Da Vinci's Cases - Leonardo's Dragon (eBook)

Alfred Bekker (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019 | 1. Auflage
140 Seiten
Uksak E-Books (Verlag)
978-3-7389-1035-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Leonardo's Dragon Da Vinci's Cases by Alfred Bekker The scope of this book is 148 pages paperback. The young Leonardo da Vinci is to learn the craft of painting in Florence. As soon as he arrived, he prevents an assassination attempt on Piero de Medici, the City Lord of Florence. He gets an insight into precious, old documents and discovers design drawings of flight kites, which he imitates immediately enthusiastically. But suddenly the assassins emerge again in the city and look for Leonardo. Will he find a way to escape them? Alfred Bekker, born in 1964, writes fantasy, historical novels, criminal novels and books for young readers. His historical adventures for young readers are full of suspense, stuff which even kids who hate reading cannot resist.

Textauszug

Chapter 1: The Ambush

In the year 1465 ...

From the crest of the hill you could look over the whole country. In the distance the star-shaped walls of Florence rose. A convoy of armed riders had just emerged from one of the city gates. Banners fluttered in the wind.

"Our City Lord Piero de 'Medici and his entourage," Leonardo noted. "Look, a ride into the countryside ..."

"Just tell me, you can see everything from here," said Clarissa mockingly, rubbing a strand of hair from the sweat-covered forehead. The climb had been quite exhausting.

"No, I know it from my father, who, after all, works for the City Lord," admitted Leonardo. Then he suddenly stopped. There was something moving near a tree group. Several men, armed with crossbows and arquebuses, went into position there. Exactly where the convoy would pass ...

Preparations for an attack! This thought flashed through Leonardo’s mind.

"Come on," Leonardo said. "If we hurry, we can catch the horsemen. The road goes a wide curve, and you have to take the bridge over the river before passing the roadmen."

"Wait, Leonardo!" Clarissa shouted.

They were both thirteen years old. Clarissa had dark brown, long hair, which she had braided to a loose plait, which hung her to her waist. She wore a dress almost reaching the knees and not really suitable for climbing. "From the beginning, I should not have agreed coming here with you," she said. "Leonardo, wait, for heaven’s sake!"

"No, it must go fast!"

He wore dark trousers, a leather vest, and a white shirt. Since his father had become a highly respected, rather wealthy personality in Florence, he insisted that Leonardo should wear shoes all the time. Previously, when he had lived among the peasants in the village of Vinci – a day trip away –, Leonardo had almost always walked barefooted. And so the shoes were still very unfamiliar to him. They made him more slowly, so he felt about it.

He stumbled and slid down the slope more than he ran. When he had arrived at the ground, he tore his shoes off his feet and threw them aside. If the City Lord of Florence could be warned in advance of an attack, this was definitely more important than a pair of shoes!

Clarissa had fallen behind him. She'll find me, he thought.

Actually, they had come here to observe animals. Above all, the flight of birds interested Leonardo. The hill was a good place to have a look at them. Swallows, crows, pigeons, sometimes a hunting eagle or a buzzard. The way they used their wings fascinated him each time anew. Leonardo had noticed that they were very different. Some kept the wings quite calm and could be carried simply by the winds. Others fluttered wildly. One day, as Leonardo had planned, he would fly, too. And since the human being could not simply grow wings, you had to build a machine for it!

Already in Vinci, where he had lived with his grandfather, Leonardo had made dozens of drawings of such flying machines. It was, however, much more difficult to build such a machine than thinking it over. Leonardo had noticed that quickly. And yet he was not willing to give up. One day, he would manage it. He had only to watch the birds closely enough, because, after all, they could fly and therefore had somehow discovered this secret.

Clarissa had come with him because she was bored, and also because Leonardo had enthused over all the things which were to be discovered there. There was something else Leonardo had been looking for on the hill. Where the rock came out of the grass and the moss on the ground and where small crevices and caves could be found, also many lizards and salamanders lived. They scurried across the floor or paused with a calm which impressed the boy, then moving with an extraordinary sudden. The living lizards were often too fast to be caught. At least Leonardo had hardly succeeded in catching them. But now and then you found a dead animal. And this little carcass could then be cut apart and examined closely.

But all this was not important at the moment.

Leonardo ran through a small forest to the place where a narrow wooden bridge crossed the river. The road then passed the other bank, and finally passed the place where Leonardo saw the robbery lurking. Just good, that none of them had turned around. But that was not surprising, because their eyes were concentrated on the road, and they were probably looking towards Florence now, because they could hardly wait for their victim coming in reach of their arquebuses and crossbows.

Leonardo continued to run. He fought his way through the undergrowth of a small forest, and then had reached the bridge where Piero de 'Medici and his followers would come along. From there, the road ran along the bank, twisted several times, and finally reached the place where the ambush had been laid.

Leonardo had just arrived in time. The group of riders had not really hurried. Just before the bridge, they stopped again. Piero de 'Medici – to be recognized at once by his brocade-studded, very precious jerkin, and the plate-shaped, velvet-colored cap on which a pheasant feather was pinned –  was shown a map by one of his companions. Both men gestured with outstretched arms in the area and sometimes made far-reaching movements. Probably it was about who owned a piece of land in the area. Here, the Medici family also had a lot of land. Maybe something should be sold or they were looking for a good location for a villa in the country where you could spend the hot summer. In the narrow streets of Florence it often smelled a little rotten when the wind was unfavorable. In the case of drought, the River Arno, flowing through Florence, caused only a small amount of water, and when too many of the waste water from the craft workshops and toilets entered the river, an unpleasant smell hung over the city. In addition, there were frequent plagues in the city – and then the rich were happy to go back to take shelter in their country houses outside the walls.

Leonardo placed himself in the middle of the bridge.

One of the armed attendants of the City Lord came forward to meet him. The hooves rattled on the wooden planks. The man carried a sword at his side. The harness glittered in the sun. It was one of the mercenaries of the Medici family, which was recognized by the stripes sewn on the sleeves of his shirt called livery. Only very rich families could afford to dress their mercenaries, servants, or other staff in such uniforms. And the Medici family was by far the richest family in Florence. It was not without reason that their chief was also lord of the city. Nothing happened here without the will of Piero de 'Medici.

The mercenary restrained his horse which whinnied loudly, for a moment even standing on its hind legs.

"Are you crazy, boy? Go to the side!" cried the mercenary.

"Not further!" Leonardo shouted back. "If you follow the road along the river, there are bandits lying in wait for you!"

The mercenary had now brought his horse back under control. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"They are waiting for you to attack the City Lord – robbers, no mile from here. You must not go further! There are at least two dozen men with arquebuses and crossbows – and you are not half of them."

"What's going on there?" Piero de Medici now shouted.

The Lord of Florence pressed his knees in the horse's sides, and pushed it forward to the bridge.

Leonardo passed the somewhat perplexed mercenary, straight to the noble lord. Then he gestured a bow.

"Greetings, honorable Ser Piero de 'Medici," said Leonardo.

Piero frowned, then glanced at Leonardo's bare feet, which had been quite dirty by barefoot walking through the forest with its dark, damp ground, and frowned even more.

"I know you from somewhere," he said. "I've seen you somewhere, even if I cannot remember such dirty feet."

"We have already met," Leonardo said. "Namely in your palace in Florence."

"I hardly believe anyone with unwashed feet would be admitted to enter there."

"Oh, I've worn shoes! I am Leonardo di Ser Piero, the son of your notary and writer Ser Piero, who bears the same name as you. However, I am accustomed to use the name Leonardo da Vinci."

"Vinci? Isn’t that a tiny village near Empoli, about a day trip away from here?"

"That’s right, my lord. But now I implore you, do not ride on! The lunts are probably already lit and the crossbows strained. They're just waiting for you to pass the ambush and fall into the trap."

At that moment, Clarissa finally appeared at the bridge. She had picked up Leonardo's shoes and brought them with her.

"As I see, you are not alone," the City Lord emphasized. Just recently, he had become head of the Medici family and Lord of Florence, after his predecessor Cosimo de 'Medici had died at the age of eighty. The old man he had been called Cosimo, and Leonardo's father had already worked for him, too. Once, Cosimo had even granted the boy Leonardo access to the vaults of an incomprehensible large library. Leonardo remembered this with particular joy, for he had a great thirst for knowledge.

At that time they had still lived in Vinci and had only been to a visit in the big city. This had now changed, for even the grandfather, with whom Leonardo had lived until recently, had meanwhile passed away. And so he lived with his father and his second wife in Florence.

Leonardo turned to Clarissa briefly. "This is Clarissa di Stefano, a relative of my stepmother. Clarissa is currently living in our house."

"My father served your family as the head of the Medici Bank in Pisa," she said. "Since my parents died of a plague, I live in...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.9.2019
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Historische Romane
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-10: 3-7389-1035-2 / 3738910352
• ISBN-13: 978-3-7389-1035-3 / 9783738910353