City of Flowers

by Mary Hoffman

  ‘That woman is a saint,’ said Gus, getting rather sentimental over the champagne. ‘To put up with you and all your brood.’

  The singer just grunted. He knew how lucky he had been with Loretta but he wasn’t going to agree with Gus about anything that didn’t involve a contract.

  ‘Only it’s not quite all, is it?’ said Gus, nudging the Warrior in the ribs. ‘There’s one Colin sprog she doesn’t know about.’

  The Warrior shot him an evil look. ‘Don’t call me that!’ he said automatically. But Gus had got him thinking. He had been a rotten father to most of his children, but to Sky Meadows most of all; he had never even met him. It had been Sky’s seventeenth birthday recently and he had a new photo of his secret son. The boy was old enough to be a father himself, he thought; the Warrior had certainly made his own first kid at that age, even though he wouldn’t recommend it.

  He was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling that he was getting old.

  ‘Loretta,’ he said to his wife that night, when all the visitors had gone home and the guests who were staying over in his Hollywood mansion had gone to bed, ‘I want to go back to England. There’s someone I want to see.’

  ‘That is a complication, indeed,’ said Sulien when he had heard Sky out. ‘I don’t think anyone has ever volunteered to be a Stravagante from your world to ours before. I’ll have to ask Doctor Dethridge about it.’ He didn’t seem fazed by the idea of Alice turning up in Giglia.

  ‘Wouldn’t it be too dangerous, though?’ asked Sky. ‘I mean, she can’t fight, and you all seem to think there’s going to be trouble coming.’

  ‘It’s dangerous for all of you,’ said Sulien. ‘She won’t be as experienced at stravagating as you or Georgia and she won’t know the city as well as Falco does but, if the others agree, she’ll have more than two weeks to get used to it before the weddings.’

  ‘She might not want to keep coming,’ said Sky doubtfully. ‘It’s just supposed to convince her that we’re telling her the truth.’

  ‘I don’t think Doctor Dethridge will agree to taking a new talisman for just one journey,’ said Sulien. ‘But stop looking so worried. Nothing can be decided until I’ve spoken to the others.’

  It was so unusual for Sky and Sulien to be on their own together these days that Sky decided to ask him about something else. They were in Brother Sulien’s cell and the friar had been working on his collection of recipes and formulas when Sky arrived. It looked nearly finished. Sky looked at what he had been writing down; it was a cure for tiredness.

  ‘I shall need some of that soon,’ he said, trying to smile. ‘All this stuff with Alice and coming here every night is wearing me out.’

  Sulien scrutinised his face. ‘If it gets too much for you, you must tell me,’ he said seriously. ‘We can’t have you getting ill.’

  ‘I’m all right really,’ said Sky, embarrassed. ‘And my mum is so much better. I wanted to ask you – is that because of my visits here? Could that be helping to cure her of her ME?’

  Sulien was thoughtful. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said at last. ‘After all, she doesn’t come here herself. We don’t have the illness you speak of in Talia, unless it is like the sleeping sickness. But from what you have told me about it, I gather that it can get better quite suddenly, after a period of years?’

  ‘That’s what the doctors kept saying,’ agreed Sky. ‘Just give it time, they said.’

  ‘And that is what has happened,’ said Sulien. ‘Just be thankful. Now, why don’t you go and find Sandro?’

  Sky was glad to get out into the city. He found Sandro and Fratello in their usual position, loitering outside the Nucci palace. The boy’s face brightened when he saw Sky.

  ‘Ciao, Tino!’ he said.

  ‘What’s happening?’ asked Sky.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Sandro, lowering his voice. ‘None of the Nucci have come out yet today.’

  ‘Do you have to stay and wait for them?’ asked Sky.

  Sandro shrugged. ‘There aren’t any rules about it. As long as I keep bringing little bits of information back to my master.’

  But at that moment, Camillo came out of the palace and looked in their direction.

  ‘Quick,’ said Sandro. ‘Pretend I’m talking to you.’

  ‘You are talking to me,’ said Sky, smiling.

  ‘No, I mean about something serious!’ said Sandro. ‘So he doesn’t think I’m watching him.’

  Camillo Nucci glanced around him, focused for just a moment on the little dog, frowning, and then set off towards the cathedral.

  ‘Come on!’ said Sandro. ‘We’ll follow at a distance.’

  The two boys strolled along the busy streets and Sky felt his worries over Alice lift. The sky was the same blue it always seemed to be in Talia and the sun beat warm on his robes; it was almost too hot. At every window and doorstep, window boxes and flowerpots spilled pink and red petals and trailing greenery. And the scent of flowers hung in the air, covering up the worse smells coming from the gutters and the streets.

  Sandro picked a bloom from one of the plants and stuck it in his cap. When they reached the cathedral square, they were just in time to see Camillo disappear into the door of Saint-Mary-of-the-Lily.

  ‘We can’t take Fratello in there, surely?’ said Sky.

  ‘Come with me,’ said Sandro mysteriously.

  They walked further round the cathedral, towards Giuditta’s workshop, and stopped by a side door. Sandro tied Fratello to a rail and the little dog immediately sank down with his nose on his paws. Sandro slipped through the door, beckoning to Sky to follow. But instead of going into the body of the great echoing building, he led Sky up a stone staircase. They climbed until they were both out of breath, pausing only once, at a sort of landing, before resuming the upward curve of the steps. Just when Sky thought his lungs would burst, they were out on a narrow balcony that ran round the base of the dome. There was only a wooden banister between them and a sheer drop to the floor of the cathedral.

  Sandro leaned casually on the banister. ‘All right?’ he asked.

  Sky’s heart was pounding. From up here he could see the floor of the cathedral, inlaid with designs so that it looked as if it were covered with marble carpets. They reminded him of Sulien’s maze. There was no service at present but there were always visitors in the cathedral. The people seemed tiny from here and he noticed how few of them looked up. It was the perfect place for a spy. Sandro nudged him.

  ‘See Camillo,’ he whispered, pointing to the Nucci’s distinctive red hat.

  Camillo seemed to be measuring the length of the aisle from the cathedral door to the high altar, pacing it out. It wouldn’t have looked odd from ground level but from up here it seemed clear that he was planning something.

  ‘This would be a good place to position archers,’ said Sandro.

  ‘During a wedding?’ said Sky.

  ‘That’s when the di Chimici expect the attack to come,’ said Sandro. ‘They’ll have archers up here, all the way round, mark my words.’

  Camillo seemed to have finished his measuring.

  ‘Do you want to go right up to the top?’ asked Sandro.

  ‘Can you get further?’ asked Sky.

  Sandro led him round half the circumference of the dome’s base and through another door. The steps began again and Sky realised that they were climbing up inside the dome itself, up hundreds of stairs – so many that he lost count – until they emerged inside the white stone lantern at the very top.

  The two boys sat hanging on to the wooden rails, with their legs dangling over the side. Sky wished he had brought some water. His robes were sticking to him after the hot climb. But there was a welcome breeze up here and the view made it worth it.

  The whole city was spread out beneath him. He could see the Piazza Ducale and the river and the new Nucci palace on the other side and the stretch of green that was their gardens. He could even see the avenue of pine trees where he had been with Sandro just over a week ago. And
beyond that, the city wall and the meadows of flowers that surrounded the city, alternating with green fields dotted with white blobs that were sheep.

  Tomorrow, if their plans worked, Georgia would land somewhere over there on Merla. Sky wondered if he would ever get the chance to see the flying horse.

  Rainbow Warrior had two homes in England: a mansion in Gloucestershire, where he spent hardly any time but which he felt was an important part of his image to keep up, and a flat in Highgate. Whenever he went on tour in the UK, he spent a bit of time in north London and it was here he decided to stay for a few days shortly after his birthday. On the spur of the moment, he asked Loretta to accompany him; he was nervous of telling her about Sky but even more so about the prospect of meeting his son on his own.

  It would be unusual for him to be back in the country of his birth without having any gigs to play. He could visit his mother, of course. She had taken a lot of persuading to leave the estate where he was born and had spent only a few years in the house he bought her in Esher before needing to go into a residential home. She was wandering in her mind a bit now and scandalised some of her fellow residents with the language she sometimes came out with.

  But there were his brothers and his sister as well and he didn’t look forward to their knowing he was in town. The Warrior had given them a lot of money over the years and none of them had made anything of their lives. One brother had a half-hearted career as a record producer; the other was unemployed and always asking for handouts. His sister was a bitter woman, jealous of his success, which had made her discontented with her job as a nurse, her husband and the house her brother had bought her in Clapham.

  She sneered at him for the articles in Hello!, his many marriages and his regular albums. But she bought the magazines, accepted flights out to the weddings and boasted to her friends when the albums sold well.

  Sometimes the Warrior thought that the only person he had ever met who had never asked him for money was Rosalind, who had been prepared to bring up a child on her own. He had sent money, though, a lot of it the first time. But neither she nor her son had ever expected anything from him and that intrigued him. He told his PA to book the flights straightaway.

  ‘Can I ask you something?’ said Sky when he was alone with Brother Sulien.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘You said when I first came that Duke Niccolò di Chimici was dangerous and hated all Stravaganti.’

  ‘That is still true.’

  ‘But he seems to be more of an enemy of the Nucci at the moment. Does that mean that we and the Nucci are on same side?’

  ‘If the Nucci knew anything about us, it’s true that they might want us to help them in their vendetta against the di Chimici,’ said Sulien. ‘But the Stravaganti are not to be used in such feuds. We are only on the opposite side from Niccolò because we believe that he wants to take over all Talia. The Nucci long ago ceased to care about the government of Giglia, let alone Tuschia or Talia as a whole. They just want all the di Chimici dead, because of Davide.’

  ‘I can see that it would be a bad thing for Niccolò to rule all Talia, because he’s a bad man,’ said Sky, frowning. ‘But would it be a bad idea for Talia to get together under someone? I mean, in my world Italy is one country, not lots of little dukedoms and so on.’

  ‘I know it must seem to you as if we are interfering in politics,’ said Sulien. ‘But it is not like that. We are protecting the gateway to your world from the uses the di Chimici would make of it.’

  ‘What uses, exactly?’ asked Sky.

  ‘If Niccolò had the secret of travel in time and space, he would not respect the rules we have developed,’ said Sulien. ‘He would take cheap gold from here and use it to buy weapons and drugs that have not been invented here.’

  Sky could just see it – di Chimici with swords and daggers were bad enough, but the thought of them with an arsenal of chemical weapons was terrifying.

  ‘There’s nothing I can do till the Stravaganti have made their decision,’ Sky told Alice on the phone next day.

  ‘But you’re all still going tonight – you and Nick and Georgia?’

  ‘Yes, it’s all arranged,’ said Sky.

  ‘Then I’m at least going to be at Georgia’s while she stravagates,’ said Alice.

  ‘You do believe us, then,’ said Sky.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Alice. ‘I want to. I don’t want to think you would lie to me. But it just seems too incredible.’

  As soon as she got off the phone to Sky, Alice called Georgia and went round to her house.

  Maura O’Grady was used to finding Alice in her house when she got home from work, and if she thought things were a little tense between the two girls, she put it down to teenage hormones and worries about the coming term’s exams. She certainly had no objection to Alice staying the night. In fact she was relieved that Georgia was spending more time with her best female friend; it bothered her how often her daughter was with Nicholas.

  After a supper of takeaway Chinese – much to Georgia’s relief because Maura was a dreadful cook – the girls had an early night. They said they were going to watch videos in Georgia’s room.

  ‘So how exactly does it work, then?’ asked Alice. ‘Do you just hold the talisman and say “abracadabra”?’

  ‘No,’ said Georgia, a bit reluctant to go into details. ‘You have to fall asleep with it in your hand, thinking of where you’re going in Talia.’

  ‘And what will it look like when you’ve gone?’

  ‘Just the same, I think. My body will still be here. I have another body in Talia, one without a shadow.’

  Alice shook her head. ‘So you won’t be able to prove that you’ve been anywhere?’

  ‘I’ll tell you everything about it when I get back,’ said Georgia. ‘And you can ring Sky first thing and check it all with him. Then you’ll know we’re not making it up.’

  But she secretly wished that Alice were not there. It was going to be hard getting to sleep with her best friend watching her.

  Early next morning Cesare was in the stables as usual but he kept glancing up at the hayloft. He hummed under his breath as he filled the horses’ water troughs from a bucket and mucked out the dirty straw. Arcangelo, the big chestnut, was restless and bent his great neck to huff in Cesare’s ear.

  ‘I know, boy,’ he said, grinning. ‘She’s coming back.’

  His father, Paolo, came in with a bundle of clothes. ‘Any sign yet?’ he asked.

  Cesare shook his head. A small grey cat wound its way round the stable door and leapt on to the ladder to the loft. There was a rustling sound and the cat paused, its ears pricked. The trapdoor was raised and a tawny head appeared.

  ‘Giorgio!’ said Cesare, then stopped, confused. ‘I mean, Georgia. It’s good to see you!’

  Chapter 18

  Flight

  While Alice slept and Georgia crossed worlds, Sky was spending the night at the Mulhollands’. Nicholas was so excited about stravagating back to Giglia that he kept them both awake talking about it. And then he fell silent and Sky, anxious that Nicholas was going to arrive in Giglia before him, tossed and turned a lot longer, unable to give up the hold on consciousness that was preventing him from slipping into his other life.

  Gaetano had arranged with Sulien to come to the friary early so that he could be there when his brother arrived. It had been over six months since Falco had died in Talia. Gaetano had seen him a month later, riding the flying horse, and he had been told that, for Falco, a whole extra year had passed. Yet he did not know what to expect. There was so much that he didn’t understand about the gateway between the two worlds, and he found it hard to believe that his little brother had caught up on him by a year and was now fit and well, able to walk unaided and to ride. But Gaetano clung on to one thing: Falco was coming back.

  Sulien was awake and waiting in his cell. It was a bare room – just a cot of a bed, a chest, a table and a chair – whitewashed and dominated by a large wooden cross
. The bed was empty and Sulien was sitting in the chair. He rose when the prince entered but Gaetano gestured him back.

  ‘I shall sit on the floor,’ he said, and settled himself with his back to the wall. ‘How long do you think it will be before they come?’

  ‘It depends on how hard they find it to fall asleep in their own world,’ said Sulien. ‘It perhaps will not be easy for your brother. It may be that Sky will arrive ahead of him.’

  The two of them sat in silence, waiting. Gaetano rested his arms on his knees and cast his cloak over his head. He must have dozed a little but was woken by a sigh. On Sulien’s bed lay a figure stretching and yawning, a young man with curly black hair, worn loose and rather long. He swung his long legs over the edge of the bed and stood up tall and straight.

  Gaetano got to his feet, stiff from the wait. Sulien left the cell as the brothers embraced.

  *

  Georgia had greeted every horse in the stable. Most of them knew her – Arcangelo, Dondola, Starlight and the miraculous Merla. The black winged horse was now fully grown, glossy and well-muscled. Georgia had no doubt she would be able to carry her to Giglia.

  ‘I have ridden her that far and further,’ said Cesare. ‘And I weigh more than you do.’ He couldn’t stop smiling; he was so pleased to see Georgia again.

  ‘I wish I could stay and catch up with all your news,’ she said, longingly. ‘But I must leave straightaway if I’m to meet the others in Giglia. I’ll see you tonight, though.’

  Paolo and Cesare led Merla to the meadow where she could take off. The horse was glad to be out so early in the warm spring morning and was already flexing her wings. Georgia was going to ride bareback, so she was glad of a leg-up.

  Once astride Merla’s back, she looked down on her friends’ faces, sad to be seeing them so briefly but exhilarated at being back in Talia and the prospect of another flight on the winged horse.

  ‘Go safely,’ said Paolo.

  And Cesare slapped Merla on the rump.