Chapter Summaries

Georgiana considered the Uskoks’ role in Dalmatia, the costs of restoring its government, and the danger of turning the region into a military quagmire. She reflected on benevolence, righteous violence, and the principles behind Napoleon’s campaign, leaving her determined to build a new Pantheon and hoping she could repay some of the money owed to Piedmont.

• Georgiana reviewed how the Uskoks depended on piracy and local support, and how renewed Ottoman attacks had allowed them to return to sea.
• Georgiana considered Murat’s requisitions, the army’s likely route through Dalmatia, and the financial obstacles to restoring the region’s government.
• Georgiana looked to Zoisite’s Slovenian connections and the former Habsburg-Ottoman buffer zone as possible resources for Dalmatia.
• Georgiana worried that the Egyptian withdrawal could expose its troops to enemy warships and leave them stranded like the knights of Rhodes.
• Georgiana compared Napoleon’s mobilization to ancient proclamations of righteous punishment and reflected on Confucian ideas of benevolence, wealth, and virtue.
• Georgiana planned a new Pantheon inspired by Aeneas’s story and hoped to repay some of the money she had borrowed from the Piedmontese.

Georgiana meditated while considering the history of the Crusades, the Knights Templar, and the shifting powers around the Holy Land. Her thoughts turned to the difficulty of stabilizing grain prices and using the Archbishop of Milan’s inheritance, before Fredley interrupted her and she ended her meditation.

• Georgiana imagined herself as a tree and reflected on the Crusades, Mongol expansion, and the political history of the Holy Land.
• Georgiana reviewed the Knights Templar’s conflicts in Tripoli, their loss of the Holy Land, and the events leading to their suppression in 1307.
• Georgiana considered how the Knights Templar, the Mongols, and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia had shaped the region’s fate.
• Georgiana connected current grain shortages and high prices with the difficulty of using the Archbishop of Milan’s inheritance to grow beets and make sugar.
• Fredley apologized for disturbing Georgiana’s meditation, and Georgiana smiled, drank her water, and wished for a chilled drink.

Georgiana discussed Italy’s resistance to the International Statute of Secrecy and the dangers of punishment and imprisonment with Fredley. After Fredley revealed that Ali of Ioannina had approached them about an alliance, a French wizard reported that they had found a dangerous object, and Georgiana went to investigate.

• Fredley questioned Georgiana about Zabini, the Italians’ competition, and their reluctance to accept the International Statute of Secrecy, while warning her not to trust her squire completely.
• Georgiana told Fredley that prolonged imprisonment could be harder to correct than a wrongful conviction, and they discussed Napoleon, political violence, and the Mississippi River’s trade disputes.
• Fredley revealed that Ali of Ioannina had approached them to form an alliance and recounted Ali’s conflict with the Souliotes and the French Navy’s appearance after an Ottoman ammunition depot exploded.
• A French wizard told Georgiana that they had found an object dangerous to certain people, and she ordered him and Fredley to summon the butler before examining it.

Georgiana examined a magical mirror with Fredley and a French wizard, then found unexpected joy and solace in a painting and drank brandy alone. She freed Isobel and decided Cicognara’s empty cellar needed restocking.

• Georgiana identified the mirror’s antlered figure as Cernunnos and watched it flatter her after the wizard adjusted it.
• Georgiana discussed Leonardo da Vinci’s writings, mirrors, shadows, and the difference between painting and reliefs with Fredley and the wizard.
• Georgiana offered Fredley and the wizard brandy, then walked away humming after recalling a painting that had stirred her.
• Georgiana searched Cicognara’s cellar, found a remaining bottle of brandy, and drank directly from it.
• Georgiana called Isobel free, sighed at the empty wine racks, and decided to restock the cellar.

Georgiana reflected on how people’s choices shaped their fates and sent Feilier to Paris with a letter and a mission for the First Consul. After Feilier left, Georgiana prepared to go to lunch with Fredley while considering the danger of assassination.

• Georgiana recalled Leonardo da Vinci’s surveying methods and sent Bonaparte a letter containing Napoleon’s Theorem as a gift.
• Georgiana reflected on Dumbledore, Voldemort, Harry, Severus, and Bonaparte, considering how choices and misjudgments shaped their lives.
• Georgiana apologized to Feilier for summoning her late and asked whether she had recovered from the events two days earlier.
• Georgiana gave Feilier a letter and instructed her to return to Paris, report on local matters, and deliver captured battle flags to the First Consul.
• Feilier suggested establishing intelligence stations, and Georgiana thanked her before Feilier departed.
• Fredley invited Georgiana to lunch, and she agreed to change clothes while considering how to avoid an assassination.

Pomona watched Snape struggle with a Whomping Willow branch and leaves while Georgiana reflected on Renaissance artists, political power, and the risks of being misunderstood. At dinner with Fredley, Georgiana discreetly checked their food for poison, then let him mistake her spell for a Celtic prayer as they prepared to eat.

• Pomona suggested that Snape petrify the Whomping Willow branch, but he forced it into a jar and ground the fallen leaves instead.
• Georgiana recounted the rivalries among Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, along with the political history surrounding Cesare Borgia and Julius II.
• Georgiana considered the diplomatic work Fredley hoped to do for his parents and their invalid marriage.
• When dinner arrived, Georgiana used wordless, wandless magic to test the food for poison while onlookers watched.
• Fredley asked whether Georgiana had said a Celtic prayer, and she let him think so before they began eating.

Georgiana considered the histories of art, religion, exploration, and empire while enduring an elaborate meal in Italy. She rejected the crab and asked for polenta and salami, leaving Fredley to wonder whether she was unhappy.

• Georgiana endured the restaurant's formal meal as ladies' appraising gazes and comparisons to Grassini unsettled her.
• She reflected on how food, power, and friendship had shaped happiness for herself and for Harry.
• When Fredley asked whether the crab was to her taste, Georgiana began to answer, but he had it taken away.
• Georgiana asked the chef for polenta and salami, explaining that she hoped he would not consider the dish too ordinary.
• Fredley asked why she wanted that food, and Georgiana softly answered, "Happiness."
• Fredley asked whether she was unhappy, and Georgiana smiled, said she still had the right to refuse, and looked toward Sforza Castle.

Georgiana toured Sforza Castle with Fredley, where Zoisite identified an unfinished sculpture as Michelangelo’s Pietà and spoke about the Knights of Malta and their ties to France. Suspecting the discussion carried political significance, Georgiana invited Zoisite for a walk while concealing her thoughts from Fredley.

• Georgiana and Fredley explored Sforza Castle and examined a weathered sculpture on a Carrara marble pedestal.
• Zoisite arrived and claimed the unfinished sculpture was Michelangelo’s final Pietà, describing its subject and the marble’s quality.
• Zoisite asked whether Georgiana planned to use marble from Elba for a palace and discussed Malta’s stone and the Knights of Malta’s history and French properties.
• Georgiana considered Malta’s strategic importance and the risks of trusting the wrong person as war threatened.
• Georgiana invited Zoisite to take a walk and brought up the Knights Templar’s treasure before she, Fredley, and Zoisite crossed the lawn together.

Georgiana searched Sforza Castle for a granary and learned about Malta’s hidden underground rooms while discussing the island’s history with Fredley. After dancing with him, she refused Zoisite’s request, but he offered to reveal Persephone’s secret.

• Georgiana searched Sforza Castle for a granary but found only a ballroom and a Venetian mask called Moretta.
• Georgiana suspected the granary might be hidden underground after learning that residents sometimes uncovered concealed rooms beneath Malta.
• Georgiana helped Fredley tie a sash, then danced with him at an imagined masquerade ball.
• Georgiana told Fredley she wanted to build a zoo outside the castle, and he agreed before her reminder brought him back to his senses.
• Zoisite admitted he had followed Georgiana and asked why she had chosen Polenta, then offered to tell her Persephone’s secret.

Georgiana discussed Sicily’s turbulent history and grain trade with Zoisite and Fredley, then asked Zoisite about his injured leg. Left alone with her, Zoisite said a secret rite related to Druidism had left half his soul missing and asked whether she had found her way home.

• Georgiana asked whether Sicily had been unable to supply Malta with grain and heard Zoisite admit he knew only hearsay.
• Zoisite explained that secret rites could let a couple share private truths without shame, and that political marriage was one purpose of them.
• Georgiana asked about Zoisite’s leg and whether it was connected to the secret rite.
• Zoisite asked Fredley and the servant to leave so he could speak privately with Georgiana.
• Zoisite said the rite involved suspended death and rebirth, but only half his soul had returned, then asked Georgiana whether she had found her way home.

Georgiana questioned Zoisite about his search for a destiny beyond death, and he offered her a secret about storing wheat in exchange for Slovenia’s safety and their earlier agreement. After General Lechi arrived, she ordered the ducal courtyard cleared, apparently preparing to move from Marino Palace.

• Georgiana discussed Botticelli’s Primavera, love, and the afterlife with Zoisite, who said he wanted to learn whether Aquinas’s promised destiny after death was real.
• Zoisite asked Georgiana whether she loved Bonaparte and whether she wanted to return to her former life, then described Spain’s wars and treaties over Italian territories.
• Zoisite offered the secret that wheat stored properly would not develop ergot fungus, asking Georgiana to use it to secure Slovenia’s safety and honor their earlier arrangement.
• General Lechi arrived with French soldiers, and Georgiana questioned him about the castle’s granary.
• After Lechi said he knew of no granary inside the castle, Georgiana ordered the ducal courtyard cleared and announced that she was changing residences.

Georgiana reflected on Renaissance art, Italian politics, and the fragile balance of power while meeting Magenta on a garden bridge. She declined to revive the debates at Sforza Castle and remained concerned about Malta’s relief ships and the search for a granary.

• Georgiana picked up a black cat on the bridge and considered the art, history, and politics associated with Renaissance Italy.
• Magenta approached Georgiana and asked why she had changed locations, and she explained that La Scala Opera House was resuming normal operations.
• Magenta asked Georgiana whether she would revive the Paragone, the debates once held at Sforza Castle.
• Georgiana declined to hold the debates while the rooms remained uncleared and told Magenta to check on matters elsewhere.
• After Magenta left, Georgiana worried about the grain ships’ route to Malta and wondered about the egg said to protect Naples and its castle.

Georgiana reflected on jealousy, law, power, and her own past as she walked through Milan. She ordered Rabastan Lestrange and the others to live in Sforza Castle and prepare to go to Peru to kill every Peruvian Vipertooth.

• Georgiana left the hospital near Sforza Castle at sunset and considered how malice, envy, and poor judgment could turn people against one another.
• Georgiana reflected on how law established ownership and settled disputes, and on the consequences of political ambition, abandoned privateers, and authoritarian rule.
• Georgiana recalled her past with Severus and wondered whether she had changed, then touched her chest and felt no heartbeat.
• Rabastan Lestrange asked whether they had to live in Sforza Castle, and Georgiana ordered him to prepare to go to Peru and kill every Peruvian Vipertooth.
• Rabastan accepted Georgiana's order, and she continued toward Brera Palace after the priest she had seen disappeared.

Georgiana reflected on mercy, justice, and Cesare’s rule of Romagna while discussing her beliefs with Gabrio at the Milan Observatory. Their conversation turned to Georgiana’s unresolved love for Harry, and she left wondering whether Bonaparte’s approach to governing was better than her own.

• Georgiana considered how Cesare had conquered and governed Romagna, comparing his methods with Bonaparte’s military preparations and plans for surveying the meridian.
• Georgiana asked Gabrio whether false confessions by the dying should be forgiven, and they debated mercy, justice, and the harm done by hypocrites.
• Gabrio told Georgiana that she had not forgiven anyone and had only buried her anger, while she insisted she had been talking about him.
• Gabrio asked whom Georgiana was with, and she thought of the wizard in black and the years she had spent growing close to Harry before his words shattered her hopes.
• Georgiana called herself foolish, left the Celestial Axis Room, and wondered whether Bonaparte’s way of solving problems was right.

Georgiana studied Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper with Julian Ouvrard, using its lighting, composition, and a mirror to explain her interpretation of Saint John. Julian invited her to La Scala Opera House, and Georgiana left wondering whom the mural’s “Apostle of Love” referred to.

• Georgiana examined the Last Supper at night and pointed out its uneven symmetry and the placement of its figures.
• Georgiana used a mirror to show Julian how the mural’s reflected view changed its apparent lighting and composition.
• Georgiana explained that Saint John’s smile and relaxed posture suggested that love had changed his temper and made him more tolerant.
• Georgiana noticed that the table lacked something, but Julian chose to search for it himself.
• Julian invited Georgiana to see an opera at La Scala, and she agreed to follow him out after saying goodbye to the mural.

Georgiana attended an opera with Julian Ouvrard, who warned that using the Farnese family’s illegitimate inheritance as a pretext could damage diplomacy. Their conversation turned to Britain’s war funding, American grievances, and her desire to divorce Mr. Smith, while Georgiana remained haunted by a vision of a teacher killing Isidora.

• Julian Ouvrard seated Georgiana in the opera box and explained that the performance was Schiller’s Don Carlos.
• Julian warned Georgiana that invoking the Farnese heir’s illegitimacy could anger Spain and affect diplomacy, and said Parliament had to be stopped from refusing war funds.
• Georgiana raised the Prince of Wales and Maria’s possible child, the Jay Treaty’s effects on American sailors, and Britain’s situation in Gibraltar.
• While the opera’s scenery changed, Georgiana thought about Leonardo da Vinci’s knots and answered Julian’s questions about Nous and sacred geometry.
• Georgiana asked Julian about divorce and said she loved Mr. Smith but would not forgive him or continue living in self-deception.
• Georgiana briefly saw one of Isidora’s teachers kill her with Avada Kedavra, then dismissed Julian’s question about what was behind the curtain.

Georgiana reflected on the painting The Banquet and its violent story while considering the pain hidden beneath Eileen and Severus Snape’s family history. She then studied Leonardo da Vinci’s notes on perspective and prepared to test his method with a mirror in the Italian heat.

• Georgiana spoke with Polina and asked Dermide to get Uncle Luigi’s protection before riding a horse; Leo followed Dermide out of the room.
• Georgiana studied her copies of Botticelli’s paintings and connected The Banquet’s coerced marriage to Helena’s fate and the abusive pattern Tobias Snape had imposed on Eileen.
• Georgiana considered how Harry’s acknowledged parentage and resemblance to James Potter concealed Severus Snape’s connection to him.
• Georgiana examined Leonardo da Vinci’s manuscript on trees, perspective, and visual measurement, then decided to try the mirror experiment.
• Georgiana put on a sunhat and went to find a mirror, wishing for ice cream in the heat.

Georgiana supervised young people as they recreated a measurement from Leonardo da Vinci’s notes, then reflected on Bonaparte, freedom, and the reasons people pursued their paths. While walking near Sforza Castle, she found a foul-smelling fountain and learned it lay on the central axis between the castle and the Arch of Peace, giving her a location to investigate after dark.

• Georgiana had a group of young people use the Last Supper’s tablecloth as a reference to recreate the proportions in Leonardo da Vinci’s notes.
• Georgiana gave the young people lemonade and talked with them about travel and Bonaparte’s journey to Egypt.
• Georgiana walked with the young people along the canal leading to Sforza Castle and came upon an octagonal fountain of foul-smelling water.
• An Italian youth told Georgiana that the fountain stood on the central axis of the ellipse between the Arch of Peace and Sforza Castle.
• Georgiana returned to look for clues in Leonardo da Vinci’s notes before investigating the fountain after dark.

Georgiana studied the history of architecture and Leonardo da Vinci’s designs before her guardian Bougainville arrived with news about the Nassau shipwreck and its connection to the South Sea Bubble. The chapter ended with Georgiana offering to serve Bougainville rum as they prepared to discuss the wreck.

• Georgiana noticed familiar patterns in the zodiac meridian at Milan Cathedral and recalled how octagons had been associated with angels, balance, and justice.
• Georgiana examined Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus, which contained notes on waterworks, mechanical designs, diving equipment, a horse statue, and an eel.
• Bougainville visited Georgiana without his naval uniform and told her that the First Consul had sent him to discuss Nassau.
• Bougainville explained that a Spanish silver fleet had wrecked off Florida in 1715 and that pirates had scavenged its treasure.
• Georgiana discussed whether the treasure belonged to Spain, then learned from Bougainville that the wreck was connected to the South Sea Bubble of 1720.
• Georgiana summoned a maid to prepare rum for Bougainville and rum-flavored ice cream for herself.

Georgiana learned from Bougainville that pirates in Nassau might be connected to a missing Spanish treasure ship and French royal jewels intended to finance a new country in Louisiana. She asked him to plant a rumor about treasure in the castle so the young people outside would investigate its foul-smelling fountain, while she stayed away from the sewer.

• Bougainville explained how Nassau became a pirate haven and how Benjamin Hornigold’s amnesty helped persuade people that piracy had ended.
• Bougainville told Georgiana that a Spanish treasure ship had disappeared, possibly carrying French royal jewels meant to help buy Louisiana and establish a country with the Missouri River as its border.
• Bougainville recounted stories about the pirate Bellamy, his abandoned wife and child, and Black Caesar of Nassau.
• Georgiana asked Bougainville to tell the young people outside that treasure was hidden in the castle, hoping they would explore the contaminated fountain and its underground passage.
• Bougainville asked Georgiana which of the young people she found most handsome, then left her study; she ate the remaining rum ice cream and watched the afternoon light outside.