City of Flowers by Mary Hoffman Page A

does not seme ryghte to mee to do such a thynge.’
    â€˜Nor to me,’ agreed Rodolfo. ‘But it does limit the usefulness of other-world Stravaganti to be able to travel to only one city. Luciano we now have with us always and everywhere and we are heartily glad of it, but he is one of our Talian Brotherhood now and no longer a traveller from the other world. Suppose we needed Georgia in Bellezza? Or this new one, Sky, might need to come here from Giglia.’
    â€˜Sky?’ said Luciano, interested. There had been only one person with that name at his old school. He could just remember the young Sky Meadows from Year 10, but of course more than a year had passed since he had been ‘translated’ to Talia and then there had been that time lurch when Falco had died in Remora. Sky must be in the Lower Sixth now, he calculated, with Georgia.
    â€˜I saw him through Brother Sulien’s mirror,’ said Rodolfo. ‘This time it is a young man and he is a Moor, like Sulien. I am very glad that Sulien has brought us another Stravagante. There is trouble brewing in the city.’
    â€˜Aye,’ said Dethridge. ‘Where the chymists have their home there will alwayes bee daungere. In especial where the Duke ys to bee founde.’
    â€˜We had a message from him today,’ said Rodolfo carefully, not looking at Luciano. ‘He wants to send Arianna a dress to wear at the weddings.’
    Luciano felt uneasy. ‘Is that usual?’ he asked.
    â€˜He has sent gifts before,’ said Rodolfo. ‘It is common between Heads of State. But he intends her to wear this garment and it is a much more personal gift than ever before.’
    â€˜Well, what does that mean?’ asked Luciano.
    â€˜Yt meyneth somethinge ill, yow canne be certayne,’ said Dethridge.
    Luciano was used to the Elizabethan’s antiquated way of talking by now and agreed with him that anything Duke Niccolò was planning would be bad news.

    Alice was waiting for them in the cafeteria and seemed surprised that the chance meeting of the day before had already led to fencing lessons for Sky and a friendship among the three. But she didn’t mind. It gave her the chance to get to know Sky better.
    â€˜Does Alice know about you two?’ Sky asked Nicholas quietly as they walked back to lessons.
    â€˜What do you think?’ said Nicholas. ‘Would you ever have told anyone about Talia, if you hadn’t known I came from there?’
    â€˜It must make it hard, though,’ said Sky. ‘Doesn’t she wonder about your friendship?’
    â€˜Georgia told her she felt responsible for me,’ said Nicholas, his face suddenly creased with pain. ‘And Alice believes her, because Georgia was supposed to have found me in this world and taken me to Luciano’s parents – Lucien, as you knew him.’
    Sky saw how it was with the younger boy and felt sorry for him. Nicholas was obviously devoted to Georgia but feared she would never feel more than concerned friendship for him.
    Quickly he changed the subject. There wasn’t long before afternoon school and their lessons were in different buildings.
    â€˜Did you know Brother Sulien in your old life?’ he asked. ‘Do you think he could possibly be involved in making poisons?’
    To his surprise, Nicholas continued to look agonised. He shook his head.
    â€˜No, I didn’t know him then. There was a different friar in charge of the pharmacy when I last was there. But I know that Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines does supply poison. There is a second, secret laboratory somewhere in the friary. My family has got poison from there in the past.’

    Duke Niccolò took Carlo into his confidence first. They had finished their weekly business meeting and were eating a private lunch together in the small dining chamber of the old palazzo, with only one servant.
    â€˜The weddings are less than two months away now,’ said the