Holy Roman Empire

Medieval 6: Giovanni 6 A Morning Visit, part 2 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Two days later, the acrobats Nicholi, Gregori, their mother, Portence, and Rosa the scamp, as she came to be called, were putting Leonora through her morning paces. She was flexible enough, more flexible than the boys, though no one was as flexible as twelve-year-old Rosa. Back handsprings were not easy, especially if you wanted to do three in a row and end with a back flip, either curled or straight legged with a twist.

“Stick that landing,” Giovanni said a million times. “Take a bow. We will be having dress rehearsals in two weeks if we can get Madigan and his musicians working together and we are not nearly ready.”

Cartwheels and handstands were also not easy to do well. The handstand in particular was important if you wanted to do a slow roll backwards and end up on your feet. The boys tended to tuck and roll forward to their feet. Rosa could do a slow back walkover and come slowly to her feet. Leonora could not quite do that, but she was determined to do it and would not quit until she mastered it.

Giovanni had a seesaw built that the boys could use to get some height. Portence, their own mother came up with the idea of using the seesaw to land Gregori on Nicholi’s shoulders so they stood two people tall. Nicholi was the stronger of the two, being eighteen months older than his brother. Then Portence and Rosa came up with the idea that Rosa should be catapulted to the top, to stand three people tall. That was going to take real practice. Leonora thought she could sneak up and jump on the other end of the seesaw to send the little girl up to that height, but Leonora did not weigh enough alone. She got Oberon the dwarf when he dressed in his yellow clown outfit to jump with her. Again, they needed practice, but Giovanni thought if they could get good at it, that could be a boffo ending for their act. Maybe no one knew what a boffo was, but by then others were saying it.

Leonora spent at least two hours after lunch learning lines and jokes. Giovanni wiped the worry sweat from his forehead when he recognized that she had a good sense of comedic timing. When Giovanni realized that he took advantage of being the Kairos for the first time in his life. He had the Storyteller look up the Abbot and Costello routine of “Who’s on First.” They needed the megaphone and a strong voice in the big tent, but in the smaller circus tent it would be perfect. Leonora put a coat over her harlequin costume and pretended to be an outsider who wanted to join the circus. Giovanni talked about nicknames and brought out the clowns who carried a ball. The red clown was who. The white clown was what. The blue clown was I Don’t Know. He knew he should not tempt time in that way, but circus people were always practical, quick to use whatever came to mind or to hand. With some minor adjustments, the routine went well and he tried to ignore the scolding he gave himself.

Leonora also spent lunchtime getting to know the circus people. Much to Giovanni’s delight, though not unexpected, everyone liked her very much. She was easy to like, he decided.

On the third day, Oberon arrived with a jar of white makeup and a smaller jar of red. He had brushes for her eyelashes and a pencil for her brows. “Here,” he said. “She might as well start getting used to wearing the makeup, not that a high born woman needs much encouragement in the makeup department. Besides, I think you want her covered up for when the visitors arrive.” He walked off without further explanation. Leonora and Giovanni who sat at the table across from each other, turned their head like they were mirror images. They looked at the road. They turned back at the same time and looked at each other before they both dropped their eyes. Giovanni coughed to clear his throat.

He applied her whiteface. He made her lips red and did not let his fingers linger too long on her lips, though she said nothing about it. She just looked at him with big puppy dog eyes, so he went to work on the eyes. He made them appear extra big and darkened the lashes and eyebrows. He noticed the whiteface did not disguise her beauty. He would have to watch that, but meanwhile, she would not likely be recognized.

Moments later, some twenty men rode up on the road and six of the men came down on the wide and safe path to the barn, the stables, the workshop, and where all the tents and wagons rested. Most of the men were soldiers of some sort, but Giovanni knew or remembered four of them. Lord Stephano butted up front and his two henchmen, big and short, rode behind. The other one was Otto who gave a good look around before he got down.

Giovanni went straight to Otto while Leonora went to hide by the chuck wagon. She did a cartwheel and back handspring on her way. She thought it completed the disguise, but Otto noticed.

“Much nicer than the other one,” Otto said.

“The other one?” Giovanni asked as they greeted each other with the supposed secret circus handshake.

“We stopped at a farm down the road. We thought it was your circus farm. Some of the people looked familiar.”

“Not mine,” Giovanni said and Otto nodded.

“The Corriden Circus. I thought you were the only one.”

“He stole some of my people and started his own. You know, a good idea is bound to be copied.”

“I could get your people back,” Otto offered, but Giovanni quickly shook his head.

“They are free people and can go where they want. If they think they can do better with Corriden, that is their decision. I don’t own them. They may be surprised, though. I’ve got some new acts which are pretty good.”

“Your harlequin?” he paused for Giovanni to nod that he got the name right. Otto started again. “You harlequin is certainly pretty and I bet she is also good.”

“Harley is new and just learning with so much of this circus. Hard to believe we only have one more month to get ready before we have to start the season.”

“Get to the point,” Lord Stephano shouted down from where he sat on his horse and looked around everywhere.

“April starts it all.” Otto understood as he remembered. “So, we are here looking for my fiancé. She disappeared right before the wedding, and we know she took a boat to the mainland, but then we lost her. No telling where she may have gone. Some are saying she may have taken a ship to some distant port, like Constantinople or Provence, and we will never find her.”

“How do you feel about that?” Giovanni asked.

Otto shrugged. “Not one way or the other. I only saw her that one time, briefly, when she—when we were younger.” He shrugged again. “I have advisors who thought it was a bad deal from the beginning. They are already working on an arrangement with the Emperor of the Eastern Romans. Apparently, he has a second daughter, Zoe something.” He honestly did not look terribly interested in marriage of whatever kind. It told Giovanni that he might not have been an attentive or good husband, so keeping Leonora was just as well.

Giovanni looked up at Lord Stephano and raised his voice. “Sorry. Just circus people here. We don’t allow strangers in our midst. Have to protect the secrets of the circus, you know.”

Lord Stephano harumphed, but Otto smiled until Giovanni took his arm and led him a few steps further away.

“You asked me four questions last time. Now I have a question for you.”

“Fair enough,” as Giovanni let go and turned to face the young emperor.

“Do you have any friends?”

Otto looked taken aback by the question. “I…” He tried to play it straight. “I have lots of people who like to hang around the court and smile and agree with everything I say.”

“Seriously.”

Otto looked down. “I have generals, captains, advisors, counselors,,,”

“A butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker, but that does not answer the question.”

Otto shuffled one foot. “No,” he said. “Not really.”

“Well, you have one,” Giovanni said. “I will always be your friend and tell you the truth, even if you don’t want to hear it, and even if it gets me in trouble.”

Otto nodded, paused, hugged Giovanni, and spoke. “I have an empire to run. You have a circus to run…”

“About like running a madhouse.”

“Same,” Otto said with a smile. “Still, I could envy you.”

“My father used to say, never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.”

“I’ve heard that one, or something like that.”

The two turned back to the horses and Lord Stephano had something more to say. “Aren’t you going to order your soldiers to search the camp?”

Otto shook his head as he mounted. “She is not here. But if she was you should not worry. If she is with Don Giovanni she is in the safest place in the world she could be, even if my friend misbehaves sometimes.” He smiled at that thought and said, “See you later.”

“Later,” Giovanni echoed.

One week later, he got a letter from Otto. It said he would be in Rome all summer, or at least at the beginning of the summer. He really wanted to see the circus again, but he did not know Giovanni’s schedule. If possible, he should certainly be in Rome the first two weeks in June. Could he maybe come to Rome June first? Then he said that things often change with two such busy people, but God willing they can hopefully catch up with each other in Rome. Good luck with all the new people, he said, and signed it informally, though it was sealed with all the bells and whistles of the Holy Roman Emperor.

“Good luck,” Giovanni said to himself.

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

MONDAY

Sabotage, chapter 7 in three parts, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Don’t miss it. Happy Reading

*

Medieval 6: Giovanni 1 Friends and Strangers part 1 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

After 979 A. D. Venice, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire

Kairos 106 Don Vincenzo Giovanni, Ringmaster

“Hey, kid. Over here.” Giovanni hid between a wagon and the back of the Circus tent. The kid came quickly and ducked down. He said something Giovanni did not understand, like he was speaking a foreign language. Giovanni simply nodded and pushed the back of the boy’s head to keep it down as the acrobats went by shouting for Otto, whoever that was.

Giovanni dressed in his Sunday best, though his clothes were not the best. He got forced into a bath and made to dress. They were giving a command performance that afternoon. Giovanni was not sure who it was for unless the pope or some cardinals or archbishops got some time off from their prayers. Rome was full of self-important people with big egos who liked to be in charge.

He looked at his companion. The boy was dressed in fancy, expensive clothes. Real Fancy. Maybe he was part of the group for the command performance. “Otto?” he guessed and asked the boy. To his surprise he understood what the boy said in response. It came as a bit of a shock to Giovanni because up until that point he had no idea how to speak German.

“Mother wants us to go in and sit and wait for the show to start, but I want to see the mermaid, and the wolfman, and the lion. My god, there is a lion.”

“You will see them in the show,” Giovanni said. “Well, not the mermaid, but all the others. I’m Don Giovanni. This is my circus.”

“No. You are too young, like me. I’m nine.”

Giovanni lifted his chin. “I’m ten. But, okay. It is my father’s circus, but someday it will be mine. The Don Giovanni Circus will be the greatest show on earth. Someday, I am going to get an elephant.”

“What’s an elephant?”

Giovanni considered describing the beast, but he concluded with, “You’ll see when I get one.”

Otto nodded and had another thought. “I would like another one of those hot cakes.”

“Honey cakes. Full of sweets. Bad for the teeth.”

Otto stuck his head up to look, but Giovanni quickly pulled him back down. A big man stepped around the corner of the tent and looked toward the wagon but did not see the boys. They were well hidden but might be caught if they did not keep quiet. Giovanni whispered.

“That’s Corriden, the strongman. He is mean and greedy. He has a big mouth and likes to be in charge.”

Even as Giovanni whispered, Corriden opened his big mouth while two more men came running up. “Porto, check the midway again. Damien, check around the animal pens. I’ll try the circus tent.” The men split up and went off in different directions and Otto spoke again, completely changing the subject.

“We came here to see my father. He died in Italy. We went to the grave, to churches, said prayers and went to masses, and talked to all kinds of important grownups.”

“Sorry about your dad.”

Otto shrugged. “I was three. I hardly remember him.” The boys looked at each other and Giovanni decided Otto needed cheering up.

“My mom died when I was about three,” Giovanni said. “It was hard for a while.”

“Sorry about your mom.”

“You know, everyone in the circus has faced some terrible tragedy or other. Some people run away to the circus to grieve, or to hide from people who want to harm them, or something. What people share at the circus stays at the circus. But in your case, I believe you qualify to learn the secret circus handshake.” They shook hands. They cupped their fingers and shook. Giovanni fist bumped the top of Otto’s fist and had to wait a second for Otto to fist bump the top of his fist. They slapped hands and pointed at each other, and Giovanni wiggled his fingers.

Otto smiled and went through the motions again on his own. Giovanni heard a voice. His father called.

“Vincenzo.”

He did not sound mad, just perturbed.

A woman said, “What is that? In the sky.”

Otto and Giovanni both looked, and Giovanni stood and yelled. “No. Elgar already did that,” he complained. “Every time I think it is over between you two, you come back. Just stop it!” He picked up a pebble and threw it at the Flesh Eater ship that hovered over Rome before it shot off to the north. Of course, the ship was twenty-thousand feet up, way beyond where his pitiful little pebbles could reach.

“What was that?” Otto asked as he stood.

“Flesh Eaters,” Giovanni spit. “They are people who are exactly like they are called. They eat people.”

“How do they fly like that? What kind of a ship was that? Is that part of the circus?”

“No. Not part of the circus. It’s complicated. Maybe if we had an hour, I could explain the basic ideas.”

“Otto. Come here.” The old woman with the cane spoke sharply. Giovanni’s dad stood beside her with a mix between a frown and a smile on his face and his fists on his hips.

“Vincenzo,” he called and then turned to the old woman. “If Otto was with my son he was in the safest place in the world he could be, though my son does tend to misbehave.” He turned to Giovanni. “Aren’t you supposed to be cleaning out the horse stalls?”

Giovanni found his tongue automatically slip back into his native Venetian. “I was just taking a break. My friend Otto and I needed a rest from all the grownups.” He looked. The old woman evidently spoke the language and understood. He turned to Otto and spoke German again. “Your mother?” He asked because mother did not sound right.

“Grandmother,” Otto said. “Adelaide of Italy.”

“Otto,” the woman spoke and leaned heavily on her cane. “Your mother is very worried. You should not run off like that. Come. The circus is about to start.” She slipped her arm around the boy as if to say he was not going to escape again. He looked sad at being caught, but he perked up when Giovanni spoke.

“You are going to really love the show.” He noticed the soldiers standing in the background, watching the woman and the boy, and Giovanni’s father. “The Greatest Show on Earth!” He spouted, and with a look at his father he softened his voice. “Going,” he said, but he could not resist one shout back as he ran off. “Catch you later.”

Otto looked in Giovanni’s direction and waved. “Later.”

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 4 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Most of Lionel’s army was made up of conscripts.  He had two hundred soldier-looking men on horseback, only a few of whom were knights, like his captains.  The rest of his army consisted of some seven hundred merchants and farmers.  Some were freemen, but some were serfs or indentured servants, or slaves paid to serve in the place of their freemen owners.  Lionel said most were acceptable archers, having to hunt when the winters got long and lean, but they were not much good in a melee.  About four of the five hundred had pikes, but the rest had shields and swords or just long knives.  The horsemen in the rear, and those near the center front and the center back behind the ox-drawn wagons encouraged the conscripts to keep up, but even so, they strung out for a mile or more down the road.

Toward the beginning of the third day out front where the travelers and Lionel trotted along well ahead of the others, they found the road blocked by troops from the Holy Roman Empire.  Katie sensed the enemy from a distance, and Nanette stopped to put out her hand to try and read the disposition of the troops.

“They are with the French, set out to hold the Paris Road while the French army is attacking the main Burgundian outpost.”  She frowned.  “That is about all I see, except the Germans are not trying to hide.  They are hoping they don’t have to fight, that anyone coming down the road will back away or go around.”

Lionel put Jobaire and the company of men directly behind them on alert, with strict orders to keep up, but then he insisted the travelers, and himself, continue to lead the procession.    When they got near the roadblock, which they saw at a good distance, they found some hidden archers with arrows—probably warning arrows sent in their direction.  They had to scurry for cover.  Lionel watched from behind the bushes to see how the travelers handled themselves.  No doubt, he expected great things.  He looked a little disappointed when Lockhart explained.

“Normally, I would go out with a white flag and talk to whoever is in charge.  I would explain that we are mere pilgrims from Sweden and further east, traveling with a couple of Africans, and we have no interest in their war, we are not taking sides, and we pose them no threat.”

“How would that work?” Lionel asked.

“It has not worked yet,” Katie admitted.

“I can’t remember even one time it worked,” Lockhart agreed.  “And I tried lots of different variations.”

“My father,” Elder Stow came up holding his scanner.  He pulled up a holographic projection of the enemy positions.  It showed the enemy as yellow dots and included blue dots for the Burgundian conscripts that were closest. The travelers were in red.

“We have some sneaking up on our position. There…” Elder Stow turned and pointed.

“Someone did not get the memo about not fighting,” Lockhart said.

“Tony.” Decker called.  Their horses and Ghost were already tied off, so Decker and Tony scooted off to disappear in the bushes.

“Germans?” Nanette asked, and Lionel nodded.  “Lincoln,” she called.  “Jobaire is captain-sergeant of the front group.  We will hurry them.”

Lincoln nodded to agree.  He did not mind the errand if it took him further away from the fighting.

Katie interrupted.  “I recommend the little ridge here,” she said, pointing to Elder Stow’s picture that showed a small rise on the other side of the road.  She turned her head and squinted. “You can’t quite see it from here.”

“I see the hologram,” Lincoln said, and he and Nanette rode back toward the first company of men.

Katie got out her binoculars and it hardly took a second to pinpoint what she was after. “I think I see the commander, or at least the one that appears to be shouting out orders.”  She handed the binoculars to Lockhart and got out her rifle and scope.  Lockhart looked equally briefly before he handed the binoculars to Lionel.  Lionel looked and gawked, as Katie fired.  Lionel saw the man fall.

Gunfire began from the side.  It did not take long before a dozen soldiers ran back to their own lines at the roadblock.  Tony’s voice came over the wristwatch radio.  “All clear.”

“Roger,” Katie responded before she turned her head.  One of the men who tried to sneak up on their flank got close.  He came around a tree, but Katie did not get surprised, so the others looked as well.  Lockhart blasted the man with his shotgun.  The man slammed back into the tree and collapsed.  Lionel let out a shout at the noise.  It was not exactly a scream, but he held his chest, like his heart started beating extra fast.

Arrows began to fly from the ridge area.  It made the German’s work difficult, but they managed to remove the blockage to make a wide opening on the road.  Katie spoke.  “I smell cavalry.”  The Germans had about a hundred men on horseback, and while they could not ride more than two abreast through the gap in the roadblock, they came on fast.

Katie saw Nanette stand on what she figured was the ridge she had seen in the holograph.  Nanette had her wand and threw her hands forward, sharply.  Dozens of rocks, stones, fallen tree branches and the like raced forward at bullet speed.  She struck and put down ten or fifteen horses and horsemen all at once before some of the bigger stones crashed into the roadblock itself.

“Screen is up,” Elder Stow said, as Decker and Tony returned.

“Brace yourselves,” Katie yelled, and Elder Stow only glanced at the horsemen before he set his screen device against the base of a tree.

“Decker wall?” Decker asked, wondering if he could shoot the horses while the horsemen would be completely blocked from getting at them.

“Yes,” Elder Stow said, as he braced for impact.  Some twenty-five horses ran smack into the screens, and the horses behind could hardly stop.  It could not have been worse to charge straight into a brick wall, but the screens were invisible so the travelers could see the devastation.  All the front horses had to be put down, and plenty of the ones who came behind as well.  Some of the Germans also died on impact, and many more were killed, crushed, or died of their broken bodies within a short time.  Surprisingly, Decker did not kill that many.

All the Germans that could, some helping friends who were not wounded so badly, ran away at all speed.  The roadblock got abandoned.  Some Germans screamed as they ran away, and Jules and his little troop could not blame them.  Most of Jules’ little troop cleaned out the hidden archers, but one seemed preoccupied with praying, especially when the German cavalry charged.  Jules himself kept repeating.  “I believe you.  I believe you.  I believe every word of it…”

Lionel just smiled and nodded.  He laughed out loud when Elder Stow and Suki rose into the sky.  They said they would make sure the Germans were gone from the road.  Lionel gulped when Elder Stow and Sukki went invisible.  Katie reminded Lockhart.

“She still has the disc Elder Stow tuned for her.”

“Oh,” Lockhart nodded, to say he remembered now that she mentioned it.

Decker got Lionel’s attention even as Katie was about to say the same thing.  “You need to let the main army know, your Lord Jean or his second, about the Germans blocking the road.  They need to know many escaped, so we have to assume the French now know we are coming.”

“French?” Lionel said.  “We are the French, but I know what you mean.”  He went down to the road where his front third of horsemen hurried to arrive.  He would select some to ride and warn Liebulf.  Hopefully, they would have a way of informing Lord Jean de Luxembourg.  Then he made the ones in front wait while word went down the train of his army and they tightened up the ranks.  From here on, stragglers would be whipped.

By the time Elder Stow and Sukki returned, Decker was much higher in the sky, taken up by his eagle totem, spying out the enemy.  Elder Stow reported the Germans went off the road on a trail, headed north.  He suggested they sent men rushing down the trail, like maybe there were other French soldiers around that they needed to warn.  Decker reported on the French, though Lionel insisted the Burgundians were the true French and these others were the Armagnac faction with Charles.  Decker said they immediately started to withdraw from their attack on the English outpost that watched where the Paris Road and the road to Rouen divided.  The Paris Road they were on eventually went south of Compiegne while the Rouen Road went north.  He said, “The Armagnacians, or whatever, are gathering in front of us and moving up the Paris Road, back toward the city, or maybe to a fortress.  Some appear to have stopped by a farmhouse, about half-a-day from here.  It looks mostly like a big barn.  I guess about two hundred men.  They must be the rear guard.  They will probably wait until the end of the day to let the army get out before they hurry to join the others.”

Lionel nodded and spoke frankly as he judged the sun.  “We should get there tonight, but if we hurry, we may reach that place before sundown.  You said half-a-day distance?  Maybe we will catch them napping, do you think?”

Decker agreed.  “The rest of not-the-only-French army will probably finish their withdraw in the evening, twilight, seeing how armies travel in these days.  Maybe we can time it right.”

Katie looked at Decker.  “Colonel,” she said, not sounding happy, but she did not say anything more.  She imagined what was going to happen.