Page 65 of Ruling Destiny

It’s not until Mason’s on his way out that he says, “You know he was a vegetarian, right?”

I follow his gaze to theSalvator Mundi. “Who—Jesus?” I joke, but Mason is serious.

“Leonardo,” he says. “If you ever meet him, you should tell him about the vegan café where we used to work.”

I laugh, watching as Mason takes a closer look.

“What do you think that hand gesture means?” He glances over his shoulder at me. “You know, the way his right hand is raised with the fingers slightly crossed.”

I take a moment to consider. “I always assumed he was making a cross,” I say. “I mean, it is a portrait of Jesus, and Leonardo was known for putting hands into motion—pointing, grasping. Like his paintingSaint John the Baptist, or evenThe Last Supper, where pretty much everyone’s hands are reacting. I’m not sure it means much of anything.”

“Maybe,” Mason says, though the slant of his brow and set of his jaw tell me he’s far from convinced. “But Leonardo always created with intention. I’m not sure you should make assumptions about any of his works.”

“What are you saying?” I ask, aware of the hair starting to rise on the back of my neck.

“Well, maybe he’s making the sign of the cross, or even making a gesture of fingers crossed for good luck. But that gesture is also used when someone is lying, no?”

I’m frozen, my breath stalled in my lungs.

“You know, like, crossing your fingers behind your back when you lie.”

I glance between Mason and the painting. “But isn’t that more of a modern-day theater or TV trope?”

Mason shrugs. “You don’t think they had theater back then? And what better way to send a message than to create a portrait that carries a double meaning? Don’t forget, Leonardo was as much of a storyteller as he was an artist and engineer. Anyway, just a thought.”

As I stand at my door, watching him leave, I can’t help but wonder if maybe there’s more to his being here than I originally thought. If Arthur was somehow aware of his talent for peering past the surface of things.

Is it possible Mason is the one they were originally after?

I remember the way Elodie approached him first. How she walked right up to him and complimented him on his look. But Mason wanted nothing to do with her, so she shifted her focus to me. And I was so flattered to be noticed by someone like her that I ignored every flashing red light, every alarm bell going off in my head.

All this time, were they just using me to get to him?

But no, that’s impossible. Arthur has tasked me with restoring the Antikythera.

After closing the door, I return to the painting. If Mason’s right about the crossed fingers, then does that mean there’s more to the crystal sphere beyond it being a symbol for the Moon?

It’s well known that Leonardo was deeply curious and sharply observant—that nothing he created was by accident. Which means those three white dots he added to the crystal—the very markings that most scholars view as Leonardo’s effort to portray how a real crystal might look—might be something else entirely.

Because despite that bit of accuracy, the view through the crystal shows none of the distortion one might expect.

Since Christ’s robe isn’t touching the orb, the view through the sphere should be magnified or even reversed.

But it’s not. It’s perfectly clear, as though that crystal was nothing more than a thin sheet of glass.

But why?

Why did Leonardo choose to include the occlusions only to portray the view through the crystal in such an unnatural way?

Is it some sort of spiritual message—that nothing could distort the perfection of Christ?

Or was it intended as a nod toward the location of the Moon?

And then I remember the reversed symbol on Arthur’s map—the sideways crown and the upside-down hourglass—illustrations that were added a century after Leonardo painted this.

They’re connected. I know it all the way down to my bones.

Problem is, I have no idea what it might mean.

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