Magicians of Caprona - Diana Wynne Jones [76]
“Thank the lord!” said the Duke. “I’m not going to be caught with them. I can feel her coming.”
Thanks to the Duke’s charging run, it was some minutes before the Duchess caught up with them. Tonino, squinting out under the flap, could see the great marble entrance hall when the Duke skidded to a stop. He dropped the flap hastily when he heard the cold voice of the Duchess. She sounded out of breath but triumphant.
“The enemy is by the New Bridge, my lord. You’ll be killed if you go out now.”
“And I’ll be killed if I stay here too,” said the Duke. He waited for the Duchess to deny this, but she said nothing. They heard the Duke swallow. But his resolution held. “I’m going,” he said, a mite squeakily, “to drive down among my people and comfort their remaining hours.”
“Sentimental fool,” said the Duchess. She was not angry. It was what she thought the Duke was.
This made the Duke bluster. “I may not be a good ruler,” he said, “but this is what a good ruler should do. I shall—I shall pat the heads of children and join in the singing of the choir.”
The Duchess laughed. “And much good may it do you, particularly if you sing,” she said. “Very well. You can get killed down there instead of up here. Run along and pat heads.”
“Thank you, my dear,” the Duke said humbly. He surged forward again, thump, thump, thump, down marble steps. They heard the sound of hooves on gravel and felt the Duke shaking. “Let’s go, Carlo,” he said. “What is it? What are you pointing—? Oh yes. So it is a griffin. How remarkable. Drive on, can’t you.” He surged upwards. Coach-springs creaked and a door clapped shut. The Duke surged down. They heard him say “Oh good!” as he sat, and the rather-too-familiar sound of cardboard being hit, as he patted the box on the seat beside him. Then the coach started, with a shrilling of wheels on gravel and a battering of hooves. They felt the Duke sigh with relief. It made them bounce. “You can come out now,” said the Duke.
They climbed cautiously out onto his wide knees. The Duke kindly moved over to the window so that they could see out. And the first thing that met their eyes was an iron griffin, very crumpled and bent, lying in quite a large crater in the Palace yard.
“You know,” said the Duke, “if my Palace wasn’t going to be broken up anyway by Pisans, or Sienese, or Florentines, I’d get damages off you two. The other griffin has scraped two great ditches all down my facade.” He laughed and patted at his glossy face with his handkerchief. He was still very nervous.
As the coach rolled out of the yard onto the road, they heard gunfire. Some of it sounded near, a rattle of shots from below by the river. Most of it was far and huge, a long grumble from the hills. The bangs were so close together that the sound was nearly continuous, but every so often, out of the grumble, came a very much nearer clap-clap-clap. It made all three of them jump each time.
“We are taking a pounding,” the Duke said unhappily.
The coach slowed down. They could hear the prim voice of the coachman among the other noise. “I fear the New Bridge is under fire, Your Grace. Where exactly are we bound?”
The Duke pushed down the window. The noise doubled. “The Cathedral. Go upriver and see if we can cross by the Old Bridge.” He pushed the window shut. “Phew! I don’t envy Carlo up there on the box!”
“Why are we going to the Cathedral?” Angelica asked anxiously. “We want to look at the Angels on our Casas.”
“No,” said the Duke. “She’ll have thought of those. That’s why I asked the Major. It seems to me that the one place where those words are always safe and always invisible must be on the Cathedral Angel. You think of it at once, but it’s up there and far away, so you forget it.”
“But it’s miles up!” said Angelica.
“It’s got a scroll, though,” said Tonino. “And the scroll looks to be more unrolled than the ones on our Angels.”
“I’m afraid it’s bound to be about the only place she might have forgotten,” said the Duke.
They rattled along briskly, except for one place, where there was a shell crater in the road. Some