by Mary Hoffman
The Princess of Fishes, the Eight of Birds, then the Three, Four and Prince of Salamanders one after the other. Next to the Prince was the Princess of Serpents, followed by the Tower, the Five of Birds and the Prince of Serpents. The thirteenth card, laid face upwards in the centre, was the Ace of Birds. None of the cards had been set down the wrong way up, which would have reversed their meaning.
Flavia sat back and looked at the array, muttering under her breath.
‘The Moon is a journey over water clearly enough, but whose? The Gate people? The fleets of Classe and Bellezza? Or does she refer to my son?’
She shifted in her seat, uneasy as always when thinking of Andrea.
‘The Spring Maiden is Isabella, of course, but why the King of Serpents? That would have been Grand Duke Niccolò but is it now Fabrizio di Chimici? I would not like to see him so near to the young Stravagante, but she has the Moon on her other side. Perhaps it is Isabella that will travel by water?’ Flavia knew nothing of Isabel’s extra stravagation and voyage with Andrea.
Then she relaxed. ‘Of course! The King of Serpents also stands for a merchant or rich man, so that could be me.’ She felt much more hopeful to see Isabella flanked by the Moon and herself.
‘The Princess of Fishes is usually the young Duchessa,’ she mused. ‘I wonder when she will become the Queen? The Eight of Birds is self-defence. That’s all right. Arianna will act in defence of herself, her city and her allies. But the Three of Salamanders? Ah, yes, that is also good. Preparation. Both Classe and Bellezza are preparing for a war at sea.’
So far the reading seemed to be all about the coming threat from the Gate people and what the Talians could do to fight back.
‘The Four of Salamanders is alliances – well, that’s obvious, Classe and Bellezza. Or perhaps the di Chimici and the Gate people. But what is the Prince of Salamanders doing there? Exile. That could be Filippo Nucci. And right next to him the Princess of Serpents and then the Tower, which is exile again. Beatrice is the Princess, I’m sure, and she’s in exile almost as much as the Nucci boy. Hmm, I wonder.’
She got up and walked round the room, not wanting to confront the eleventh card. The Five of Birds meant defeat.
‘But,’ reasoned Flavia, ‘where there is defeat for one side, there must be victory for the other.’
The twelfth card was the Prince of Serpents; the court cards were well represented in this array.
‘It means self-confidence,’ said Flavia. ‘Which is what the Gate people are probably feeling, but it could mean one of the princes of Giglia. Not Fabrizio – he would be the King now – so it must be Gaetano, since Carlo and Falco are dead or as good as dead.’
Flavia knew that Falco now lived in another world but Carlo did not. Still, she couldn’t think what Gaetano di Chimici had to do with the coming attack.
‘Then the last card is the Ace of Birds, which is Conquest, and the thirteenth card dominates the interpretation of the array.’
It could be viewed quite optimistically on the whole: a possible prediction of victory at sea, helped by a Stravagante from this world and one from the other, resulting in Arianna’s triumph over the Gate people and the di Chimici too.
Or that conquest card could mean victory for the other side.
But Flavia could not see what Beatrice di Chimici or Filippo Nucci had to do with it, either way. And nor was she happy about the possible involvement of a di Chimici prince from Giglia.
Maybe the Prince of Serpents was Fabrizio after all, since the King was being used in its merchant meaning? Flavia sighed. She would train one of her mirrors on the Corteo cards and see what Dottore Crinamorte thought.
Once she had talked to Nick, Isabel knew she’d have to tell Georgia. He was determined to come with her to Giglia and Isabel had no idea how dangerous that might be for him. From what she remembered, he looked very different now from how he was when he was ‘translated’ and there was the extra year that this world had leapt forward, making Nick a year older than he would have been in Talia.
But still, he would look like a di Chimici. There was even a family resemblance to the princess she had glimpsed in Bellezza.
Nick dismissed the whole problem.
‘Sulien will give me a novice robe, the way he did last time,’ he said. ‘And I can pull the hood over my face if I see anyone I know.’
Isabel couldn’t budge him. She had stravagated to Classe that night for the first time since her pirate adventure with Andrea. But something stopped her telling Flavia about that or about Nick. Still, she had seen Brother Sulien in the mirror and spoken about her stravagation to Giglia. Again she didn’t mention Nick’s plan.
By Wednesday, she had to talk to Georgia, who was back in school, looking as pale as someone recovering from a tummy upset, which was what she had persuaded her mother to tell the school she had been suffering from the day before.
‘He’s still not talking to me,’ she told Isabel. ‘And I don’t really blame him. What I did was wrong and it’s really hurt him.’
‘He still wants to come with me on Friday,’ said Isabel. ‘Do you think it’s safe?’
‘Who knows?’ said Georgia wearily. ‘I can’t stop him if he’s determined to do it, and anyway he won’t listen to me, the mood he’s in.’
‘You could steal his talisman,’ said Isabel.
‘But the way things are between us, I don’t think I could even get into his house,’ said Georgia. ‘At least not before Friday.’
‘Let’s ask the others what to do,’ said Isabel. ‘We can meet in the coffee bar after school.’
Nick had avoided seeing the other Stravaganti too, though apparently they had been in the café the last two afternoons. It was embarrassing for Georgia to air her problems with Nick in front of them, but in the end she admitted she had gone to Remora with Isabel.
Matt and Sky were shocked but Ayesha was more sympathetic.
‘I don’t see why Nick should begrudge you one trip back for memory’s sake,’ she said. ‘As I see it, you gave up Talia to make things easier for him here, to make him live in the present. That was really nice of you.’
‘It was the not telling him he minds,’ said Georgia. ‘And he’s right. I should have talked to him. Maybe he could have come too. He’d have been less likely to be recognised in Remora than in Giglia, where he’s dead set on going now.’
Georgia couldn’t explain how sometimes she just felt tired of Nick. Of being responsible for him all the time. She had wanted just that tiny break of a trip to Talia to see her old friends without the burden of having another person’s life on her hands. And yet she loved Nick and now he wouldn’t even talk to her.
She had lost her best friend, Alice, she was sure, over Talia and now she was afraid of losing Nick too. If it hadn’t been for Isabel and the other Stravaganti, she would have gone mad.
‘So now he’s insisting on coming to Giglia with me on Friday,’ said Isabel. ‘And there’s no way I can stop him.’
‘Well,’ said Sky, ‘I could come with you too, if that’s any help.’
A trip to Talia with Sky and definitely no chance of bumping into Alice, thought Isabel.
‘That would be great,’ was all she said. ‘I’d be glad to have another Stravagante around in case he does something stupid. Do you think we should tell him?’
‘He didn’t tell us,’ said Sky.
Brother Sulien was looking forward to meeting another Stravagante from the other world. His life at Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines had returned to its usual order and calm after the massacre nearly a year ago, apart from the daily disruptions caused by Brother Sandro and Brother Dog.
He had to explain to Sandro that the visitor would be a girl but not Georgia. Nevertheless, the young novice, who had been a street urchin a year ago, was eager to wait with the pharmacist and see the Stravagante arrive in his cell.
So it was a huge surprise to both of them to see materialise on the cot not a girl from the future but a honey-coloured boy with
dreadlocks from their own recent past.
‘Tino!’ cried Sandro, hurling himself at the older boy. Brother Dog barked wildly and Sulien flung his arms round Sky, who had once been ‘his’ Stravagante.
Sky struggled off the bed, trying to respond to all the greetings while making room for the other Stravaganti to follow.
‘Isabel’s coming,’ he said. ‘And . . .’
But before he could finish there was Nick on the bed. No, not Nick but Falco. Seeing him in his own context, even in twenty-first-century nightwear, Sky knew that no one could mistake him for anything other than what he was: a prince of Giglia. It was extraordinary how his life in the future had kept him disguised.
‘Brother Benvenuto!’ cried Sandro. ‘It is a reunion. Is everyone coming – Luciano and Gaetano too? Sulien said it would just be one new girl.’
And there she was, struggling out from underneath Nick, who had not managed to get fully out of the way. Isabel sat, flushed and awkward, in her green dress, looking at the scene around her.
She had been told about Sandro and had seen Sulien’s face in Flavia’s mirror a few days earlier. What she wasn’t prepared for was the way Nick was glaring at Sky.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, ignoring the others.
‘Looking out for Bel,’ said Sky calmly.
‘So is this a conspiracy?’ said Nick. ‘Was everyone going to come but me? You said you weren’t coming back.’
‘That was my decision,’ said Sky. ‘I didn’t make a pact with you, like Georgia. Be angry with her if you like, but I can come and go as I please and I wanted to see Giglia again.’
‘Why didn’t you say?’ grumbled Nick, but Isabel could see he was losing steam.
‘You haven’t been talking to any of us all week,’ Sky reminded him.
‘Why are you fighting?’ said Sandro, distressed. Brother Dog was barking furiously. Sulien put a hand on Sandro’s shoulder.
‘I think you should all walk my maze,’ he said.
*
Half an hour later Brother Sandro was hurrying along the Via Larga to the old di Chimici palace, with his dog at his heels. He was readily admitted but left again within minutes, accompanied by Prince Gaetano di Chimici, whose step was as eager as the boy novice’s own. They were soon back at Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines, where Sky and Nick were waiting for them in the cloisters, both now dressed as novices themselves.
Isabel watched the brothers’ reunion, moved. She had never seen Nick like this. And Gaetano was just as he had been described: not beautiful to look at like his brother but warm and generous and good-hearted; she could feel it radiating from him as he pulled away from Nick and clasped arms with Sky and then turned a wide smile on her, asking to be introduced.
‘Isabella,’ he said. ‘You brought my brother back to me!’
No one contradicted him, not even Isabel; it was too complicated to put him right. The early spring sunshine had some warmth in it in Giglia and Isabel felt an overwhelming urge to explore the city. But Nick just wanted to be with his brother, so Sky offered to show her around.
‘Can we go and see Giuditta, do you think?’ he asked Sulien.
‘She will be pleased to see you,’ he said. ‘She was expecting to meet Isabella, but you will be a bonus. I will stay here with the princes.’
‘It’s hard to think of Nick as a prince, isn’t it?’ said Isabel as she and Sky headed down to the great cathedral whose bulk dominated the city.
‘Well, I’ve seen him here before, remember,’ said Sky. ‘Although he was always dressed as a friar. Only Georgia has seen him as a di Chimici prince.’
‘Maybe she still does,’ said Isabel.
Sky stopped and took in great lungfuls of air. He smiled at her. ‘Let’s forget them both,’ he said. ‘And Alice and everyone else. Let’s just enjoy being in Giglia. I love this city.’
He spread his arms wide, his dreads flying. ‘See it? Smell it? This is like Florence over four hundred years ago, where you might run into the equivalent of Michelangelo or Leonardo. It’s a city full of art and beauty.’ He lowered his arms. ‘And plots and murder, of course,’ he added. ‘But we won’t think of that today either. We’ll just have a good time. Only keep out of the full sun.’
His enthusiasm was infectious. It was a huge bonus for Isabel to have this time alone with him and for him to be the one to say he didn’t want to think about Alice.
‘Yes,’ she said, smiling back, ‘let’s do that.’
*
Nick wanted to talk about Beatrice. Gaetano explained the whole thing to him over a late breakfast of warm rolls and ale in the Refectory. Sandro had been sent about his business but had left Brother Dog to keep an eye on them.
‘And is she really OK?’ asked Nick.
‘Oh-kay?’ said Gaetano. ‘I don’t know what that means but she is safe and happy in Bellezza, I think. Arianna will look after her. But what about you? You look wonderfully healthy and handsome. And how is Georgia?’
A cloud passed over Nick’s face. ‘She’s fine,’ he said.
‘You have quarrelled?’ said Gaetano immediately, sensitive as ever to his brother’s mood.
Nick shrugged. ‘Yes, but I think we’ll get over it.’
And then he realised this was true. A warm feeling spread through him. He would forgive Georgia and she would forgive him and everything would go back to normal. And for now he was back with his favourite brother in his home city.
‘I hope so,’ Gaetano was saying. ‘There is nothing like the love of a good woman.’
He looked so solemn that Nick couldn’t help laughing. The happiness that had eluded him for days came bubbling through him and he felt invincible.
‘Let’s go and see Fabrizio,’ he said.
Chapter 15
Brothers
The two brothers walked through the Piazza Ducale where once they had both watched the tournament before the weddings that had ended in such terrible bloodshed. Neither of them knew what was likely to happen if they went in to see Fabrizio together. Gaetano was desperately thinking of a way to stop his younger brother from doing anything so dangerous. But Nick’s blood was fizzing in his veins and he felt more alive than he had for ages in his new world.
He looked around, delighted at the statues in the loggia, the fountain with the statue of Neptune which had run with wine at the di Chimici wedding celebrations and the crowds of people meeting to chat or barter goods. This was his city in a way that London never could be.
‘It’s so good to be back,’ he said.
‘But you are only visiting, surely?’ said Gaetano. ‘I mean, I love having you here but you can’t stay, can you?’
‘No,’ said his brother, ‘but I don’t want to think about that. We have until sunset – let’s make the most of it.’
On an impulse they went into a tavern for a cup of red wine. Nick stretched his long legs out in front of him and grinned at his brother. No one looked twice at a novice drinking wine in Talia; it was safer than water.
‘This would be out of the question in my new life,’ he said.
‘Why?’ asked Gaetano. ‘Do they not have wine in the future?’
‘They do but you can’t drink it in a public place until you are eighteen years old,’ said Nick. ‘But even if I could, I wouldn’t. At least not in the middle of a weekday morning. It would be bad for my training.’
‘Training?’
‘I’m quite a sportsman now,’ said Nick. ‘I’m the captain of my school’s fencing team. So I have to be careful about what I eat and drink and stay fit.’ He sipped the wine with relish; nothing in twenty-first-century London tasted quite like it.
‘How wonderful,’ said Gaetano. ‘I can’t believe how tall and strong you are.’
‘Enough about me,’ said Nick. ‘Tell me about everyone here. How is Fabrizio?’
Gaetano sighed. ‘It has been very bad for him to become the head of the family so young,’ he said. ‘And to lose Carlo. He expects me to be
able to fill our brother’s place in our father’s financial dealings and I disappoint him.’
‘You were never very good with money,’ said Nick, grinning. ‘It was always Carlo who understood the banking business.’
‘And I can’t change just because he has gone,’ said Gaetano. ‘I wanted to resume my courses at the University here but Fabrizio says that is not fitting now I’m his only brother. I must prepare to be Prince of Remora.’
‘Is Uncle Ferdinando not well?’ asked Nick. He was fond of his old uncle the Pope, whose other title Gaetano would inherit on his death.
‘He is in good health, as far as I know,’ said Gaetano, ‘though fatter than ever. And our cousin Rinaldo is a cardinal now – doubtless he would like to be Pope himself.’
‘Then I hope our uncle employs a food-taster,’ said Nick grimly. He knew what Rinaldo was capable of.
‘But one good thing about Fabrizio,’ said Gaetano, ‘is that he is a very fond father. I wish you could see Bino.’
‘Bino?’ asked Nick.
‘Yes, that’s what we call the little prince now,’ said Gaetano. ‘You know he was born nearly three months ago?’
‘So I have a nephew,’ said Nick. ‘What is his real name?’
‘Falco,’ said Gaetano softly. ‘They called him Falco, after you.’
*
One of the best things for Luciano about seeing Arianna in Padavia was that she didn’t have to wear a mask in public. She hadn’t been able to get away from state affairs in Bellezza much this term. When after his morning classes Luciano suddenly saw ‘Adamo’ in the tavern of the Black Horse it was the first time he and Arianna had been together since his trip to Classe. He had to restrict himself to a delighted smile and a masculine arm-clasp while his disguised fiancée grinned back and tried to look like the boy she was dressed as.
