"Shooting back," said Teodoro. "From the sides."
Torchlight flickered from behind wooden mantlets at the mouths of the streets approaching the palace from the north and south. The rectangles of wood filled the street from side to side. From this height Simon could see the crowds of men behind each mantlet.
Fire arrows from mantlets and tortoises hissed overhead and fell, trailing sparks, into the atrium of the palace. Simon heard splashes as servants threw water on the trees.
"Put more of your men on the sides," he said to Teodoro, who hurried down the stairs inside the tower.
The moon was now a red oval low in the eastern sky. The light would help the Filippeschi target the defenders on the rooftop, but it would not expose them in the streets.
A loud crash startled Simon, and he felt the tower floor shake. Another crash and another. Stone casters. The stones were coming from all directions, and Simon could hear screams.
He turned to de Puys. "Fire our stone casters."
With de Puys gone, only Simon and the cardinal were left in the tower. They had nothing to say to each other. The cardinal had donned his miter-shaped helmet at the first sign of the Filippeschi, and Simon could not see his face. Simon longed for Teodoro to come back.
It was Simon's equerry, Thierry, who pushed open the trapdoor. "Capitano Teodoro is hit."
"Blood of God!" Simon pushed past de Puys to hurry down the tower's inner staircase.