The Plague Doctor's Daughter

35. Giovanna

The woman wore the clothes of an average citizen, her dress made of a heavy fabric suited for the winter season, rather than silks worn in a grand palazzo. Her hair had been in a braid once, perhaps pinned in a crown on top of her head, but now it had become disheveled, the wavy locks flying in all directions. She sported no cloak or gloves, but the most disturbing were her feet. For she had no shoes in spite of the nearly freezing temperatures. And while her appearance was discomforting, nothing could prepare Giovanna for the woman's disturbing actions.

With her dirty and gaunt fingers around Simone's neck, she bore down on him with the passion of a soldier in battle. Her eyes were wide, their whites ominously glaring in the faint light while her mouth gaped open as a hoarse exhale emanated from within.

"Are you mad? Let go of him at once," Matteo commanded, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at Simone's attacker.

As though she didn't even hear, the woman continued her assault.

"She is possessed!" Dilara exclaimed as she circled the struggle with her own dagger firmly in her hand. "Allow me to take care of her before she draws the sisters' attention to us all."

"No!" Simone yelled. "Just get her off me, I beg you."

Matteo sighed, his chest visibly rising and falling from the strain of keeping his composure as he pursed his lips in obvious disagreement. But he complied. After sheathing his weapon once more, he rushed behind the woman, grabbed her arms and twisted them with one, swift motion to not only remove her grip, but also secure them in his own.

Finally free, Simone stepped back and bent over, placing his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. When the woman cried out, he straightened up and delivered a merciless punch to her face.

For a brief moment, she was silenced. Her head drooped and her chin touched her breastbone, the gruesome expressions on her face invisible behind her tangled hair.

"Take her away. Tie her up if you have to," Simone said. "There's no more time—"

The woman's renewed squirming in Matteo's hold—with feet kicking and shoulders twisting to aid her escape—prevented him from finishing the statement. Instead, in a fit of thoughtless rage, Simone took the dagger from Dilara, held it with the blade downward, and thrust it into her heart before anyone even realized what he'd done.

Giovanna gasped. No stranger to death, she'd still only ever seen it brought on by illness or accident. This was the first time she'd witnessed one person deliberately end the life of another. And if the sick feeling she now had in her stomach was any indication, she had no taste to ever see it again.

Those around her, it seemed, were less shocked. Without prompting, Dilara rounded Simone and grabbed the limp woman's bare feet. She lifted them as Matteo continued to hold under her arms, and the two swiftly carried her away. Broken out of her momentary stupor, Giovanna followed just as they deposited the corpse on the ground behind the cart.

"Thank you," Simone said, as he also caught up. Having wiped the blood from the dagger in a kerchief, he handed the weapon back to Dilara with a weak smile. "Now perhaps I can complete what I'd come for."

"But you will not go alone," Matteo said, straightening up. "We cannot have any more mistakes or interruptions. The three of us will watch your back, staying far enough to remain unseen, but close enough to come to your aid, if needed again."

Simone nodded. After pulling out his sword, he turned on his heel and strode into the fog. The rest followed, fanning out at a decent distance behind. But if they had hoped that a single, fanatical woman who'd appeared out of nowhere a few minutes earlier had been an anomaly, they were horribly mistaken.