The Art of Power and Love ( A Medici Masters of Florence the Magnificent fanfic)

Chapter 22

Somehow she fell asleep. But she didn't sleep enough when Giacomo came to wake her up.
The sun was already high and nobody was allowed to wake up late. It was Easter Sunday.
"Lorenzo already got ready and left for the Mass with his mother" Giacomo announced.
"The Pazzi will be also there?".
"Of course. But I think they won't strike then. The problem is the lunch and the celebrations".
They had a quick breakfast, then went to check Giuliano, but the servants announced that he left for the Mass too accompanied by Francesco Pazzi and his friends.
Ginevra gasped in shock, but Giacomo grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
"We can reach them and you can persuade Giuliano to leave and meet his girl again. Maybe tell him that their child is about to be born. Something urgent. Anyway there's no need to panic".
"Let's go" she dragged him in the crowded streets of Florence, joining the procession of the Medici guards and servants.
Ginevra couldn't spot Lorenzo but she guessed he was leading the crowd.
Giacomo pulled her closer and said into her ear "They'll be safe in the cathedral. The Pazzi will be all there too. Do you understand what it means?".
She looked at him confused and then realized "That their palace is uncontrolled. Okay, let's go to the palace. We don't have much time".
The idea of being reunited to her old man made her more nervous than she already was. She noticed that Giacomo looked troubled as well and she wondered if it was because he was going to meet his twin brother on that day.
But then they realized something was wrong in the streets.
They left behind the crowds of peasants reaching the cathedral and the people they were now meeting were guards. And soldiers.
Something was wrong. Since those were not all Florentine soldiers.
"What's going on?" Ginevra exclaimed shocked.
"A revolution" he gasped "Ginevra, you should have stayed with the Medici. Let's go".
He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a shortcut to the cathedral, but in that narrow street they weren't alone.
Soldiers wearing the Pazzi coat of arms attacked them before they could understand what was happening.
They fought back although they were disadvantaged, since it was clear that those men only want to kill, not to make prisoners.
Ginevra cried for help, hoping to catch the attention of the people from the square in the end of the street.
She and Giacomo fought back to back, until two men attacked the woman and Giacomo moved aside to cover her with his body taking a mortal blow that was meant for her.
She cried louder and managed to stab someone who ran away anyway.
The attackers moved to make battle somewhere else, as fast as they came and assaulted the two friends.
Giacomo groaned and fell to the ground, his hand pressing on the abdomen that was getting bloodied.
Ginevra tried to support him and helped him stopping the bleeding, shivering at the sight of the red liquid spreading.
"You'll be fine" she said trying to be positive but she didn't fully understand what was happening "Please, be strong. I'll look for help".
"No" he hissed "You must go and save yourself. I'm not gonna make it".
"What do you mean you're not gonna make it? I'm not leaving you here" she cried hysterically.
"You must, Ginevra. Please, don't make it be wasted. This is important. Run and don't look back".
"No no no, you have to live, you have to find her!".
He forced a weak smile "I guess I'll find her in heaven or hell. Or I'll be waiting for her there. Ginevra, just live. And be safe".
His growing weakness meant only one thing.
Ginevra cried, feeling totally helpless in front of death.

***

In the meanwhile, in the cathedral the Mass turned into a bloodbath. People was screaming and running towards the doors, getting hurt into the convulsing mass of bodies.
Giuliano was the first to be assaulted and violently stabbed also when he fell to the ground, dead, his skull split into two pieces.
Lorenzo got a cut into his neck, but his instinct and the sacrifice of his loyal friends allowed him to ran away and hide into the sacristy.
Jacopo Pazzi was loudly shouting to his men to find Lorenzo and to kill him, not caring anymore of his acting.
He stopped right in front of the sacristy. Lorenzo and his few fellows feared that they were uncovered, but Pazzi just looked up around the cathedral.
Someone came to update him and insisted that Lorenzo must die.
Lorenzo was few metres from him, feeling his heartbeat so strong that could betray him.
"Where's that lovely girl?" Jacopo asked suddenly "Ginevra? I must thank her! She should be here to witness this revolution!".
Lorenzo kept holding his breath even if Pazzi's footsteps echoed far from his hiding.
The doubt was hurting him more than the wound at his neck.
He reminded when he was just a teenage boy and ran into that same sacristy holding Ginevra by hand.
Now he was a mature man, he didn't know yet what happened to his brother Giuliano, he didn't know if the people was all raised against him. Still in front of death, his only thoughts went around that woman and the doubt whether she betrayed him or not.