my veins. She gave me a stern look, and I knew that if I opened my mouth to protest once more, she'd slap me. I submitted to her demand and walked to my room. Once I got in and closed the door behind me, I bit my lip in anger and whispered to myself, "puttana."
I did not choose to be put in this cursed whore house, and like hell, I wanted to leave. But it was far too dangerous. The Templars were looking for me, as they had been since I was born in Venezia.
They murdered my parents there, and my older sister Viola abandoned me to seek shelter with her husband. I was about six years old when this all happened. So many times I'd ask my mother why she wouldn't let me go to school, or even have friends for that matter – it took me that long to realize. I remember the night like it was only yesterday, when my bare feet were cold and aching from being cramped up underneath my father's desk. From the crack below, I could see the feet of about three men, going in all directions. My mother screamed and begged for her life from her room.
"Where are they?" a man's voice thundered, and my mother pleaded, saying she swore she had no idea what they were speaking of. "Where are your children? Where is your husband?" the voice demanded. She still swore she didn't know, and all of a sudden, there was a thud from her room, and it was silent for a few seconds. Then my father ran in through the door. I moved to where I could see a bit more through the crack.
"Felicia? Victoria?" he called out. He knew something was terribly wrong. I heard it in his voice. The men ran out towards him, and two grabbed his arms as the other stood in front of him.
"You tell us where your children are, and we may spare them," the man said. My father spit in his face.
"I will die before I tell you. Give me my wife," my father said back, his voice even more terrifying than the man's. Yet the stranger only laughed as he wiped the spit from his cheek.
"Your wife? Cold in her bedroom. If you do not speak now, your daughters will suffer the same fate, signore."
The light went out in my father's eyes as he said, "Bastardo," and a knife was taken to his throat. My father collapsed on the floor and the men stormed out.
I ran over to him and put my hand on his face, which was still warm. His eyes slowly looked up to me lovingly. His hand reached for mine, and then it fell. His body began to get cold, and my legs were soaked in the pool of blood that surrounded is throat-
"Victoria! Are you alright?"
I snapped out of it and looked at Elenora, nodding. She is the maid of this house. Adriana must have sent her to check on me, to make sure I hadn't escaped or let the words of the homeless man drive me insane.
"Yes, I am alright. Just tired. Will you please excuse me?" I asked her, and she swiftly left the room.
I thought about the homeless man from this morning. He seemed to be limping, and he was so old that he was going bald. Yet the fear in his eyes seemed so real, I couldn't help but listen to what he was saying. Everyone else on the streets would give him dirty looks and tell him to leave, yet he begged for them to listen so sincerely. I sat on the bench near to where he was standing, and bowed my head as if I was in deep thought. Discreetly, I listened to what he was saying.
"Angelo Galati is coming with his army of men – they will raid our precious city of Siena!" he would say.
My heart dropped to my stomach and I raced home, and told Adriana about it. Throughout the day, she told me to forget it, yet I couldn't.
Here I am now, lying in my soft bed, listening carefully to the outside world. The moon's faint light entered through my window, and it soothed me a bit. Before I knew it, I was asleep.
"Let us go!" I roared at them, as they held me down, as well as Adriana and some of the other girls. The others must have fled.
The familiar face of a man came close to mine. Though he seemed older, with more wrinkles and a few grey hairs coming out through his beard, he was still recognizable. His breath smelled rotten and I coughed in his face.
"Puttana, it is you," he said. "It's been a decade."
"I am no puttana," I growled, and spit in his face. He laughed as he wiped it off of his cheek.
"Just like your father," he said. "What a shame he is dead now."
I tried to escape the grasp of the man that was holding me. I kicked him right where it hurts and for a split second he let go, but two other men came over and held me back.
"What in the devil's name do you want from us?" asked Adriana, desperation in her voice.
"It's not what I want from you, it's what I want from her," he said, grabbing my hair and pulling it. I didn't dare flinch.
"Then take me, kill me, I do not care – just leave these women alone," I said. Elenora's cries grew louder. Adriana yelled, "No!" but the men twisted her wrists behind her to shut her up.
Angelo's menacing smile grew wider. "Perhaps you are not as much as a coward as your parents were." The anger roared like fire through my veins, but I awaited his decision with silence.
He gestured at the other men to let the women go. They all stood there, afraid that their actions would set them off again. Even Adriana stood silently, carefully watching me.
"Very well. We shall let these whores live. But you will come with us. Men, take her to the ship. Kill any guards that get in your way." And with that, they took me away, through the empty streets of Siena.
The walk there with the two men was silent. They bound my hands together with rope and put a sack over my head. I struggled to breathe but showed no retaliation. I wasn't going to die in the hands of these stronzos.
Through the sack, I could see some of the city lanterns. We were almost at the city wall when one of the men took the sack off of my head. I looked at his twisted smile, confused, until he made me turn around. And as I did, I swear a part of me died then and there.
From the distance, a bright orange glow came from a building. The thick smoke was visible by the stars, and I knew that that bastardo Angelo had lied through his teeth. He had set the house on fire. God knows if the girls survived or not.
The sound of horses trotting became louder and louder until I saw two of them come out from the streets. One was white, and carried Angelo himself. Another carried one of his men, and I was pulled onto that one, my arms still bound. They put the sack over my head once more and with that, before any of the citizens could come out to see what was happening, we left Siena.
It took what felt like a day before we stopped for good. They finally took the sack off my head again and tossed it away – it was late afternoon. We were in a small clearing at the base of a mountain, surrounded by trees on one side and water to the other side. A large ship was there, and the men boarded it with their horses and caskets of food. I was pulled off of the horse and I hit my head on a stone – not hard enough to black out, but hard enough to be slightly disoriented for a moment.
"Get up," one of the men demanded. I tried but fell again. He kicked my side and I yelled in pain. I carefully tried to stand again, but he kicked me once more and I fell. He and the couple of men surrounding him laughed. Angelo appeared and they then straightened up. I finally stood and they pulled me aboard the ship.
"Do you want her in the prisoner room?" asked one of the men. Angelo looked down at me, then back at the man.
"No. Keep her up here, tied to the sail pole. We don't want her escaping. She is Leonzo Calvetti's daughter."
And so, they did just that. They tied me down to the post, and in a while, we were sailing. The night slowly grew upon me. My stomach growled with severe hunger, my lips dry with thirst, yet the men did nothing.
I was left wondering.
Do they want to kill me? If so, why am I still alive? Do they want information? I know nothing. What did they want…? Where would they take me?
I soon passed out from dehydration. I would not see daylight for a while.