“You mean running around the city,” Tom said, “chasing clues that will almost certainly get us killed? I thought that’s just what we did now.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“A letter appears in my home,” I said, “with no apparent way of it getting there. It holds a riddle, and a cipher—that leads us to another riddle, and another cipher. And I bet, once we’ve solved the second one, it will send us off to hunt down a third. Doesn’t that feel like something we’ve done before?”

Sally frowned. “Paris,” she said. “It feels like what we did in Paris.”

“And who was making us run around in Paris?”

It dawned on them at the same time. They stared at me. “You mean…,” Tom began.

I nodded, leaned in, and whispered, “I’m pretty sure I know who’s sending me these letters. It’s the Templars.”

CHAPTER 22

“TEMPLARS?” TOM SAID, AMAZED. “IN London?”

“Why not?” I said. “Their order was everywhere before it was disbanded. Why wouldn’t they be here, too?”

“I’d believe it,” Sally said. “But if it’s the Templars, and they’re trying to help us, why bother with all the riddles? It’s not like we don’t know they still exist. Why don’t they just tell you what they want you to do?”

That’s what I didn’t understand. Though Tom had an idea.

“What if it’s a test?” Suddenly he gasped. “They’re testing us for entry into the order!”

“You mean… they want us to join the Templars?” I said.

“Yes! In Paris, Father Bernard said they needed to get new knights from somewhere.”

“He also said we needed to be older.”

“We are older.”

“I’m pretty sure he meant years, not months.”

Still, it wasn’t the craziest idea. If the puzzles were being sent by the Templars—and it really felt like they were—what other reason would they have for being so obscure? The thought made my blood race a little faster. And scared me a little, too.

I needed to think about it. “Let’s find Master Benedict’s coding device.”

Searching gave me plenty of time to mull it over. Master Benedict had kept a tidy shop, but a cluttered house. Part of that was the ever-growing hoard of books he was forever buying, but there were all sorts of curios, gewgaws, and devices that sparked his interest, too. Once I’d given Simon the poppy, it took us the better part of an hour to find what we were looking for, inside a sack at the bottom of a box of old clothes.

I took the sack and collected the others, including Bridget. Simon, under the poppy’s effect, had already fallen asleep. I left a small pot of the infusion with Henri, and told him he could give the medicine to Simon again only after another six hours had passed. I hoped he’d remember. All he did was grunt.

Tom was confused as to why we were leaving Blackthorn. “I thought you wanted to solve the puzzle.”

“I do,” I said. “Just not here.”