15 - The Three Way House

Marco is standing guard on the first floor. Below, Lino and Renzo are getting ready to depart with the children. As he watches from a hidden position in the shadows, he sees Gepetto Bardone enter the courtyard. He shouts up for his aunt, telling her to be ready in three hours. Marco infers that this is when they will be transporting the nuns for sacrifice to the House of Crows. He runs downstairs to abort the departure of Renzo and the children and make a new plan. In the ensuing confusion Rosa overplays her hand and is unmasked as Ornella Morisi. Her sorceries revealed, she evades capture and flees into the underdark upon a broomstick.

They resolve to send Fra. Giovanni with the news to Cola and beg him to send assistance; free the children onto the streets; assault the other parts of the Three Way House and rescue the nuns.

The first two are easily done. Lorenzo casts a spell that allows Fra Giovanni to leave by an upstairs window and gently float down to the street below. He then hobbles off in the direction of the Aventine. They open the doors to the street and the children run out (though it turns out afterwards that a couple of them have hung around).

The cortile of the palazzo is divided by six foot high hurdles between Ornella's part and those of the brothers. In the brothers' half there are a number of mastiffs roaming around free but few evident guards. They remove a hurdle and charge into the other section of the cortile. The dogs are soon put to flight. A couple of guards put up a fight but are wounded and secured. The main resistance comes from a crossbowman shooting from the gallery. As they advance they hear a heavenly choir praying for their success as the nuns raise their voices in support.

The crossbowman turns out to be Gepetto Bardone. He leads Rocco and Astore a merry dance and when they think him trapped at last he still manages to evade them, with an agile manouevre that belies his apparent years.

At the end of the engagement they have seized complete control of the Three Way House, but all the Bardoni have evaded them. Outside they can hear an increasing angry murmur as a mob gathers against the stranieri who have invaded the Suburra.