Fifteen thousand feet in the air, Robert Langdon felt the physical world fade away as all of histhoughts converged on Saunière's mirror-image poem, which was illuminated through the lid of thebox.

　　mirrored textSophie quickly found some paper and copied it down longhand. When she was done, the three ofthem took turns reading the text. It was like some kind of archaeological crossword... a riddle thatpromised to reveal how to open the cryptex. Langdon read the verse slowly.

　　An ancient word of wisdom frees this scroll... and helps us keep her scatter'd family whole... aheadstone praised by templars is the key... and atbash will reveal the truth to thee.

　　Before Langdon could even ponder what ancient password the verse was trying to reveal, he feltsomething far more fundamental resonate within him—the meter of the poem. Iambic pentameter.

　　Langdon had come across this meter often over the years while researching secret societies acrossEurope, including just last year in the Vatican Secret Archives. For centuries, iambic pentameterhad been a preferred poetic meter of outspoken literati across the globe, from the ancient Greekwriter Archilochus to Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, and Voltaire—bold souls who chose to writetheir social commentaries in a meter that many of the day believed had mystical properties. Theroots of iambic pentameter were deeply pagan.

　　Iambs. Two syllables with opposite emphasis. Stressed and unstressed. Yin yang. A balanced pair.

　　Arranged in strings of five. Pentameter. Five for the pentacle of Venus and the sacred feminine.

　　"It's pentameter!" Teabing blurted, turning to Langdon. "And the verse is in English! La linguapura!"Langdon nodded. The Priory, like many European secret societies at odds with the Church, hadconsidered English the only European pure language for centuries. Unlike French, Spanish, andItalian, which were rooted in Latin—the tongue of the Vatican—English was linguisticallyremoved from Rome's propaganda machine, and therefore became a sacred, secret tongue for thosebrotherhoods educated enough to learn it.

　　"This poem," Teabing gushed, "references not only the Grail, but the Knights Templar and thescattered family of Mary Magdalene! What more could we ask for?""The password," Sophie said, looking again at the poem. "It sounds like we need some kind ofancient word of wisdom?""Abracadabra?" Teabing ventured, his eyes twinkling.

　　A word of five letters, Langdon thought, pondering the staggering number of ancient words thatmight be considered words of wisdom—selections from mystic chants, astrological prophecies,secret society inductions, Wicca incantations, Egyptian magic spells, pagan mantras—the list wasendless.

　　"The password," Sophie said, "appears to have something to do with the Templars." She read thetext aloud. " 'A headstone praise............