Ring of Fire (30 page)

F
ERNANDO
M
ELODIA IS LYING ON A SOFA AT THE
D
OMUS
Quintilia with two broken ribs. But what’s really hurting is his pride. Pride that was squashed by the thief the day before. And by Linda, who, unlike him, managed to drive him off with her broom.

She, on the other hand, doesn’t miss a single opportunity to remind him about the embarrassing episode. “There, there, Fernando …,” she coos. “Does it still hurt where that nasty man hit you?”

It wouldn’t hurt so much if she’d cut it out.

He sighs.

It’s been a very strange morning. Ever since the lights went back on, the newscasters have done nothing other than talk about the city’s second blackout, a total power outage that forced the inhabitants of Rome to celebrate by candlelight. Even at the president’s dinner. Even at the most important gala events.

Not everyone was disappointed, though. The city was immersed in an atmosphere of times past. Some people are even suggesting that the New Year always be celebrated that way from now on, without electricity.

Meanwhile, the local politicians are blaming the power company. The power company is blaming international politics. International politicians aren’t available for comment.

Meanwhile, the electricity has gone back on.

But the blackout
, thinks Fernando,
certainly wasn’t the strangest thing. Not as strange as the way the kids came back to the hotel
.

Including Mistral.

Harvey’s parents and Sheng’s father had been ready to give their children a severe punishment, but the moment they saw the two scared, exhausted boys walk through the door, they ran over to hug them. And when Mistral showed up, Harvey and Sheng almost fainted from relief. They hugged her and asked her a million questions, all whispered, all out of the adults’ earshot.

And Elettra? Elettra was the last to come home. She was somber and quiet. Linda claimed she’d been dropped off by a boy on a motorcycle. A motorcycle with a sidecar!

Fernando decided not to say anything to her. Besides, Linda grabbed the spotlight with the story of her having driven off the intruder with her broom, even showing off the pieces of the broken broomstick like they were relics in a museum.

Then they celebrated the New Year together, forgetting all about that afternoon’s arguments. And the threats of legal disputes and police reports. And everything else that was best left forgotten.

Irene was the one who insisted they celebrate. Really celebrate. Fernando went down into the basement to get one of his special bottles, one from the Ulysses Moore reserve, which he’d bought with his wife during their honeymoon in Cornwall.

There were four of them left.

Boom! The cork shot up and hit the ceiling, which promptly inspired Linda to complain, “So, who’s going up there to get rid of that stain?”

They had a toast.

“Cheers!” Irene said as she clinked glasses with Sheng’s father.

Sitting on the basement floor, Harvey, Elettra, Sheng and Mistral hold what just might be their last group meeting. Mistral’s still waiting for her mother to return, at which point they’ll leave for France. In the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Miller will be leaving Rome to head to Naples, where Harvey’s father will be attending a conference. They’ll come back into town only to catch their flight to the United States.

Rather than a meeting, it feels more like a sort of farewell party. In a few short hours, thousands of kilometers will divide them.

“But I’m staying in Rome for a month!” exclaims Sheng when the general mood has become a bit too glum. “Elettra and I want to cause a few more blackouts.”

All four smile.

They’ve all told each other exactly what happened, minute by minute. They know they need to make some important decisions. And they go over and over the questions they still can’t answer. In particular, the second blackout has everyone baffled. Elettra has already explained that it happened right after she looked into the Ring of Fire. When Mistral asks her what she saw in the mirror, Elettra shakes her head, unsure. She’d seen herself, herself transformed into light, but she answers, “Nothing in particular, I guess.”

The ancient mirror is lying there in front of them, perfectly
harmless. All four have looked into it, contemplating their blurry reflections made grainy by time. They’ve read Seneca’s writing engraved on its back, passing the Ring of Fire around from hand to hand in awe. And they’ve told each other, in hushed voices, that it was Professor Van Der Berger’s search for the mirror that led to his years of studies—and to his murder.

But they still don’t understand why. They feel weighed down by a feeling they can’t shake, something they aren’t able to explain, a place, a time or a face. However, the more they study the object found beneath the Basilica di San Clemente, the more they’re convinced that the mirror is only one piece of the puzzle, a starting point.

It’s a mystery that in turn hides other mysteries, which may be found somewhere in the professor’s journal or in the books he’d been reading. Or maybe in their all having met in Rome. Whatever it is, it’s a dangerous mystery.

“They won’t stop looking for it …,” says Harvey.

“And they know you live here,” Mistral warns Elettra. Her part of the story, her kidnapping, was the one that impressed the kids the most. Harvey and Sheng’s part, with Jacob Mahler thrashing around in the bathtub, scared them out of their wits.

“Maybe they arrested him …,” Sheng guesses, always the optimist. “If that woman, Beatrice, managed to call the police, I say they caught him.”

“We’ll have to wait and see …,” says Elettra.

No one can know what happened yet. On January 1 there aren’t any newspapers to read, and on TV they’re still focusing on the blackout.

“In any case, he doesn’t have that violin anymore—” says Mistral.

“He isn’t the problem,” Harvey breaks in. “Even if he’s dead or they arrested him, they’ll send someone else in his place. And whoever it is, they’ll come here. To this hotel.”

“But this is our sanctuary. Our safe place,” Elettra protests.

“It’s already been infiltrated,” Harvey replies. “Just ask your dad.”

“It’s too dangerous now,” agrees Sheng. “Even if the tops told us that this place was safe, we’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to be careful.”

Elettra nods.

“Maybe the tops meant to tell us that it’s safe for us. But not for the Ring. Or for other people.”

“What do we do with the Ring, then?”

Harvey suggests donating it to a museum. “That way, it’ll be safe.”

But Elettra has another idea. “I think we need to keep studying it ourselves. And investigate everything Ermete and the professor found out.”

“But how?”

“Sheng’s staying in Rome for a month. He and I could—”

“Hao!
You bet!” he says, cutting her off. “We could keep going.”

“But with Ermete, of course,” adds Elettra. “After all, he’s the one who’s studied the map of the Chaldeans. And the two things are connected, right?”

The kids look at each other doubtfully. Mistral, who’s the only one who hasn’t met Ermete, lets them decide. “And the Gypsy woman?” she asks.

“She seems to know a lot more than she told me,” Elettra admits. “Not only because she followed us to San Clemente … but most importantly because of later on, when she convinced me to look at my reflection. She seemed to know that … that I had to do it. I’ll go find her. I’ll ask her why.”

The kids sit silently for a long time.

“Plus, there’s the question of the teeth. Who engraved all those letters on them? And why?” Mistral wonders.

“Ermete says the teeth are really old. Over a hundred years old,” adds Elettra.

“A hundred years, a hundred years,” Harvey thinks aloud. “The number one hundred keeps popping up in all this.”

“Guys,” Sheng says after a bit, “there’s no point in our racking our brains about this right now. We’ve obviously got a lot of work to do. We’ve been given some sort of gift. A dangerous gift, sure, but we can’t just pretend like nothing’s happened. We’ve got to … use it. See where it takes us. If we’re able to understand it, I mean. I think Ermete’s the only one who can help us. The only person we can trust.”

“The only
adult
we can trust,” Mistral clarifies. “From what you guys have told me, he knows a lot more than we do.”

“But he’s in danger, too. He shouldn’t stay here in Rome,” Harvey insists. “It’s not only Mahler we have to worry about. Joe Vinile is somewhere out there, too.”

“I guess you’re right,” admits Elettra.

“And Joe knows Ermete, too.”

“Why don’t you invite him over to your place?” Mistral suggests.

“What, to New York?”

“Nobody would think to look for him there.”

“I don’t know … I’d have to ask my parents,” says Harvey. “But that’s not such a bad idea.”

“Otherwise, I could ask my mom,” Mistral suggests. “I could talk to her today, when she gets back. I’ve got a big, gigantic house in Paris. And it’s always empty.” What Mistral doesn’t mention is that once she’s back in France, she’ll be scared of staying all by herself in that big, empty house.

“Do you think Ermete would be willing to leave Rome?” asks Sheng.

“I doubt his mother would give him permission…,” jokes Harvey. “But my guess is he’d jump at the chance.”

“If we ask Ermete to keep the mirror,” Mistral breaks in, “what do we do with the map? And the tops?”

“We can split up the tops,” Sheng suggests. “We each take one. Then we can decide who has to keep the map.”

Elettra shakes her head.

“Not me. I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“For the same reason I can’t keep the Ring of Fire. If there’s one name they know … it’s mine.”

“She’s right,” agrees Mistral. “And I can’t, either. They know who I am, too.”

“Well, that leaves the two of us …,” says Sheng.

“So how do we decide?” asks Harvey.

“Dice?” He holds up a pair of red-and-black dice Ermete had given him. “The one who rolls the highest number keeps the map.”

Sheng rolls the dice and gets a three and a two.

Harvey rolls a six and a five.

“No! I knew it!” he moans, shaking his head.

Elettra hands him the wooden map. “Well, take good care of it, but don’t tell us where you hide it. It’d be better if we don’t know where it is.”

“Right,” affirms Sheng.

Harvey opens the map one last time. Then he snaps it shut and rests it on his lap. “All right. But we need to make a promise.”

An ancient silence fills the basement.

“We’ll never use this map unless all four of us are together. I don’t know when that might happen. Maybe when you two have discovered more about the professor, or when Ermete tells us what the Ring of Fire is really used for … In a year, maybe? Or maybe never. But the agreement is this: only when all four of us are together, or never.”

Elettra nods and adds, “And all of this will be our secret.”

“All four of us, together again,” repeats Sheng, resting his hand on top of Harvey’s. “I’m in!”

Mistral smiles. “Yeah!” she says, adding her hand to the stack. “Me too!”

“At this point, we could use a better expression than ‘All for one and one for all,’ ” says Elettra. “But … after all, there were actually four Musketeers.”

“So you’re with us?” Harvey asks her.

Elettra rests her hand on those of her new friends.

“No matter what happens. No matter what the future has in store for us,” she says solemnly. “Yes. I’m with you. And you’re with me.”

A
UNT
I
RENE IS WAITING FOR THE MOON TO RISE UP OVER THE
rooftops. She clutches the arms of her wheelchair and listens to the silence echoing through the house. The Domus Quintilia is peaceful.

The only sound is her sister, Linda, tossing and turning in the bed. She’s always been a restless sleeper, at times even having long conversations in her sleep.

Irene wheels her chair past the rosebush, up to the French doors leading to the terrace, and unlocks them. The chilly nighttime air whirls up, dancing.