Revelations

FIFTY-ONE

The Flower Market was a blaze of color and pleasant scents, and there wasn’t a Janissary in sight. Ezio made his way through it anxiously, as nowhere in all this cornucopia had he yet been able to find any of the flowers he sought.

“You look like a man with money to spend,” said a flower seller, as Ezio approached his stall. “What do need, my friend?”

“I’m looking for tulips. White ones, if you have them.”

The flower seller looked doubtful. “Ah. Tulips. Forgive me, but I am fresh out. Something else, perhaps?”

Ezio shook his head. “It’s not my call, unfortunately.”

The flower seller thought about the problem for a moment, then leaned forward. He spoke confidentially. “OK, just for you, here is my secret. Many of the white tulips I sell, I pick myself near the hippodrome. Not a word of a lie. You go and see for yourself.”

Ezio smiled, took out his wallet, and tipped the flower seller generously. “Grazie.”

Busily, a man in haste, he made his way through the sun-warmed streets to the hippodrome, and, sure enough, in the grass along one side of the racetrack, he found white tulips growing in abundance. Happily, he bent down and, unleashing his hidden-blade, cut as many as he hoped Sofia would want.