Revelations

TWENTY-EIGHT

Excitedly, Sofia put down the book she’d been trying to read and ran over to him, but drawing the line at taking him in her arms. “Ezio! Salve! I’d thought you were gone forever!”

“So did I,” said Ezio.

“Did you find anything?”

“Yes, I did. Something that may interest you.”

They walked over to a large table, which Sofia cleared of books as Ezio produced the map he’d found and spread it out.

“ Dio mio, how beautiful!” she exclaimed. “And look-there’s my shop. In the middle.”

“Yes. It’s on a very important site. But look at the margins.”

She produced a pair of eyeglasses and, bending over, examined the book titles closely.

“Rare books, these. And what are the symbols surrounding them?”

“That’s what I hope to find out.”

“Some of these books are really extremely rare. And a few of them haven’t been seen for-well-more than a millennium! They must be worth a fortune!”

“Your shop is on the very site of the trading post once run by the Polo brothers-Niccolo and Maffeo. Niccolo hid these books around the city. This map should tell us where if we can find out how to interpret it.”

She took off her glasses and looked at him, intrigued. “Hmmn. You are beginning to interest me. Vaguely.”

Ezio smiled and leaned forward. He pointed to the map. “From what I can see, from among the twelve titles, I need to find these three first.”

“What of the others?”

“That remains to be seen. They may be deliberate red herrings. But I am convinced that these are the ones to concentrate on. They may contain clues about the locations of the rest of these -”

He produced the round stone from his satchel. She donned her glasses again and peered at it. The she stood back, shaking her head. “Molto curioso.”

“It’s the key to a library.”

“Doesn’t look like a key.”

“It’s a very special library. Another has been found already-beneath Topkapi Palace. But, God willing, there is still time to find the others.”

“Found-by whom?”

“Men who do not read.”

Sofia grinned at that. But Ezio remained earnest. “Sofia-do you think you could try to decipher this map? Help me find these books?”

Sofia studied the map again for a few minutes, in silence. Then she straightened and looked at Ezio, smiling, a twinkle in her eye. “There are plenty of reference books in this shop. With their help, I think I can unravel this mystery. But on one condition.”

“Yes?”

“May I borrow the books when you’ve finished with them?”

Ezio looked amused. “I daresay we can work something out.”

He took his leave. She watched him go, then closed the shop for the day. Returning to the table, after collecting a number of tomes from the shelves nearby to help her, and a notebook and pens, she pulled up a chair and settled down at once to examining the map in earnest.