The Venetian Testament

Daineka opened the box found in the hidden compartment in her grandmother's attic. She saw a stack of papers — everywhere there flashed the letter «yat». This was the correspondence of the artist Nikolai Berezhnoi and Baroness Einaudi, whose hopeless... romance tragically ended more than a hundred years ago… Struggling to contain her excitement, Daineka carefully extracted the letter from the baroness out of the envelope. «I am sending you the deed…», the baroness wrote. Without unfolding the second sheet, Daineka knew it was the original. The deed for a mansion in Venice, with no statute of limitations… Carnival madness engulfed the squares, streets, and embankments of Venice. Next to Daineka were two men in golden masks. The black tricorn hats with fur made them look like guards of some sinister order. Daineka still did not know what gift this strange Italian city with the tender name Venice had prepared for her…