by Mary Hoffman
Mortimer had been startled when she sat up on his sofa for the second time that night; he had been dozing in an armchair when he saw a man beside Laura. He knew that had been her plan but it was still a shock.
Mortimer had got quicker at this and was soon agreeing he couldn’t leave the others; he was the one who had phoned David, who had left his apparently sleeping wife and adopted son at home and driven as fast as he could to the antiques shop.
‘Well,’ the doctor was saying, ‘I’d say he was a re-enactor and had been injured by a ball from a musket, but I’m no expert on such wounds. What I do know is that it’s vital to get him on to an IV drip and fill him full of strong antibiotics. If it was an authentic musket ball of the period, who knows how much dirt and crud was on it? I’ll give him a tetanus jab too, unless you know if he’s had one in the last three years?’
‘I’m quite sure he hasn’t,’ said Laura honestly.
‘I don’t like his loss of consciousness though,’ said the doctor, opening Ludo’s eyelids and shining a pinpoint of light into his pupils. ‘Did he hit his head at all?’
Who knew what had happened to Ludo between being shot and being fished out of the stinking canal by the other Manoush?
‘He might have done,’ said Laura. She remembered from what Matt had told her that bruises would not have travelled with him, only cuts to the skin, as she knew to her own cost.
But she had watched the doctor inspecting the musket wound and had been thrilled to see that the swelling and redness had gone. She had banked everything on the infection not travelling with him from Talia.
‘His temperature is normal, anyway,’ said the doctor. ‘So there’s no infection.’
‘Will Luke be all right?’ asked David, who had given Ludo’s name as Luke Vivian, the closest he could get to his Talian name and still sound at all convincing.
‘Should be,’ said the doctor. ‘I’d like to know who took that ball out though. And I’ve never seen a re-enactor who fought a battle in a nightshirt.’
Laura felt the knot in her stomach dissolve. She had broken so many rules of stravagation but it would be all right if she could just keep Ludo here until, until … no, she dared not think about it.
Ludo’s eyes opened and the first thing he saw was a man in strange pale blue clothes leaning over him. His eyes opened wider and he looked round wildly. He saw Laura.
‘Laura,’ he said, in the Talian way, ‘where have you brought me?’
‘Well, it makes a change from “Where am I?” which is what they always say in films,’ said the doctor.
‘To where you will be well … always,’ said Laura.
‘If he doesn’t catch MRSA,’ muttered David.
‘What was that?’ said the doctor.
‘Nothing.’
‘Must he stay in hospital then?’ asked Laura.
‘Just for a few days,’ said the doctor. ‘We’ll pump him full of antibiotics with an IV line and then let him home with some tablets. He must finish the course though.’
‘Home?’ said Ludo. He looked at Laura. She looked at David. He shrugged.
The wedding feast had been a strange business. Luciano and Arianna were so happy and so caught up in each other that they could spare no attention for what had happened to Rinaldo di Chimici. But Rodolfo, Silvia and the leaders of the other city-states were all too aware of the delicacy of the situation.
Rinaldo had been Pope for only days and he had been killed in Bellezza. No matter that it wasn’t clear if he’d been strangled by Giuliana’s father or shot accidentally by a Bellezzan guard. He had died in the lagoon city where he had done so much damage in the past. Rodolfo couldn’t imagine how much danger that would put the Stravaganti in. But he didn’t want to break up the party. There was feasting and dancing to be done that wasn’t going to stop because of one man’s death, even if that man was the most important member of the Reman Church.
Aurelio was playing his harp and for once the air was not melancholy; it was piercingly beautiful.
‘Should we take some of this lovely food to Laura?’ said Isabel. ‘It’s such a shame she’s missing everything. And I want to know how Ludo is.’
She and Sky piled a plate with goodies and set off to Ludo’s sickroom.
‘She’s not here!’ said Sky, looking round the room. Ludo was lying in the dark. There was no sign of Laura.
‘God, he looks rough,’ said Isabel.
The Manoush’s breath was harsh and rasping and he was burning up with fever.
‘We’d better fetch Rodolfo,’ said Sky.
In the other world, Ludo was in a ward with a line in his arm feeding him with powerful antibiotics. His wound had been washed and painted with antiseptic and given a fresh dressing. He was now wearing a coarse blue and white striped hospital gown and Laura had the Talian garment in a plastic bag.
‘Don’t leave me, Laura,’ he said, panicking when she explained that she must get back home.
The sky was turning light outside.
‘Who is this?’ Ludo asked, when David came back with some cups of coffee.
‘I told you before,’ said Laura. ‘It’s Luciano’s father, David. He came and fetched us from the shop when I brought you here from Talia.’
‘This is the future?’ asked Ludo. His eyes were big and frightened.
‘I rather think it is for you, chum,’ said David. He looked at them both with infinite pity.
Rodolfo came to Ludo’s room bearing a lighted torch. The doctor, who had taken a break to get something to eat because Laura had promised to stay with his patient, was very worried.
‘She said she would stay with him,’ he protested.
‘I think she did,’ said Rodolfo quietly.
Only Sky and Isabel knew what he meant.
‘Oh no,’ said Isabel. ‘This is going to get very complicated, isn’t it?’
‘I want you all to go home, straight away,’ said Rodolfo.
They had never heard him sound so serious and urgent.
‘Quickly, call the others together and stravagate as fast as you can,’ said Rodolfo. ‘Something is going to happen here and I can’t say what effect it will have. If you don’t go now, you might not be able to.’
They didn’t need to be told twice. Isabel had a horrible vision of being stuck in Talia for ever, like Luciano. She and Sky rounded up the other Stravaganti including Vicky. It was incredibly difficult; they were dispersed throughout the banqueting room and everyone had been drinking.
‘Mum!’ said Luciano. ‘Don’t go yet! The party will go on for ages.’
‘Your Rodolfo says we must, apparently,’ said Vicky. ‘You know I don’t want to leave you. Or you,’ she said to Arianna.
The newly-weds felt the first pangs of alarm. Luciano saw what the others were doing and went with them to the nearest bedchamber.
It looked ridiculous – six people piling on to a bed and holding a collection of objects, trying to fall sleep while a kind of panic spread through the room. Luciano and Doctor Dethridge went from one to the other, placing their hands over the Stravaganti’s eyes and murmuring sleep charms.
‘What is happening?’ asked Arianna, standing in the doorway in her wedding finery.
‘I don’t know,’ said Luciano. ‘Something big. But trust your father.’
As they stood and watched, the figures melted from the bed, disappearing back to their own world.
‘I’m so glad she came,’ said Arianna, holding Luciano’s hand.
‘So am I,’ he said.
And then there was a noise like thunder, rending the palace from roof to floor with a deafening sound. Instinctively Luciano and Arianna raced to Ludo’s room.
‘He’s gone,’ said Rodolfo.
The body lay on the bed and they could see at a glance that there was no life left in it.
‘And what else?’ asked Luciano.
‘I don’t know yet,’ said Rodolfo.
‘What shall we do?’ asked Arianna.
&nb
sp; Rodolfo straightened his shoulders.
‘We shall finish celebrating your wedding,’ he said. ‘Come on, there is a party waiting downstairs.’
‘And just leave him here?’ asked Luciano.
‘He is not here,’ said Rodolfo, locking the door behind him.
Laura and David were still with Ludo when a jolt ran through his body as if he had received an electric shock.
‘Nurse! Nurse!’ called David.
‘Shh,’ said a man in the bed next door. ‘Some of us are trying to sleep!’
A nurse came and took Ludo’s pulse. He was awake but shivering.
‘I feel strange,’ he said.
‘I can’t see anything wrong,’ said the nurse. ‘How are you feeling now?’
‘Heavy,’ said Ludo. He looked at Laura with a mixture of fear and admiration. ‘But I think I will feel better soon.’
‘See if you can sleep,’ said the nurse. ‘You’ll start feeling better in the morning.’ She switched off his overhead light and turned to Laura and David. ‘Why don’t you go home?’ she said. ‘Come back later in the morning. He’ll be fine.’
‘It was the only way to save you,’ whispered Laura, as she kissed Ludo goodbye.
‘I know,’ he said, kissing her back and clinging on to her hand. ‘Thank you.’
And she walked away down the ward holding David’s arm tightly. She knew when they came back in daylight that Ludo would have a shadow.
Luciano and Arianna knew nothing of what was happening in the other world or what the after-effects might be in Talia. But they understood that Rodolfo and William Dethridge were worried and they guessed something of what Laura had done and what Ludo’s fate must be.
‘What a day!’ said Luciano when they were alone at last and all the revellers had dispersed. ‘Vicky here, Rinaldo murdered, Ludo dead and Laura performing a “translation” – was there ever a wedding like it?’
‘Oh, I’m glad you also remembered that we got married as well,’ said Arianna, taking his arm and twining it round her waist. ‘I thought you were going to leave it off your list.’
‘It was the best thing,’ said Luciano, kissing her.
‘Hmm. Better than death and murder – that’s quite a compliment.’
There was a scratching at the door.
‘Oh, it’s Gello,’ said Arianna, going to let the African cat in. ‘He’s been unsettled by all that noise and the palace shaking.’
The spotted cat snuffed at her hands and went to get Luciano to pet him.
‘He can sleep at the foot of our bed tonight,’ said Luciano, ‘but from tomorrow, he has to spend the night in his stall with Mariotto.’
‘Our bed,’ said Arianna. ‘Did you really believe that we would ever get married?’
‘I didn’t dare hope,’ said Luciano. ‘We’ve been through so much. Anything might have happened today.’
‘According to Nick, we might have had Ludo’s bloodstained body thrown into the cathedral,’ said Arianna with a shudder.
‘And instead we got a dead Pope in the Piazza,’ said Luciano.
‘And poor Giuliana’s father,’ said Arianna. ‘I’m going to add that silver we gave him to what we distribute to the people tomorrow.’
‘The Piazza will have to be purified,’ said Luciano, frowning. ‘That was where we first met. I don’t want that scoundrel’s blood polluting it.’
‘Brother Sulien can do that for us,’ said Arianna. ‘Don’t worry – we’ll forget Rinaldo and remember only our first meeting.’
‘When you were so angry with me and I didn’t know why.’ He smiled at her.
‘I expect it won’t be the last time I am angry with you, Duke Luciano,’ said Arianna.
‘Oh Goddess, I’d forgotten that’s what I am. A duke!’
‘But only as my consort,’ said Arianna firmly. ‘You can’t pass any laws or make any important decisions without my approval.’
‘I shouldn’t dream of it, Your Grace,’ said Luciano, gathering his bride into his arms.
Rigello yawned and stretched himself out at the foot of their bed. He would guard them all night long and they in their turn would make him feel safe. As long as Luciano and Arianna were together, he felt that all was right with the world.
Historical Note
I have loved Lucca from the first time I saw it: a medieval city built on a Roman grid and with complete and massive defensive walls with a rich history both medieval and Renaissance. It begged to be part of Talia, where it is the great city of Fortezza, a di Chimici principality.
I have now walked the circuit of those walls, 4.2 kilometres at a height of twelve metres, broad enough for tree-lined avenues, cyclists, joggers, dog-walkers and buggy-pushing nonne to share this free and much-prized amenity of the city.
And you can also walk inside a part of the walls, being dripped on from dank and damp early brickwork of arched and enclosed tunnels and passages, where a spy could lurk round every turn and twist.
Of course, I have taken the usual liberties with this fine Tuscan city. Lucca has eleven bulwarks or baluardi, but I have given it an extra one. The further fortification and expansion of the colossal walls was undertaken in the early sixteenth century, but Lucca never needed to withstand the feared siege – unlike Fortezza.
In medieval times, Lucca was ruled by a Signore and then by a succession of dominant local families, so it is not too fanciful to imagine the di Chimici being one similar family, with a dominance over Tuschia (= Tuscany). However, I have given them a very solid Rocca, or castle, to defend within the walls, which you will not find in Lucca.
di Chimici Family Tree
Dramatis Personae
In Talia
Stravaganti
Fabio della Spada, a swordsmith
Rodolfo Rossi, a senator
William Dethridge, aka Guglielmo Crinamorte
Luciano Crinamorte, aka Lucien Mulholland, a Bellezzan Cavaliere
Suliano Fabriano (Brother Sulien), a pharmacist-friar
Giuditta Miele, a sculptor
Paolo Montalbano, a horsemaster
The di Chimici
Fabrizio, Grand Duke of Tuschia
Caterina, his Grand Duchess
Gaetano, Prince of Giglia
Francesca, his wife
Filippo, Prince of Bellona
Jacopo the Elder, Prince of Fortezza
Carolina, his wife
Lucia, Princess of Fortezza
Alfonso, Duke of Volana
Bianca, his wife
Ferrando, Prince of Morexo
Ferdinando, Pope Lenient VI, Prince of Remora
Rinaldo, Cardinal of the Reman Church
Other Talians
Arianna Rossi, the Duchessa of Bellezza
Silvia Rossi, her mother
Guido Parola, a reformed assassin
Enrico Poggi, a spy
General Tasca, head of the Giglian army
General Bompiani, head of the Fortezzan army
General Ciampi, head of the rebel army
Ludo Vivoide, a Manoush
Roberto and Riccardo, bodyguards
Vittorio Massi
In 21st-century London
Laura Reid, a Stravagante
Ellen Reid, her mother
James Reid, her father
Isabel Evans, a Stravagante
Charlie Evans, her twin brother
Sarah Evans, their mother
Tony Evans, their father
Matt Wood, a Stravagante (see City of Secrets)
Ayesha, Matt’s girlfriend, Isabel’s friend
Sky Meadows, a Stravagante (see City of Flowers)
Georgia O’Grady, a Stravagante (see City of Stars)
Nick Duke, aka Falco di Chimici, a Stravagante (see City of Stars)
Vicky Mulholland, Lucien’s mother, Nick Duke’s adoptive mother
David Mulholland, Lucien’s father, Nick Duke’s adoptive father
Mortimer Goldsmith, an antiques dealer
Eva Holbrook, Matt’s aunt
Ms Jewell, a therapist
Alice Greaves
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Julie Bertagna for the picture of Fortezza and recommendations for where to eat in the equivalent city! To Isa for acting as a guide to the labyrinth and to Anne Rooney for advice on sixteenth-century siege warfare and sepsis. To Doctor Joanna Cannon for A & E procedures and to Stevie for building the trebuchet, even though it was his cat who stole the Blu-tack missile. And thanks to Gill Vickery who lent me useful books on sword-making.
Books by Mary Hoffman
THE STRAVAGANZA SERIES
Stravaganza: City of Masks
Stravaganza: City of Stars
Stravaganza: City of Flowers
Stravaganza: City of Secrets
Stravaganza: City of Ships
The Falconer’s Knot
Troubadour
David
Text copyright © 2012 by Mary Hoffman
Map and chapter head illustrations © 2012 by Peter Bailey
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First published in Great Britain in July 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published in the United States of America in August 2012
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in August 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
www.bloomsburyteens.com
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