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“No. You’re free.”
Dante jumped to his feet. “Then we go, now.”
Gaetano looked over in surprise, then rose. “Dante, now? I thought maybe tomorrow or the next day. We need time.”
“Why? What are we waiting for?” Dante knew he was agitated, but it fueled his determination. “Gaetano, you don’t have to go with me. I’ll go myself. I want to go now.”
Baron Pisani stood up. “What about Lucia, Dante? She’s not back yet. Before, you didn’t want to go in case you missed her. Now you want to leave right away?”
Dante’s mouth went dry. “I didn’t forget her. I’ll never forget her.”
“I thought you loved her. Don’t you?”
“Yes,” Dante answered, but he realized how dark his soul had become. “Everything’s different now. What I’ve learned has changed me, inside. I don’t feel the same. I feel like... I did when I was Monster.”
Baron Pisani frowned. “That’sexactlymy fear. I can treat you so you don’t feel that way—”
“But Iwantto feel this way. I can’t feel love or light right now, and I’m no good to Lucia like this. I hope she comes back, but I can’t wait another minute. Please tell her I love her.”
“No, I won’t. That should come from you.” Baron Pisani met his eye, and Dante was struck with another realization.
“Lucia knows I love her. She knows who I am and she’ll understand why I had to go. That’s what love is. Love is faith.”
Gaetano looked over. His gaze was troubled, but his eyes shone with new regard. “Dante, that’s a beautiful definition. But I still don’t think we should go tonight.”
“I’m going alone then.”
“Alone? You’ve barely been outside the madhouse.”
“Then it’s about time. You said you had horses. May I take one?”
Gaetano frowned. “You’ve never ridden a horse.”
“I’ll learn.”
“How will you find Mussomeli? Sicily is a vast island,trulyvast, and you can’t read a map. There are few roads between here and there, only rugged terrain until you get to the mines.” Gaetano shook his head. “How will you eat or drink? How will you survive?”
Dante realized the answer, with a rush of love. “Lucia told me how to live on the land, which plants to eat and which not to. About the winds, about the storms. About thesciroccoand thegrecale.” He felt her stories coming back to him. “I know where to find water and how to avoid wolves. She taught me everything she knows.”
“Hearing it is one thing,doingit quite another. Natural dangers are only part of the peril. There are bandits, brigands—”
“Is it worse than a madhouse?” Dante shot back. “Because if this hell didn’t kill me, nothing can.”
Gaetano blinked. “Okay, then I’ll go with you,” he said, after a moment.
Dante addressed Gaetano and Baron Pisani. “I’m grateful to you both, and I thank you. You saved me, butthisis what I was savedfor.”
Baron Pisani’s eyes glistened, too. “I respect your decision.”
Gaetano nodded. “Then we go when you say.”
“To Mussomeli!” Dante cried, with angry joy.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
Franco awakened to being shaken. “What?” he asked, coming out of a deep sleep in the bedroom.
“Don Franco,” Sebastiano said, urgent. “You have to come downstairs.”
