Leonardo and the Conspirators of Florence: Da Vinci's Cases, #1

By Alfred Bekker

 A mysterious adventure of young Leonardo da Vinci!

The year 1462, location: the small village Vinci near Florence: When knocking around in the forest with his friend Carlo, ten-year-old Leonardo and Carlo were kidnapped by disguised bandits and brought into a cave. There, another prisoner is locked in: Luca, son of a rich patrician. The case seems to be clear: ransom blackmailing! But the bandits did not expect that Leonardo and Carlo would put their noses in the case.

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.

The German printings of the series "Da Vinci's Cases" (6 parts) were published in the Arena Taschenbuchverlag in the year 2008/2009. Translations were made for the following languages: Turquish, Indonesian, Danish and Bulgarian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cassiopeiapress Extra Edition
• Release date: May 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781513093598

Alfred Bekker

Alfred Bekker wurde am 27.9.1964 in Borghorst (heute Steinfurt) geboren und wuchs in den münsterländischen Gemeinden Ladbergen und Lengerich auf. 1984 machte er Abitur, leistete danach Zivildienst auf der Pflegestation eines Altenheims und studierte an der Universität Osnabrück für das Lehramt an Grund- und Hauptschulen. Insgesamt 13 Jahre war er danach im Schuldienst tätig, bevor er sich ausschließlich der Schriftstellerei widmete. Schon als Student veröffentlichte Bekker zahlreiche Romane und Kurzgeschichten. Er war Mitautor zugkräftiger Romanserien wie Kommissar X, Jerry Cotton, Rhen Dhark, Bad Earth und Sternenfaust und schrieb eine Reihe von Kriminalromanen. Angeregt durch seine Tätigkeit als Lehrer wandte er sich schließlich auch dem Kinder- und Jugendbuch zu, wo er Buchserien wie 'Tatort Mittelalter', 'Da Vincis Fälle', 'Elbenkinder' und 'Die wilden Orks' entwickelte. Seine Fantasy-Romane um 'Das Reich der Elben', die 'DrachenErde-Saga' und die 'Gorian'-Trilogie machten ihn einem großen Publikum bekannt. Darüber hinaus schreibt er weiterhin Krimis und gemeinsam mit seiner Frau unter dem Pseudonym Conny Walden historische Romane. Einige Gruselromane für Teenager verfasste er unter dem Namen John Devlin. Für Krimis verwendete er auch das Pseudonym Neal Chadwick. Seine Romane erschienen u.a. bei Blanvalet, BVK, Goldmann, Lyx, Schneiderbuch, Arena, dtv, Ueberreuter und Bastei Lübbe und wurden in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzt.

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Leonardo and the Conspirators of Florence

Da Vinci's Cases

by Alfred Bekker

© 2008/2009 by Alfred Bekker

© 2010, 2012 of the digital edition AlfredBekker/CassiopeiaPress

A CassiopeiaPress E-Book

www.AlfredBekker.de

[e-mail]

A mysterious adventure of young Leonardo da Vinci!

The year 1462, location: the small village Vinci near Florence: When knocking around in the forest with his friend Carlo, ten-year-old Leonardo and Carlo were kidnapped by disguised bandits and brought into a cave. There, another prisoner is locked in: Luca, son of a rich patrician. The case seems to be clear: ransom blackmailing! But the bandits did not expect that Leonardo and Carlo would put their noses in the case.

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.

The German printings of the series Da Vinci's Cases (6 parts) were published in the Arena Taschenbuchverlag in the year 2008/2009. Translations were made for the following languages: Turquish, Indonesian, Danish and Bulgarian.

1st Chapter: Disguised Bandits

The year 1462 ...

We shouldn’t do that, Leonardo!

But why?

Don’t you remember what happened the last time when you were executing an experiment dealing with fire?

Leonardo remembered indeed. His grandfather’s house was nearly burned down and consequently, they had forbidden Leonardo to repeat things like that.

Leonardo and his friend Carlo were on a hill near the village of Vinci, where they both lived. You could even see the houses from there: the church, the inn, the village square, grandfather’s house and the house of Carlo’s family, Maldini. The remains of a defensive wall could be seen; a wall that once surrounded the whole village because previously, there had been a Roman fort, more than thousand years ago. But over the time this wall had become increasingly lower, because the inhabitants had used it as a quarry for house-building.

Now, actually, you could only see that the wall had once existed. Here and there were a few longer pieces. Leonardo liked those wall pieces, because a lot of strange beetles were living in the joints, beetles which he could examine and observe. In the moment, however, something else occupied his mind.

It was the power of the sun, which interested him. What really kept the fire alive in this gigantic glowing ball, nobody had been able to explain to him. Leonardo had piled up a small pile of wood and dry grass.

It was a hot late summer day and for weeks it had not rained, so the plants in the area had dried up.

Leonardo took out the glasses. They were completely scratched and could therefore no longer be used as a visual aid.

Leonardo got the glasses recently from a wandering merchant who had been with his donkey cart on the way to Florence and, near Vinci, had lost a cartwheel. Leonardo and Carlo had helped the dealer to fix the wheel, and as a reward, they were allowed to choose something from the trader’s goods. Leonardo had chosen the glasses because he had just remarked at that moment how the sun’s rays were concentrated through their lenses to a point. The ten-year-old boy wanted to examine this thing thoroughly.

Of course the dealer had been glad that Leonardo had chosen those glasses, because they could hardly be sold anymore. Only the version could have been used if different glasses had been put in it.

Leonardo hold one of the glasses in the sun so that the light rays were bundled and hit the dry grass. A short time period had passed before it began to crackle. The grass became discolored and then black. Smoke rose and then a flame darted up. In an instant, even the dry wood caught fire.

It works! Leonardo said excitedly. Imagine if you attach a huge lens on a warship, thus you could burn the enemy ships! He lifted his glasses up. Why do the sun’s rays have much more power when falling through this glass? he asked, directing his words more to himself than to Carlo. At that moment, the flames devoured ahead. They spread out over a length of one meter. Within seconds the dry grass caught fire and a fast growing area was in flames.

Leonardo, called Carlo and backed away. He had tried to escape from the flames, but he had only two feet which were not particularly large. Leonardo had now become aware of the danger. The fire spread rapidly.

After a few minutes, the two boys stood in front of a waist-high wall of fire. A column of smoke was rising.

The two boys shrinked back from the flames and approached the edge of the forest.

Not into the woods! said Leonardo. When the trees start to burn and a forest fire is triggered, then we will have no chance!

But they had no other option. The fire cut them off the path, whereas the forest laid slightly higher. They climbed the rocky, slippery slope upward and then stayed at the edge of the forest.

Leonardo was pale. He had not expected that the fire would spread so quickly. He knew that it was forbidden to light a fire in the forest, but in his experiment with the glasses he had believed to be far enough from the trees. Apparently this had been a mistake. The fire ate its way through the grass surface.

A creek formed a natural boundary so that the flames could not overcome it. Behind the little stream there was a rocky slope. Meanwhile, the village people of Vince had become aware of the fire. Leonardo watched people coming out of their houses and looking in the direction of the smoke column. Of course they were worried that the fire would exceed the stream and may spread in the direction of their homes.

What are we doing now? asked Carlo.

Leonardo looked at the flames. The wind drove the fire to the creek. It didn’t spread further in the direction of the forest edge. And the fire could not overcome the rock on which Leonardo and Carlo had climbed.

I think we are safe here, Leonardo said. He put the glasses that had been the catalyst of this fire, into the pocket of his vest which he wore over his shirt.

We should go back in a wide arc to Vinci, Carlo proposed.

But Leonardo shook his head. No, first we should observe how the fire behaves and where it might go to. Because I think that the fire will be finished soon!

Why do you think so? For me, it rather looks like vice versa.

The fire cannot cross the creek and either on the rock edge. Maybe the grass and the shrubs are burned down in the area and if the wind is not driving the flames toward the edge of the wood, the fire may die.

They were sitting there waiting. In fact, the grass was burned down quickly. Here and there it still glowed, but the fire began to fade. A bush was still burning brightly. But even there, the flames decreased slowly and left a few charred stems.

Suddenly, a rustling in the nearby forest let start the two boys. They looked around. Branches buckled. Shadows were seen in the undergrowth and birds were startled. In several places riders broke out from the dense undergrowth. The riders were masked with scarves. Only their eyes were visible. Mostly they wore their hats and caps pulled down over their faces. Some of them had drawn swords. Others were equipped with crossbows.

Bandits, Leonardo thought immediately.

On the road between the port city of Pisa and Florence, bandits were more and more often waiting on the lookout for wealthy travelers in order to steal from them or to kidnap them for ransom. Leonardo counted eight riders.

Some of them jumped from their horses and took their cloaks from their shoulders. Using them, they were beating the remaining flames and trying to put them out. Only a few and small flames were left at the most fire sources, now the last glowing spots were stepped