“Didn’t you read the note?” Felix said, stomping back toward the grandstand. “We gave you very specific directions on how to get here and where we’d be sitting.”
“It looked like gibberish,” Maisie said, equally as angry. “Have you ever tried to read Leonardo’s handwriting? It’s impossible!”
“Just stick by my side, will you?” Felix said.
She wanted to remind him how last night he was the one who took off with Leonardo, leaving her alone during the raid. But he was already sliding into a row of seats. Maisie saw Sandro grinning at her, and Lorenzo glaring at her, and Clarice giggling behind a gold-and-black fan, and a sea of other faces all looking directly at her.
“Sorry,” Maisie said, even though she wasn’t at all sorry.
She could have been killed! Stabbed by that giant lance!
Sandro, still grinning, said something to her that sounded like Tootsie Pops.
“They have Tootsie Pops here?” Maisie said, confused.
Felix rolled his eyes.
“Tootsie Pops? What is wrong with you?” he demanded.
“What’s wrong with me?” Maisie demanded back at him.
“He said you’re crazy, and I agree,” Felix said.
Maisie frowned.
Now Lorenzo was talking to her, and by his tone she could tell he was chiding her. But the words coming out of his mouth made no sense at all.
Leonardo leaned closer to Maisie. “Non capisco?” he said.
“Not that again!” Maisie exclaimed. “What exactly is this capisco place?”
Leonardo was studying her face so closely that Maisie told him to get away. But he didn’t move. Instead he turned toward Felix and started talking in . . .
Wait a minute, Maisie thought.
Leonardo was speaking in Italian.
And so were Lorenzo and Sandro.
Maisie’s hand jumped to her neck where the shard hung from its piece of yarn.
All she felt there was her own skin, and the two tiny scabs that had formed on her neck from the sword grazing her last night.
Her fingers moved at first slowly, feeling for the shard, and then frantically as she realized that the shard was missing.
“Felix?” Masie said.
“What now?” he asked, peeved.
She pointed to her neck.
“Big deal,” he said. “You’ve got a little cut or something there. Honestly, Maisie, you need to—”
“The shard,” she said.
Felix threw his arms over his head in frustration.
“What about it, Maisie?”
“It’s gone,” she said.
“How could you lose the shard?” Felix shrieked as soon as they had left the Medici box and were making their way out of the arena.
“I don’t know,” Maisie said. “I didn’t even realize it was gone until just now.”
“The only way we’re going to find it is if you can remember when you last saw it.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Maisie said. “When’s the last time you saw yours?”
“I touch the thing a million times a day,” Felix said, frustrated. “Do you know why?”
He didn’t wait for her to reply.
“I’ll tell you why! Because I want to be sure it’s still there!”
“Good for you,” Maisie said. “Mr. Perfect. Mr. Does Everything Right.”
“Did you understand what people were saying when you were on your way here?” Felix demanded. “Because if you can remember that, at least we have a chance to find it by retracing your steps.”
“Yes,” Maisie said, insulted. “I asked a bunch of people where the Medicis were. And they all told me non capisco.”
“Non capisco?” Felix repeated. “What’s that?”
By now they had made their way back to the streets and they stood facing each other, both of them angry.
“This is non capisco,” Maisie said, gesturing back toward the arena.
“No, it’s not,” Felix said. “This is the Piazza Santa Croce.”
“Says who?” Maisie asked, trying to sound confident.
“Says everybody!” Felix said. “Because that’s what it is!”
Maisie considered this.
“Then I guess I lost the shard back at Verrocchio’s studio,” she finally said. “I guess when I asked people where to go, they were telling me something I couldn’t understand.”
“At least that’s a start,” Felix said, heading off in that direction without even waiting for Maisie.
“But what if I lost it on the street between the studio and wherever I first asked someone for directions?” Maisie said when she caught up.
“Well, then we’re in trouble, I guess.” Felix said.
The shard was not in Verrocchio’s studio.
Maisie and Felix looked everywhere: They shook her blankets out; they crawled along the floors, swiping their hands along them as they did; they lifted the wooden cutting board; they looked inside the jar of jam; they lifted every piece of paper and every paintbrush and every jar of paint and everything else on every surface in the studio; they looked behind canvases; they looked in corners; they even looked in rooms where Maisie had not gone.
No shard.
Exhausted and frustrated, Maisie and Felix stood, empty-handed.
“Whatever are you two looking for?” came a female voice.
They turned to find Clarice de’ Medici standing watching them.