by Mary Hoffman
*
‘Now,’ said Rodolfo, ‘Alice or no Alice, we must plan our strategy for the days of the wedding.’
‘Days?’ said Georgia. ‘You mean they take more than one day to get married?’
‘The ceremony itself takes not much longer than an ordinary Mass,’ said Sulien. ‘But there will be a grand tournament the day before, with a banquet in the evening, various pageants and processions on the day itself, and a final party the day after.’
‘And we moste kepe vigillant atte all these tymes,’ said Dethridge.
‘How, exactly?’ asked Nicholas.
‘A circle of strength,’ said Giuditta. ‘If all eight – or even nine – Stravaganti are together, we can surround the likely targets with our linked minds, see where the danger is coming from and protect them from harm.’
‘And who are the likely targets?’ asked Sky.
‘I’m afraid that is what we don’t know,’ said Rodolfo. ‘My daughter is my main concern, but any member of the di Chimici and Nucci families is at risk.’
‘And if vyolence comes,’ said Dethridge, ‘thenne every one and eny one canne be harmed. Inne a church or a square – wheresomever there are crowdes – a small acte with a blade canne lead on to mayhem overal.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Georgia. ‘I can see about the circle of minds, I think, though I’d like to practise it. But what if we do see a threat coming from a particular person. What can we do about it? Can the Stravaganti disarm an armed man with their thoughts?’
‘No,’ said Rodolfo. ‘That is why Luciano has been learning to fight. We and our allies have to be ready to defend ourselves and others.’
‘Gaetano will be ready,’ said Luciano.
‘But he will be getting married,’ protested Georgia. ‘How much use can he be? You surely don’t expect him to break off the ceremony to fight a bit and then carry on with it.’
‘We shall all go armed to the wedding,’ said Giuditta.
‘And Guido here won’t be getting married,’ said Silvia. ‘He is a handy fellow with a blade.’
Sky realised that this was the assassin Luciano had told him about.
‘I don’t think you will be invited to the wedding, Silvia,’ said Rodolfo, smiling. ‘The Duke doesn’t know you, and you should be grateful for it.’
‘As to that,’ said Silvia, ‘I met the Duke only this morning and I think he was disposed to be charmed by me. But what do I care for invitations? I shall be at these weddings, invited or not.’
*
Sandro and the Eel walked into the centre of town, though Fratello was careful to keep on Sandro’s side, as far away from Enrico as possible. As they neared the cathedral, the spy suddenly clutched at the boy’s sleeve.
‘Is that him?’ he hissed.
Two young Dominican friars were coming out of a palazzo.
Sandro nodded. ‘That’s the new one, with Brother Tino.’
The novices were followed out of the building by a striking-looking young woman with stripy hair. And then Luciano and Rodolfo, the two Bellezzans, with an older white-haired man whom Sandro didn’t recognise. Finally Giuditta Miele came out of the door, in conversation with Brother Sulien.
‘Now that is something worth reporting,’ said Enrico. ‘What are they up to? And who exactly is that new brother?’
He had pulled Sandro back into a doorway. They hid as the party from the palazzo passed on the opposite side of the road.
Enrico gasped. ‘Look!’ he said. ‘Look at that new novice! He has no shadow. And, come to that, nor does your Brother Tino! I think the Duke might be very interested in that.’
Chapter 19
Flowers of the City
Georgia woke feeling stiff and disorientated. She had flown back to Remora soon after the meeting of Stravaganti, spent a few sweet moments with Cesare and his younger sisters and brothers, and fallen easily asleep in her old hayloft. It took her a few minutes to adjust to being back in her room.
‘At last,’ said Alice when she saw that Georgia’s eyes were open. She herself was already showered and dressed. ‘Do you know what time it is? Your parents have already gone to work.’
Georgia sat up blearily. ‘Give me a minute,’ she said.
‘Sweet dreams?’ asked Alice.
Georgia wasn’t sure she liked this new aggressive version of her friend. But as far as Alice was concerned, she still needed to be convinced that what the others had told her was true and that she could still trust Sky. Georgia decided to let it pass.
‘I went to Remora, flew to Giglia and met the others there,’ she said. ‘I saw the old Duchessa in the sculptor’s workshop and then Duke Niccolò came in. We had a meeting of Stravaganti at Silvia’s place and then I did the journey back.’ She stretched. ‘Can I go and have my shower now?’
‘Did you see, you know, Lucien?’ asked Alice.
Georgia nodded. ‘He’s one of the Stravaganti who was there. But I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Alice. ‘I’ll get us some breakfast, shall I? And then we can go round to Nick’s.’
Sandro was feeling uneasy. He hadn’t taken kindly to the idea of sharing Brother Tino and Sulien with anyone else, but he didn’t want the new novice to fall foul of the Eel; he knew what his master was capable of. But he was puzzled by the business of the shadows. That wasn’t natural, surely? Everything had a shadow – even Fratello. Sandro separated from Enrico as soon as he could and went straight to Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines.
The friars were all at prayer; it was the hour of Vespers. Sandro was not allowed to take his dog into the church, so he waited outside the main door until he heard the chanting stop. Then he put his head round the door and called softly. Sulien heard him and came towards him.
‘You are troubled?’ he said straightaway, seeing the boy’s distress.
‘What does it mean, Brother, when a man has no shadow? Is it the work of the Devil?’
Sulien didn’t answer directly. ‘Tie your dog up and come inside,’ he said.
Not all the friars had left the church. Sandro watched as Sulien walked over to a side aisle and pulled back a threadbare carpet to reveal a strange circular pattern of black and white. Meanwhile, a line of friars was forming, waiting to step on to the circle. Sandro had never seen this before.
Sulien came over to where Sandro sat in the pews and said, ‘Watch what they do. I want you to walk the maze just before me.’
‘Why?’ asked Sandro. ‘What does it do?’
‘You can tell me that yourself afterwards,’ said Sulien.
The girls walked round to the Mulhollands’ house in silence. Vicky let them in.
‘I’m afraid they aren’t up yet,’ she said. ‘Shall I call them?’
‘Well, if you’re sure,’ said Georgia.
‘It’s late,’ said Vicky. ‘It’s time they were up. Why don’t you put the kettle on?’
Twenty tense minutes later, Nicholas and Sky joined them in the kitchen. To the relief of all, Vicky had gone shopping. The boys were tired but, after a few cups of tea and a lot of toast, were willing to talk. By then Alice was ready to explode.
‘Well?’ she asked Sky. ‘I’ve heard Georgia’s version of last night. What’s yours?’
He could scarcely recognise her; she seemed so cold.
‘Nick got to Giglia first,’ he said. ‘And when I got to Sulien’s cell, he was already there with his brother. We walked to Giuditta’s workshop and then Georgia came. And Silvia, Arianna’s mother, turned up.’
‘With her bodyguard,’ added Nicholas.
‘And then the Duke arrived,’ said Sky.
‘My father,’ said Nicholas. Alice saw that he had dark circles under his eyes. ‘He had come to look at Arianna’s statue.’
‘And then we all went to a tavern and drank wine,’ said Sky. ‘It’d been a bit of a shock, meeting the Duke like that.’
‘We had a meeting of Stravaganti in the afternoon,’ said Nicholas.
&n
bsp; ‘And we asked them about you, Alice.’
‘Oh yes, what did they say?’
‘They were pretty much OK about it,’ said Sky. ‘Giuditta said it would have to be her who brought you the talisman.’
‘Well, congratulations,’ said Alice. ‘Your stories match perfectly.’
‘They’re not stories,’ said Georgia. ‘They’re accounts of what we actually did. And I for one am getting fed up with you not believing us.’
Alice looked surprised.
‘How often do I have to tell you that I’m not the slightest bit interested in Sky as a boyfriend?’ said Georgia, warming to her theme. ‘Why would I invent all this about Talia? Why would any of us?’
‘Stop it, both of you!’ said Nicholas suddenly. ‘I can’t take any more of you two arguing about whether my country exists or not! My father was poisoned there and the other members of my family may be attacked at any time. I can’t waste any more time on this stuff with Alice. Believe us or not, as you like. I want to talk about going back.’
‘Well, we can go back tonight,’ said Sky.
‘No,’ said Nicholas. ‘I don’t mean tonight. I mean permanently.’
Sandro put one foot tentatively on to the maze. He didn’t understand why Sulien wanted him on it, but gradually, as his feet traced the pattern of the marble, he felt himself calming down. He looked down, shuffling slowly forwards behind the black and white robed friar in front of him, till the colours of the maze and the colours of the robes blurred. When he found himself in the middle, he sank to his knees, suddenly tired. He would have liked to stay there for ever.
He became aware that Sulien had joined him. The last of the other friars had finished walking out from the centre. Sandro realised that he was kneeling on the figure of a woman. Her robes and hair were outlined in black against the white marble and she had a sweet, loving face that made him want to cry. There were twelve stars around her head. Sandro got to his feet and silently, slowly, traced the path back to the outer world. By then the light was waning in Talia and the sky outside the church windows was darkening.
‘I must get Fratello,’ he said to Sulien. ‘He’ll be lonely.’
‘Bring him in through the cloister,’ said the friar. ‘You can both sleep in the laboratory tonight.’
‘Then will you explain about the shadows?’ asked Sandro.
‘I will,’ said Sulien.
*
‘I just wondered, my Lord,’ said Enrico, ‘whether there’s any chance that the Nucci could be in alliance with other enemies of yours.’
‘More than likely, I would have thought,’ said the Duke. ‘Which enemies did you have in mind?’
Enrico wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. When he and his master had returned from Remora after the young prince’s memorial race, the Duke had been obsessed with a group of people led by the Regent of Bellezza. Enrico knew they were called ‘Stravaganti’ but he didn’t know what that meant. He believed they were a powerful Brotherhood of magicians and he feared what Senator Rodolfo might be able to do to him.
He knew that the Senator’s young assistant, Luciano, had learned more than science from his master, and he feared the young man too. There had once been something unnatural about him but that was so no longer. Enrico had captured Luciano with his own hands and knew that at one time he had been without a shadow.
The Eel’s old master, Rinaldo di Chimici, had been most interested in that fact, even though it had crumbled to dust when brought to the attention of a People’s Senate in Bellezza. Enrico had never known what it meant; it was one of those things he pushed to the back of his mind, like the disappearance of his fiancée. Luciano certainly had a shadow now and so did Rodolfo. It must be something to do with their magic powers. But now Enrico had seen two more people without shadows in Giglia and they were both connected with the Moorish friar who had saved the Duke from poisoning.
So had it been a double bluff? Was Sulien softening the Duke up for a later occasion when he would finish him off? This was the sort of thing the Eel was supposed to know and normally would have been happy to investigate. But any suggestion of magic unnerved him; he was afraid of the evil eye.
‘Well?’ said the Duke. ‘Have you information or not?’
‘There is a new novice at Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines, my Lord,’ said Enrico hesitantly.
‘That is hardly momentous,’ said the Duke. ‘I think I may have glimpsed him with young Brother Celestino in the sculptor’s workshop. What of him?’
‘How sure is your Grace of the loyalty of the friars up there?’ asked Enrico.
‘Tolerably certain,’ said the Duke. ‘Brother Sulien did save my life recently.’
‘It’s just that . . . well, neither this new novice – Benvenuto, he’s called, according to my information – nor that Brother Tino seems to have a shadow.’
The Duke was silent. His memory of the events in Remora was clouded – by grief and, he suspected, by sorcery. But he knew that there was something deeply significant in this information. Something connected with his son’s death. He had never believed that Falco had killed himself. That Luciano and his stable-boy friend who seemed to have disappeared had something to do with it. But the Duke had a private plan of his own for how to deal with Luciano.
‘Look into it,’ he said abruptly. ‘Find out all you can about this Benvenuto and bring the information direct to me. Speak to no one else about it.’
Nicholas’s announcement had stunned them all.
‘I’m tired of being Nicholas,’ he said simply. ‘I don’t even want to be Brother Benvenuto. I want to be Falco again, living in my own city, with my own family.’
‘But you can’t just turn back the clock,’ said Georgia. ‘You’re dead and buried in Giglia – with a statue by the great Giuditta Miele on top.’
‘How do you know I can’t?’ asked Nicholas. ‘When I was translated here, this world leapt forward a year. Perhaps if I went back, it would move in the opposite direction.’
‘But wouldn’t you end up just the way you were before?’ asked Sky, ‘with your leg all hurt?’
‘It’s worse than that,’ said Georgia, who had seen it all in a flash. ‘He’d have to die in this world. Are you really prepared to do that to Vicky and David, Nicholas?’
‘There may be a way to make it work out all right for them,’ he muttered.
‘Stop it!’ said Alice. ‘You three are freaking me out! OK, I believe you about this other world of yours. There’s no need to go on about dying.’
‘Look,’ said Sky. ‘You’re tired and it must have blown your mind to be back in your world. We can go back tonight – every night if you like. But you can’t just go back to live in Talia as if nothing had happened.’
‘Have you ever wondered about where Brother Tino came from?’ asked Sulien.
‘Anglia, you said it was,’ said Sandro.
‘And that is true,’ said the friar. ‘In a way. But both he and Benvenuto come from an Anglia that is in another world – and from a time hundreds of years ahead of us.’
Sandro made the Hand of Fortune, to ward off the evil eye. Such talk was the last thing he expected to hear from a man of the church. Sulien smiled.
‘There is nothing to be afraid of,’ he said. ‘They are good people. And they belong to the same Brotherhood as I do.’
‘The Hounds of God?’ asked Sandro.
‘The Stravaganti,’ said Sulien.
‘What’s that?’
‘Travellers,’ said Sulien. ‘Travellers in time and space. There are several gathered in the city at the moment. They – we – have plans to save it from bloodshed at the approaching wedding festivities.’
‘So Brother Tino isn’t really your novice after all?’ asked Sandro. ‘Is he even a friar?’
‘No,’ said Sulien. ‘I’m afraid that was a story to give him a reason for being here.’
Sandro felt strangely pleased. ‘Tell me about the shadows,’ he said. ‘You said you are one of the
se travellers, but you have a shadow. I’ve seen it.’
‘We have a shadow in the world we live in because that is where our real bodies are. It is only in the world we travel to that we are without our shadows.’
‘So where do you go?’
‘To Tino’s world,’ said Sulien. ‘And there I have no shadow. I am just a visitor.’
‘Could I go?’ asked Sandro.
‘Who knows?’ said Sulien. ‘Maybe one day. But you couldn’t take Fratello with you – dogs can’t be Stravaganti. Anyway, what I have told you is a secret. It would be very dangerous for us if anyone else knew it – particularly the di Chimici.’
‘Even Prince Gaetano?’ asked Sandro.
‘No,’ said Sulien. ‘Gaetano knows about us. But you mustn’t tell anyone else. I have told you our great secret, because I believe you can be trusted. You have changed in the last few months and I don’t think you are as much of a di Chimici man as you used to be. You wouldn’t do anything to put Brother Tino and myself in danger, would you? But you must be careful in front of that man up at the palace, the one who works for the Duke.’
‘He already knows about the shadows,’ said Sandro, anxious to show himself worthy of Sulien’s trust. ‘We saw you all coming out of a palazzo in the city today. Tino and that Benvenuto came out first and Enrico spotted that they didn’t have them.’
‘Then we are already in danger,’ said Sulien. ‘I must tell the others.’
Nicholas was so restless that the four of them left the house and walked back to Sky’s flat. Georgia was really worried about Nicholas. There had always been a danger in letting him go back to Talia but she had never thought it would hit him as badly as this. All the anxiety about him and the problems with Alice were spoiling her enjoyment at having been back to Talia herself. She longed for the old days when no one else knew about stravagation but her.
Sky let them in and heard his mother talking to someone. But the last person he expected to see at their kitchen table was Giuditta Miele. His heart sank; what on earth had the two of them found to talk about?