Matteo delivered Armida to Ca' d'Argento as he had many times. The steep, menacing staircase rose from the portico as it always had. Whether her dress was ready or she would still sing was unknown. Regardless of Oriana's state, Armida had to attend the Masquerade. Nothing else was more essential to the new plan she and Rinaldo had devised.
"Matteo, you will take me to San Marco for the Masquerade, yes?"
"As we have agreed, yes. With or without Oriana."
"I will send down a note advising you of our departure time. I am to sing once the Doge arrives. Timeliness is essential."
"I shall be prepared at a moment to deliver you to the Palazzo Ducale as required."
Emilia stood above at the balustrade. "Gemma! Come at once. I have no time to waste. I must go to Oriana as soon as you are ready. She will arrive after you. Her appearance will stop the breath of all in the room, and she wants no competition."
A burst of energy sent Armida up the stairs and down the hall, following Emilia. Her fingertips tingled with the expectation of events soon to unfold and with anxiety about Oriana's plans. Armida had no doubt Oriana would involve herself with Paolo. In precisely what way was impossible to predict.
Emilia forbade watching in the mirror as she and her assistant pulled and tucked Armida into her gown. At last, she turned Armida to face the mirror.
Armida gaped. "Emilia, you have captured the sea in its loveliness. I can nearly smell the salt on the breeze."
Emilia blushed a deep red. "But it is a real scent, the scent of Venice. It is always with us." Tying a mask over Armida's face, she said, "I've made something special for you. Simple but with the unique sequins Oriana has acquired."
Armida knew at once they were the mermaid scales. Her fingers skimmed the scales as she ripped off the mask. A repellent coating on them caused her to shiver and must have prevented the natural reduction to dust. "No! I will not wear it." Pointing to a basket at Emilia's feet, she said more calmly, "I will have a plain mask instead."
A church bell chimed as the light dipped lower.
"You must hurry. Matteo is required to ensure you enter as they light the torches."
The dress had a long train, and she was unaccustomed to the volume of fabric that rustled and trapped her feet when she stepped without caution. At least Emilia had discerned her need to breathe for singing and had not laced her too tightly.
"Matteo! Help me in and set us on our way."
As they entered the Canale Grande, the torches at the San Marco landing were put alight. The reflections on the canal were like glimmering stars and beckoned arriving guests.
Armida stepped off the gondola. Sludgesharks were nothing compared to this.
✧✧✧
The Palazzo Ducale was a glorious marble building in the day, but at night the torchlights created a play of light and shadow like the ocean, where light was ephemeral and ever-changing. The effect was fantastical, like a place that couldn't exist in the abovewater world.
Matteo ushered Armida past the two columns on the Piazzetta, one topped by the winged St. Mark's lion and the other by St. Theodore and a crocodile, and into the whirling spectacle of the Masquerade della Sirena. He left her with a man costumed as Neptune who was to lead her to the Chamber of the Great Council, the heart of the celebration.
A crowd milled around the massive courtyard they passed through, everyone costumed in the most extravagant way to imagine sea creatures, real or otherwise. A tall, slender woman had a headdress with eight appendages floating over her shoulders—quite unlike the beauty of Ziphra—and another wore a tree of red coral on her hat. There were fabrics and shapes mimicking a variety of fish not seen in Marea in years. With everyone masked, she had no worries that she would attract unwanted attention.
Wide hallways were lined with delicate sculptures as large as Armida, each reflecting the sea and the sea life that existed—or the life the sculptors thought existed. Oysters and sea horses and starfish and dolphins, a whale. Fish after fish. More coral. Done in spun sugar of every color. Hundreds, each more dazzling in the torchlight, each brighter than the previous. The final two sculptures, a merman and a mermaid, flanked the entrance to the Chamber. The hair was silver spun sugar; the torsos were gilded and the tails sky blue. Despite the circumstances, to Armida, they were exquisite.
But circumstances could not be ignored.
The Neptune guide left Armida in an antechamber to wait until a hundred or so guests were in their places before she would be ushered in. Oriana would enter and be seated after her, if Oriana stayed true to plan. When the Doge entered and crossed the Chamber, Armida was to begin, and when he sat, her song would be over, her part complete.
The timing was crucial if they were to save Paolo. Rinaldo would follow the porters bringing Paolo's cage through the canals. He promised it would never leave his sight until arrival at the Palazzo Ducale. Then the next phase would be up to Armida.
A woman with her hair powdered gray and swept up into the figure of a dolphin approached Armida. "Doge Loredan is arriving from his apartments. You must take your place in the Chamber."
Armida had no choice but to follow to whatever fate awaited.
✧✧✧
The Chamber of the Great Council overwhelmed Armida's senses. Mirrors and art. Carving and gilding. Hundreds of torches in chandeliers threw light everywhere. And the people, women and men, styled as befit the theme and bejeweled to show their wealth sat at tables running the length of the Chamber on the right and the left. Smaller tables in the middle were piled high with cakes and delicacies, others with golden pitchers and drinking cups.
At the far end, a baldachin of blue, silver, and gold interwoven was draped over a frame in a vision of the surf at dawn. The Doge would sit on his golden throne, surrounded by the nobility and other distinguished citizens and, to either side, the flags of the Venetian Republic with the red and gold winged lions of San Marco. Between where Armida stood and the throne was the stage where she would perform. The musicians who would accompany her stood as she walked toward them.
These Terran legs. Let them move with enough grace that my costume flows like water and kelp. Let these Terrans see me as beautiful as the sea and not the beast they would taunt. At least the dress hides my quivering.
The musicians sat as Armida ascended the steps. As Oriana had choreographed, Armida turned to face the entrance and a painting on the side wall.
Her breath came in rapid gasps. It was the Venus by Botticelli that Oriana had admired and spoken of. There was no mistaking who had been the model. Celestina. Tears welled in Armida's eyes. Wonder at who her mother had once been filled Armida with pride.
Mother, I will save him!
The doors swept open, and Armida began to sing as Doge Loredan's procession moved down the left side of the room. Armida turned slowly as she sang to face the Doge continuously. She swayed with emotion to the music and the green ribbons floated as she hoped. As she sang her last notes, the Doge sat. Armida curtsied and left the stage. Only then did Armida note that Oriana was absent.
At once, replicas of Venetian boats and ships drawn by men fashioned as whales, sharks, and sea turtles swarmed into the aisles. When the largest reached the Doge, dancers leaped from the interior and performed with ribbons much like the ones on Armida's dress. A figure of a sea serpent shot up in the air, and the audience gasped in unison. The delighted applause and cheers echoed, waking Armida from her mesmerized state.
Soon the staged battle would begin. The dancing sailors would pretend to throw their spears at the sea creatures represented by other dancers. The final two creatures would be a mermaid and a merman who would be hauled aboard the ship.
And the conclusion would be Paolo, brought on a barge to shock and titillate attendees. She pictured the horror on the painted and masked faces. Armida had to stop the barge. She risked her life; if caught, she would face prison or worse. As long as Paolo remained safe and could be guided home by the mermen Rinaldo would soon release, she had no concern for her future.
Armida darted to the door to make her exit while the audience locked on the mock battle. She was stopped when someone grasped her arm.
"I know it's you, Gemma. I'd recognize your precious voice anywhere." Terisio grinned at her like a child who had found a lost toy.
She pulled away but his grip was too tight. "Please. Let me go. I must...I must..."
"No, what you must do is stay. Sit with me for the finale and then we will dance."
Armida jerked free and ran. She couldn't be late.
Oh, Paolo! Sweet Paolo!
✧✧✧
Hampered by her dress, Armida ran past servants and staff, themselves attired in all manner of the sea. She headed toward the Molo, where Paolo's cage would be lifted from the canal and where Paolo would then be placed in a glass-walled tank. The plan was for her to arrive while he was still caged. Rinaldo was to create a disruption and thus allow her time and opportunity to set Paolo free. What came then would be decided by fate.
A mock barge rolled toward the boat tied up at the end of the Piazzetta. A stocky sailor, muscles bulging, turned a large crank to raise a chain slowly from the opaque depths of the canal. Stavlakis jumped off the boat and waved his arms, directing the rest of the crew into action.
The top of the crate edged above the surface.
Armida opened her mindpath to Paolo. ≈I am here! We will save you. Stay calm.≈ No response came back to her.
Where is Rinaldo?
Then she spied him, hidden behind a mask, running with a torch toward the boat. He yelled, not words, but sounds to draw attention. Clearly, he planned to set fire to the boat. The crew ran at him to prevent him from getting closer.
She had to get to the crate. To Paolo.
Oriana leaped off her gondola, which set Matteo rocking as he tried to control it. Oriana shrieked and screamed at Stavlakis. "Stop. You mustn't continue. Of the things we've done, we cannot harm the pup. It cannot happen!"
Oriana stood between Armida and the crate, where Paolo shrank into a corner but remained submerged. Armida hesitated, undecided if she could interfere without making the situation worse. Oriana was unpredictable. She might continue her defense of Paolo or she could snap back into a loyal minion of Stavlakis.
It was Paolo's life Armida risked with the wrong choice.
She dodged the fight between Oriana and Stavlakis to reach the crate. ≈Paolo, it's me. Armida.≈ She reached through the bars and squeezed Paolo's hand. His eyes did not focus on her.
His words were fragile. ≈Armida. Get me out. Help.≈
≈You will be free soon, Little One. I promise. I will come to you at home as soon as I can.≈
The boat crew seemed stunned by Oriana's rage and unsure what to do next. Rinaldo broke free and untied the mooring line. He scrambled onto the boat and shoved from the dock.
Stavlakis' face tightened with a raging grimace. "Stop him! The Doge will have me imprisoned if I ruin the finale!"
The crew was too late. They stood and stared at the boat. Rinaldo unlatched the chain, and the crate sank, no longer anchored to the boat. With the weight removed, the boat drifted into the channel, the currents determining its path. Armida reached the canal and prepared to dive to uncage Paolo but saw something more than the currents moving the boat.
As the boat slowed, and through the dimness of the grimewater, the faint flicking tails of mermen could be seen at the mouth of the Canale Grande by those who knew to look. They moved away from the boat and headed toward the Lido, Paolo's curls, barely below the surface, in their midst. Then they all disappeared in the deep. The Gulf and Marea were just beyond.
Armida hoped they might yet succeed. But Rinaldo floated alone on the boat and at risk of capture.
Armida froze as Stavlakis spotted her. "What are you doing here?" He was still enraged and seemed ready to hurt anyone who got in his way.
"I had a message to meet Terisio but I can't find him." Armida glanced around as if still searching for him. She was stunned to spot him on the Piazzetta, watching everything unfold.
Oriana, dressed as she had been when Armida last saw her, barked at Matteo. "Give me the gown!" She turned to Armida. "Gemma, help me change into this." Oriana thrust the garment at Armida.
It was horrific in its beauty. The dress replicated a mermaid's tale with an accuracy only merfolk would recognize, including the graceful fluke to cover her legs. And adorned over every inch with orange scales. Real scales. Thalassan scales. Armida would not allow her mind to conceive how the scales had been harvested.
Oriana's simple dress pooled on the stone at her feet. The boat crew leered as she stepped into the mermaid gown. Armida's skin crawled but she had no choice. Not without jeopardizing the next phase of her plan. She would need to overcome her revulsion and touch the scales. Armida pulled the dress up to Oriana's shoulders and laced the back.
Oriana pulled at Armida's arm. "Get in the barge with me. Now!" She then said to Stavlakis, "Cover us as you had planned. Gemma and I will be the finale. We will sing "Clear Running Stream," and the Doge will forget he ever expected a sea monster."
At least Paolo will be safe, but will the night never end?