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My mother and Vittoria had made decent progress with the ropes at the hitching post. The end with the piece of wood was now at the end of a foot-long piece of rope as they were gradually figuring out the multitude of steps that need to be taken. I glanced at the bull again, and my eyes locked onto the horns. Those would be sharp and strong. Perhaps we could break one off. I wasn’t sure if that was allowed, but I didn’t see any other options.

I climbed back onto the platform. “Gio, Stefan. Give me a boost onto the bull. I have an idea.”

My brothers boosted me up, and I moved carefully to the head. I examined the horns, determining the amount of force I’d need to break one off. I pulled on one of them, and to my surprise, it twisted easily. It took me two seconds to determine the horns were only screwed on. I gritted my teeth, annoyed at myself for not thinking of this before.

“The horns were only screwed on,” I said. “Here, catch them.”

I dropped both horns down to Gio and Stefan. Everyone started chattering excitedly, the anticipation of a breakthrough palpable. “Use the tip to pry at different spots at the knots, looking for the weak spot,” I instructed my brothers.

I used the harness to hop down, and Gio tossed me one of the horns. I immediately used it to start attacking the knot on the other side of the bull’s harness.

“It’s working!” Stefan cried out.

I came over to investigate as he pried with the horn, separating the coils of the rope. Stefan and I helped him pull, and while the knot gave a little, it did not unravel and eventually refused to budge further.

“Damn,” Stefan said, using the horn to poke at a different spot. I joined him with the other horn, stabbing the horn into the knot in a different location to release more of the tension. After a couple of minutes, we were able to push parts of the knot farther apart. At last, we were able to unthread the end, giving us about six inches of rope free from the knot.

“Progress,” Gio shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic. I’d already calculated the time we’d need to unravel this entire thing, and it wasn’t enough. We continued the process, but after another ten minutes we’d only unraveled about eighteen inches. The knot was stubbornly refusing to give up its secrets easily, and we were running out of time. I glanced at the clock, noting forty-five minutes remained. We had to solve the mystery of the knots quickly or there wouldn’t be time to solve the rest of the puzzle.

“We’re almost done here,” my mother said. “Romeo, come take a look.”

I handed off my horn to Gio and went to see what they’d done. To my astonishment, they’d nearly solved their knot.

“How did you do it?” I asked.

“Alessa and Vittoria are quite adept with their hands, and we were fortunately able to solve the pattern of this knot.” She stretched her arms over her head, rolling her neck. “I estimate we should be finished in a few minutes. How are things going with your knots?”

“Not so well, Mama. At this pace, I’m not sure we’ll finish in time.”

She patted my shoulder like she always did when I was frustrated. “Always look to the solution,tesorino, not the problem.”

Alessa, who was sitting on her knees, her arms wrapped in ropes, untangled her legs and stood. “Seriously, this doesn’t make sense. They can’t expect us to solve all these problems in the allotted time. No wonder no one has ever completed these challenges. There must be some other, easier solution we’re overlooking. What could it be?”

I’d long ago come to that conclusion, but my mother’s words had struck a chord. Maybe the challenges and knots were a distraction, and the answer was far more obvious.

Start at the solution.

Getting out of the room with the brass ring.

“Finito!” Vittoria suddenly shouted, startling me from my thoughts. She’d somehow pulled the rope free. “We did it!”

Everyone gathered around to look. The women had successfully pulled one end of the rope through the hole in the hitching post. I quickly took the loose end and threaded it through the ring. There was just enough room for the piece of wood to pass through once, and then again to remove the second loop and free the rope from the ring.

“Yes!” Stefan said, planting a kiss on Alessa’s lips. “You ladies are amazing.”

I agreed, as this was real progress.

“Gio and Stefan, I need you to keep working on the big rope,” I said. “We don’t have much time. Mama, stay and help me here. Vittoria and Alessa, start searching the room again and see what we might have missed. Theremustbe something. Look everywhere.”

Now that at least one rope had been loosened, I returned to the nose ring. Without the lower rope anchoring it in place, I was able to wiggle it a bit. In fact, I could now lift the bottom of the ring up toward the ceiling a few centimeters. When I did it, I felt a slight catch. I lowered and raised the ring again, but this time I didn’t feel the catch. I tried several more times without success.

“Can you rotate the ring now?” my mother asked.

“I’m trying,” I said.

I studied the ring for a moment and tried pulling it while the ring was positioned downward. Nothing. I lifted it up again, this time agonizingly slowly until I felt that slight catch again and froze. After a moment, I tried to rotate it while it was in that position, and it finally moved.