Chapter 2
Maria's rooms smelled of old parchment, clay tablets, and straw that she had used to pack artifacts. She didn't have a separate bedroom and study like Cosimo did. Her whole tower was her ever-evolving workspace.
Maps, translations, and photos of digs in Egypt, Greece, and Italy covered the walls with notes stuck up beside them in her own small, untidy handwriting.
"This is like stepping into a very chaotic museum backroom," Valentine commented, staring about with wide eyes.
"You were right to bar us from this place.
There are too many breakable things in here to trust Apollo and Reeve.
Oh! Lead curse tablets!" Valentine immediately wandered to a nearby bookshelf and started touching things.
"Focus, Val. You can explore her collection later," Cosimo chided gently.
"Okay, so what are we looking for?" Valentine said, putting down the tablet he had been reading.
"Anything Etruscan. She was going through a big Etruscan phase when she disappeared, and I knew she was heading to Italy because she thought she had found something." Cosimo went to one of her desks, where a carved marble figure of Minerva was holding down a map.
"She said to watch out for witches, so she's definitely in Italy. Why was she secretive about where she was going?" Valentine asked, joining him at the desk. He picked up a piece of a clay bowl, and his magic pulsed.
"Careful what you touch," Cosimo warned as he went to study photos on the wall.
"Maria didn't tell me where she was going because she said she wasn't sure she would find anything and wanted it to be a surprise if she did.
Now, I think that she knew I would have stopped her.
Our mother always told us not to mess with witches or their territory. "
Cosimo shook his head and laughed softly. "But Maria tended to ignore rules and warnings. I once had to bail her out of a prison in Cairo because she had been caught in a museum's basement after hours, hunting a papyrus she was interested in. She only got away with it because she was underage."
"How old was she?" Valentine asked.
"Fourteen," Cosimo sighed. "She was already organizing a breakout of the women's prison by the time I got there."
Valentine coughed, poorly hiding his laughter. "She sounds like a Greatdrakes." He moved Minerva out of the way and lifted the map of modern Italy. "Look at this."
Cosimo walked back to the desk and spotted a copy of a much older map under the one Minerva had been weighing down.
"What do you think? Roman Empire borders?" Valentine guessed, studying the borders, the names printed in Latin, and the small icons that covered Italy.
"Definitely. I can't be sure which century it is because Maria has drawn this. What do you think all these symbols are?" Cosimo asked, staring at a small sketch of crossed torches.
"Iconography of gods and goddesses," Valentine said, not missing a beat.
"How did you guess that?" Cosimo asked.
Valentine showed him the back of the modern top map. "She wrote out a legend. Look, this moon is Diana. The torches are Hecate. Pomegranate for Proserpina/Persephone…"
There was a red circle around a snake toward the top of the map. "And this one?"
"Minerva," Valentine said and lowered the top map over it. "It sits kind of in the triangle between Florence, Ravenna, and San Marino."
Cosimo stared at the circle. "She told us to follow her trail, yes? The last location I knew she was at was Florence. We found that she had checked into a hotel there a week before her disappearance."
"And Minerva was holding down the maps," Valentine mused, picking up the statue. His eyes shimmered scarlet and went out of focus. "This is old. Not a replica. Maria touched it a lot. I can feel...something. Magic, but nothing I've felt before. It's a call..."
Cosimo snatched the statue out of Valentine's hand and put it back on the desk. "Val? Val? You in there?"
The scarlet left his eyes, and he blinked a few times. "I'm here, Dad. I'm okay. But that thing... I don't know." Valentine rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "I think it was trying to tell me something."
"Don't touch it again, please," Cosimo begged. "It could be cursed."
Valentine eyed the statue and the map. "What if it was leading Maria somewhere. Telling her where it was originally from? She was clearly working on this when she left, right?"
"I wish I could remember. It was so long ago, Val." Cosimo stared at the circle on the map. "From the stories my mother used to tell, there were a lot of witches in this area. Old witch families rarely moved unless they were forced out."
"Some of them might know something. Especially if Maria tried to contact them about the site," Valentine pointed out.
Cosimo growled in frustration. "I told you Maria didn't ask to do a damn thing. She was warning us about witches, which meant she pissed them off."
"Then someone is bound to remember her. We should go to Florence and start asking questions."
"It's not that easy. You don't find witches unless they want to be found.
We need a middleman." An idea popped into his head.
"Actually, I think I might know someone who can help.
He's the Medici expert that I contacted about Catherine's alchemy when Apollo was kidnapped.
He has a lot of friends in the magical community in Florence. "
Valentine smiled. "Well, call him. I want to start my honeymoon already, and I can't wait for Yelena to see Italy. She's going to love it."
"How romantic of you," Cosimo teased. "It's strange to see you have that side after all."
"Eating Yelena's enemies and making her a silver hand was plenty romantic," Valentine argued.
"Let's hope you can find a less violent way to show your love, hmm? We are going to find Maria, not start a war with the witches," Cosimo said and took his phone from his pocket.
"You say that now, but it's always best to be prepared," Valentine replied before picking up a notebook and starting to thumb through it.
Cosimo sighed internally. He hated that his son might end up being right in that regard. It would all depend on how much his beloved sister had pissed the witches off.
Cosimo scrolled through his contacts list before finding what he needed. Doctor Henry Butera, Esoteric Renaissance Studies.
The phone rang seven times before an elderly voice answered with a distracted, "What?"
"Henry, it's Cosimo. How are you, old boy?" he greeted.
"Good God, Cosimo, two calls in as many months. Have you lost another son? Did you find the last one?" Henry demanded, sounding a lot less distracted. He was English, born to Italian immigrant parents, and his accent was getting more and more mixed as he aged.
Cosimo chuckled. "I did find Apollo. He got caught up in remnants of Catherine Medici's old cult, like we guessed."
"Apollo didn't happen to have something to do with that bloody building in Paris disappearing, did he? The French are still up in arms about that."
"That was Valentine, not Apollo, but I digress.
I need your help with another problem," Cosimo said, trying to keep Henry from asking too many follow-up questions.
All magicians were curious to a fault, and he had no idea how to explain what magic Valentine had used to get rid of a whole building. Ignorance felt like bliss.
"Another problem? I don't know what this old man can help you with apart from research," Henry replied. There was a flicking sound of a lighter on the other end, and Cosimo could almost smell Henry's favorite cigarettes through the phone.
"Do you have anyone who might be able to act as a negotiator between me and any witch families that have territory anywhere between Florence, Ravenna, and San Marino?" Cosimo asked, staring at the snake on Maria's map.
There was a long silence from the other end before Henry finally coughed. "Odd request, Cosimo. Should I ask why you need to talk to the streghe?"
"I'm looking for Maria. She is alive and appeared to Valentine in a vision and..."
Henry choked on his cigarette. "I feel like it's best I don't know any more.
That way, if you get into shit with them, they won't come after me.
Dear Lord, Maria Greatdrakes is still alive.
Bloody hell. I don't know who to be more afraid of, her or the witches you could piss off," Henry rambled on before letting out a pained sigh.
"Fine. I'll make some calls, but I want it to be known that I think this is a bad idea. "
"I know it is, but I don't have any other choice. I need to find her, Henry. I promise I will be the ultimate gentleman to whoever I have to deal with to get her back. I won't reflect badly on you," Cosimo swore.
"See that you don't. I'll text you if the person I am considering is open to the idea," Henry said.
He took another drag of his cigarette before adding, "I should warn you that if my contact agrees, she may be a little prickly, and your charm might not work on her.
She's no pushover and isn't going to fall all over you if you bother to smile. "
Cosimo laughed softly. "I'll behave no matter what, as I said. Set up the meeting, and the kids and I will head to Florence."
"Dear God, maybe don't inflict the boys on her until you have agreed to work together. I don't want her angry at me either," Henry replied before hanging up.
"Now what?" Valentine asked without looking up from the book he was reading.
Cosimo tapped his phone on the palm of his hand a few times. "Now, all we can do is wait for Henry to get back to us."
He stared at the piles of research around the maps. His sister had always been meticulous in her studies.
"And maybe we should keep looking through all of this to see if we can find more clues about what the bloody hell she was up to."