Chapter 76 Chapter Seventy-Five

After the adventures in the basement, the front room of Borra's house is like heaven on earth.We came here again, hot tea in hand, what a treat. "Are you sure the tomb is empty?" Turgut had already asked once, and seemed unable to resist asking again. "Very sure." I glanced at Helen. "Of course, if the legend is true, he can also change shape." Turgut sighed. "His damn eyes! My friends, you are very close to him." "Where do you think he will go?" Helen leaned forward, her eyes were extremely dark. Turgut rubbed his wide jaw, "Well, my dear, I can't guess. I'm sure national boundaries and ideologies don't matter to him." Turgut frowned on his kind face.

"You don't think he will follow us, do you?" Helen asked straightforwardly, but judging by the change in her shoulders, it was not easy for her to ask this simple question. Turgut shook his head. "I hope not, Ms. Professor. I think he is a little afraid of you two now, because no one can find him except you." Turgut turned to me. "I am very sorry for your friend Rosie. I would have liked to have met him." "That will be an important meeting," I said, smiling as I pictured the two professors comparing their notes. "You and Stoichev could tell each other about the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Balkans. Maybe One day you will meet."

Turgut shook his head, "I don't think it's possible," he said, "the barriers between us are high, but if you still talk or write with him, please give him my regards." It's not hard to do. Selim Akso wanted to ask us a question through Turgut, and Turgut listened with a serious expression on his face. "We were thinking," he told us, "you see That book that Professor Rossi mentioned—the book on the life of St. George? Did those Bulgarians take it to the University in Sofia?" "In my trunk," I said, "for now." Turgut stared in surprise, for a long time forgot that he was going to translate, "How did it get into your box?"

Helen laughed and said nothing, so I explained: 'I didn't think about it myself until we got back to Sofia, in the hotel. " No, I can't tell them the whole truth, only what they can say. The whole truth was that we were finally able to spend ten minutes alone in Helen's room. I hugged her and kissed her smoky black hair.After a while, she put my hand on the button of her shirt. I unbuttoned my clothes, pulled my clothes back, wrapped a book in a handkerchief, and was warmed by Helen's skin. The casing is of colored wood and leather, inlaid with delicate gold designs, and surrounded by emeralds, rubies, sapphires, sapphires, and fine pearls—a little sky of jewels, all to frame the face of the saint in the center .

"Greek," said Helen.Her voice was lower than a whisper, lingering in my ear, "St. George." Inside were small pages of parchment, marvelously preserved, and each picture was drawn with meticulous brushwork, with astonishingly fine lines. Helen nodded, and put my ear to her mouth, almost breathless, "I don't know much about this," she said in a low voice, "but I think it was made for the Emperor of Constantinople .Here is the seal of future emperors." Sure enough, a double-headed eagle was painted on the inside of the cover, looking back at Byzantium's awesome past and looking into the endless future with the other.

"That means its history dates from at least the first half of the fifteenth century," I murmured, "before the capture of Constantinople." "Oh, I think it's much older than that," Helen touched the seal lightly and whispered, "my dad--my dad said it was very old. Look at the badge here, it's Constantine Boffi Roginitus, who reigned"—she searched the files in her head—"the first half of the tenth century. He reigned before the Bachkovo Monastery, and the eagle must have been added later. Up." I almost breathed out the words, "You mean it's over a thousand years old?"

I carefully held the book in both hands, and sat next to Helen on the edge of the bed. Neither of us said a word, only expressing affection with our eyes. "It's so well preserved. Helen, are you going to steal such a treasure out of Bulgaria?" I glanced at her and said. "You're crazy, it belongs to the Bulgarian people." She kissed me, took the book from my hand, and turned to the cover. "This is a gift from my father," she whispered. There's a deep leather flap inside the cover, and she reaches inside, "I wait until we have a chance to open it together."

She took out a pack of thin paper, densely typed on it.Without saying a word, we read Rosie's anguished diary together. After reading it, neither of us spoke, we were all sobbing.Finally, Helen rewrapped the book in a handkerchief, and carefully put it back where it was close to her body. I finished the filtered story, and Turgut laughed. "But I have something else to tell you, and it's very important," I said. I picture Rosie's horrific imprisonment in the library.They listened, motionless and serious.I mentioned that Dracula knew that the Sultan had set up a guard to hunt him down, and that guard still exists.Turgut sucked in a sharp breath.

"I'm sorry," I said. He quickly translated for Selim.Selim lowered his head and said something softly. Turgut nodded, "What he said was also what I thought of first. This terrible news has only one meaning. We must work harder to track down the piercer and prevent him from affecting our city. If the late emperor was alive, he would definitely So order us. What are you going to do with the book when you go back?" “I know someone who is connected to an auction house,” I said. “Of course, we will be very careful and wait a while before doing anything. I hope some museum will take it sooner or later.”

"Then what about the money?" Turgut shook his head, "What are you going to do with so much money?" "We're thinking about it," I said, "to do something nice. We haven't decided yet." The plane back to New York took off at five o'clock.We got up to go, Madame Bora brought out a scarf, and Turgut kissed Helen's hand. "It turned out to be my mother's scarf." Helen was so moved that she couldn't speak. "It will be a long time, and we will meet again."