The Medici Girl

Pistoia

Ezio knew what he was looking for before it even appeared over the hills of Tuscany. Marching up the road to Firenze was an army from Naples and at the front of it was Girolamo Riario himself. Next to him the Prince of Naples rode atop his grey stallion while it pranced in anxiousness for war. They were marching from the south and were passing so close to Monteriggioni that Ezio was a little surprised they did not bother with the village. Marching an army through Toscana did not go unnoticed by the people with some of the farmers expecting there to be trouble. 

After a month of marching from the south there was bound to be some trouble for the farms because it takes a lot of grain to feed a small army. This would impact the economy of not only Monteriggioni, but the villages around Toscana. There was also the chance that grain stores will be low for the winter because of said army. If one man was wanting to starve out an entire city for power he was not long for this world. Not in Ezio's eyes anyway. 

He sat atop his horse watching the army slowly make its way over the hills as it passed through the calm countryside. Ezio counted at least eight-hundred men on foot and a hundred cavalry on well bred war horses. Riario's men staggered behind numbering just four hundred on foot with fifty cavalry clearly exhausted and on horses that had seen enough war. Ezio had to admit Riario was a genius tactician, but what he lacked was humanity. He wore his own men down in order to achieve his goals, yet he had barely been able to outsmart Lorenzo de'Medici. Now he was mad enough to siege Firenze with the help of Naples and Sixtus was allowing this to happen. It was Volterra all over again. 

There was a debate going on within Ezio that had  him thinking about what would happen if he did one thing or another. His options were to ride ahead to Firenze to warn the Medici that there was an army coming or to stay out of it entirely. With the news of an army there was no doubt that Lorenzo would dissolve the Signoria and appoint the Council of Ten. Either way, Ezio had to make a choice. There was also the factor of the Pazzi conspirators and their absence in Italia. They would likely return if there was a war going on to distract the Medici and of course, himself. 

Against his better judgement, Ezio turned his horse in the direction of Firenze and kicked it into a gallop. He was more than positive that he had been seen sitting there in the open on the hill, but that did not matter now. What mattered was preparing the innocent lives of Firenze for something they had not seen in several years. Orgullo worked hard to get his rider to his destination by midnight and when the gates opened there was no stopping the assassin. Ezio rode straight to the Palazzo Medici with the poor gelding almost falling over as soon as they came to a stop. 

"Take care of him." Ezio said as he pulled the reins over the head of the exhausted horse and handing them to one of the door wardens. He walked in through the doors of the Palazzo where Poliziano came walking up to him in a hurried pace. Upon seeing the urgent look on Ezio's face, the man matched pace with him. "Where is Lorenzo?" 

"In his study." Poliziano said hearing the seriousness of the younger man's voice as they moved up the stairs and to the second floor where Lorenzo's study had been moved to. "I take it you have news?" The older man asked before coming to the landing at the top. 

"I do and it is not good." The assassin said before walking into Lorenzo's study to find the Medici man sitting at his desk staring at the painting of his grandfather on the wall. He had his knuckles up to his lips lost in thought and when Ezio cleared his throat, the man snapped his attention away. 

"Ezio." The older man said. "I wasn't expecting you back in Firenze so soon." Lorenzo looked up at the young man to see the serious look on his face. 

"I would not be back if there wasn't an army of twelve hundred men marching towards Firenze." As soon as the words left Ezio's lips, the Medici patriarch stood up in shock having not expected this so soon. "Riario succeeded in gaining support from Naples." Of course, they all knew it was likely to happen, but they suspected it would take longer than it actually did.