Although Langdon had been fairly familiar with the history of the horses, the ARCA site contained a passage that startled him.
The decorative collars were added to the horses’ necks in 1204 by the Venetians to conceal where the heads had been severed to facilitate their transportation by ship from Constantinople to Venice.
The doge ordered the heads cut off the Horses of St. Mark’s? It seemed unthinkable to Langdon.
“Robert?!” Sienna’s voice was calling.
Langdon emerged from his thoughts, turning to see Sienna pushing her way through the crowd with Ferris close at her side.
“The horses in the poem!” Langdon shouted excitedly. “I figured it out!”
“What?” Sienna looked confused.
“We’re looking for a treacherous doge who severed the heads from horses!”
“Yes?”
“The poem isn’t referring to live horses.” Langdon pointed high on the facade of St. Mark’s, where a shaft of bright sun was illuminating the four copper statues. “It’s referring to those horses!”
CHAPTER 73
On board The Mendacium, Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey’s hands were trembling. She watched the video in the provost’s study, and although she had seen some terrifying things in her life, this inexplicable movie that Bertrand Zobrist had made before his suicide left her feeling as cold as death.
On the screen before her, the shadow of a beaked face wavered, projected on the dripping wall of an underground cavern. The silhouette continued speaking, proudly describing his masterpiece—the creation called Inferno—which would save the world by culling the population.
God save us, Sinskey thought. “We must …” she said, her voice quavering. “We must find that underground location. It may not be too late.”
“Keep watching,” the provost replied. “It gets stranger.”
Suddenly the shadow of the mask grew larger on the wet wall, looming hugely before her, until a figure stepped suddenly into the frame.
Holy shit.
Sinskey was staring at a fully outfitted plague doctor—complete with the black cloak and chilling