I forced the thought from my head and returned Cesare’s dark stare. “See?” I managed to say. “I am no threat at all, not when you have Juan’s death as a sword over my head any time you wish it. If a single rumor leaks from me about any of the things I saw in your service, you have only to loose the Holy Father on me for his son’s murder. Believe me, Eminence,” I added with utter sincerity, “that is more than enough to keep me silent all the rest of my days.”

“Perhaps.” Cesare smoothed his hair over the dent of his tonsure, which had already begun growing in. “But why do you wish to leave my service, little lion man? What is it you wish for?”

The question he had asked when we first met. Books, I had answered at the time, silently. To be tall. To matter.