Chapter 15

The enormous fireplace crackled and filled the room with a flickering orange light, casting elongated shadows across the floor. The sword in her hand concentrated on the charming face smirking at back with impassion. His eyes gazed at her own, unafraid, cold, and sharp in appearance. "Tell me signora, what do you know about the vault?"

"Nothing, nor do I wish to. All I want is my brother."

"You do not wish to?" he sounded surprised. Her scowl remained unchanged by his banter as he shook his head in dark amusement. "Signora you have no idea what a tangled web you have woven yourself into," his smile sent a cold chill racing through her body. He laughed aloud when he saw the sword tremble momentarily in her hand. "Signora you cannot kill me..."

Her eyes blazed as she touched the tip of the blade to his neck, "I can, and I will," her voice thick with venom.

"No," he ignored her threat, "You cannot not. Do you wish to know why?"

"Enlighten me," she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Signora you will not kill me because deep down you know your brother respects me, and he needs me. I have been a father to him all these years. I taught him how to tame the nightmares, to harness his gifts."

"What gifts?" she snapped.

"You see, that is why I am so confused. Why are you so attached to this boy? You are so eager to risk your life for someone you know nothing about. To save someone who does not need to be saved. Your brother is happy... he wants to be here."

"Lies!"

His soft laughter made her cringe, "Così testardo, just like your father." She spitefully applied pressure to his neck, slightly breaking the surface of his skin. His features remained unaffected as a small drop of blood oozed down his neck and onto his collar. "But they aren't lies... are they signorina? Your brother is truly gifted. The pieces call to him, it is in his blood. If not for him, the venture to Cyprus would have been a completely failure. He served his role perfectly in retrieving my treasure..."

"You speak in riddles Patriarch, but your trinkets and vaults of myth mean nothing to me."

He scoffed, offended by the comment, "Do you truly not know what I speak of! Do you not know of the power the pieces of Eden possess!"

She stared coldly into his arrogant face, "I do not want power... I just want my life as it was. Forever my hands will be stained with the blood of your men, forever I will thirst for vengeance, but it will never be quenched. I will never have my mother or my father back... and it is your fault." She applied more pressure into his throat with every word as the drip of blood grew into a faint trickle. His face flinched slightly as he tucked his hands into fists.

"Do it then. Kill me. But before you do, ask yourself, do you truly think your brother will welcome a stranger with open arms, especially with the knowledge that she killed the only family he has ever known?"

Alcina never imagined her life being one of vengeance, conquest, and death. So many years fighting for this moment, and yet the answers to all the mysteries shattered across her journey were always shrouded, hidden and just a few more paces ahead. But none of that mattered now. In this very moment, she could finally fulfill her purpose the way she had always dreamed... the look in his eyes, the sword in her hands.

"PUT IT DOWN!" a forceful scream commanded from behind.

"Ahh, excellent timing lieutenant. We were just talking about you," Rodolfo grinned. The caped templar knight stood in the doorway, armed and aiming his crossbow at Alcina, threatening to open fire.

"Donato..." she breathed helplessly.

"Put down the sword or I will shoot!"

"Donato listen to me, do you not remember me? It's me... Alcina!" she begged, fighting the sudden shakiness in her limbs.

"I SAID, put down the sword!"

Her voice grew frantic, "Donato it's me! Do you not remember your sister? We lived in Firenze, you called me Alcee! Your father was Enzo Gavino. Don't listen to this man! He is a liar! He's using you to find the pieces of Eden, he cares nothing for you! All he wants is the vault. He's using you..."

"Abbastanza!" Rodolfo snapped, "Shoot her lieutenant, that is an order."

"Donato... please remember..."

Donato's eyes scanned back and forth between the two faces, his expression unreadable, "I do not know you assassin. Put down the sword and release Patriarch Salvatore!"

Her heart skipped a beat, then took a devastating plunge in her chest; her brother was gone, brainwashed by the templar's. "I will not warn you again!" he emphasized his grip on the straining crossbow. She resentfully took slow steps back and dropped the weapon to the floor, glaring at Rodolfo's taunting smile, "Well done lieutenant." The Patriarch rose from his seat, twisting his neck from side to side, ignoring the bloody mess upon his collar. He strolled back to the warm light of the fireplace as he silently gestured to Donato. Two more guards entered the room in response, rushing to the intruder's side. They roughly forced her into the Patriarch's empty chair, holding her down in their grasp, binding her by her wrists and shoulders. Rodolfo's mind ticked wickedly as he gazed upon the lapping flames. "Are you religious by chance bella?" Rodolfo stirred the flames with the metal poker, erupting a shower of sparks within the fireplace. "There is a passage that I have always been partial to." A sharp tug of her scalp forced her head back, revealing her long, smooth neck. Rodolfo Salvatore withdrew the stoker from the fire, blowing gently on the glowing, red, tip, decoratively crowned with a hissing templar cross. "It says, an eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth. I find it must appropriate at times such as these." Alcina jerked her head aggressively in attempts to break loose from the hands just as Rodolfo turned, presenting his tool. "You came into my home, threatened me, and gave me a rather ugly scar on my throat... I think it's only fair I return the favor. An eye for an eye..." He eyed over the sizzling brand in his grasp and smiled in her direction.

Her eyes widened with terror as she writhed in the chair, kicking wildly to break free. The thud of his footsteps echoed like a ticking clock. Panic suffocated her as she choked in her throat, the sweat bedding across her face. She had only one option left, maybe there was still a chance. "Donato! Donato please! Please listen! When you were a child you would have nightmares, visions! Every night you would wake up screaming!"

"Enough I said!" Rodolfo bellowed.

"You would wake up in tears, and I always... always came to hold you until you fell back asleep." She helplessly gazed upon his face, the hard militant glare began to wither from her brother's eyes.

"Shut your mouth ingannando puttana!" the Patriach thundered to her side making the torrid metal flare and hiss.

"Donato... I was there... you know me, truly you must. I would always tell you, the nightmares cannot hurt you, the flames will not burn you... peace will come with the dawn," Donato's forehead creased as if he were attacked by some sort of sharp pain, his composure staggering.

"Lieutenant."

His master's short bark sent him fleeting to his side, shoulders rigid in attention, "Master?"

"I have a job for you," Rodolfo eyed his prisoner, enjoying the panic in her features, the terror in her eyes.

"Yes master?" Rodolfo silently extended the iron tool in his hand, offering it to his favorite soldier. Donato gazed in confusion, his expression transformed into disgust. "Master... I-"

"You will do this. Do it for me... son." His face seemed pained and torn as he hesitantly clasped his fingers around the metal stake, his eyes fixed on the glowing emblem. Rodolfo clasped a proud hand on his lieutenant's shoulder, "Show this traitor who we are, and that we do not except those who spit in the face of our order." His commands were full of malice, polluting the lieutenant's mind. Donato bolding left his master's side, fixing his gaze on the accused. Her flowing neck exposed, a blank pallet for the burns to come. His keen eyes could almost see her pulse racing beneath the lightly colored skin. The soldier in him craved to please his master, snarling and salivating like a loyal hound, begging to be released from his chains. Alcina gazed into his eyes that had grown dark and vicious, the eyes of the Patriarch.

...

translations:

Così testardo- so stubborn

Abbastanza- enough

ingannando puttana- lying whore