"I'll tell Giorgio," I said, rising.

"Later. Tell Mama we need to eat as soon as she's ready."

"I can eat when I get back."

He chuckled. "And exactly when will that be? August? Go tell her."

I sighed, "Yes, master," and did so. He just could not bring himself to give up yet.

Mama said Bisato Anguilla Sull'ara ready in five minutes. Nostradamus would need that long just to get into the dining room, so I went back and told him supper was ready.

I got one mouthful before the door knocker sounded.

29

I looked to the Maestro for instructions.

He was smirking like a mummified monkey: surely this time someone had taken his bait? "Get it. Use your discretion."

My discretion said my wisest move would be to retrace the steps of Marco Polo on a fast camel, but I headed out obediently. This time the visitors were a lesser surprise than Matteo-Bernardo and Domenico Michiel, grim and imposing in their black patrician robes and tippets. I hauled the door wide and bowed low.

"Messere! You honor my master's house."

Evidently they agreed with that, because they strode in past me without a word. I led them to the atelier and its two green chairs.

"My master will be here directly, messere… Lamps…" I lit a dozen candles in the chandelier, using a long taper, not the Word, and by then the Maestro was hobbling in through the doorway, tapping the floor with his staff. I presented him to the noble guests. As soon as he was seated, I headed to my place at the desk, where the package still lay in its wrapping.

He beamed without showing his teeth. "How may I serve you, messere?"

Domenico spoke first, which surprised me. "You claim to have in your possession a book belonging to our mother. Will you please let us see this book?"

The Maestro leaned back to consider this request. "My apprentice has spent the entire afternoon preparing an account of this volume for the benefit of the noble Council of Ten, explaining how we obtained it. Had you arrived only a few minutes later, messere, he would have been on his way to the palace with it. You may, if you wish, accompany him to assure yourselves that I am telling the truth. Otherwise I am willing to show you the book, or a page or two of it at least, but you will first agree that it is in my custody and you have no claim to remove it. You must guarantee that there will be no unseemly squabbles or attempts to appropriate it."

Bernardo swelled like a bullfrog but got no further than, "Doctor…" before Domenico laid a hand on his arm to silence him.

"We shall be happy to abide by those terms, lustrissimo."

Nostradamus nodded to me. I broke the seals, unwrapped the parcel again, and produced the offensive diary. I took it across to them. Again it was Domenico who took charge, accepting the book with his left hand and then opening it so that his brother could see also.

It was at once obvious that they had been warned what to expect. After one glance Bernardo averted his face. Domenico tried several pages at random before slapping it shut and handing it back to me. Had Jacopo described the contents for them, or had they cross-examined their mother? I took the book over to the desk.

"The illustrious lords and I shall need no record of our discussion," the Maestro told me. "You may go and finish what you were doing."

I departed, but without umbrage, because I knew what he really meant me to do in the dining room. The spyhole there provides an excellent view of the atelier. Domenico (tall) and Bernardo (wide) had their backs to me, but I could watch my master's face and hear everything being said.

"… understand your concern," the Maestro was saying, "and it does you both credit, but filial duty must sometimes come second to our obligations to the Republic."

"Never fear that we understand that completely," Bernardo proclaimed, "but the laws of Venice recognize that there are persons whose responsibility is lessened, persons whom circumstance or the Good Lord in His wisdom have tasked so hard that they cannot now be judged by quite the same standards as we more fortunate folk. Donna Alina was quite unhinged by the tragedy of our father's death, an infamous and sacrilegious outrage committed before her very eyes, and followed so suddenly by the Ten's condemnation of her son and his flight. I confess that she suffered a breakdown that prostrated her for many months, and indeed one may argue with some justification that she has never recovered her former peace of mind, nor thrown off the sorrows that haunt her."

"Both you and she have my deepest sympathy," Nostradamus retorted, "but you admitted a moment ago that the book is in her handwriting. I have attested that it contains the names of four recent murder victims, a connection that cannot be passed off as sheer happenstance. Furthermore, and most importantly, the book appears to have been written prior to your father's death and the ordeal you describe."

Bernardo tried again. "I will not contest those statements, lustrissimo. And I will go so far as to admit that our mother was acting oddly even then. Our father kept the fact concealed from us and I blame myself, as the eldest child, for not comprehending soon enough the difficulties that beset their marriage. It was only after his tragic passing that we appreciated the situation. In the space of ten years, she had borne five children who lived, and she may have had miscarriages also."

The Michiels had come a long way in the last three or four days. From outright denial that there was smoke, they were now offering a fire of diminished responsibility.

"There may well be extenuating circumstances," Nostradamus said, "but that is for the Council to determine, not me. The salient fact is that the book is evidence in a series of murders and I have an absolute duty to turn it over to the Council. With deepest regret I must decline your request."

Domenico took over. He was, I had decided, by far the smarter of the two. Bernardo was all thunder and no lightning.

"You are not suggesting, I hope, that our lady mother has been going around strangling and stabbing people? She almost never leaves the house, and then only to go to church, accompanied always by servants or family. She couldn't even find the Rialto on her own."

"No, messer. I agree that blades and silken cords are not ladies' weapons. Poison often is. The bravo is."

"And just how would our dear mother go about finding and then hiring an assassin?"

"She would use an accomplice," Nostradamus said with a hint of impatience. "And you know to whom I refer."

"Jacopo," Domenico said sharply, "is the second reason we came to see you, Doctor. To warn you, in effect. Jacopo Fauro is completely incapable of separating truth from fiction, even concerning inconsequential trivia. He's a pleasant enough lad and quite useful at times. We are fond of him or he would have been sent packing years ago, but he has this infuriating lack of veracity. Nothing he told you can be trusted."

Nostradamus nodded, solemn and sincere. "I am greatly relieved to hear this, clarissimo. I was seriously concerned by some of what I was hearing. For example, he told Alfeo that your honored father was stabbed with the same khanjar dagger you keep in a display case."

"Oh, saints preserve us!" Bernardo exclaimed. "You think we would keep it around to remind us if that were true? That is an utter falsehood, quite typical."

"And he has given us several accounts of what his duties are-not that those are any of my business directly," the Maestro added quickly. "But it might shorten this discussion if I had a better idea of what is likely and unlikely. He is your business partner, sier Domenico?"

"No, he is not my business partner! Far from it. Not even my messenger boy. He does have a remarkable eye for style and proportions, and I ask his opinion on those quite often, but no more than that. We tried to put his talent to work by apprenticing him to a builder and later to an artist; and several other people, too, but none of them could tolerate him for long. He spouts more fables than Aesop! If I were to let him near anyone I was doing business with, the Quarantia would be convicting me of fraud in no time."