Enrique whistled. “You’d be the most dangerous woman in France.”
As a rule, it was impossible to break verit stone. Every piece that existed at the entrance of palaces, banks, and other wealthy institutions were raw slabs that had naturally come apart during the lengthy mining and purification process. All of which made procuring a gravel-sized piece of verit unheard of, even on the extensive black market that usually suited their purposes.
“The words are the same,” said Zofia.
“What do you mean?”
“They’re just the same. Can’t you see it?”
Enrique stared at the letters, and then realized what she meant. There was anSin the upper left and bottom right corner. AnAadjacent to both. From there, the pattern made sense.
“It’s a palindrome.”
“It’s a metal square with letters.”
“Yes, but the letters spell the same thing backward and forward,” said Enrique. “Palindromes used to be inscribed on amulets to protect the wearer from harm. Not just amulets, though, come to think of it. There was one in ancient Greek found outside the Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople.Nipson anomemata memonan opsin.‘Wash the sins, not only the face.’ It was thought the wordplay would confuse demons.”
“Wordplay confuses me too.”
“I shall withhold comment,” said Enrique. He studied the letters once more. “There’s something familiar about this arrangement… I feel as though I’ve seen it before.”
Enrique walked over to the library within the stargazing room. He was looking for a specific tome, something he had come across during his linguistic studies in ancient Latin—
“Found you,” he said, pulling out a small volume:EXCURSIONS TO THE LOST CITY OF POMPEII.He quickly scanned the pages before he found what he was looking for.
“I knew it! This arrangement is called the Sator Square,” he said. “It was found in the ruins of Pompeii in the 1740s, commissioned by the king of Naples. Apparently, the Order of Babel helped fund the excavation alongside Spanish engineer Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre in hopes that it would reveal previously unknown Forge instruments.”
“Did it?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” said Enrique.
“What about the palindrome’s meaning?”
“Still under scrutiny,” he said. “Nothing else has appeared like it in the ancient realm, so it’s either a riddle or a cryptogram or a very bored inscription by someone who was about to be killed by a gigantic volcano. Personally, I think it’s a key… Figure out the code and the brass square will unlock. Maybe there’s some math involved here… Zofia? Any ideas?”
Zofia chewed on the end of a matchstick. “There’s no math to it. Just letters.”
Enrique paused. An idea flying to his head.
“But numbers and letters have plenty in common…” he said slowly. “Mathematics and the Torah led to gematria, a Kabbalistic method of interpreting Hebrew scripture by assigning numerical value to the words.”
Zofia sat upright. “My grandfather used to give us riddles like that. How do you know about that?”
“It’s been around for some time,” said Enrique, feeling his academic tone creeping into his voice. He had a bizarre urge to sit in a leather chair and acquire a fluffy cat. And a pipe. “Mathematics has long been considered the language of the divine. Besides, the system of alphanumeric codes doesn’t just belong to the Hebrew language. Arabs did it withabjadnumerals.”
“Ourzeydetaught my sister and I how to write coded letters to each other,” said Zofia softly. She twirled a strand of platinum hair around her finger. “Every number matched its alphanumeric position on the alphabet. It was… fun.”
At this, the barest smile touched her face. Not once had he ever heard her talk about her family. But no sooner had she mentioned them than she set her jaw. Before he could say anything, Zofia grabbed a quill and scraps of paper.
“If I take all these letters from your Sator Square, and look at their position in the alphabet and add them up, here’s what we get.”
S A T O R⇒S+A+T+O+R=19+1+20+15+18=73
A R E P O⇒A+R+E+P+O=1+18+5+16+15=55
T E N E T⇒T+E+N+E+T=20+5+14+5+20=64
O P E R A⇒O+P+E+R+A=15+16+5+18+1=55
