Page 36 of The Stone Witch of Florence
THIRTY-FIVE
FRIENDS & ENEMIES
July 11th of 1348, City of Florence
T he next morning, the two women sat across from each other at Lucia’s kitchen table, a tiny onion-shaped bottle of violet liquid between them. Ginevra had dark circles under her eyes from yet another sleepless night. Lucia looked like she had crawled out of the river.
“What were you thinking?” asked Ginevra for the fifth time.
“I’m sorry. I told you, I thought I was helping,” was all Lucia could answer.
“The selenite—perhaps that was my fault. But my bloodstones—gone due to your carelessness. And still, after all this, you take more of my stones without asking, you lose another precious gem.”
“Please, my head aches so. I told you I am sorry .”
“So you said. You’re sure of what you saw at San Miniato, what you felt? What you smelled ?”
“I told you, I am certain. Please, I must go lie down.”
“Tell me again. I want to make sure I understand all the details clearly.”
“I told you, a man dissolved the iron mesh of the tomb of Miniato and stole his leg. He poured liquid into this bottle and left it in the tomb. Then he came close to me, and I became overwhelmed by his stench—like a dead dog left in the gutter. It made me so cold I thought I might die.”
“You were a fool to approach him. Lucia—this thief is a jettatore . I’m sure of it now. The cold you felt confirms it. You are very lucky. The darkness of night protected you from his cursed gaze—I think the plague must be drawn to him. This is why everyone is dead in the parishes he visits, not because the relics are stolen.”
“He must have given it to me again. I have never felt so low.” Lucia buried her throbbing head in her arms on the kitchen table.
“It’s not the plague. It’s the wine.”
“You might have warned me that would happen, if I swallowed the stone.”
“Well, I didn’t know you were going to steal it to compete in a drinking contest.”
“I told you, I didn’t plan on the contest. It just happened.”
Ginevra scoffed.
Lucia changed the subject. “What of the little girl, then? Did you go to her? Was there enough medicine to help?”
“I—I don’t know if it was enough. She died the night before I arrived, while we sat on your roof, gossiping and eating salami.”
“Oh, Ginevra, I’m so sorry. If only I hadn’t ruined everything.”
Ginevra said nothing, and began flipping through the apothecary’s guidebook of saints. “San Miniato is not listed in here.”
“Because the book is only the Divine Nine. I told you—”
“Stop saying I told you !” Ginevra swept the book off the table in frustration. As it flew, a sheet of accordioned paper unfolded from the back cover and trailed behind the volume like the tail of a comet.
The women looked at each other. Neither of them had noticed this feature. Ginevra picked it up.
“What does it say?” asked Lucia.
“It is a poem.” She held the book vertically, so the hidden sheet hung down, and read out loud:
Good Pilgrim
If you have some extra time
After all the Divine Nine
Or should a priest stop you and say
The Baptistry is Closed Today
Or Crowds are too great, for your taste
To these o’rlooked Places, please make haste
“It is a list of more churches!”
“Shh. Of course it is.”
If empty peace is what you seek
Find San Paolino, of the Meek
A simple place, but in its store
A relic of San Francesco poor
For goodly walk and greenly trees
To Miniato of the Mountain, will you please
“But the thief has visited these places also!” said Lucia.
“Don’t you think I know? Shh.”
Construction clogs old Reparata
But one parish past, is Santa Margherita
Their church is small but full of charm
And holds San Pancrazio’s virtuous Arm
“We must go there—”
“Shhh—”
And for respite, in Good Sisters’ Care
Sant’Elisabetta has room to spare
In Oltre Arno you will find
Holy bread, with blood of Christ Divine
“Oh, Ginevra, isn’t that where—”
“I must go! I must go at once. Lucia, PLEASE. Just stay here until I am back.”
“Ginevra—wait.” Lucia reached into her purse, and held out the squashed orange she took from the party. “I’m sorry. Really. ”
Ginevra took the sticky orange and realized how awful it felt to be in a fight with her only friend in the whole world, besides maybe Taddea. How she never wanted to feel this way again. She lifted her eyes to the ceiling, and before she could change her mind, she said, “I have something for you, too.” Onto the table next to Lucia’s face, she placed a pointed crystal, harder than steel, clear as water: the diamante. A rare and precious thing. Given as a gift, to end all quarrels. Immediately, Ginevra felt lighter.
A tear rolled down Lucia’s face onto the table.
Ginevra patted her head. “I must go now, dear friend. Drink water and do not stop until you feel better. I’ll be back soon.”
Ginevra took the book and flew toward the convent of Sant’ Elisabetta, praying that Taddea’s locks had held. Once more over the bridge, over the stinking river. Every other piece stolen is a piece of body. He did not take the crucifix of San Giovanni Gualberto. He did not take the shoe. He would not take the bread. She prayed this would be true.
She burst through the doors as soon as Taddea opened them.
“Ginevra! What’s going on? Have you caught the—”
“Taddea, the book!”
“I told you the books were sold to the merchant from San Romolo. What’s going—”
“No, the guidebook—for pilgrims who come to Florence to visit the relics. You’re in it!”
“Oh, that thing. Yes, we are there, but you’d hardly know it. They just write us in sometimes in the back as a place for food and lodging. The full pages are always the Divine Nine now—”
“No, no, Taddea, the thief, he knows the book! He uses it to select his relics. Tell me your bread is safe! That you have seen it today.”
Taddea’s face went white.
Ginevra ran to the chapel door.
“Wait!” called Taddea. “I have the key.”
But when Ginevra pushed on the door it fell inward with a great clatter, the hinges and lock rusted through, the door propped back up to disguise the intrusion.
“Oh, my God,” said Taddea. “It wasn’t like this just yesterday—”
Ginevra ran up to the altar, and with trembling hands, she lifted the reliquary out of its cabinet. It was as she remembered: a crystal orb mounted in the center of a cross, where a holy loaf with its dark brown stain should be suspended between two halves of the sphere. As she examined the crucifix, the front half of the crystal fell and shattered on the ground.
“Shit! I’m sorry!”
“What are you doing? Please stop it!” cried Taddea, horror-stricken.
“Look!” said Ginevra, pointing to material that fluttered out from the broken reliquary like a leaf falling from the tree.
“That is not our bread,” said Taddea.
“It is parchment ,” said Ginevra. She picked it up from where it landed atop the shards of crystal and the two women looked at it. Ordinary parchment, with nothing upon it but a dusty brown smudge.
“Do you see a bottle? Filled with purple or green?”
But Taddea was not listening. She had collapsed onto her knees, heedless of the broken crystal pieces. “Wh-what will I do now, without even the protection of our relic? Why was I left alone and alive?” She turned to Ginevra. “The door was not like that before you touched it!”
Ginevra’s blood froze. “Of course it was—you just did not notice it until now.”
“And the relic, it was bread just yesterday, until you came and reached for it.”
“Taddea! How could you think I would do anything to harm Fra Simone’s bread?”
Taddea stood up. “ Is it so hard to imagine? You could always work magic more than anyone else. I know you meant to do good back then—I think, at least—but you have been gone years, while we suffered for your misdeeds. I was foolish to think I still know you. To believe your story about the bishop!”
“Please, Taddea, why else would I be here?”
“You—you come to seek revenge on all who shunned you. Take advantage of us when we are weak. To think I let you near Agnesa! What did you do but hasten her death?”
“How can you say such a thing? It is me! The only woman trying to help you. The thief— he has exchanged your bloody bread for parchment.”
“Stop it. Quiet. Leave and do not return again!”
“You know not what you say.”
“I know what I say.”
“I will be back. Upon my word, if I am alive, I will be back. And I will bring your relic.”