The Barbary Pirates

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The piazza in front of the Syracuse cathedral is one of the loveliest in Europe, elongated and artfully irregular, its slope following the natural contours of Ortygia. Its border is fine three-story stone-and-stucco buildings that provide a harmony of grand entrances, high windows, and iron balconies. The façade of the duomo itself is a baroque confectionery of pillars, statues, arches, scrolls, angels, eagles, and enough additional architectural frosting to decorate a wedding cake. The cathedral’s side is much plainer, a largely blank wall interrupted by the old Greek pillars of what had been in turn a pagan temple, Christian basilica, Arab mosque, and ever-evolving cathedral.

Inside, the hodgepodge continued: Greek columns, Norman arches, and baroque side chapels. A circular window with a thick-limbed cross, reminiscent of the muscular signature of the crusading knights that I saw in the aqueduct cave, shone in the sturdy wall above the vestibule. I had a feeling most any prayer would work in here, thick as the place was with the ghosts of intertwined faiths.

“What this place, Papa?” Harry and Osiris had rejoined us.

“A sanctuary.” I hoped it really was.

“What’s a sanry?”

“Where bad people go to be better, and good people go to be safe.”

“Are we bad?”

“Not you, Harry. You’re a good boy.”

He nodded solemnly. “And safe.”

A few old women sat in the pews, waiting for the confessional and the one person, the priest, who had to listen to them. An old man desultorily swept dust with a stick broom from one corner to another, and then back again. Except for its mix of architecture, the duomo seemed grand but unexceptional.

“The mirror must be long gone, Aurora.” Without even thinking about it I whispered.

“Then your little family will be destroyed.” Crossing herself with holy water—an act of blasphemy, given her character, that I half expected would be answered with a bolt from heaven—she played the English tourist again, slowly circuiting the side aisles while counting pillars and arches. She sauntered as if a cathedral was her most logical environment in the world, and smirked at me as she did it. Every intimacy had become an act of reprisal.

But even she had respectfully murmured, I noticed.

Light filtered in through small stained-glass windows, its dim glow supplemented by votive candles burning as offerings to the saints. The place had that church smell of old wood, wax, dust, incense, and water used to mop down the flagstones.

“There is no crypt, I asked the priest,” she whispered as we followed along. “We can see the roof beams ourselves, eliminating an attic. The walls are as thick and plain as a fortress. But this sacred site is what the Templars would have chosen, I’m certain of it. The spirit of a dozen religions is here. The knights would applaud the continuity of faith. But where, Ethan? Where? You’re the one with the knack for finding old relics.”

My only knack is for getting into awkward situations like this one, but I didn’t say that. I wandered about with Harry looking for who knows what, struck by how the Norman plainness contrasted with a central white altar that seemed spun out of sugar. The three other chapels were jewel boxes of marble and gold. Castles and cathedrals are where men put their energy, I’ve found: war, and the afterlife.

But I saw no hiding places for mirrors. Just angels, saints, and miracles on the ceiling, everyone up there floating about in flowing robes and pointing portentously. If only real life were so weightless! I was tired of old legends, and would give this one up in a moment except for Harry. He toddled along holding my finger, awed by a place so big and shadowy. So I looked, counting the old Greek columns—ten on one side, nine on the other—and marveled at the craftsmanship of the artisans. One chapel had steps of rose granite, a silver altar that glowed like the moon, and velvet tapestries like the raiment of Apollo. High above, painted on the ceiling, were cherubs and bearded patriarchs, half of them looking like Archimedes. It was all quite grand and meaningless; I recognized no particular Christian story. My eye was about to skip on when I noticed the central oval in the design, highlighted by a small ocular window that let in a cone of light.

Cherubs floated there, four baby heads looking down on three more full-bodied angels. The trio looked as uncorrupted as little Harry, their naked bodies strategically draped with red ribbon. I’d seen the same in a hundred churches, and would have paid no more attention except for what they were holding. There was a sun in this painting, beaming down with yellow rays, and it was being caught by what looked to be a hand mirror or magnifying glass.

A mirror, radiating its own rays.

I remembered the ring Fouché had shown us, with a second dome on the inside and the letter “A.” Angelus. Angels. I squinted upward, trying to make sense of the scene.

A white-bearded notable of some sort was pointing with a staff toward a wall, or was he pointing beyond it? I looked down. On the rococo marble masterworks that made up the walls, I suddenly realized, was a most peculiar inlaid piece of art. A dagger was crossed with a palm leaf, represented by different shades of stone. Above was what looked to be a chalice, but a chalice with two eyes of the Greek kind—the solemn almond-type they painted on their ships—looking across in the same direction. Looking at what? I saw nothing in this chapel to hide a mirror. But then I remembered the chapel next door, where the old man was pointing. I walked to it. Unlike the first alcove, this one had a dome like an upside-down saucer, painted not with cherubs but adult angels smoky from centuries of soot. A dome like any other, except it had the diameter and depth of a parabola reminiscent of the shape Cuvier had guessed Archimedes’ mirror might take. I looked up. A dome to hide a fearsome weapon? Could it be?

I beckoned to Aurora. “Imagine,” I whispered, “if the Templars built the mirror into the ceiling, to hide it until the time was right for retrieval.”

“The ceiling?”

“Encased up there, bowl-side down. Look again at the signet ring.”

I showed her the cherubs and staff and eyes. Her face brightened as she paced rapidly from the one chapel to the other, and then back again. “Ethan, I think you have it!” she hissed.

“Too bad the Templars were clever enough to hide it in a place from which it could never really be taken. Built right into the skin of a sacred church, in the middle of Syracuse. Hidden in plain sight. They must have done it after an earthquake, when the duomo was being repaired. They put the entire power of the Church to work protecting their discovery, Aurora. Quite brilliant, really. Impossible to steal.”

“Sandwiched in a false ceiling,” she murmured.

“Yes. Well, we’ve done our best. It’s too bad, I’m sure the weapon is all very interesting, but the knights have always been a step ahead, haven’t they? Since it’s safely sealed away, can Harry and I go free now?”

“Young Horus?” She smiled. “But he’s going to help get this for us!”

The baroque chapel with silver altar and red tapestries had two low and narrow doors at the back. Casting a quick eye about for any priest, Aurora darted to one, shielded herself with the rich fabric, and tried its latch. It was locked. So Dragut brutishly forced it, the pretty wood splintering in a wound that would have made Gabriel weep. A narrow passageway behind the main wall led sideways, toward the rear of the church. That would do us no good.

“The other. Hurry!”

The pirate snapped that latch free, too, and this time there was a spiral staircase going upward.

Aurora reached for Harry but he shrank against my leg. Frowning, she then beckoned to me. I hesitated, hoping we might be discovered and rescued by a mob of angry monks, but we’d deliberately chosen a time in the somnolent afternoon when no masses were scheduled. I picked up my son and quickly crossed to the broken door and the stone stairs.

“Where we go, Papa?”

“Up. I’ll hold you.”

He thrashed his way down out of my arms. “No. Walk!” And he led us all, happy as a monkey. Just behind him, the votive candles that Dragut, Aurora, and Osiris had snatched threw a wavering light.

We came to a crude attic above the chapels. We were at the edge of the adjacent dome, with room only to crouch where a roof eave came down. It was a cat’s cradle of old beams and buttresses, dusty, cobwebbed, and spooky. I wondered again how long before a priest or prelate discovered our trespass and roused all of Syracuse against us. It was creepy enough that Harry lifted his arms to be held again.

“I knew we’d need your whelp,” Aurora said, peering into the dark crevice between interior dome and exterior roof. “Give me the boy.”

“Certainly not.”

“Hurry, or do you want to spend all day up here, waiting for a prelate to discover that broken door?” She pried my son from my grasp and set him on the floor, taking out a stick of sugar. “Now, Horus, do you like candy?”

He nodded solemnly.

“I think you should have some, but there’s something clever I want you to do to earn it. Only you can do it because you’re small enough to wiggle where big people can’t. I want you to crawl up the space here and scratch what you find with this little knife.” She held out a penknife. “Then bring the knife back to me, and you can have your candy.”

“He’ll cut himself!”

“Not if the urchin does what he’s told.” Her voice gentled to speak to the child. “Only big boys are allowed to handle knives, but I think you’re very big for your age. I want you to carefully crawl up this little slope on top of the ceiling here, and when you can go no farther, then rub this knife on whatever is blocking you.”

“Dark!” my child said, perfectly reasonably. He was as confused as I was.

“You won’t have to squeeze far, and I’ll hold the candle to light your way. It will only take a moment.”

“Aurora, are you insane?”

“Think, Ethan. If the mirror is hidden in the dome, it must be sandwiched between ceiling and roof. But before I start taking this cathedral apart I want to make sure it’s actually there, and I can’t squeeze into the sandwich to see. Horus can. It’s not unreasonable for your bastard to be useful for once.”

“What if he gets stuck?”

“Then we’ll jam you in there to pull him out. Stop complaining and help me!”

I sighed and squatted. “Harry, this edge is sharp.” I showed him the knife. “You have to be careful. Hold it like this.” I formed his fingers around the handle. “Rub the blade against whatever stops you and then crawl backward to Papa. Can you be brave?”

“Will I get candy?”

“Yes.”

“Will dog bite me?”

I sighed. “No.”

He smiled, rather excited by the importance of his task. He took the knife, held it ahead like a probe, and wriggled up the narrow space between the ceiling of the dome and the rafters of its tile roof overhead. I could still see the soles of his shoes when he called, “It stops!”

“What can you see?”

“Dark.” It was almost a whimper.

“Rub the blade and come back for your candy!” Aurora called.

Nothing happened, and she swore.

“It has to be there,” Osiris said, with more hope than proof.

“We have to be sure.”

“Eyes!” It was a yelp and Harry’s little feet kicked. I roared and reached in to grab his ankles but Dragut gripped me and then there was an animal squeak and my boy was still again.

“Harry?”

“Remember, rub the blade on the dark part for your candy!” Aurora called.

After a moment’s hesitation we heard a raspy scraping and then he was wriggling backward. Dragut let go of me and I caught his ankles and helped pull him out.

Harry held up the knife proudly. Its edge gleamed yellow, with scratched flakes of bronze or gold.

“It’s here,” Aurora exulted, her eyes a glaze of greed.

“Wait, there’s something more,” I said. The blade had hairs on it. “Horus?”

He beamed then and pulled from his shirt, where he had tucked it, the dead body of a slain mouse. He had stabbed the little monster to death. By thunder, my son was an Achilles!

“Candy?”

I handed it to him, hands shaking. My boy had the makings of a fine treasure hunter, I realized—the worst curse I could think of.

“Get the Rite,” Aurora told Dragut, “and then ready the ships as Ethan suggested. Thanks to him and his bastard, we’re going to blow this ceiling apart.”