The Lens and the Looker (Book #1 of The Verona Trilogy) Read online

  "A nice blade like this?" Feltrino said lightly. "Ah well." He dropped his sword to the cobblestones. The officer motioned for one of his men to fetch it.

  "Stand away from your mount," the officer said. He lifted his visor. He had a scar running from his forehead and down to his cheek. Hansum scrambled to his feet and went to stand next to the Master. Guilietta and Shamira came to check where he had been hit, but Agistino hissed at them to back up. Another rumble was heard, this time hooves and wheels. An ornate covered carriage came down the road and stopped. The driver dismounted and opened the passenger door.

  After a pause, a thin, haughty man stepped onto the street. He wore soft kid boots to his knees, his chausses were dark blue velvet, his braies, gold. Around his neck was a gold and silver chain. He looked at Feltrino and then to the officer, questioningly.

  "It's him, Excellency," the officer said.

  "Very good, Captain Caesar." The well dressed man, obviously a noble, walked toward the group. The soldiers parted and the man stood next to Feltrino.

  "You're Luigi's boy, eh?" he asked.

  "Feltrino Gonzaga," Feltrino said, nodding almost courteously. "And you are Baron da Pontremoli." The man who, was a baron, looked somewhat surprised. "I saw you at the peace treaty when my father took Reggio from you," Feltrino explained. "That's where this one got such a nice scar," he said pointing to Captain Caesar. "I was ten at the time, I think."

  "We received a report from someone who recognized you," da Pontremoli said. "Why are you skulking around a Scallari town, Prince Feltrino?"

  "Skulking? Oh no, Signor. I found the body of a priest and brought it back to the Bishop. And now I stay because . . ." he pointed a thumb at Guilietta.

  "Who are they?" the Baron asked, looking at Master della Cappa. "Who are you?" he asked directly.

  "I am Master Agistino della Cappa, Excellency," Agistino said, "Master lensmaker."

  "You're the one making those new discs for the eyes I've seen around town?"

  "Si, Excellency."

  "And your daughter?"

  Agistino became very agitated. He waved his hands back and forth in front of him. Guilietta looked doubly embarrassed now. "No, no, no, Excellency. There has been no funny business here. My daughter is a good Christian girl. She does not . . ."

  "Si, si, si, Master. Be calm, be calm," da Pontremoli said. "Then what is your business with this Gonzaga?"

  "He just came here. He saw the new device. He was just leaving."

  "What new device?" The Baron saw Feltrino put something behind his back. "What's that?"

  "Nothing. It's mine," Feltrino said. "He gave it to me." He held the telescope away from the Baron. Hansum stepped forward quickly, snatched it from Feltrino's hand and held it toward the Baron. The noble took it into his long, thin palm and regarded it critically.

  "It's parchment," the nobleman observed somewhat dismissively to Agistino.

  "And the finest crystal lenses at either end, Signor," Agistino replied. "You put that end to your eye and look at something in the distance. The roof of the castle over there, perhaps?"

  The reserved gentleman's eyebrows rose in surprise as he experienced magnified vision for the first time.

  "Do you see the birds, Excellency?" Agistino asked.

  "There's a yellow canary sitting with twelve doves!" Ugilino croaked enthusiastically. The Master whacked Ugilino's arm, silencing him.

  "Did you create this?" the Baron asked Agistino in amazement.

  The Master shrugged a little and nodded. "It comes from my shop," he repeated.

  "Do you know who I am?"

  "No, Signor. I just moved to town from Florence."

  "I am Baron Nicademo da Pontremoli, the Podesta's secretary."

  "Ahhh," Agistino said, bowing somewhat.

  "And you are doing business with this Gonzaga?"

  "Oh no, Excellency, I wasn't. I swear to you . . ."

  "He had your device in his hand, Master della Cappa."

  "That right, Excellency, but no Excellency. I wasn't . . . It's not like that . . ." Agistino was becoming quite flustered. The Baron did not look pleased.

  "Excuse me for speaking out of turn, Baron da Pontremoli," Hansum said. "Signor Gonzaga picked up Master della Cappa's device when it fell and refused to give it back. Even when he asked politely." He rubbed the rising bruise on his face when he said this.

  "Put him in the carriage, Captain," Baron da Pontremoli said, nodding to Feltrino. Bring his horse. He will be our . . . guest . . . at the palace." Two soldiers took Feltrino by the arms and led him away.

  "Don't touch me! I protest," Feltrino argued. "You can't arrest me. I'm a noble!"

  "Oh, tosh, Prince Feltrino. You are our guest," the Baron said with some sarcasm. "Our noble guest." This infuriated Feltrino.

  "I am expected home by my father. Let me go. I'll get you, lensmaker. You and your whore daughter . . ." he called as he was led away. Agistino was very upset now and Guilietta fell into Shamira's arms.

  "My daughter is not what he claims, Excellency. I showed him every courtesy and yet he continued his rudeness . . ."

  "That is no matter, Master della Cappa. Prince Feltrino has a very bad reputation with the women. I'm sure your child is quite chaste." Hansum saw Guilietta blush a bright pink. "Now, Master della Cappa, about this device." He put the telescope to his eye again and looked down the street one way, then the other. "Magnifico! Spettacolare!" he said. Then he lowered the telescope and asked, "What do you call this amazing instrument, Master della Cappa?"

  Agistino looked non-plussed. "I, I hadn't thought of that, Excellency. One just looks through it," he said. "I guess it's a looker," he finally declared.

  Both Hansum and Lincoln rolled their eyes at that.

  "It's a fine name," da Pontremoli said. "I'm going to take your looker to the Podesta. He may be interested in such a thing."

  For the second time in a short while, Agistino involuntarily reached to retrieve the telescope, but stopped before his hands came near the person of da Pontremoli.

  "It's my only one," he said.

  "Can you not make more?"

  "Oh yes," he said. "It's just, this is the original."

  "I see," the Podesta's secretary said. He reached into his pouch and took out some coins, holding them before Agistino. Agistino looked at the coins sitting in da Pontremoli's palm.

  "Oh, it's worth three times this, Signor. At least."

  Da Pontremoli came nose to nose with Agistino and smiled sardonically. He took Agistino's blush-stained hand, turned it palm up and placed the coins in it. Closing the meaty fingers around the money, the Baron said, "If I am correct and you are lucky, della Cappa, my master will pay you ten times this for many, many more."

  Chapter 55

  As Agistino watched the Baron's carriage and soldiers rumble back down the street, he felt confused. He had in his hand silver coins which, a few moments earlier, were in a nobleman's pouch. He had been told there could be many more. This was an opportunity he could not squander. He had to think.

  "To the shop," he said, lumbering away. He always thought best at his lathe.

  "Those are shiny coins, Master," Ugilino said, bouncing along by him.

  "Quiet, I'm thinking," Agistino barked.

  The first thing Agistino did in the shop was go to his lathe, but before he sat, he realized he was still holding the note from Feltrino. He impaled it onto a nail sticking out of the wall. Then he sat down, put the coins in his pouch and barked for Lincoln to fetch the tools to make lenses for forty to forty-five-year-olds.

  The first thing the girls did was to tend to Hansum's blackening eye, washing it with cool water.

  After working on a lens for a while, Agistino paused and smiled. "What luck today," he said.

  "Luck? What luck?" Guilietta replied, miffed. She dabbed at Hansum's forehead somewhat more forcefully than needed. "Look at Romero's eye and remember what I was called!"

  "The lord works in mysterious ways," A
gistino answered, still smiling. "The Podesta's own man has seen our invention and appreciates its possibilities."

  "Yeah, everybody seems to be getting really excited about that thing," Lincoln observed.

  "Si, and if we are to start making these, these . . . lookers," Agistino continued, "we must double our efforts at keeping up stock on the discs for the eyes." The Master's mood became serious again. "Back to work, all of us! Girls, stop fawning over Romero and let him set lenses."

  ***

  While they were toiling, Pan began whispering to Hansum.

  "Master Hansum, for this telescope to find wide use among the military, I believe we must modify its design slightly."

  "What do you want me to do?" Hansum mumbled while setting a lens.

  "Say to the Master. . ."

  "Master, I have an improvement I think we should make to the looker," Hansum repeated.

  "What? What do you mean?" the Master asked, looking up curiously.

  "Suggest you draw them out with Shamira and that you will show him later." The Master agreed, smiling and crossing himself several times. Later, after supper, Agistino made another declaration.

  "We must now work day and night for a time, to continue building stock. But right now we will leave Romero and Carmella to make some drawings of another looker. Guilietta, you wanted to learn to set lenses. Tonight I shall show you. Ugilino, you must clean up after both me and Maruccio."

  "My joy is to serve, Master," Ugilino said, amazingly without complaint.

  Guilietta smiled appreciatively at Ugilino and the ugly apprentice beamed. The Signora, much healthier of mind lately, announced that she was going for a walk all by herself.

  ***

  When Shamira and Hansum were left in the house, Pan popped out onto the table. He cracked his tiny knuckles and whipped his new, longer tail a few times.

  "Let's get to work," he said.

  Sometime later, with the drawing of the improved looker finished, Pan gave them a final explanation of its attributes.

  "You see, young master and mistress, the back barrel of this version moves in and out, just enough to allow the viewer to change the focal length of the lenses to accommodate his or her particular vision . . ." Pan stopped and instantly disappeared. His sensitive hearing had perceived the door to the house opening quietly. From where his lamp was, ensconced in Shamira's veil and resting on the table, he couldn't whisper a warning that someone was entering. But he could see them.

  The two men were not thieves, not common ones anyway. They were well-dressed noblemen. One was Nicademo da Pontremoli, the Podesta's personal secretary. The other was Mastino della Scalla II, the Podesta himself. Pan recognized him from the images of paintings stored in his memory. 'It's true what they said about him,' he thought. 'He does look like a mastiff.' He was named after his great, great grand uncle, Mastino I. His uncle had been Podesta of Verona some fifty years earlier. Several keystones over doors and windows around Verona were still decorated with images of Mastino's dog-like image in the twenty-fourth century.

  Mastino was not only the Master of Verona, but also Vicenza and their surrounding lands. The position of Podesta was a family inheritance that he had wrestled away from his two brothers. As a young and ambitious ruler, he took his city to war with the neighbouring city state of Brescia in 1332. A few years later, instead of war, he purchased Parma. Four years after that, he repeated the feat by bloodlessly conquering Lucca by the coin. After the King of France, he was the richest prince of his time.

  But Mastino's exploits also gained him many enemies. A powerful league organized against him. Nobles from Venice and Florence, the Este family, the Visconti and the Gonzagas of Mantua had raised an army against him. After three years of fighting, Mastino was left with what he had started with; Verona and Vicenza. Now, as a middle-aged man, it was his burning ambition to regain his former glories.

  The Podesta looked surprised at the lowly surroundings. Pan surmised that della Scalla couldn't believe that the thing they came about was produced here. Nicademo was about to announce them, but Mastino put his hand on the secretary's arm. Shamira was actually addressing Pan, but he had vanished, so, to the Podesta, it looked like she was speaking to Hansum.

  "Oh, I see," Shamira said. "If the back tube moves, it allows the viewer to adjust the looker. It makes the image more clear to each individual's eye."

  "Yes," Hansum added. "These drawings should really impress the Master." Hansum looked up to speak to Pan and saw the guests. He stood quickly and put a blank parchment over the drawings. "Sorry, Signors. I didn't see you. Are you here to buy discs for the eyes?"

  The Podesta took the parchment looker out from his cloak.

  "Where is your master?" he asked. Hansum and Shamira saw the telescope they made the other night. Shamira reached down to the table, retrieved her veil and put it over her head.

  "Master della Cappa is around back, in the workshop, Signor," Hansum said. "Shall I get him for you?"

  ***

  Podesta Mastino della Scalla continued to stare silently at the two teenagers. He prided himself on being a good judge of character and believed he saw something odd in their eyes.

  "No, you both stay here," he said. With a small wave, the Podesta told his secretary to fetch Agistino. There was something in the eyes of these two, a self-confidence that usually only comes with education and privilege. A kitchen girl and apprentice would usually fidget or leave a room quickly. But although they looked respectful, they did not look cowed.

  He walked up to the table and put his hand on the blank parchment. He was about to lift it when Hansum interrupted him.

  "Signor..." Hansum began.

  "Do you know who I am?"

  "I believe I saw you at San Zeno two Sundays ago, Signor. You are the Podesta."

  "Podesta della Scalla," Shamira added.

  "Then you must know there are no secrets from me in my Verona." He slid the blank parchment off of the updated telescope design. His eyesight was not good for reading, so he held the drawing first at arm's length, then close to his face. After a few adjustments, he got the focus. "Girl, you did this drawing?"

  "Si, Signor. It's the best I can do with only a charcoal stick."

  "Indeed. And you, boy, you conceived this?"

  Pan quickly whispered something into Hansum's ear. To the Podesta it seemed like Hansum was pausing to think before he answered.

  "This is Master della Cappa's shop, Excellency," Hansum parroted.

  "Ah," the Podesta replied, impressed that Hansum wasn't taking credit. "Explain the difference between this prototype looker and the new design."

  "Well, Signor," Hansum began, "the first example has a fixed length with two lenses. While it works well enough, the second design allows the back lens to be moved slightly. This way it can be adjusted for different people's eyes, like you did when you were trying to read the parchment. It allows the image to be crisp for each user."

  Chapter 56

  Just then the door banged open and the Master rushed in, followed closely by the Podesta's secretary, Guilietta, Lincoln and Ugilino. The secretary put his arm up to stop the others from getting too close to Mastino. Agistino was out of breath, red in the face, sweating profusely and still wearing his thick safety glasses and leather helmet.

  "Your Excellency, I am sorry I was not here to receive you." He bowed at the waist, wincing as he went too low.

  "I've come on the business of your looker," the Podesta said, holding up the telescope. "Very interesting."

  "Grazie, Excellency," Agistino puffed, still catching his breath.

  "Your apprentice was explaining the difference between the first example and the subsequent design. Perhaps, as the master, you could elaborate." Mastino could see his request had flustered Agistino.

  "Elaborate? Subsequent? . . . What?" the Master asked confused.

  "Your new and improved design, Master," Hansum prompted, pointing to the table.

  "Oh, new design. Yes. Let me s
ee. How is it coming?" Agistino said with fake familiarity. Trying to take command of the situation, he squinted at the drawing and said in a low, serious voice, "Si, si. This looks like it's coming along fine. As we discussed, eh Romero? As I instructed."

  "Grazie, Master," Hansum said.

  "And well drawn, Carmella."

  "Grazie, Master."

  "Well, there you have it, Excellency. An improved design."

  "In what way?" the Podesta bated.

  "You remember, Master," Hansum said quickly. "The back barrel moves to allow adjustment of the eyepiece so the viewer . . ." Mastino put up a hand for Hansum to stop. Then he stared at the Master, raising his eyebrows to bid him continue.

  "Well, si. The, uh, back barrel. It slides, in and out. Here. See?"

  Mastino had his answer. This young apprentice was apparently a savant and della Cappa had been lucky enough to have him fall into his life.

  "Si, of course. I do see, Master della Cappa," the Podesta said. "I understand perfectly. So, della Cappa, these lookers may be of some interest to me. To give to the officers in my army and for the city lookouts. Can you supply them?"

  "Si, of course," the Master agreed without hesitation.

  "The new design?"

  "Si, of course," he repeated. Then Agistino looked at Hansum for confirmation. Hansum nodded as minimally as possible. "How many does His Excellency require? Two, three? Half a dozen?"

  "One hundred to begin," the Podesta said.

  "One hundred!" the Master gasped.

  "Si," the Podesta confirmed. "Is that a problem?"

  "Oh no, Excellency. No. When, when do you require them?" he asked nervously.

  "Oh, a few as soon as you can. The others, within a month, perhaps."

  "One hundred? In a month?" he said incredulously.

  "Si, Master della Cappa. But instead of paper, the cylinders must be made of something more sturdy. Perhaps brass," the Podesta suggested.

  "Brass? That's expensive. How about the first ones we make from tin sheet? There's a tinsmith down the street. It would be faster. Maybe brass later. Let us make our mistakes in tin."

  "Quite sensible, Master della Cappa," the Podesta said. The Master at least didn't appear a complete idiot.

  "And the price, your Excellency?"

  "What? Oh. Work that out with da Pontremoli. He will come in a few days to write a contract."

  "As you wish, Excellency," Agistino answered.