We landed at the mouth of the Grand Сanal. So many vessels were moored there that their slender masts looked like young growth in a forest. All around you could see white sheets of reefing sails flapping like the wings of dove. The rapid chatter of the Venettians and unfamiliar speech of foreign traders mingled into one symphony of the seaport.

Our sailors were happy to feel solid ground under their feet again. Well, not so solid, maybe, since we were talking about Venetta. Some of them even saw this city for the first time. They thought of it as a mysterious maze, very dangerous yet alluring, where one could get everything if could keep it up. Baril had just learned that there was a quarter not far from Argento where courtesans displayed their charms right in their windows, and this picture completely captured his imagination. They were about to argue about who should go ashore first, but signor Alonzo stopped them with just one word of his.

The captain was going to meet a merchant in the Arsenal, and he wanted to take Manriolo with him, since he had worked in the shipyards before and knew the docks really well.

"It will be more convenient for you to wait for us on the ship," signor Alonzo said abruptly to me. He clearly wasn’t going to let me go ashore.

"If you want our night’s enterprise to be successful," I said in a low voice, " then I need to meet someone in the lagoon."

The captain frowned and gave me a long look, eyes changing color like seawater.

"All right," he said at last.

I nodded. The evidence that threatened me and Julia with a lawsuit tied me to the felucca more tightly than any locks or shackles. I wasn’t going to run away.

I was hoping to find Carita.

The bright summer sun illuminated the shining facade of the Doge’s Palace with a long row of arches on the ground floor/ That sharpened the bas-reliefs and stucco on the walls of the buildings, emphasizing their frozen beauty. I walked along the wide embankment from the Piazzetta and the pictures from the past rose in front of me.

When Мanriolo and I escaped from Venetta that terrible night, this small square and the lagoon turned into a boiling cauldron because of the invasion of the those-who-live-under-the-waves. Now the water was glistening like mirror glass, and dozens of boats with high-arched bows were sliding smoothly across it. The ruined slabs on the square have already been restored. As if nothing had happened, Venetta greeted the newcomers with familiar sounds of the gondoliers rollcalling, the shouts of merchants, the merry voices of idle passersby wandering along the wharf.

I bought a basket of fresh fish from a fisherman and borrowed his boat until evening. I had to go around Spinalonga to visit a remote corner of the lagoon that was farthest from Dito. As I recalled, there were several abandoned islands where I hoped to find my friend.

When the bright, festive panorama of the Embankment was far behind me, I looked back and sighed. I was tempted to get a glimpse of the Granacci house, to find out about Alessandro... but I didn’t dare. It seemed to me that signor Alonzo’s venomous threats followed me like a slippery snail’s trail. Let’s deal with that damned shipping document of his first. When I was free again, I’d go and hug my dearest friends…

I left Pulcino in Venetta. He was eager to go with me, for the wild islands, overgrown with reeds, attracted him much more than the crowded streets. However, someone had to follow Alonzo and Manriolo. I didn’t think signor Alonzo can make things any more difficult for us, but it’d be better to keep an eye on him, just in case.

"All right," Pulcino grumbled, "But don’t forget about that pesquator! He definitely didn’t forget his promise to let your guts out!"

I really shouldn’t have forgotten about Scarpa. Don Arsago’s former jester, who got his true "fishy" appearance with a little help of mine, was so grateful that he almost bit off my leg the last time I saw him.

"If he comes, I’ll teach him a lesson," I promised.

When the boat hit the muddy bank, I got out and dragged it away from the water. Everything seemed so quiet and peaceful… Carita, where were you?

I put the fish out of the bag and sat down on a rock. It was a long wait. The sun had made a long journey across the faded summer sky. I was eating an apple I’d picked up at the market and enjoying the silence.

When for the hundredth time I looked at the fish, I noticed that the scaled pile looked a bit smaller. And I could feel faint presence of someone else on the island too.

"Carita," I called. I couldn’t help but smile as a smooth head with a pointed chin and twinkling golden eyes appeared cautiously from behind a pile of rocks.

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Its gray-brown skin almost merged with the rock ridge, so you wouldn’t notice it two steps away, especially at dusk. The huge eyes shone warmly at the sight of me, like two candles. Her joy could be felt like a warm gentle touch.

"I’m happy to see you, too," I whispered, tears running down my cheeks.

If it wasn’t for Carita, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. When she reached for the fish again, I noticed a crooked, lumpy scar on her shoulder. Last spring, don Arsago’s political opponents hired assassins to get rid of me. They were afraid that a chiamati would make him too strong. And Carita saved me, killing them with one stroke.

"Haven’t seen you for a long time," I heard her voice inside my head.

"I was far away, I’m sorry."

I closed my eyes and began to talk about foreign lands far to the south, where the sea is deep blue and warmer than here, and careless mullet shoals go straight into the fishermen’s nets. I told her about warm winter, the other winds and the peculiarities of local tides and currents. Paurozo was listening very carefully, while consuming the fish one by one. I wanted to give her these new experiences, to share the last year of my life with her, because without Сarita I would not have seen Zankla, Perna and Picene… If it hadn’t been for her, the killer would have killed me on the Granacci pier as he did to donna Assunta, and it would have been my body, not his, that would have been fished out of the Canal.

But I didn’t know how to tell her that I needed her help again...

***

In the dead of night, we made our way like thieves between buildings to the Rio Della Paglia, a narrow water gap that ran along the back facade of the Doge’s Palace.

Manriolo, disguised as a gondolier, slowly raked the paddle and couldn’t stop talking. He was really nervous.

"Sneak into the Doge’s Palace? Really? Don Alonzo must have been joking… There are more guards than grain in a corn cop! This rope you have prepared will look perfect around our necks. And when they hang us between the columns on the Piazzetta, I will die of shame!"

"Sshh! Quiet!"

Our boat glided soundlessly through the glossy black water of the Canal. The dark bulk of the Palace appeared in front of us, marked here and there with bright points of torches. I pulled my hood down over my eyes. Carita crouched like a sack next to me in the bottom of a boat.

With just one precise movement of the paddle Manriolo took the boat directly to the pier. No noise, no splash, perfect. Carita was the first to get ashore, and I followed. I sent Manriolo reassuring smile, although it he couldn’t possible see it in the dark. He gestured us not to make much noise.

"Don’t worry, we’ll be good," I whispered silently, and gave Carita a stern look.

The moonlight revealed a sloping chin, mottled grayish cheeks, and wet fangs. Paurozo took a deep breath of the night air and slowly ran her tongue over her lips. I let out a sigh.

"...But if you hear screams, it means we didn’t make it."

We walked slowly, for Carita moved rather clumsily on the ground. Yet she was a great wall climber. We crept along the side of the building, trying to keep away from the gallery with balconies where the sentry was walking from pillar to post. Two other guards were seen outside the Porta della Carta, the ceremonial entrance to the building.

A narrow window on the north side of the Palace led us into a small, cramped room where the Doge usually worked. Our plan was for Carita to climb first and then lower the rope for me.

Everything’d be well but for the old masonry. A few pebbles fell from the wall, which sounded like a bolt from the blue In the stillness of the night.

"Who’s there?" the sentry shouted. Then we heard his hasty, creaking footsteps. The shadows of an approaching torch flickered across the flagstones. I yanked on the rope and pressed myself against the wall. A moment later, Carita landed beside me. We both froze, not breathing. Did he see us?

Another voice, strong and clear, made my heart jump to my throat.

"What happened?" What is it?" he asked.

That was Alessandro’s voice…

"Someone is there, signor!"

"Are you sure?"

I shut my eyes, trying to control my feelings. In the morning Manriolo managed to find out something about Aessandro. It was said that signor di Goro’s health was seriously affected by the poison of the Deep, after a fight with a monster in the don Arsago’s crypt.

Now he and the guard were standing around the corner, so close that I thought I could hear his breathing, labored like that of a man who has been running for a long time. But his voice remained the same.

"Go and alert the guards at the main entrance. I’ll check it out here."

The guard’s creaking footsteps faded away. Alessandro moved slowly toward us. I could see the light from his torch gradually growing brighter. Carita and I crawled away, but there were voices from the other end of the building, too. The damned guard had everyone alarmed! Now if Alessandro turned the corner, he would inevitably find us… Paurozo, pressed against my leg, tensed like a tight, deadly spring. One jump and…

"No!" I screamed in my head. "Don’t touch him!"

My mind raced. There was nowhere to run. Even if Alessandro forgave me my past sins, I had committed new ones since then. And he served don Sacketti − oh, Madonna, why were we so unlucky?

He was only a step away from us, but for some reason he didn’t move any further. The sound of rapid footsteps came from afar.

"Signor! Where are you?"

"It’s all right. There’s no one here!" Alessandro responded, turning his back to us. I couldn’t believe my ears.

"One more squad is coming from the barracks now!" the guard blurted out, completely breathless. "We’ll secure the entire building!.."

"That won’t be necessary. It’s just a false alarm." Alessandro’s voice got metallic cold.

"You think they got in? We’ll take torches and check every room!"

"The Palace is already full of guards. Listen, do you really think that the intruders came to Venetta at night just to pay a social visit to don Sacketti?! Send people to the port and to the Arsenal gates!"

"Yes, signor!"

"Come with me. I’ll handle it myself."

When their footsteps and the clatter of weapons faded away, I couldn’t get away from the wall, but just slid down it, and sat on the ground.

"Thank you for not killing him," I said in my head to Carita. "I wouldn’t have forgiven you if you did."

The moon came out and everything was lit with its bluish light. Carita’s large, wet eyes with glowing yellow dots were staring at me. The long mouth twisted in a grin. I couldn’t help but smile back. It seemed that there was a real human irony in paurozo’s grimace.