“I’ve seen this,” August said. “But where?” He closed his eyes and rambled through the pages of a thousand books. He could almost feel the pages he needed in his hands. “Merlin,” he said. “The image has some link to Merlin.”

August launched the Internet browser and began a Google search for “Merlin Medieval Art.” After what seemed like an eternity sifting through the results, he found a Web site that looked promising. He scrolled down the page to an image titled Ambros [Young Merlin] Prophesies to Vortigern. And there it was. “Wow,” he said, amazed.

“What?”

“Look at this,” August said.

“Two dragons fighting,” Xandria said. “I don’t see the connection.”

“Look again. Look at the white dragon.”

Xandria blinked at the screen. In the background of the image was a throng of people, many with their faces rubbed out. Their fingers, including Merlin’s, pointed toward the bottom right corner of the image where two dragons—a white one and a red one—battled in a dirt pit resembling a boxing ring.

August used the cursor to position the first Gutenberg image next to the medieval piece. He traced his finger along the white dragon, and then along one of the white dogs in the Gutenberg illumination. “They match,” he said. “Look at the dog’s feet. They’re claws, like a dragon’s. And the dog’s teeth! Look! They’re biting the hare in the same way the white dragon is biting the red dragon. The curve of the neck . . . the angle of the body . . . Gutenberg must have used this painting as a model.”

Xandria seemed cautiously impressed. “How did you know about this dragon image?”

Even now, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that his photographic memory was as much blessing as curse. “I probably saw it reproduced in a hundred books when I was an archaeobibliologist. It’s a famous portrayal of the young sorcerer Merlin.”

“But what does it mean?”

August enlarged the painting of the dragons. “Like most fables, there’s far more than meets the eye. Merlin the Sorcerer is a symbolic peasant’s tale. The true legend lies beneath the surface. For example, in the painting, the red dragon represents the people of England.”

“And the white dragon?”

“The Saxons, but in a more symbolic sense, the forces of Germany.” August scribbled something on the notepad. “The painter was using Merlin as a way to portray the confrontation between England and Germany. But in the Gutenberg illumination, the representations have changed. The white dog probably represents the Holy Roman Empire, which encompassed Germany in the Middle Ages. But the red dragon has been replaced by a hare.”

“You mean a rabbit.”