“You will find the instructions enclosed. Now go, dear child, and may your endeavors be blessed. Your deeds are gaining his attention, and in you he has found great interest.”
The voice finished in a rasping whisper, and the shadows were silent.
He was gone.
Bacio smirked.
Her ability was finally being recognized, as it should be. The quiet swirl of ambition began to suffuse her, and she welcomed it like a familiar friend. This is what she was made for, what she lived for.
She had purpose again.
Maneuvering her way into a shaft of moonlight, she separated the crimson seal from the heavy, cream-toned paper and spread the page across the top of her thigh. She scanned its slanting script.
It would seem Venice and Roma would have to wait. This assignment directed her to Florence, the City of the Arno. She was to kill a man, one Arturo Alighieri.
Her eyes widened.
She was also to leave his severed head in the Baptistery of San Giovanni as a message to the local bishop.
How unprecedented.
How exciting.