The Mosaic

Chapter 67 | Take Me to Church

First of all, let me apologize for my long leave! I had surgery and was swamped with exams and a paper for university!

I hope you guys have been doing well in these wild times (always feel free to message me if you want to talk) and can't thank you enough for your patience! The Mosaic is slowly coming to an end and I plan on an update a week for the rest of it. Please enjoy!

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death

The stars were drowning.

Above the palace gardens the night sky was black in mourning for the late Medici banker, pierced by the ghostly white of a marble statue, crying oil black tears into a giant basin. The water was still like a dark mirror, a myriad of flames burning below the surface.

The clever construction drew delighted whispers from the guests. It had taken Alessandro quite a while to spot the glass tubes in the dark, connecting the candles at the bottom of the fountain to the surface, the flames seeming to burn in the black water, like drowning stars.

A cool breeze sent a shiver rippling through Alessandro's reflection. A stranger stared back at him. Alessandro supposed that was the whole point of this charade – Giacinto and him were still fleeing a death sentence from Venice, who knew who might be here tonight, they couldn't risk exposure so close to solving everything. To going home.

Alessandro missed his family.

Laelia seemed to know what was going through his mind and squeezed the arm linked with hers. She had dragged them out into the gardens after Alessandro had been pacing the marble halls like a trapped lion, behind the bars of his own whirling thoughts.

He had to solve this. He had one evening. He had to.

Somewhere, somehow de Vito had hidden everything they needed here. But where? Where was he supposed to start?

"This isn't just on you," Laelia whispered, leaning against him for a moment. Alessandro barely registered it. He had to solve this. Somehow.

He had taken the invite the dead Bishop had sent them apart over and over and over again. Laelia had checked for secret ink. Alessandro had compared their invite with the actual one the Lady Medici had sent Giacinto, hoping for perhaps a missing word, something phrased differently, anything. Nothing.

The stranger in the water stared back at him with a set jaw and narrowed eyes. Alessandro missed the familiar armour of his bold red doublet. Too recognizable, Giacinto had warned. The colour of spilled blood had become synonymous with Inspector Steno in Venice. Instead, he had been laced into a high collared jacket the colour of dying nights, silver buttons winking like stars.

For what must be the hundredth time tonight, Laelia had to tug his hand back down before he ruined the ridiculous, ruler straight middle part one of the maids attending him had forced his hair into. His hair had grown out of the short-shorn cut he'd worn when still in the police, Giacinto making fun of it for the past weeks – Alessandro was relatively certain the Greek had bribed the maids.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the vainest of them all?" Laelia poked his shoulder. "You are!"

"I'm not vain," Alessandro grumbled.

Laelia hid a snort behind a gloved hand. She wore Giacinto's gift religiously. She tugged at his arm, pulling them away from the fountain of drowning stars and through the dark park. The guests had been told to arrive at sunset, but the Medici had yet to make an appearance.