Inquisition (37 page)

‘Show me,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘That you are prepared to do it alone.’

Stupor twisted Mondino’s lips into a nervous laugh. ‘Please, put that knife away.’

‘If you want to obtain the elixir following the system I dictated to you,’ said Adia, deeply serious, ‘You need a human heart that is still palpitating. Take mine.’

Mondino didn’t know what to think. He was convinced it was a joke and was trying to work it out, but couldn’t. She continued to gaze at him holding out the knife by its blade. ‘Adia, I could never hurt you—’

‘Whereas you could hurt someone else?’ she broke in, aggressively. ‘If an unknown woman was standing in front of you now, would you kill her to make your dream come true?’

‘You mean that you can’t obtain the elixir without murder?’

‘To obtain it in
this
way, no,’ said Adia, without dropping her gaze. ‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you from the beginning, but you don’t want to listen.’

‘I didn’t understand,’ said Mondino, softly.

‘Liar.’ Adia’s expression was implacable. ‘You understood perfectly, but you didn’t want to think about it. That’s how the worst atrocities are committed: without thinking. Now make up your mind.’

Mondino bent his head. It was pointless to reply. Now there was only room for decisive action. He would show Adia, but above all he would show himself what stuff he was made of.

How much he really was prepared to risk in the name of science.

Without hesitating, he took the knife she was holding out to him and put it on the table, next to the book by Averroes. Then he put an arm round her shoulders and with his free hand threw the maps on to the glowing embers.

Turning to kiss her, while the parchments with the secret of immortality curled at their edges and became ash without producing a single lick of flame, Mondino was stunned by how all the rest counted for nothing at all.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all those who have helped me in the various phases of drafting this novel. My friends, the writers Silvia Torrealta and Matteo Bortolotti for being patient readers and giving their advice. Piero P. Giorgi, Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland, for details concerning the life and work of Mondino; Professor Rolando Dondarini, medievalist in the Department of History at the University of Bologna, for reading the book from the point of view of historical and urban reconstruction. All the staff at Piemme, who have the gift of making every working discussion feel like an enjoyable chat, and in particular the editorial director Maria Giulia Castagnone, for believing in this story from its first synopsis, and my editor Francesca Lang. My thanks also go to my agent Roberta Oliva, and to Giancarlo Narciso, without whom I might not have become a writer.

Deepest thanks go to my wife Ana Luz for believing in my work from the very beginning, and often more than I have myself.