August flew the cursor around the computer screen and closed all the windows except for the third Gutenberg illumination. This file, too, showed an entire page of the Bible, this time from the book of Romans. A flowering plant traveled along the lower edge of the page, spiraling up into the initial S. Above the initial stood a man wrapped in a flowing green tunic secured beneath his neck with a single gold clasp. The man held two objects: in his left hand, a sheathed sword, and in his right, a scarlet book, which appeared to be tied shut with two black cords. His visage was bright and bold, lit from the light of heaven that he seemed to be staring into. He seemed unaware of the most unusual feature of the illumination: an ape, climbing a thick green vine up the west margin of the page.

“Care to explain?”

“I’ll start with the obvious,” August said. “The ape.”

“A monkey means mischief, right?”

“A monkey has a tail, something the ape in the illumination is clearly lacking,” August said. “You really should go to a zoo sometime. You’d learn something.”

“Maybe I will,” Xandria said. She leaned in close enough for August to smell her cinnamon breath. “Maybe I’ll take your kid with me. Show him the lions.”

August tried to quell his anger. He needed to keep Xandria fixated on finding her answers. He highlighted the ape on the screen. “In the twelfth century, a man named Philippe de Thaon wrote a book called Bestiaire. It’s a strange book of poetry, divided into three sections: beasts, birds, and stones.”

“Stones?”

“Mostly diamonds and pearls, really,” August said. “Philippe was trying to bridge early zoology with zodiacal study, and in doing so created an impressive work that was influential in medieval animal symbolism.”

“And let me guess: you sold one of his books to the highest bidder.”

“The buyer was from Norway. Owned a fishery or something. I don’t remember his name. But I do remember his check for two hundred thousand dollars,” August said, smiling. “I make a point of becoming educated about every book I sell. The edition I sold was Thaon’s French translation. It made for a fascinating read, especially the chapters about evil beasts.”

“Was the ape an evil beast?”

“The most evil of all,” August said. “Philippe claimed that the ape was a symbol of the devil, trailing evildoers on the path to hell.”

“But this ape is climbing up toward heaven.”

August agreed. “So there might be a pattern here. The illuminator could be saying that someone or something evil is advancing in a holy quest. But take a look at this. Do you recognize the man in the illumination?”

Xandria looked again at the man in green. His beard forked into two points, making his wise expression take a turn toward one of cunning. “Who is he?”