Contents
Chapter 21
Overview
The team devises a daring entry: tow Sancia in a small sealed vessel along the canal bottom beneath guarded gates. Orso proposes using Tribuno Candiano’s blood, obtained via Estelle, as a pass key inside the Mountain. Gregor’s insight and guilt surface. Sancia’s memories of slavery sharpen the chapter’s stakes.
Summary
The group studies the Candiano campo and rejects going over or through the Mountain’s guarded gates. Sancia suggests using the delivery canal; this evolves into Orso’s plan to tow a small waterproof “casket” behind a barge, letting Sancia ride along the canal bottom beneath the gate checks.
Attention shifts to interior access. Berenice reports Tribuno’s notes are largely opaque ritual musings, not practical schematics. While they debate their usefulness, Gregor connects the Mountain’s identity checks to blood permissions and realizes Orso intends to leverage a resident’s blood.
Pressed, Orso admits he plans to ask Estelle Ziani for Tribuno Candiano’s blood, arguing the Mountain would honor its maker’s credentials. The team weighs whether permissions could have been rewritten, but Orso insists Tribuno likely embedded enduring privileges. Claudia and Gio question feasibility; Berenice notes Estelle might welcome a chance to strike at Tomas Ziani.
Gregor shows sudden guilt, nearly confessing something to Sancia before falling silent. The plan stands: an underwater tow into the Mountain, then entry using Tribuno’s blood as a pass key.
Later, Sancia dreams of her childhood in slavery and Ardita’s harsh counsel to survive above all. Waking in the crypt, Sancia measures the peril of the scheme against the hope of liberty. Clef’s quiet reply offers scant comfort, underscoring the stakes ahead.
Who Appears
- SanciaProposed infiltrator; will ride a towed underwater casket. Reflects on enslaved past and the risks.
- Orso IgnacioStrategist; proposes the underwater casket and using Tribuno’s blood via Estelle to bypass the Mountain.
- Gregor DandoloIdentifies the Mountain’s blood-based access; grows guilty and falls silent about an unspoken concern.
- BereniceReports Tribuno’s notes are ritual-focused and unclear; supports the prospect of Estelle aiding them.
- ClaudiaScrapper; helps brainstorm routes, doubts feasibility, but acknowledges the casket plan’s stealth.
- Giovanni (Gio)Scrapper; provides canal depth details and questions practicalities of the blood-pass strategy.
- Estelle ZianiPotential ally; Orso intends to request Tribuno’s blood from her to unlock the Mountain.
- Tribuno CandianoMountain’s creator; his blood is the proposed pass key; notes dwell on obscure rituals.
- Tomas ZianiAntagonist figure; his control and treatment of Estelle motivate the blood-access gambit.
- ClefSpeaks softly to Sancia after her nightmare, offering a somber, uncertain comfort.
- ArditaSancia’s remembered caretaker; her survival credo shapes Sancia’s view of the mission’s risks.