The Da Vinci Code

How about the Holy Grail? Langdon wanted to say.
"The code," Sophie blurted, in sudden revelation. "There's a code here!"
The docent looked pleased by her enthusiasm. "Yes there is, ma'am."
"It's on the ceiling," she said, turning to the right-hand wall. "Somewhere over... there."
He smiled. "Not your first visit to Rosslyn, I see."
The code, Langdon thought. He had forgotten that little bit of lore. Among Rosslyn's numerous 
mysteries was a vaulted archway from which hundreds of stone blocks protruded, jutting down to 
form a bizarre multifaceted surface. Each block was carved with a symbol, seemingly at random, 
creating a cipher of unfathomable proportion. Some people believed the code revealed the entrance 
to the vault beneath the chapel.
Others believed it told the true Grail legend. Not that it mattered—cryptographers had been trying 
for centuries to decipher its meaning. To this day the Rosslyn Trust offered a generous reward to 
anyone who could unveil the secret meaning, but the code remained a mystery. "I'd be happy to 
show..."
The docent's voice trailed off.
My first code, Sophie thought, moving alone, in a trance, toward the encoded archway. Having 
handed the rosewood box to Langdon, she could feel herself momentarily forgetting all about the 
Holy Grail, the Priory of Sion, and all the mysteries of the past day. When she arrived beneath the 
encoded ceiling and saw the symbols above her, the memories came flooding back. She was 
recalling her first visit here, and strangely, the memories conjured an unexpected sadness.
She was a little girl... a year or so after her family's death. Her grandfather had brought her to 
Scotland on a short vacation. They had come to see Rosslyn Chapel before going back to Paris. It 

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was late evening, and the chapel was closed. But they were still inside.
"Can we go home, Grand-père?" Sophie begged, feeling tired.
"Soon, dear, very soon." His voice was melancholy. "I have one last thing I need to do here. How 
about if you wait in the car?"
"You're doing another big person thing?"
He nodded. "I'll be fast. I promise."
"Can I do the archway code again? That was fun."
"I don't know. I have to step outside. You won't be frightened in here alone?"
"Of course not!" she said with a huff. "It's not even dark yet!"
He smiled. "Very well then." He led her over to the elaborate archway he had shown her earlier.
Sophie immediately plopped down on the stone floor, lying on her back and staring up at the 
collage of puzzle pieces overhead. "I'm going to break this code before you get back!"
"It's a race then." He bent over, kissed her forehead, and walked to the nearby side door. "I'll be 
right outside. I'll leave the door open. If you need me, just call." He exited into the soft evening 
light.
Sophie lay there on the floor, gazing up at the code. Her eyes felt sleepy. After a few minutes, the 
symbols got fuzzy. And then they disappeared.
When Sophie awoke, the floor felt cold.
"Grand-père?"
There was no answer. Standing up, she brushed herself off. The side door was still open. The 
evening was getting darker. She walked outside and could see her grandfather standing on the 
porch of a nearby stone house directly behind the church. Her grandfather was talking quietly to a 
person barely visible inside the screened door.
"Grand-père?" she called.
Her grandfather turned and waved, motioning for her to wait just a moment. Then, slowly, he said 
some final words to the person inside and blew a kiss toward the screened door. He came to her 
with tearful eyes.

---

"Why are you crying, Grand-père?"
He picked her up and held her close. "Oh, Sophie, you and I have said good-bye to a lot of people 
this year. It's hard."
Sophie thought of the accident, of saying good-bye to her mother and father, her grandmother and 
baby brother. "Were you saying goodbye to another person?"
"To a dear friend whom I love very much," he replied, his voice heavy with emotion. "And I fear I 
will not see her again for a very long time."
Standing with the docent, Langdon had been scanning the chapel walls and feeling a rising 
wariness that a dead end might be looming. Sophie had wandered off to look at the code and left 
Langdon holding the rosewood box, which contained a Grail map that now appeared to be no help 
at all. Although Saunière's poem clearly indicated Rosslyn, Langdon was not sure what to do now 
that they had arrived. The poem made reference to a "blade and chalice," which Langdon saw 
nowhere.
The Holy Grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o'er Her gates.
Again Langdon sensed there remained some facet of this mystery yet to reveal itself.
"I hate to pry," the docent said, eyeing the rosewood box in Langdon's hands. "But this box... might 
I ask where you got it?"
Langdon gave a weary laugh. "That's an exceptionally long story."
The young man hesitated, his eyes on the box again. "It's the strangest thing—my grandmother has 
a box exactly like that—a jewelry box. Identical polished rosewood, same inlaid rose, even the 
hinges look the same."
Langdon knew the young man must be mistaken. If ever a box had been one of a kind, it was this 
one—the box custom-made for the Priory keystone. "The two boxes may be similar but—"
The side door closed loudly, drawing both of their gazes. Sophie had exited without a word and 
was now wandering down the bluff toward a fieldstone house nearby. Langdon stared after her.