City of Flowers (34 page)

A face looked anxiously through the skylight. Sandro waved with his free hand and then saw the cupboard. It was a triangular wooden one high up in one corner. It had a keyhole and a wooden knob in the door. Sandro launched himself across the room, sank again, resurfaced and grabbed at the knob. It surprised him how little purchase you needed on a fixed point in order to stay afloat. He had the key clutched in his hand. The water came up nearly to the keyhole but he was able to unlock it and wrench the door open.

The shelves inside were full of packets and bottles, Sulien's most precious remedies. ‘Ar-gen-tum pot-a-bil-e,' Sandro spelt out from the label on one bottle; he had no idea what it meant.

‘He's got it,' said Sky outside the fanlight.

Sandro thrust the hand with the bottle in it as far towards the little window as he could. He pushed himself as far away from the cupboard as he could manage without letting go of the door. There was still a gap of about six inches. Sky reached his arm through, cutting it on the broken glass.

Suddenly Sandro thought, It doesn't matter if I drown. What matters is getting Sulien's medicine to the people who need it.

He thrust away from the cupboard. Sky grabbed the bottle as the boy sank.

*

The rain had stopped. The water in the city was no longer rising, though it would be a while before it began to fall. The friars at Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines had taken shelter on the upper floors. Brother Tullio looked out over the drowned cloister, shaking his head. How was he to feed the brothers with all his produce underwater? He just hoped something had been saved at the new farm across the river, which was on slightly higher land.

Tullio blinked. There was a boat in the cloister, rocking dangerously just under a broken window. His first thought was looters, then he saw that although the two young men in it appeared to be nobles of the city, one of them was young Brother Tino.

He watched while they poked an oar through the window and a bedraggled, wretched figure appeared clutching the end of it. It was clearly a rescue mission, not a burglary.

*

Sandro had panicked when he went down and found himself on the floor of Sulien's cell. But the water was not far above his head. He opened his eyes and saw he was just by the wooden chest in which Sulien kept robes. He managed to get one foot up on it and push his head above the water, shaking his hair out of his eyes. And there was the oar. Sky pulled him towards the fanlight, nearly capsizing the rowboat in the attempt. But once Sandro had reached the window frame, he wriggled through and collapsed in a wet and shivering heap on the floor of the boat.

‘Tino! Brother Tino!' shouted a voice from above them. Brother Tullio stood waving from a window on the upper floor. Luciano rowed over until they were underneath it.

‘Where have you come from?' said Tullio.

‘From Brother Sulien,' explained Sky. ‘There has been a terrible fight at the blessing ceremony and there are people badly injured. He sent us for medicines but everything is ruined in the pharmacy and the laboratory. We've only got what Sandro managed to find in his cell.'

Brother Tullio peered down. ‘Is that drowned rat young Sandro?' he asked. ‘What does Sulien want?' he continued. ‘The brothers brought everything up to the top floors that we could salvage.'

It wasn't long before a basket full of medicines was lowered to the boat and the boys were able to make the voyage back. Sky put the precious bottle in the basket with the other remedies and just then realised how lucky they were to have it.

‘You read the label,' he said to Sandro and the street-boy grinned, trying not to let his teeth chatter.

*

It was beginning to get dark, and Georgia was wondering how much longer she dare stay in Giglia. But she didn't think she should leave with Nicholas still unconscious. How was he going to get back to his own world? Sky and Luciano had brought back the medicines, and a delirious Fratello had hurled himself at the filthy wet bundle which was Sandro. Sulien was even now administering his precious ‘Drinking Silver' to the most seriously injured patients. There was very little of it because it was so costly and time-consuming to make; it was a secret process, taking months. He gave five drops each to Fabrizio and Gaetano and then made his way to where Filippo Nucci lay moaning and feverish.

‘I forbid you to give it to that wretch,' said the Grand Duke.

But Sulien took no notice and measured out a dose for Giuditta to administer to the young man. Princess Beatrice herself restrained her father's hand or he might have attacked the friar in his grief.

‘Very well,' he said, struggling to collect himself. ‘Let him live. There will be one more Nucci for me to hang.'

Sulien went next to the Mother Superior's room, where he had hidden Nicholas, and gave him a drop of the valuable liquid. The boy's eyelids fluttered and Sulien breathed a sigh of relief. But he could not rest. Now that his medicines had arrived, he moved among the patients, stitching wounds and giving soporifics to ease pain.

By the time Georgia climbed wearily up to the roof, everyone who needed treatment had received some. But there were a lot of cold, wet and exhausted people for whom there was no food; all the stores had been on the ground floor and only a few bottles of wine were still usable. Merla was waiting for her, her wings drooping. She didn't like the water. Raffaella sat patiently with her, soothing the horse with one of her strange-sounding songs.

The two of them lifted off on Merla as she made her run off the roof, relieved to be heading back out of Giglia and towards dry ground.

*

It took all Sky's powers of persuasion to get Nicholas to leave with him. As soon as he was awake, the boy was determined to stay and see his brothers recover.

‘Look,' said Sky. ‘It's already getting dark outside and we're going to have to leave from here rather than the friary. Who knows if we'll even arrive back in the right place? And what do you think it'll do to Vicky if she finds you unconscious in the morning? Don't you care about your new family at all?'

‘I won't be able to go to sleep anyway,' said Nicholas. ‘Not with Gaetano and Fabrizio like that.'

‘You can't be with them,' said Sky. ‘You'd be recognised by your father or sister. And you can come back tomorrow.'

‘I'll give you both something to help you sleep,' said Sulien. ‘You do have your talismans with you? All you have to do is think of your home in the other world. And I promise you I shall do everything in my power to keep your brothers alive until you return.'

‘What on earth have you done to your arm?' said Rosalind when she went to wake Sky up. She thought he had just overslept but of course he had stravagated back late. Sky was so relieved to find himself in his own bed that it took him a few minutes to register what she meant about his arm. There was a very un-modern looking bandage round it and he could see the flesh round it was swollen.

‘I cut it fencing,' he said, which was the best he could manage.

‘Well, why didn't you say something last night?' demanded his mother. ‘Let me see if it needs stitches. We must get you to the hospital if it does.'

‘It's been stitched, Mum. Don't fuss,' said Sky. He felt awful – deathly tired and his arm was throbbing – but he had to find out what was going on at Nicholas's and somehow get through a day at school.

‘What do you mean?' asked Rosalind. ‘When did you go to the hospital?'

He was saved any more questions by the phone ringing. He sat up groggily, nursing his arm. Remedy came and head-butted him. Sky felt like bursting into tears – delayed shock, he supposed. He was just beginning to realise that he could have been killed in Talia, stabbed like Carlo. He couldn't get the image of the dead prince out of his mind.

‘Well, that's that!' said Rosalind from the doorway. ‘No more fencing for you! That was Vicky Mulholland on the phone. She says that Nick's been injured too and won't tell her how it happened. You're both going to have the day off and we're taking you to the doctor. I want those stitches looked at – Nick told Vicky he'd had some as well.'

She let him have breakfast first though, and he was ravenous. Sky managed to ring Alice on her mobile.

‘How was the wedding?' she asked.

‘Awful,' he whispered. ‘We're all right, but Nick and I were both wounded and his brother Carlo was killed.'

‘Wounded?' gasped Alice. ‘Are you OK? What happened?'

‘I'm OK but Mum's suspicious. Other people were hurt too – I can't say any more now. Mum and Vicky are taking Nick and me to the doctor. Get Georgia to tell you everything and I'll see you after school.'

Silvia looked out of the orphanage window over the dark city. She was no longer worried about Arianna; even Barbara was sleeping peacefully, her wound having been stitched. But it was going to be a long night, with no lights in the city and no warmth in the orphanage and very little food. And then she blinked, unable to believe what her eyes were seeing.

Prince Jacopo was standing in the prow of a large boat, lit with torches and laden with supplies. At the other end stood a tall dark figure holding aloft a glowing red stone.

‘Rodolfo!' said Silvia and ran down to meet him.

The barge was too big to get in through the main door, so the little rowboat found by Georgia was used to ferry people and provisions into the orphanage in stages. Jacopo left his men to unload and demanded to be taken to his daughters. Lucia flung herself into his arms and wept properly for the first time. It shocked Jacopo to see her and Bianca dressed as nuns, reminding him of his sisters. He knew that Lucia's bridegroom was dead but he was relieved to see Alfonso alive and looking after Bianca.

‘Where are the other princesses?' he asked Beatrice.

‘With their husbands,' she answered. ‘Oh, Uncle, we don't know if Fabrizio and Gaetano will last the night.'

‘We have brought food and drink and dry clothes and blankets,' he said. ‘The Regent of Bellezza has been helping. You must all take heart. Things will look better in the morning.'

‘Not for me,' said Lucia. ‘Nothing will ever be better again.'

Rodolfo went from room to room, placing his firestone in hearths and warming whole wards of patients. He found Arianna sleeping fitfully on the floor beside Barbara's bed and covered her with a warm blanket. Her bodyguards were still on duty around the screen. All those who were awake were given food and wine. Sulien was still working, his face looking grey with fatigue in the candlelight. The Grand Duke and his daughters-in-law kept vigil over the unconscious princes.

Rodolfo and Silvia made Sulien sit down and have something to eat. Dethridge, Giuditta and Luciano joined them.

‘You have done all you can tonight,' said Rodolfo.

‘And yet we failed,' said Sulien. ‘Eight Stravaganti and we could not stop the slaughter.'

‘Perhaps it would have been worse without us,' said Giuditta.

‘And you and Doctor Dethridge were marvellous about getting this place turned into a hospital,' said Silvia.

‘Thatte was just physicke,' said Dethridge. ‘Brothire Sulian is righte. Wee sholde have bene able to forestalle the murthers.' He cast his cloak over his head.