Leonardo and the Mystery of the Alchemist: Da Vinci's Cases, #3

By Alfred Bekker

Leonardo and the Mystery of the Alchemist

Da Vinci's Cases

by Alfred Bekker

The scope of this book is 120 pages paperback.

In the small village of Vinci, near Florence, in 1462: The Alchemist Vincente wants to leave his paint formulation "Vincente's Blue" to the ten-year-old Leonardo. A little later, the testament has disappeared together with the recipe. Maybe the spooky blue-handed rider is involved in this matter? Leonardo and Carlo are agreed that the mysterious color thief must be caught immediately!

Alfred Bekker, born in 1964, writes fantasy, historical novels, criminal novels and books for young readers. His historical adventures for young readers are full of suspense, stuff which even kids who hate reading cannot resist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BEKKERpublishing
• Release date: Nov 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781524250607

Alfred Bekker

Alfred Bekker wurde am 27.9.1964 in Borghorst (heute Steinfurt) geboren und wuchs in den münsterländischen Gemeinden Ladbergen und Lengerich auf. 1984 machte er Abitur, leistete danach Zivildienst auf der Pflegestation eines Altenheims und studierte an der Universität Osnabrück für das Lehramt an Grund- und Hauptschulen. Insgesamt 13 Jahre war er danach im Schuldienst tätig, bevor er sich ausschließlich der Schriftstellerei widmete. Schon als Student veröffentlichte Bekker zahlreiche Romane und Kurzgeschichten. Er war Mitautor zugkräftiger Romanserien wie Kommissar X, Jerry Cotton, Rhen Dhark, Bad Earth und Sternenfaust und schrieb eine Reihe von Kriminalromanen. Angeregt durch seine Tätigkeit als Lehrer wandte er sich schließlich auch dem Kinder- und Jugendbuch zu, wo er Buchserien wie 'Tatort Mittelalter', 'Da Vincis Fälle', 'Elbenkinder' und 'Die wilden Orks' entwickelte. Seine Fantasy-Romane um 'Das Reich der Elben', die 'DrachenErde-Saga' und die 'Gorian'-Trilogie machten ihn einem großen Publikum bekannt. Darüber hinaus schreibt er weiterhin Krimis und gemeinsam mit seiner Frau unter dem Pseudonym Conny Walden historische Romane. Einige Gruselromane für Teenager verfasste er unter dem Namen John Devlin. Für Krimis verwendete er auch das Pseudonym Neal Chadwick. Seine Romane erschienen u.a. bei Blanvalet, BVK, Goldmann, Lyx, Schneiderbuch, Arena, dtv, Ueberreuter und Bastei Lübbe und wurden in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzt.

Book preview

Leonardo and the Mystery of the Alchemist

Da Vinci's Cases

by Alfred Bekker

The scope of this book is 120 pages paperback.

In the small village of Vinci, near Florence, in 1462: The Alchemist Vincente wants to leave his paint formulation Vincente’s Blue to the ten-year-old Leonardo. A little later, the testament has disappeared together with the recipe. Maybe the spooky blue-handed rider is involved in this matter? Leonardo and Carlo are agreed that the mysterious color thief must be caught immediately!

Alfred Bekker, born in 1964, writes fantasy, historical novels, criminal novels and books for young readers. His historical adventures for young readers are full of suspense, stuff which even kids who hate reading cannot resist.

The German-language print editions appeared in 2008/2009 in the Arena Taschenbuchverlag;

Translations are available in Turkish, Indonesian, Danish and Bulgarian.

Copyright

© by Alfred Bekker

© 2016 of the digital edition AlfredBekker/CassiopeiaPress

A CassiopeiaPress E-Book

www.AlfredBekker.de

[e-mail]

Chapter 1: Invisible Ink

The sky had turned gray. Clouds towered up to dark sky monsters and the first raindrops fell on the completely dried up soil.

The rider reined in when reaching the ridge and looked down on the village of Vinci.

He was wearing a cloak which he pulled closer around the shoulders because the rain was getting harder now. The hood of the cloak he had drawn so deeply in the face that you could only see the tip of his chin. A goatee, being reminiscent of a goat, grew up there. And the hands with which he held the reins were almost completely blue.

Let’s go! murmured the rider and let his horse storm towards the village.

Look at me, all of you! A great moment has come! The magician and alchemist Leonardo da Vinci will now give you a unique sample of his genius!

The ten-year-old Leonardo made a great, wide reaching gesture and then took the quill between thumb, index and middle finger.

At this very moment it thundered dully from outside. Through the open window of the attic room in the house of Leonardo's grandfather a refreshing wind blew. More lightning flashed and the rain poured. It was probably one of the last summer thunderstorms and normally Leonardo then sat as if spellbound at the window to watch the lightning. But he had almost given up hope that finally a tree would be hit and he could watch it splitting by lightning.

His friend Carlo pointed into the air with his index finger.

Maybe someone up there is against your magic! he said. After all, it had indeed begun to thunder at exactly that moment, in which Leonardo had taken the pen from the inkwell, which stood on the right side of the table.

Possibly it’s even black magic Leonardo is practicing! Gianna now spoke up. This afternoon, she was the third of the companions. A deep furrow appeared in the middle of her forehead. Apparently she was quite worried. Leonardo scratched with a pen on a piece of parchment. However, not a single letter could then be seen there. It has nothing to do neither with white magic nor black magic, said Leonardo. It’s simply using the abilities a substance has naturally.

Carlo scratched his head, and finally shrugged.

I see nothing, he admitted.

Leonardo could not suppress a mischievous grin.

No wonder! he sounded cocky. This is indeed invisible ink!

If I had just imagined something – things which do not exist in reality – I would also always say that in truth they are invisible, said Gianna.

Be quiet! said Leonardo.

You don’t want to realize that, do you? teased Gianna.

No, I just have to concentrate, because I cannot see what I've written.

Again, Leonardo dipped the quill into the inkwell and wrote the next word.

Done! he exclaimed.

A fantastic handwriting! scoffed Gianna. And what an elegant curve of the lines!

The sheet was empty – absolutely nothing on it. Some places looked a bit damp and Carlo tried to read out lines, letters and words from the wet. But he did not succeed. A few moments more and the fluid that Leonardo had brought with his pen on the paper would be completely dried. Leonardo put a second sheet onto the place on which he had written.

And what are you doing now? Carlo asked rather helplessly.

I do not want something to be smeared, Leonardo said.

It's clear, grinned Gianna. Here at the inn there was once a juggler group spending the night there. One of the entertainers always showed us something he called flea circus. He did with his movements and looks like he'd let trained fleas hopping around.

And what does that have to do with my invisible ink? asked Leonardo.

That seems similar to me. You make much to-do, but I think that there is nothing behind it!

Now the wind was blowing pretty violently through the skylight. It confused a few leaves on which Leonardo had experimented with colors. He had tried to mix different shades of blue and placed them side by side to find out which nuance was nearest to the sky blue. Now they were all mixed up with a gust of wind.

Let’s close the shutters, suggested Carlo. It's already raining in.

Then it's pretty dark here, Gianna said.

I'll light a candle, Leonardo announced. Besides, I need some fire anyway to make the font of the invisible ink visible again.

Hasn’t your grandfather forbidden you to light a fire here in the room ever again? reminded him Carlo. After you’ve almost set the whole house on fire on executing one of your experiments, once, this could easily be understood.

I don’t want to start a fire! said Leonardo. I only light one candle – and even my grandfather will probably not expect me sitting in the dark with closed shutters!

Leonardo took a flint stone out of a jar containing all sorts of little things which could not be exactly assigned to. After he had seeked in the pitcher for a while, he finally tipped out its contents. A dried dead mouse was among them, also scratched lenses that one could nevertheless still use as a magnifying glass and to light fire by having the sunlight drop through. In addition, there were still a dead hornet and parts of a wasp nest, as well as a few now dried plant seeds that Leonardo actually wanted to plant one day. However, he had probably forgotten this in the meantime. There also appeared a dozen battered pencil stubs. Actually, Leonardo wanted to melt the lead in them and use it for pouring in a new pin. But the whole thing was a failure. He didn’t manage to melt the lead – only the wood around the pencil was charred.

Then there was a second flint stone which Leonardo now absolutely needed. In addition, a little tinder – a highly flammable fungus generally used to light fire which was found with a bit of luck in the forest. Leonardo who lacked the money to buy firelighter, was always in search of these fungus. Leonardo took tinder and flint. The rest of the things he put back into the jar. In a self-made wooden box he kept on well-dried chips and small pieces of wood. He had been given them by the old Frederico, the carpenter of the village. Therefore, he could easily light fire. Being not allowed to do so, actually, because grandfather had forbidden, Leonardo had taken the chips anyway. The carpenter was glad to get rid of them and Leonardo had thought that they could be used perhaps, nevertheless, one day for any purpose.

When in doubt, Leonardo was always in the mood to keep everything. One could never know ... Sometime you could use everything!

On a slightly larger stone that Leonardo had brought from outside, he then began to light a fire. The stone actually belonged to the decaying boundary wall of the village Vinci. Originally, the village had been a Roman fort. But in the meantime now the remains of the decaying walls were used as a quarry. Whenever you needed a nice chunk with reasonably straight hewn edge, you went to the wall and took what you needed. Carlo and Gianna were watching Leonardo when lighting the fire, finally burning a wood chip on which he lit the candle.

Now the shutters could be closed.

Outside the rain crackled harder and harder, and an increasingly strong wind began to roar. The shutters of other homes in the area were clattering.

Inside now the light of the candle let the whole room appear in an eerie light. The flame flickered, because there was a draft caused by many cracks