The Indies and silk

Florence, and the gold of the Medici no longer shines as it once did.The silk trade falters and the shadow of ruin stretches over the Tuscan capital. Then a letter arrives from the frozen lands of Québec, and one desperate gamble changes the course of everything. From the merchant tables of Italy to the treacherous banks of the Thames a new road opens: but in the race for prosperity the price of entry is not paid in coin alone.Along the Martini route the scent of spices covers something else.Bankers in exile prepare their return, explorers cross the scorching docks of Calicut, the shimmer of fabric hides a growing shadow. And from the heart of the jungle an ancient rhythm begins to beat: a ceremonial drum, a hypnotic warning. Some treasures have keepers who do not welcome foreign hands.To win a market you must first survive what follows every ship like a shroud.Charles II goes to meet a destiny written in the humid air of a distant bay, and the border between commerce and curse dissolves. A wooden cross, polished by hands no one has seen, points like a loaded weapon at the heart of an age and marks the end of innocence for those who dared to cross the seas.The world is shrinking, the maps are being redrawn, and the hunters are about to discover they were always the prey.The silk is soft. The hands that weave it are stained with the ink of a judgment there is no escaping.