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Chapter 68

"These last two Codex pages…I was studying the copies…I don't know why I never saw it before!"

Leonardo handed the pages to Ezio to look them over, but Ezio didn't understand what his friend was expecting him to notice.

"What are you trying to show me?"

"Turn the pages over."

Ezio did, but he was still confused. "Are you sure you deciphered these correctly? This looks like nonsense."

"That was my first thought as well," Leonardo explained eagerly, "When I looked at these pages separately, I didn't notice the pattern, but when put together, I realized that the markings on the back clarify into words!"

"Words?"

"Here," Leonardo demonstrated. "The Prophet…will appear…when the second piece is brought to the floating city."

Ezio looked again. "Prophet…?" he thought aloud.

"I'm not sure what it means, but it could be a religious reference, or perhaps the writer…"

Leonardo kept talking but Ezio wasn't listening. He was trying to remember…something. Something his uncle had passively mentioned many years ago, shortly after Ezio had killed Francesco de' Pazzi. Somehow it had remained in the back of Ezio's head, this strange remark Mario had uttered while glancing over another page from the Codex. Just another damn mystery.

"Only the prophet may open it," Ezio recalled aloud. "Two pieces of Eden…"

Leonardo stopped talking and looked at him. "What are you saying? Ezio, what is this?"

Ezio returned Leonardo's look. He knew he would have to give an answer, but he wasn't sure what kind of answer he COULD give. These were his father's and his uncle's secrets, and to divulge them could endanger his remaining family, not to mention Leonardo himself. He hadn't even spoken a word of it to Rosa.

But the situation was urgent. The ship that had taken his enemies out of his reach was soon returning, and he needed to be prepared for whatever they were planning. His friend needed to know the truth.

"We've known each other for a long time, Leonardo. If I can't trust you, there is nobody. My Uncle Mario spoke of it long ago. A prophecy hidden in the Codex, leading to an ancient vault that holds something…very powerful."

Leonardo raised an eyebrow, perhaps deciding if he could believe such a thing. "Grandioso," he eventually decided as he stroked his chin, "but…if you took these pages from the Barbarigo, then maybe they know about this vault too. That's not good."

"Wait…" Ezio considered as he clutched the manifest Rosa had given him. "What if that's why they sent the ship to Cyprus? To find this piece of Eden, and bring it back to Venezia!"

"When the second piece is brought to the floating city…" Leonardo began.

"The prophet will appear," Ezio read Leonardo's translation again. "Only the prophet can open the vault…My God!"

He looked to Leonardo, and he knew his friend was beginning to understand too.

"When my uncle told me about the Codex, I was too young, too brash to imagine it was anything but an old man's fantasy! But now I see…the killing of Mocenigo, even the Medici, my father and brothers…it was all part of his plan. To find the vault!"

Ezio almost felt dizzy as everything began falling into place in his head. He finally had an explanation, a piece of context for everything that had happened over the past ten years. Now his greatest enemies were part of a larger picture.

There was only one left. One foe who already knew what Ezio had just learned

"The Spaniard!" he said, feeling almost as if he had just woken up from a dream.

"Rodrigo Borgia," Leonardo nodded, considering the revelation as well.

Despite the racing of his mind, there was no question as to what Ezio had to do next.

"The boat from Cyprus arrives tomorrow," he told Leonardo. I plan to be there to meet it."

"Good luck, my friend."