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Historians and geographers are now exploring the
possibility that an area high in the mountains between Italy and
France was not, as
previously thought, under Piedmontese governance,
but a completely independent nation. |
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Even more intriguing is the notion that this isolated herding
people had been governing themselves quite well for
centuries without benefit of recognition by the major
powers of Christendom. |
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D'Angelo's difficult
job was the location of the heir to the Zimbellian
throne. The whereabouts of Princess Ignatia had been lost, apparently |
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due to a combination of state secrecy and
the progressive senility of then ruler, King Lodovico Pazzo.
The Princess, in keeping with court tradition, had been sent
overseas for an English education. Although long overdue
for her return, the king had lost all memory as to where
in England his great granddaughter might be found.
D'Angelo's unsympathetic employer and the actual ruler of
Zimbella, State Regent Nero Vipera, had hoped to send a
discrete diplomatic mission to the North to find and return
the princes. He was apparently quite disappointed to find
that his only likely prospects stuck out in any crowd.
D'Angelo and his brother, Liano, are identical twins. |
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