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Chapter 59
Ezio spent the next several months in his uncle's library, searching for any mentions of Cyprus in the books, papers, letters, and journals that occupied the shelves. He had read some of them during his previous visits to Monteriggioni, but never as thoroughly and frequently as this.
Mario joined him occasionally, but he was busy with other matters as well. He managed to send several of his men as couriers to nearby coastal cities, requesting other Assassins in those cities to report any suspicious ships travelling from the direction of Cyprus. Unfortunately, none of them had anything noteworthy to share.
The only person who could drag Ezio out of the library for an extended period of time was Rosa, and even she was hard pressed to do so. They practiced in the arena when weather permitted, but Ezio was often distracted by his own thoughts to the point where Rosa nearly bested him a few times. She complained that he was going too easy on her, but they both knew that wasn't quite true. He had simply lost interest in the fight.
As the weather grew colder, she tried a different approach.
"What are you reading?" she asked one night in November.
Ezio looked up from the table on which piles of documents had been placed. He held up what he was reading so that she could see it.
"I can't read, culo," she reminded him.
"Mi dispiace, ho dimenticato," he apologized. "It is a journal from a man who died two decades before I was born."
"Have I heard of him?"
"No. Neither have I, and I doubt he wrote anything useful in here anyway," he complained.
"You are looking for mentions of Cyprus, sì?"
He nodded.
"Teach me how to find it. Maybe this won't take as long with two people."
"Take a seat," he shrugged.
Over the next couple weeks, Ezio attempted to teach her how to read, which mostly amounted to helping her identify some of the words he was trying to find. She obviously wasn't able to read the texts in their entirety, but she didn't have to; she was able to skim through some of the less promising pieces in search of what they needed.
The search was fruitless, though. By the time the new year (1487) rolled around, they had only managed to find several passing references to Cyprus and nearby cities. It seemed as if many past Assassins knew that the area was valuable, but nobody was willing to tell anybody else why.
Claudia demanded some of Rosa's attention as well, seeking the thief's opinion on some of the boys in the town and others in Florence with whom she maintained correspondence. Rosa was of little use here, but Claudia still enjoyed the company.
Mario noted that Maria, too, seemed happier when Ezio was around. Ezio spent some time tending the gardens of the Villa with her in the hope that she might talk to him more, but she remained as quiet as she usually was.
"I miss her voice," he told Rosa once, "even though she only used it to scold me when I was younger."
Rosa laughed. "Give her a reason to scold you again," she suggested.
He chuckled. "I've been away from home making dangerous enemies for years. She already has a better reason than most mothers."
In April of 1487, Ezio and Mario agreed to give up their search through the library.
"We'll have better luck looking in the present than in the past," Mario assured him as they prepared to leave. Some of his men were in Cyprus by this time, but they hadn't reported anything back.
Ezio and Rosa arrived back in Venezia in early May, and they shared the sour mood that Ezio had adopted on their earlier journey. They were no closer than they had been, and there was nothing to be done about it.
Their spirits were only lifted by a visitor about a month later.