City of Wind by Pierdomenico Baccalario

Author:Pierdomenico Baccalario
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Action & Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780375892288
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2007-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

19

THE ZODIAC

IN A HALL INSIDE THE LOUVRE, SHENG CATCHES UP WITH MISTRAL and grabs her by the wrist. “Come with me, quick! I found it!” he pants.

“Where?”

“Downstairs in room twelve bis of the Sully section.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! It’s a treasure and it’s protected by a guard!”

Sheng and Mistral hurry down the stairs.

“So what is it?”

“An Egyptian zodiac. The guard explained some of it to me, but I’m not sure I understand it all. They hung it really high up, so it’s hard to see. And they did it intentionally, the guard said. They wanted the zodiac to go unnoticed.”

“They …?”

“Yeah, them. He says they’re everywhere. Even here in the museum. Anyway, he said we could get a poster with the reproduction of the whole zodiac in the bookstore. We’ve definitely got to pick one up.”

“What’s so important about the zodiac?”

“It’s the oldest one in the world that shows the Egyptian and the Chaldean constellations.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No. It’s got everything! The Egyptian gods and the signs of the zodiac. Pisces, Aries, Capricorn, Cancer, Taurus … all twelve of them. You can see all the planets, too. There’s even an extra one: a hobbling planet that goes around the sun with a cane. Like the guard! Mithra’s on it. Isis is on it.… We’re even on it!”

“Sheng, what are you talking about?”

“I’m telling you, the four of us are on it! The guard explained it to me!”

“So who’s the guard, anyway?”

“His name’s Jean Turie and—” When they run into room 12 bis, Sheng stops in his tracks. It’s empty. “Darn it! He’s gone.”

“Are you sure this is the right room?” Mistral whispers, peering around.

Sheng shows her the armchair he dozed off in. “Of course I am. I sat down right there and fell asleep.”

“You fell asleep?”

“Yeah, but only for a minute! Then the guard showed up and explained everything to me. He had this funny-looking cane, and he used it to point up at the things sculpted on the zodiac. He told me the zodiac was made in fifty-one BC, a really unusual year, when there were four eclipses. Four of them, get it?”

“Actually, no.”

“Four, just like us!”

“Well, then what?”

“Then nothing! I showed him the clock and—”

“You showed him the clock?”

“Sure. He told me the woman on the clock is Isis. Then he showed me where she is on the zodiac, too. Look, that’s her! Professor Van Der Berger wrote in his journal that nature loves to hide, remember? Well, Isis is hiding right there on the zodiac. Her back’s turned toward us, and she’s the only figure doing that!”

Mistral listens to his river of rambling words, horrified. Finally, she says, “Listen, Sheng. I don’t see any of that up there, and quite honestly I don’t understand a single word you’ve said. Do you want to go to the museum bookshop to look for the poster?”

“The real treasure of the Louvre …,” Sheng murmurs.

“What?” Mistral asks.

Sheng stands there, stock-still, below the stone zodiac. “He said this zodiac is fundamental but that it’s aligned wrong, that it shouldn’t be facing this direction.

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