Conscious now that everybody had gone to bed, Leonardo blew out his candle and opened the shutters. The night sky was a panoply of stars and only here and there was the dark loneliness of the valley relieved by pinpoints of light. Leonardo leaned his head against the window frame and stared at the blue infinity above him. What exactly were the stars? Did all of them move around the earth? What was the haze that obscured the horizon ever so faintly? What was that sea-snail doing in the mountains? Why? How? The next morning Leonardo found his father and Uncle Francesco in the garden deep in conversation about their vineyards and olive groves. “Papa, I have a surprise for you up in my room—can you come now?” “Yes, Leonardo. What is it you have found now—not a better way to raise my grapes, I’ll wager!” The elder da Vinci put his arm around the boy’s shoulder and went with him up to the door of his room. “Wait here, Papa, until I say to come in.” Leonardo unlocked his door, lifted the cloth from the shield standing on the easel and opened the shutter just a trifle so that a soft light filled the room. “Papa—you can come in now.” Piero entered—he had long forgotten the round piece of wood—and suddenly he froze in the middle of the room. “Have mercy on me!” he said when he saw the horrible fire-breathing creature. In the dimness of the room, the monster and the murky cave from which it was emerging were terribly real. Piero actually started to back out of the room in fright, when Leonardo laid a hand on his shoulder. “Papa, this work has served its purpose; take it away, then, for it has produced the intended effect.” The shield was the talk of the house; it was set up and marveled at. As for Piero, he resolved to take it with him to Florence secretly and sell it, giving his peasant friend some cheap substitute that he would buy in the marketplace. So, a few days later, Leonardo’s father saddled his horse and had the shield wrapped and packed in his saddlebag. Also, unknown to his son, he took some of the boy’s drawings. Piero had now realized that Leonardo might have a rare talent. Moreover, he was planning to move to Florence with his family so that he could be nearer to the Badia, or the law offices of the city, for whom he had been frequently employed. There, thought Piero, Leonardo’s talent could be developed under the best of teachers. It was many days before Leonardo’s father returned; when he did, he gathered his family together and it was obvious to all that he had exciting news. First, Piero announced that he and Francesca would move to Florence since he and a law partner were now engaged in securing office space from the Badia. It was a handsome office centrally located opposite the palace of the _Podestà_, or chief magistrate.