Synopsis

Leaving her village in the Tuscan hills under difficult circumstances, Angelina LaBella has a chance encounter with Lucrezia Tornabuoni, matriarch of the Medici family. In Florence she meets Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici. She agrees to work with Marco, a former mercenary loyal to the Medici. They travel to Rome to learn more about threats to Florence and the Medicis.

They encounter key members of the religious and elite community, including Ricardo Orellana, the Black Cardinal. Angelina doubts Marco’s trustworthiness while he gets first-hand experience of her capabilities. Papal conspirators plan the assassination of the Medici brothers while the Black Cardinal continues his manipulation of Pope Sixtus. Angelina becomes involved in the rescue of a group of nuns who are victims of sexual abuse by some of the conspirators.

Confronting the Black Cardinal in a sword fight, Marco appears to be killed and Angelina is seriously wounded. Angelina recuperates as a prisoner, noticing her own unexpected attraction to the Cardinal. The Cardinal, Angelina and several of the conspirators set out for Florence. Marco reappears; the Cardinal hadn’t revealed that Marco had survived, slipping away while attention was focused elsewhere. Angelina and Marco head for a mercenary encampment to meet Gianbattista Montesecco. One of the conspirators, he’s a former commander of Marco’s whom they fail to persuade to support Florence.

The plotters launch an assassination attempt during Sunday High Mass late in the Easter season. (see the Pazzi Conspiracy). Giuliano de Medici is killed in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.  Lorenzo fends off a knife attack by two priests. Angelina encounters the Cardinal again. The citizens of Florence rally around the Medicis. The Black Cardinal is briefly taken prisoner, escaping soon after. Lorenzo meets with Montesecco, also now a prisoner, obtaining a confession which is soon recanted. Marco and Angelina meet with Montesecco, who signs his confession and is executed soon after.

Angelina decides to accompany the abused nuns north, to France or beyond. The Black Cardinal, dressed as a French friar, walks on the Via Francigena towards Paris, planning his next move.