‘Goodbye my precious darling’ she said, ‘mama has held onto you for too long.’ Lucia then kissed the dry scalp that still had wisps of the boy's blond hair, hair just like her own, and gently placed the fragile body upon the liquid mercury. Lucia gazed at her child as he floated there for a moment before the liquid mercury took him. A sob heaved out of her chest. Then, out of the depths, a reflection slowly rose up from the pool of the Hermeporta.
Lucia caught her breath, shaking her head in disbelief, when she saw the reflection of her new-born, just as she remembered him before his last breath. He swam up to her, full of life, as the mercury glowed with gentle light. Lucia wept with joy, her body a concertina of emotions as she looked down at her son with rapture. Lucia kissed her fingers and reached forward to touch the reflection of her child, that then stretched his little hand to hers and received her kiss with affection. Her fingers tingled with sensations when they touched.
The boy smiled before Lucia’s teardrops rippled the surface of the mercury as his waving reflection began to sink away. ‘You only lived for moments, but you changed my life forever. Thank you, my darling, thank you.’
The Professor was in bits, as any lingering resentment he had towards Lucia lay demolished, trampled into insignificance by what he had seen. Lucia then took a deep, ragged breath closed her eyes and wiped the fresh tears from her face. The Professor came up the steps to stand next to her before he placed his arms around her. He hugged and swayed with Lucia for a full minute before he called over to Orsini.
‘Keep this place safe and secret for us’ the Professor said to the devastated Cardinal, ‘you owe us that at least.’ Lucia glanced at the Cardinal before she wiped at her eyes again and rested her head against the Professor's shoulder.
‘I’m ready now’ she said to him, ‘it’s time for us to go.’
The Professor gave Lucia’s her case as they stood side by side while the Hermeporta began to glow again. When the pair rose into the air, Lucia could see, for sure, that her baby’s body had gone along with her suffering. She looked into the Professor’s grey eyes as his platinum hair swirled in the air while streaking bands of light surrounded them. She smiled. ‘He’s at peace now’ she said, as the light intensified, ‘my little boy and me are at peace.’ The Professor nodded, and half smiled before he spoke to the Hermeporta:
‘Florence: January the eighth, sixteen forty-two’ he declared.
With that utterance, the Professor embraced Lucia’s hand and squeezed. 'Hold on tight' he said before they crashed into the reflection upon the Hermeporta and transformed into pure light.
Raven and Orsini watched the pair vanish into the Hermeporta awestruck by all they had seen. The Cardinal then looked on utterly devastated, overwhelmed by his feelings. The men sat in silence, dimly aware of each other, bonded by the extraordinary things that they had experienced: irrecoverably changed forever. Orsini listened to the Professor's request move in his shattered mind. He heard Hermes' declaration of his destination before he tried to piece together the silent words that fell from Illawara's mouth. The Cardinal stared into the distance. 'Wherever you are, in the time that you reside' Orsini said, 'I will find you, my love.'
Epilogue
The First
The Professor and Lucia ran as fast as they could up the narrow road that led upward from the outskirts of Florence to Arcetri.
‘We must hurry’ the Professor panted, ‘it could be any moment now.’ Lucia nodded, too out of breath to respond. The January wind braced them with icy resistance as they ran up the hill in the failing light. A road familiar to them both as they ran on, little had changed, heading towards a place where the two had met thirty-one years before. The pair reached the top of the hill, and looked down into the valley, and paused for a moment.
‘This is where you first saw me’ said Lucia, out of breath ‘do you remember?’
‘Of course, I do, you were dancing.’
‘Yes, I was gathering herbs. My patch is gone now’ she said peeping over the low wall and into the valley, ‘and my goodness how the trees have grown.’ The Professor nodded.
‘We have to hurry’ said Winston, not wanting to miss their chance. On they ran as night began to fall over the valley of Arcetri. The house called Bellosguardo drew into view, and the pair slowed their pace. The house stood not far from San Matteo, Lucia’s former convent.
‘Do you still think much of that place?’ Asked the Professor. Lucia hesitated as they neared the house.
‘I try not to think about them, and what would have happened there’ she said, with a rueful look down the road, where she could just make out the convent roof. ‘Who knows what the place could be like now’ she added. The pair were almost upon the house before she reached into the Professor's rucksack and took out a jar. She opened it and scooped out some of the buttery mixture before she put the jar back.
‘Are you still sure you want to do this?’ he said as Lucia rubbed her hands and forearms with unguent.
‘It’s just a sleeping spell. Apart from him, you said there would only be three’, the Professor nodded, ‘easy then’ she said, ‘a twelve-year-old could do it.’ Lucia began to glow in the dusk that fell over Arcetri, and the Professor admired her for a moment as they drew up to the front door of the house that sat elevated upon the hill. The door was left ajar, and the pair detected the sound of weeping, and low conversation coming from inside. The Professor caught his breath and covered his mouth before he ran a hand through his hair.
‘Maybe we’re already too late?’ he whispered.
‘Well, there’s only one way to find out’ said Lucia creeping into the house. The pair walked forward on tiptoes, through a kitchen and peered into a living room converted into a bedroom. Three people sat around an old man that appeared to be dying. The two men and one woman sat and wept, and murmured to one another in low tones. Lucia thrust her hands in the directions of the grievers and said her sleeping spell. The younger inhabitants wilted into their chairs like flowers.
Galileo lay in his bed, blind old and defenceless. His life almost at its end after years of penance and house arrest. As near to death as he was, Galileo sensed the new quiet in the room as the pair tiptoed forward.
‘Is that you?’ the decrepit physicist wheezed, bed bound and listless.
‘Were you expecting me?’ Answered Winston with kindness.
‘Are you death?’ said Galileo. The Professor felt struck. The old physicist, near his end, had the honesty of a child.
‘No’ the Professor swallowed, as he and Lucia tiptoed forward to his bedside, ‘but I’m an old friend.’ Galileo cracked open his blind eyes in a vain effort to see the face that spoke to him.
'I know that voice' a faint smile appeared on his quivering lips, 'did we speak once? At the Medici?’ He said, ‘many years ago?’
Galileo gave out a sigh, and the pair worried it was his last breath, but he breathed again, but only just, ‘It is you. I feel it' he said, 'they talked about you for years, you know? Oh, and her, the pretty one that danced.' The Professor and Lucia exchanged glances, 'no one knows what’s happened to that Cardinal, just silly rumours, we can't ask The Church about him my daughter said... no matter now.' Galileo coughed and retched with all sorts of loose parts rattling inside him. 'I was brasher back then' he said after he settled, 'once, I had the confidence of Jove, but look where it got me’ he mumbled, his face faltering as if he regretted his life’s work.
'Your work will not be forgotten' said the Professor, touched that Galileo had remembered him.
‘You must be Death, then?’ said Galileo, ‘only Death could be a friend to me right now’ he added as if the years of his remarkable life had come to nought. But the trials of care, grief and illness had begun to loosen their burden upon him.
‘I’m not Death’ whispered the Professor, ‘I'm sleep, sleep that will bring you a new life.’
‘Will I see my daughter again?’ said Galileo, ‘my Maria? She died eight years ago in San M
atteo. My sweet daughter.' Lucia's eyes flinched, giving the Professor a look, thinking the worst, 'and yet she was dearer to me than all the Medici moons put together.’ The Professor took off his rucksack, reached into the bag and pulled out the Soul-lantern case. He opened the case on a side table and removed one item with great care and watched the spider twitch inside on her golden web.
‘Yes, of course, you'll see them again’ said the Professor to comfort the old man.
‘And my friend dear Sagredo? Oh, how I’ve missed our conversations.’
'Yes, you shall.'
Galileo seemed to be having a joyful vision as his blind eyes started to weep for joy.
‘Did you hear what he said?' Galileo called out to the air, 'I shall be with you again my dear friend.’ The grandfather of modern science spoke out to his long-departed friend in anticipation, ‘the angel said that I will see you all again…’ Galileo tried to laugh, but the effort had become too much for him. The corners of his mouth trembled into a smile, and he reached up as if to welcome someone before his hand fell back and his eyes dried into silence. His last breath left him. Lucia sang a Hebrew prayer, low and sweet as the mouth of Galileo fell open. Lucia made a gesture to the Professor to open the door of the Soul-lantern. There inside the enchanted spider sensed her prey, and waited poised.
Lucia continued her singing when out from Galileo’s mouth emerged a beautiful gold and red hawk moth. It fluttered its wings revealing the stars and planets dotted on its wings readying itself for flight.
‘Quickly’ whispered Lucia, ‘before his soul flies away.’ The Professor reached the Soul-lantern forward alongside the glittering hawk moth, and in a moment the Golden Orb Weaver reached from her cage to snatch up Galileo’s soul before it could escape from his face.
The spider began to spin her golden silk threads to bind Galileo’s fidgeting soul onto the dream catcher and web she had created. The Professor closed the hinged door exhilarated, as Lucia finished her enchanted prayer and smiled.
‘He’s our first’ she said. The Professor nodded but looked worried.
‘Will she hurt him?’ She shook her head.
'She can't harm him - yet. The spell upon her is strong, but so is her will: it can’t last forever' she said, 'like every living thing she must feed, eventually.’ The Professor nodded, before he put Galileo’s soul, with great care, back into his Soul-lantern case. Expectation raced through him.
‘This will become the best salon ever created’ he grinned, as Galileo's guardians lay slumped unconscious, ‘a selection Geniuses spanning the breadths of history. All of them in one place at the same time – conversing with each other.’ Lucia looked at the Professor and smiled with sweetness. She played along. She would enjoy the ride. She more than liked the Professor, but she had her own views and knew her own mind.
Lucia glanced around the room at the sleeping figures that would awake to find Galileo’s body dead. They would weep and cry and then ensure that history would remember and recognise his contributions. But Lucia felt there were others yet more deserving of fame and immortality: she had three Soul-lanterns of her own.
‘Let’s make haste’ she said, checking the faces of the people that had already began to stir in their slumber. ‘This sleeping spell is a short one' she said, 'but now it’s time for my suggestion. A time for a brilliant woman from history to speak, and have her voice heard again' she added, before moving closer to the Professor, 'now it’s time for a female Genius, now it's time for Hypatia…’
End of Book 2
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