“You’re one forgetful criminal, Briar,” I said.
When I opened the book, that warm feeling returned to my hands again, as if the pages were emitting the warmth of a gently roaring fireplace. If it were an old book of da Vinci’s that he had infused his magic into, it made sense that I would have that reaction. It was extremely similar to what I had experienced the first time I picked up one of his books, though the sensation had barely registered then.
I skimmed the pages, noting the faded text and images on some pages and others that were blank. My heart rate kicked up again as I thought about the invisible ink that had been used on theVanished Compendium.
Had this book faded because of time, as I thought when I first borrowed it, or could there be more to it? Were the words and pictures worn, or were they…hidden?
“What are you hiding?” I asked, running my hands tenderly across the old pages.
At that moment, Yasmin stepped into the room. I musthave been quite the sight, sitting crisscross on the floor, hunched over the book with an undoubtedly wild look on my face.
“Umm, B, is everything okay? Did Feathergrass unveil a new rule?”
I shook my head and smiled excitedly as I held up the book. “How much time do we have before class? Want to help me uncover some invisible ink?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Soil and rhizomes,” Yasmin muttered, using a magical botanist phrase I had never heard from her before. “I can see it.” We were both sitting on our bedroom floor, da Vinci’s book open in front of us.
The concoction we had created to draw out the invisible ink was working. Ink began to fill each page as we added the tincture, just like it had at the defensives conservatory.
“How many secret messages in books do you think da Vinci left like this?” Yasmin asked, her eyes glued to the parchment.
“I don’t know, but let’s hope this one isn’t written in riddles like theVanished Compendium.”
We scanned the first page together.
“Doesn’t look like it. In fact…” Yasmin let out a sharp breath then rose and went to her desk. She returned with her copy of theCompendium Floracantus.“These are laid out just like the pages in here.”
I took another look, comparing the two books. She wasright. “Does this mean da Vinci created some Floracantus that never made it into theCompendium Floracantus?”
“Perhaps. Maybe he created them after the book was published. He could have been working on a second volume, like we thought theVanished Compendiumwas meant to be. Or maybe these are ones he was just experimenting with and weren’t intended for publication.” Yasmin ran her fingers across the Latin that spelled out the Floracantus on one of the pages.
“Want to try it?” I asked, knowing she was eager to.
“Let’s see…” Yasmin flipped through a few pages, turning each as delicately as if she were holding a piece of razor-thin glass. “Here’s one that seems to apply to ferns.” She studied the page then turned to one of the ferns hanging in the corner of the room.
“Fiet indicum,” she said.
We both watched in amazement as, one by one, the fronds of the fern turned from bright green to deep purple.
“He created a Floracantus to turn plants purple?” I asked. “I wonder if it was for art. I remember reading that purple dye was difficult to come by back then. Indigo dye came fromIndigofera tinctoria, but I don’t know how common the plant was. If he could readily make the dye from ferns or other plants, he would never have to worry about running out.”
Yasmin was still staring at the fern. She walked over to it and felt the leaves. “Remarkable.”
“Is there a Floracantus in here for how to reverse it?” I asked, turning to the next page. “I guess we don’t want Feathergrass knowing about this just yet.”
Indeed, on another page, da Vinci had created a Floracantusto return any plant to its standard color. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted to be caught with unnaturally purple ferns either.
An hour later, we had reviewed the entirety of the book. Only the first dozen pages contained Floracantus. The rest held drawings or remained empty. I wondered whether da Vinci’s work on the book had halted when the Renaissance botanists paused their magical innovations and sent theCompendium FloracantusandVanished Compendiuminto hiding.
“Most of these have to do with color or light or other physical properties of the plants,” Yasmin mused. “I think you may be right in suggesting these were his own experiments for the sake of improving his art.”
“Da Vinci had so many interests. It makes sense that he would overlap his studies and inventions.”
“This is an incredible find for the magical botanist community, B,” Yasmin said, her voice slightly shaky. Her hair was mussed, as if she’d run her hands through it while we worked. “Even if you had never found the book in Florida, people would have thought this book was theVanished Compendium.”
I gasped. “Yasmin, you’re a genius.”
