Page 73 of Edge of Ruin
“Okay. Achillea millefolium, then,” Nell said.
My finger moved down a few inches. “Yarrow.”
A breathless tension was building. I was starting to feel intimidated by it. Like a huge electrical charge was building up.
“Do you see anything named Anagallis arvensis?” Nell asked.
“Scarlet pimpernel,” I said, scanning the table and pointing. “Right here.”
“And Trifolium repens?”
“Clover,” I said. “Here it is. Down at the corner.”
Nell frowned. “And this is where it says to turn to the earth and go down four hand spans.”
I thought about it for a second. “Go down the table leg,” I said.
Vivi looked at me, wide-eyed, and leaned over to give me a kiss. “How’d you get to be so smart?” she asked.
“Don’t jinx us. See if I’m right, first,” I murmured. “Then reward me.”
“You can count on it,” she said.
Vivi’s sisters exchanged winks and nudges, but Liam was already examining the carved table legs that lay on another work surface. “I labeled them when I removed them,” he said. “Relative to the direction that the flowers are growing, this one is the front left leg. Right under that clover.” He laid it gently on the table.
Nell leaned over it. “Four hand spans,” she said. “Let’s assume they’re a man’s hands. Liam, measure four, please.”
He did so, and his hand finished up right next to a carved knob adorned with a relief of climbing vines and morning glory flowers.
Liam looked up at me. “I’ll hold it steady,” he said. “Three full turns, counterclockwise. Want to do the honors?”
I seized the smooth knob, felt the texture of the morning glory vines beneath my hand, and applied pressure. It did not budge. I tried again. Still nothing.
“I’m afraid of damaging it,” I said.
“It’s been eighty years or more,” Vivi said. “It’s bound to be stiff.”
I applied pressure once more, and this time felt a tiny crack, and then a squeak. The leg began to turn. One time, two, three. Fragments scattered, but it came free.
The bottom part in my hand was hollow. Threads had been carved into it, caked with blackened wax. I tilted it, and a cylinder of parchment dropped out of the hollow. It was ancient, yellow and brown at the corners.
I held it gingerly in my fingertips, and passed it swiftly to Vivi.
“Here,” I muttered. “I’m afraid to touch it.”
“All this time,” Nancy whispered. “And it was right here, all along. In Lucia’s table.”
Vivi accepted it and laid it on the table, gently loosening the roll. The pieces of paper were not large, but they were very brittle, threatening to crack.
Vivi unrolled it ever so slightly, pressing it just far enough to peek inside. She stared for a long moment, and when she lifted her face, her eyes were huge.
“Oh, guys,” she said. “This is ... I think that this might actually be ... oh, my God, this is scary. I’m getting dizzy.”
“What?” I snapped. “Out with it, goddammit!”
“I think this might be the big L,” Vivi said, staring first at Nell and then at Nancy. “Just look at it. At this bit of sketching, of the angel. Look at that face. And look at the writing below it. That script. It’s backward.”
Nell and Nancy gasped. “No way,” Nancy whispered.
