“The best-preserved copies were the ones owned by royalty. And if the Order of the Dragon was anything, they were that. Royal. Blue-blooded through and through. Their copies of the Gutenberg would have been the best cared for in all of Europe.”

“Tell us what you know so far about the illuminations,” April said.

August quickly walked through his speculations about the nine images:

the two white dog-dragons chasing the fox and the hare,
Sigismund on the throne with the golden globe,
Gutenberg holding the sword and journal,
the swan-dragon devouring the blue man,
the eagle holding Charlemagne’s banner,
Daniel, afraid of the hedgehog,
Vlad II Dracul in his green cape,
the ox seeming to forecast light,
the hart, tormented by the wolf

“I don’t know,” April said, trying to absorb the volumes of information. “What if you’re seeing things that aren’t really there?”

“It’s entirely possible,” August said. “But it’s the best I’ve got.”

The illuminated pages glowed over the lunar light. They seemed to almost radiate a message. But what was it?

Charlie’s eyes were transfixed on the pages.

“What is it?” April asked him. August turned at the concern in her voice. Charlie didn’t blink for more than a minute.

“Charlie! Snap out of it!”

Charlie blinked. “I’m fine. I was . . . you know . . .”

“I do know. But that worries me. You need to stay with us, here.”

“It’s just . . . the pictures . . . they fit together.”

August looked up from the journal. “What do you mean?”

“I was daydreaming about the animals in the pictures, and it’s like they wanted to chase each other. And then I noticed how close they were to one another, not how they are now, but if you, like, stacked them on top of one another.”

August scanned the illuminated pages. He was beginning to see it. “Go on.”

“Can I show you?”

“Right away.”

Charlie ran around to the other side of the table. He turned all the pages so that they were facing him. “Hmm,” he said, stroking his chin like a professor. The gears in his head were turning faster and faster. He started rearranging the pages, flipping some over so that their images were reversed. And then he began to stack them, one by one, until all nine of the pages were on top of one another. “Wow!” he said, like he’d just opened a Christmas present.

“What is it?” August and April said in unison. They jumped up from their chairs and peered over Charlie’s shoulders.

“Amazing.”

“Unbelievable.”

“The images are all linked.”

“They were meant to go together,” April said.