Revelations

FIFTY

So now we entered on that hidden path, my lord and I, to move once more towards a shining world. We did not care to rest.

We climbed, he going first and I behind, until through some small aperture I saw the lovely things the skies above us bear.

Now we came out, and once more saw the stars.

Ezio had started rereading Dante’s Inferno at Sofia’s suggestion several days earlier. He had read it before, as a student, but never really taken it in, since his mind was preoccupied with other matters in those days, but now it seemed like a revelation. But, having finally finished it, he put the book down with a sigh of pleasure. He looked across at Sofia, her glasses perched on her nose as she sat, head down, glancing from the original map to her reference books, to a notebook she was writing in. He gazed at her as she worked but did not interrupt, so deeply engaged did she seem in the task at hand. Instead, he reached for the book again. Perhaps he should make a start on the Purgatorio.

But just then, Sofia lifted her eyes from her work. She smiled at him.

“Enjoying the poem?”

He smiled back, placed the book on the table by his chair, and rose. “Who were these men he condemned to hell?”

“Political opponents, men who wronged him. Dante Alghieri’s pen cuts deeply, no?”

“Si,” Ezio replied, thoughtfully. “It is a subtle way to seek revenge.”

He didn’t want to return to reality, but the urgency of the journey he soon had to make pressed upon him. Still, there was nothing he could do until he had word from Suleiman. Provided that he could trust the prince. But his thoughts had calmed. How could it profit Suleiman to betray him? He resumed his seat, picked up The Divine Comedy again, and turned to the place where he had left off.

She interrupted him. “Ezio,” she began, hesitantly, “I plan to make a trip to Adrianopolis in a few weeks, to visit a new printing press there.”

Ezio noticed the shy tone of her voice and wondered if she had picked up the softness that had crept into his whenever he spoke to her. Had she realized how great his… affection for her had become? Overcompensating, he was deliberately nonchalant when he replied, “That should be fun.”

She was still diffident. “It is a five- or six-day ride from here, and I will need an escort…”

“Prego?”

She was instantly embarrassed. “I’m sorry. You are a busy man.”

It was his turn to be embarrassed. “Sofia, I would love to accompany you, but my time is running short-”

“That is true for all of us.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that, taking its meaning several ways, and remained silent. He was thinking of the twenty-year age gap between them.

Sofia looked down at the map for a moment, then back up. “Well, I could try to finish this last cipher now, but I need to run an errand before sundown. Can you wait a day?”

“What do you need?”

She looked away and back again. “It’s silly, but… a bouquet of fresh flowers. White tulips, specifically.”

He got up. “I’ll get you the flowers. Nessun problema. ”

“Are you sure?”

“It will be a nice change of pace.”

She smiled warmly. “ Bene! Look-meet me in the park just to the east of Haghia Sofia. We will trade: flowers for… information!”