Where We're At: Part 4.11: Against the Day

Cyprian; Yashmeen; Reef

• Cyprian arrives back in Venice after having looked for (and not found) Yashmeen in Trieste. Vlado's associates tell him that Vlado is captured by Theign and has gone mad and is dangerous to everyone now; they're vowing revenge on his behalf. Cyprian agrees to look for Vlado; he feels responsible for Vlado having been caught. His new landlady tells him that Vlado is being held in the Aresenale.
• Cyprian randomly runs into Ratty McHugh (who's gotten married). Ratty tells him that Theign is always protected by bodyguards. Cyprian wants to put Bevis on him, but Bevis is off being in love with Jacintha. Ratty sends Cyprian to see the Principe Spongiatosta, who works for Ratty's organization.
  
• Theign had arranged an assignation between the Principe and Cyprian earlier but now the Principe, like Cyprian, wants to kill Theign ("who has since chosen a most dangerous path of vice and betrayal"). The Principe talks about power as an expression of collective will; the Americans are too young to understand. They discuss, theoretically, the idea that a foreign crown prince might hate Italy and when he comes to power would go to war to take back territory he believes to be his family's, and that this prince had people in Italy already; and that the problem for Italy is who could remain un-bought by the prince. Cyprian offers to ask around in Bosnia (the Usoks, Danilo's people) , where it's all about passion, not money.
• Cyprian randomly runs into Yashmeen; she's with Reef and she looks rich.
• Cyprian finds himself back to prostitution to raise money to go after Theign properly. He speaks to Danilo's cousin Zlatko. If Cyprian can corner him, they'll torture and kill him.
• Cyprian finds that Theign had been "intimate" with Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand. Clearly in sending Cyprian to Serbia, Theign had intended that Cyprian be killed. Theign had been playing England off Russia. As Cyprian's field skills bettered, Theign's had deteriorated "from overindulgence in various luxuries."
• Cyprian begins to follow Theign, invisibly--and then Theign sees him. Cyprian disappears as Theign goes to hurt him.
• Cyprian's dreaming of Yashmeen.
• The day of Theign's assassination arrives; the Usoks will do it. Cyprian thanks the Principe for his efforts in the matter; the Principe invites Cyprian to their masked ball the next week.
• Theign is captured by the Usoks; they take out his eyes (and kill him, we assume).
• Yashmeen sends a message to Cyprian that she wants to see him; he's jealous and emotional; she gives him Vlado's copybook. She seduces him, dominates him. They're in love, or something.
• Cyprian attends the Principe's masked ball dressed as a woman; his wig is made from Yashmeen's hair that she'd had cut to disguise herself. Reef and Yashmeen attend as well. Cyprian tries to seduce Reef at the ball; Yashmeen takes them both to a room upstairs.
• Cyprian's in love with Yashmeen; Reef's an amusement for her (and she for him). They're a threesome.
• Reef tells Cyprian about having deserted Stray and Jesse; Cyprian thinks he should tell Yashmeen.
• Reef dreams about Webb. Webb talks about small victories--his (we presume), not Reef's.
• Reef, Yashmeen, and Cyprian take off to be with the Anarchists; despite themselves they become rich gambling They randomly run into Wolfe Tone O'Rooney in Monte Carlo. Wolfe's on his way to Barcelona, which is "about to explode, as it had been doing periodically, with Anarchist unruliness." Reef wants to come along; Wolfe tells him to wait for bigger game.
• Something's changed between Yashmeen, Reef, and Cyprian.
• Yashmeen discovers that she's pregnant with Reef's child.

(p. 891)