City of Flowers (23 page)

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.'