“Karim?” I craned my neck up to look the bald hulk in his babyface.
“Saxony?” He wasn't smiling but he looked friendly enough.
"I didn't recognize your voice.”
"That wasn't me, that was Luca. What's this about needing to talk to Enzo?" He hadn't opened the barred gate yet.
"It's important. Please, Karim? I need to speak to him urgently. He'll want to talk to me, I promise."
"What could Enzo possibly want with you? No offence intended, but you're not his usual kind of company, pretty as you are.“
Something about the statement annoyed me. "No? How about now?" I put my hand through the bars and lit five small blue flames from the ends of my fingertips. If I was going to expose myself to Enzo, what would the point be of hiding myself from Karim? He'd find out sooner or later.
Karim reacted. He took a step back, the whites of his eyes visible.
"To Enzo," I said, extinguishing the flames. "Please." I sounded more commanding than I felt, but my confidence had increased at the shock on Karim’s face.
Karim took a hand-held radio from his waistband and spoke into it. He unlocked the gate and pushed it open, then stepped aside for me to enter. He'd managed to recover his cool. "Aren't you full of surprises."
As I entered the property, I just barely stopped myself from gushing 'wowee!' We'd stepped into a massive garden. Fountains and flowered shrubs dotted a perfect lawn. Everything was shadowed by towering Cypress trees. A gigantic yellow villa with Turkish-inspired windows and doorways peeked through the foliage. Arches ran the length of a patio and three-leafed florets topped every arch.
Two large black dogs lay on the marble and they lifted their heads. I had a moment of fear until a tongue lolled out of one fuzzy black face, and the other thumped his tail against the concrete. Karim spoke to them lovingly in Italian and bent to pat one as we passed. They got up and crowded toward him, their rear ends and stumped tails waggling back and forth.
I must have looked relieved because Karim said, "What, you thought they were killers? So many people have the wrong impressions about Rotties. When they behave badly, it’s not the dogs fault, it’s the owner. Isn't it, Dan?" he added in a baby voice. He bent his massive frame to put his forehead against the dog's face. The dog half moaned, half growled with pleasure.
"Dan?" I said, raising an eyebrow. I was starting to feel a little more relaxed. It's just a conversation, remember?
Karim looked at me with enthusiasm, "Yeah, like Daniel who survived the fiery furnace? From the Bible? I love that story."
I blinked at him.
"Don't you read?" he said, exasperated.
"I know the story, I just..." I tucked my hair behind one ear and cleared my throat. This was getting a bit weird. Was he stalling for time? "Can we go? It really is important."
"Of course." He told the dogs to stay.
I followed him down a corridor. So far, I had not seen a single individual other than Karim. We ascended an outdoor stairwell and crossed the second-floor balcony.
A luxurious terrace spread open before us. The space was wide open and had the feeling of a lounge. Several sets of furniture dotted the space, each with their own private table and partially blocked off by gauzy curtains swaying gently in the breeze. Two men seated at one of these private tables acknowledged Karim. Both men made eye-contact with me but I felt neither threatened by them nor ogled. Both wore business suits.
One nodded and said, "Salve."
The other said, "Giorno."
We approached another set of curtains. Karim pulled the fabric aside.
"Saxony, meet Enzo. Enzo, this is Saxony Cagney."
Thirty-Nine
"Benvenuti, piacere!" Enzo exclaimed warmly. He set his espresso on the glass table in front of his knees and stood, extending both hands to me. I took his right hand and he pulled me toward him to kiss each cheek.
I was so surprised by this reception that I kissed him back.
Enzo and Karim exchanged some friendly sounding Italian.
"What would you like?" Enzo asked. "Cafe? Espresso? Cappuccino? I know you North Americans love the cappuccino. Grappa?"
"Solo acqua," I said. "Grazie."
"Sicura?"
"Sì."
Karim left us alone.
"Please, sit down." He gestured to the chair across the table from him. His accent was the strongest I had heard yet.
I sat in the lounge chair. He pulled up the thighs of his pants to allow himself more room and settled into the cushions. The only thing that told me he was related to Dante was the confident set of his chin and the way he carried his shoulders. I didn’t know what I had been expecting, but the man with the round face and warm, interested gaze was not it. Though his hair was white and thinning, his brows were thick and black. The most disarming part of him was his guileless expression and the chocolate brown eyes that were too big for his face.
"Where are you from?" He leaned back against the couch and crossed one knee over the other.
"I'm from the east coast of Canada. I'm here on behalf of someone who owes you something."
"And who might that be?" He laughed and his belly shook. "A lot of people owe me things."
"Elda Baseggio."
"You are a friend of Elda's?" Enzo said, and his black eyebrows jumped like he'd been poked in the ribs. "Elda and I have not spoken in over five year."
I didn't correct his English. "But you haven't forgotten her debt to you."
"Of course not, what kind of businessman would I be if I forgot who owes me," he said, chuckling. "But, excuse me, I am confused. You are not here for a job? You are a magus, are you not? You are responding to our request? Our... How do you say it... Our advertisement."
"Request?" Now I was confused, too. I shook my head. "How does one advertise to hire a magus?"
"You are asking me?" He put a hairy backed hand to his chest. "You are not part of the... Again, I don't know what you call it in Inglese... the cooperativa?"
"There's a cooperative of magi?" My jaw dropped. I snapped it shut again. "Where? Here, in Venezia?" Why hadn't Elda mentioned it? She must not have known. I couldn't imagine her hiding such a fact from me. She did say that she was afraid she might be missing some clips.
Enzo put his palms together in prayer. "Were you born yesterday, girl?"
"In terms of being a magus, yes," I cried, and my confident in-control act went up in smoke. If there were other magi - enough for a 'cooperativa' of them - then I had to meet them. If I was stuck with the fire for life, then someone had to show me how to make the most of it. My heart had begun to pound and my palms grew moist and sticky.
“Tutto posto,” Enzo said, putting a palm out to me in a gesture of 'calm down.' "Go back. Why are you here? Something for Elda."
I took a deep breath. "Yes, I want you to forgive her debt to you. Leave her and her family alone."
"I'm not interested in Elda, only in her son. He is the son of someone who meant very much to me." He frowned, “And to my business,” he added as an afterthought.
"Would you still be interested in him if you knew that he was not a fire magus?"
"But he is. I have seen the boy. Only magi have eyes like that," Enzo answered.
Karim appeared, holding a glass of water with ice. Enzo and I stopped talking as Karim bent down, set the glass in front of me, and then left.
"Not anymore he's not," I said, picking up the water and drinking it all in one gulp. The icy water was like nectar in my throat. I put the cup down on the glass with a clack. "He gave the fire to me."
There was a loud silence. Enzo didn't react, beyond chewing the inside of a cheek. Then, "It must have been killing him. Nic explained that it is possible but I have not heard of it done."
I nodded. "He was dying."
"This is why you don't know the cooperativa. When did this happen?"
"Only a few weeks ago. I want to take Elda's debt. That's why I'm here."
"Wait, go back. How did you know Isaia? Why did he give it you?"
"I came to Venezia as an au pair..." I began.