Doge of Venice

Medieval 6: Giovanni 5 Search and Rescue, part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“One minute.” Giovanni yelled in a grumpy voice. The girl, in her underclothes, looked prepared to finish the job. “Woah,” he whispered. “That will be quite enough.” He could not help staring. She was beautiful. She stared too, but the look in her eyes was more that of fear barely overcome by a minimum of trust and a great deal of curiosity.

“What’s wrong?” She whispered back.

He wanted to say, nothing, but instead he put a hand to his chin. “Something’s missing,” he said and reached for the cup of water on the desk. He splashed her and she nearly shouted, and perhaps wanted to slap him again, but hesitated when he splashed himself. “Sweat,” he explained. “Muss your hair.” She did as the knock came again, this time more rudely. “Lord.” They heard the man speaking as Sabelius had spoken. Clearly the man did not want to upset the strongman. “Your pardon, but we must search every wagon.”

“In the bed,” Giovanni said, taking the girl by the arm and directing her toward the back of the wagon. “Give a good performance,” he insisted. She took some dirt from the table where it had gotten a little wet and smeared in on her face. “Good touch,” he said as he stuffed her dress into a nearby trunk.

“Coming!” He shouted with some anger. “I said I was coming.” The girl slipped under the covers as he opened the door. “What?” He echoed the girl’s word, but with enough ferocity to make the watchman take a step back. Giovanni noticed there were six of them with Sabelius. Probably the only reason this one had the courage to push up to the door in the first place.

“Your pardon,” he repeated himself. “There is a girl missing and she was last seen heading toward your camp. We have been ordered to search everywhere if you don’t mind.” He craned his neck in an attempt to see into the wagon.

“Whose orders?” Giovanni got curious but sounded disturbed.

“Lord Orseolo.” The man said with some sense of self-importance. “The Doge himself.”

Giovanni raised an eyebrow.

“Who is it, Giovanni, dear?” Giovanni felt almost as surprised then as the man in front of him. The girl in his bed actually had the audacity to speak up.

“Nothing, sweetheart,” he said, playing right along. “Just some rude men.” He stepped aside far enough for them to see in, but not quite far enough for them to enter. Sabelius nudged one of the watch and winked at another, and they got the message.

“Sir.” Clearly, the man outside still wanted to come in.

“Seen any runaway maidens?” Giovanni said over his shoulder.

“No maidens in here.” The girl spoke in a very sultry voice, and then she stuck her dirty face and scraggly hair out from between the bed curtains and spoke very sweetly. “Do send them away and come back to bed, Giovanni dearest.”

Giovanni turned to the men who were mostly smiling by then. “To paraphrase Julius Caesar.” he said in a theatrical tone. “You came. You saw. But I will conquer!” He slammed the door in their faces and paused only one moment to make sure they did not knock again. He stepped to the bed.

“Are they gone?” she whispered.

Giovanni shrugged, put one hand to his ear and mimed listening at the door. “Are you ticklish?” he asked but he did not give her time to answer. He found out that she was. Very quickly, though, he stopped. She backed away to the back wall of the wagon and the fear returned to her eyes.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said softly, thanking Angel who taught him long ago to say that. “It is my policy never to abuse any maiden I happen to save.” He stood and walked to the door. He cracked it open as the girl had done earlier. The Watch and their torches were receding from the camp. He opened the door a little wider, then and spoke. “Thank you Sabelius,” he said, knowing that the strongman would hear him. “Oberon!” he called, knowing the dwarf would hear too, and soon be present.

“Have you saved many maidens?” the girl asked, covering herself a little with the bed sheets.

“You are the first.” Giovanni said and smiled. She gave him back a radiant smile of her own. “But it is a good policy, don’t you think?”

“Oh, yes,” she said. “Yes indeed.”

“Are you hungry?” he asked, offering her the plate Gabriella had brought.

“No, thank you,” she said, but she looked and then smelled it as he held it out. She put her fingers delicately into the bowl and took a dainty bite. Then she looked at him, smiled again, and took the plate. “This is quite good.”

Giovanni found himself grinning. “Runaway from home?” he asked. “A bad marriage?” he suggested.

“No.” The girl shook her head. “Haven’t married him yet.”

“Ah.” he spoke wisely. “Bad arrangement. You’re in love with someone else, I suppose.”

The girl shook her head again. “There is no one else,” she said between bites.

“Hmm.” Giovanni was almost stumped. “Then I guess you must not like the look of him.”

“Haven’t seen him,” she said. “Well, once years ago. I was not happy with what I saw. I was supposed to get married at the end of the week, but not now.”

“Then what?” Giovanni threw his hands up.

She paused in her dining. “You almost got it right,” she said in her tender voice. “He is a mean and horrible person from all I hear. He only cares about himself. He is demanding and selfish and self-centered.”

“In other words, a man,” Giovanni said with a smile.

“A real ogre,” she countered, and she pined with a dramatic flair. “I would rather die.” Then she looked at Giovanni to see if he approved of her performance.

“Needs a wilting hand on the forehead,” he said and showed her the move. She laughed, genuinely, covering her mouth, sweetly. “I would watch those ogre comments, though.” he said, half seriously. “Some of my best friends are ogres.” She almost laughed again, but just then Sabelius opened the door and Oberon came bounding in. The girl let out a little scream.

“Begging your pardon, Lady,” Sabelius said with a tip of his hat. “I know I’m an ugly sight for those not used to me.”

“Buckets of ugly.” Giovanni agreed.

Sabelius smiled. “But I would never hurt anyone. I’ve been good so long I don’t know if I could even if I wanted to.”

The girl stared as if she was not sure.

“Stand up.” Oberon talked to the girl but no one listened to him. The girl did stand, however, but her eyes never quit turning between Sabelius and Giovanni. Meanwhile, Oberon had to stand on the chair to measure her bust.

“It’s true.” Giovanni tried to reassure the girl about the big man. “He’s a good egg.”

“I’ll wait outside,” Sabelius offered and backed out of the doorway. The girl made a visible sigh of relief.

“Great shape for a human. What costume?” Oberon caught Giovanni’s attention.

“What should she do?” He started thinking.

“Do?” The girl asked.

“You will be safe here.” he said. “You won’t be found, but you will have to become one of us.”

“Everyone works and everyone shares,” Oberon explained.

“There are lots of secrets here,” Giovanni tried to continue, but Oberon liked to talk.

“But no one tells. The circus is like a family, and what we know stays with us. We don’t talk to outsiders much, at least not about secrets. You will be safe with us, but you will have to become one of us.”

The girl sat down on the edge of the bed.

“But I can’t do anything,” she protested.

“You let me worry about that,” Giovanni said. “You’re smart as well as pretty. I can tell. Just because you have no obvious talent, well, you can learn.”

“But you don’t understand.” The girl expressed her sense of frustration and hopelessness. “The Doge won’t give up. He will keep searching and searching until I am caught.”

“But we won’t be here in a month,” he countered. “On the first of April we head out on the road, to get ahead of Corriden, and then there is a whole season of shows, spring, summer and fall ahead of us up and down the peninsula.”

“We will leave Venice?” The girl caught on. “But what can I do?”

“Harlequin.” Giovanni said at last, having decided.

“Boss.” Oberon was not so sure. “Can she acrobat? Can she even tell a joke?”

“She is young and flexible.” he said. “And comedy can be learned. Besides, the make-up will hide her face and make her all but impossible to find.

“She’ll never pass for a thirteen year old boy,” Oberon pointed out.

“Whoever said harlequin had to be a young boy?” He felt sure she could play the part. “Still, I suppose the hair will have to go.”

“My hair?” The girl was lying down. She took a handful of her long blonde hair and held it to her lips as her eyes slowly closed.

“I don’t suppose you could throw her back,” Oberon quipped.

“No, she’s a keeper,” he said. “Besides, harlequin is the one thing we were really missing.”

“I’ll get the Missus to fix the costume so you will have it by morning,” Oberon said more softly. The girl started breathing more deeply as she fell off to sleep.

“Thank Needles for me.” he said, reaching into the trunk. “Here. You better burn her dress. And by the way, thanks to you and Sabelius for watching out for me.”

“No problem.” Oberon brushed it off. “But if it’s all the same to you I think Sabelius and I will go throw rocks at Madam Figiori’s booth. She cast a spell around her booth so the night watch did not disturb her. She was in there snoring away while the rest of us suffered.”

“Don’t break anything,” Giovanni said with a little laugh. Oberon left, and immediately he remembered how tired he was. He looked at the bed and watched the girl sleep for a minute. He could hardly keep his eyes off her not to mention his hands, but if she was going to be part of the circus, that made her strictly off limits. In a great act of will, he forced himself to think of the girl as a sister, and one he needed to protect, not abuse. He pulled a blanket out of the trunk and curled up in his chair. He blew out the candle and almost immediately began to dream.

************************

MONDAY

Giovanni struggles through a restless night full of strange dreams but in the morning they convince Leonora to be the harlequin for the circus as long as she stays hidden. Until Monday, Happy Reading

*

Medieval 6: Giovanni 2 Women and Questions, part 1 of 1

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Giovanni discovered girls as early as twelve. Being Don Giovanni III, master of the circus got them curious. By thirteen, his smooth and confident manner got them interested. He was not much older before they started rolling in the hay.

The circus wintered in the swampland on the mainland of Venice granted to Don Giovanni the first, along with his knighthood. The Doge said he would rather have those strange circus people in the swamps than an enemy army. Around April something, the Circus began its season. They had what young Giovanni called dress rehearsals in Padua before they hit some small towns in the Po River Valley. They practiced in the small towns and villages in both the circus tent and the smaller tent they called the tent of wonders that Giovanni secretly called the freak show. Then they crossed the river to Modena where they set up the big tent. It was the last chance to practice the big show before they got to Bologna, the first city since Padua. From there they went to Ravena, and all the way down the east coast of Italy to Fermo where they crossed the hills to Spoleto. They were in fine form when somewhere near the first week of July they crossed over to Rome. They stayed in Rome for a week and gave as many as five performances in the big tent, but mostly people rested up for the second half of the season. They did not perform on Sunday, of course, though they often traveled on Sunday.

The first half of the season took about three months. They rested and performed about forty-five days and they traveled about forty-five days leaving early in the morning and traveling until two, or sometimes three, unless of course it was pouring rain. They tried to make up to fifteen miles in a day, about two and a half miles per hour, though it seemed for every day they made fifteen, there was another day where they barely made five so they averaged about ten. In the villages and small towns they tried to open the tent of wonders at four and put on the smaller show in the circus tent at five. If warranted, on those summer days when the sun stayed up late, they might put on a second show in the tent of wonders where they might include some small acts, like the juggler, fire eater, or clowns that the people might have missed in the circus tent. Then the circus people got up and had an early breakfast, packed everything, and left an hour or maybe two after sunup. In the big towns and cities they often stayed three or four days. The big tent went up and they might perform two or three shows in the big tent at five. On those days, the tent of wonders would open at two and give a second showing at four, and the circus tent would have a show at three where the people got a taste of what would be in the big show, and they were encouraged not to miss it.

The second half of the season, the big half with sixty days of travel and sixty days in the towns and cities brought them up the west coast. They went to Pisa, Genoa, Turin if there was time, and Milan. From Milan they followed a familiar path that made everyone think of home. It was Milan, Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, Padua again, and back to Venice. They usually got home at the end of October or the first week in November and performed one last week, two or three performances for the people of Venice before the cold weather kicked in.

From young Giovanni’s perspective, he learned to take advantage of all that moving about. To be sure, he imagined himself as worse than a sailor. He had a girl or two in every city, and some in the countryside as well. Most of them were peasants but some of them were quite wealthy and well-to-do ladies who could not resist him and the chance to be naughty.

On one bright and crisp winter day in Venice, he was just coming back from just such a rendezvous with a fine lady when he ran into the last person he expected. He got up on some steps because the young man rode in the streets, an unusual thing in Venice. The young man looked surrounded by soldiers and some men who looked like they served the Doge. Giovanni halfheartedly waved, but it was enough to catch the young man’s eye. The man smiled broadly and yelled.

“Don Giovanni.”

This is not what Giovanni wanted. The whole crowd turned to look at him, especially the women who certainly thought something. Giovanni quickly pushed through the crowd before he could be grabbed by any of the women or stabbed by any of the men. He did not mind hugging the young man who had gotten down from his horse, and he named him.

“Otto. Good to see you again.”

He took a step back and they both remembered the secret circus handshake, and Otto laughed and spouted. “You were right. The Greatest Show on Earth. It was incredible. When can I come again?”

“Winter quarters right now,” Giovanni admitted. “The season starts in April and runs through the first week or so in November. Then everyone rests about four months, and comes up with new acts, new ideas, new tricks, and such for the next season. We start again in April.”

Otto nodded, like it was a serious discussion. It was a practiced look, no doubt, when he got surrounded by older men who were presumably wiser men. “I have only three questions… make that four. First, how did your father ever come up with the idea of a circus?”

“It was my grandfather. The Doge, a couple of Doges back, was so impressed, he knighted my grandfather in perpetuity and gave him the swampland on the mainland. Better than an enemy army in the swamp, he said. We have a house, big barn and stables, workshop, tents, and wagons everywhere, plenty of farm animals, and a small fishing village on the coast that keeps us all fed. Not much to speak of, all things considered, and certainly not land that anyone else would want.”

“But the circus?”

“Ah,” Giovanni drew out the word. “The circus, like the old Roman circus which was a place of entertainment. There are people everywhere that have talents. Some are peculiar talents. Some are peculiar people. They have traveled around like beggars since Roman times, performing in towns and villages for the few pennies that get thrown their way. It is a hard way to make a living, especially since the road is a dangerous place to be. My grandfather got the idea of gathering many of these performers together and putting on a great show. They could actually charge money to see the show, a more certain and regular income for everyone, and a whole train of people to travel, so less likely to run afoul of the typical thieves and robbers most travelers have to watch out for.”

“Brilliant,” Otto said. “I imagined something like that.” He looked around. The soldiers were keeping back and keeping the crowd back, but one old man came up to listen in. Two oddly familiar looking men, one short and one big, followed but kept back a couple of extra steps. The old gentleman kindly did not interrupt at first, so Otto continued.

“So, second. Have you seen any more ships flying around in the sky?”

“Shh…” Giovanni hushed Otto and quieted his voice. “That is something that is best not made public. I went and spoke to the Flesh Eaters, and did not get eaten, thank God. There are twelve of them. That was what they call a shuttle, like the longboat on a sailing ship men use to escape when the ship is sunk in battle. Their ship got destroyed in a battle and they escaped on the shuttle. They just needed a place to hide for a while, though it has been seven years now and that should be long enough. They promised to not eat any people while they are hiding, so that is a good thing, but they don’t exactly pay for the cows, horses, pigs, and sheep they take.” Giovanni shrugged.

Otto nodded and hushed himself. “So, I hear you are getting quite a reputation with the ladies.” He grinned like he was talking about something risqué, which he was.

“The younger Giovanni is a scoundrel of the worst sort,” the older man finally interrupted. “Makes me want to put a guard around my daughter.”

“But what are you doing here?” Giovanni changed the subject.

“Most of the army is around Rome, but I wanted to renew the Empire’s friendship and trade agreements with Pietro II Orseolo. Part of the agreement involves me marrying Petro II’s niece, Lord Stephano’s daughter.”

“That’s me,” the older man said. “Lord Stephano.” He gave Giovanni his hardest practiced stare, but Giovanni was not fazed by it as his focus stayed on what Otto just said. Giovanni even raised his voice a little.

“Otto. You are sixteen. I’m seventeen but nowhere near ready to marry. What are you thinking?”

“It is the way alliances are made,” he said with just the right touch of sadness.

“It isn’t right, especially for the girl who has no say in the matter.”

“It is the way it is done,” Lord Stephano said.

“Doesn’t make it right,” Giovanni responded with a sharp look at Lord Stephano who did not appear to disagree with him entirely. “Fathers want their daughters to be happy, not stuck in a situation they might not like. At least with you, I know you will make the effort, but still… Did you at least get a look at her.”

“We looked at each other from a distance. I did not seem to impress her.”

“She is but fourteen years old. The marriage will not happen at this time,” Lord Stephano interrupted.

“How about you?” Giovanni asked.

Otto wrinkled his lips like he had to be careful with his words. “I am not sure she is my type, but maybe when we get to know each other…”

Giovanni nodded before he shook his head and smiled. “All women seem to be my type.”

“So we have heard.” Lord Stephano said and suggested with his hands that Otto needed to get back to his horse and on to his destination. The short man and big man brought up their four horses.

Giovanni interrupted. “But wait. The circus. The ship.” He pointed to the sky. “And the women. You said there were four things.”

Otto turned toward his horse but spoke over his shoulder. “Did you get your elephant?”

“Not yet, but I am working on it,” Giovanni answered. “When I get one, I’ll bring it to you so you can see it for yourself.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Otto said as he mounted and the troop of horses moved carefully through the streets and headed for the palace, or maybe to the shipyard where they could take the horses aboard for transport back to the mainland.

************************

MONDAY

There is a death in the family and Corriden wants to take over the circus. Corriden takes most of the circus with him, but the Kairos has friends. Until then, Happy Reading

*