party on whatever recovery effort we make. If we have the miraculous luck of finding the lyre, we
have no idea what happens to those who possess it. It may not be safe. And even worse, it could be
taken from us. Any effort we make may simply assist our enemies. We would then be responsible for
the horrors that the lyre’s music could bring.”
“Perhaps,” the nun said, stiffening in her chair, “it is not as powerful as you believe. No one has
ever seen the instrument. Much of the terror it has caused arises from pagan legends. There is every
possibility that the evil the lyre can inflict is merely the stuff of legend.”
As the angelologists considered this, Dr. Raphael said, “And so we are faced with the choice to act
or to do nothing.”
“Reckless action is worse than wise restraint,” Dr. Lévi-Franche said, and I could not help but
dislike the smugness of his response, so much in contrast to my professors’ earnest attempts at
persuasion.
“In our case,” Dr. Raphael said, growing more and more agitated, “inaction is the more reckless
course. Our passivity will have terrible consequences.”
“That is exactly why we must act now,” Vladimir said. “It is up to us to find and protect the lyre.”
“If I may interrupt,” Dr. Seraphina said gently. “I would like to make a proposal.” Walking to
where Gabriella and I sat and drawing the attention of the council members upon us, Dr. Seraphina
continued, “Many of you are acquainted with them already, but for those of you who are not, I would
like to present two of our brightest young angelologists. Gabriella and Celestine have been working
with me to put order to our holdings during the transition. They have been busy at work cataloging
texts and transcribing notes. I have found their work to be very useful. In fact, it is the attention that
they have brought to the minutiae of our collection and the information they have carefully extracted
from our historical papers that has given Dr. Raphael and me an idea of how to proceed at this very
important juncture.”
“As many of you are aware,” Dr. Raphael said, “in addition to our duties here at the academy, Dr.
Seraphina and I have been working on a number of private projects, including trying to bring more
precision to the location of the cavern. In the process we have accumulated a plethora of addenda and
field notes previously overlooked.”
I glanced at Gabriella, hoping to find some sort of commiseration in our position, but she only
turned away, supercilious as ever. Suddenly I wondered if she understood the details of what the
council members were discussing. There was the chance that she had been given inside information
while I had been excluded. Dr. Seraphina had never spoken to me of a lyre, nor the need to keep it
from our enemies. That Gabriella had been taken into her confidence filled me with jealousy.
“When we understood that the impending war could disrupt our work,” Dr. Seraphina said, “we
decided to make certain that our papers would be well preserved, whatever happens. With this in
mind, we asked Gabriella and Celestine to assist us in sorting and filing research notes. They began
some months ago. The labor of their efforts has been taxing, the menial work of collecting facts, but
they have shown ingenuity and determination to complete the project before the move. We have been
thrilled with their progress. Their youth affords them a certain patience with what might seem to most
of us simple clerical work, but their diligence has yielded excellent results. The data have been
incredibly useful, allowing us to review a massive amount of information that has been hidden for
decades.”
Dr. Seraphina walked to the maps and, taking a pen from the pocket of her cardigan, drew a
triangle over the Rhodope Mountains from Greece into Bulgaria.
“We know that the site we seek is located within these boundaries. We know that it has been
explored previously and that there have been many scholarly attempts to describe the geology and
landscape surrounding the gorge. Our scholars have been intellectually scrupulous in their work, but
our organizational methods have been, perhaps, less than perfect. While we do not have the exact
coordinates, I believe that if we comb all of the texts at our disposal—including accounts that have
not been examined previously for this purpose—we will shed a new light upon the location.”
“And you believe,” the nun said, “that through this method you will discover the coordinates of the
cave?”
“Our proposal is this,” Dr. Raphael said, taking over for his wife. “If we are able to narrow our