City of Flowers Read Online Free PDF Page A

evidently noblemen, since everyone got out of their way and they paid no attention to their route but chatted to one another oblivious of the people scattering before their horses’ hoofs. Sky saw they both wore long shining swords dangling from their belts and remembered what Sulien had said about danger.
    A short walk brought them to a halt in front of what was the biggest building Sky had ever seen. It was familiar to him though, from art lessons at school.
    â€˜This is Florence, isn’t it?’ he said, pleased to have recognised where he was.
    â€˜I believe you do call it something like that, but for us it is Giglia,’ corrected Sulien patiently. ‘The City of Flowers, we call her, because of the meadows around that bring her such wealth. Her and the di Chimici,’ he added, lowering his voice. Then, more naturally, he continued, ‘It could as easily be called the City of Wool, since almost as much of her wealth comes from sheep, but that’s much less pretty, don’t you think?’
    This is like Alice in Wonderland , thought Sky. There seems to be logic in it but it doesn’t quite hang together.
    â€˜And this is the best flower of all,’ said Sulien, gazing up at the bulk of the cathedral. ‘Even if my heart lies among the vines, I must admire Santa Maria del Giglio – Saint-Mary-of-the-Lily.’
    The walls of the cathedral were clad in white marble, with strips of green and pink marble in geometric patterns; Sky thought it looked like Neapolitan ice cream but sensed it would be unwise to say so. Though he noticed that the front was unfinished, just rough stone. A slender bell-tower in the same colours rose beside it, and the whole was dominated by a vast terracotta dome, encircled by smaller ones.
    â€˜In this cathedral in eight weeks’ time,’ Sulien continued, ‘three di Chimici princes and a duke will marry their cousins. Now let me show you something else.’
    He walked Sky round to a little piazza where people were playing bowls. ‘In that square,’ said Sulien, ‘twenty-five years ago, a member of the di Chimici clan stabbed to death a young noble of the Nucci family.’
    â€˜Why?’ asked Sky.
    â€˜Because of an insult to the di Chimici over a marriage arranged between the two families. Donato Nucci was to marry Princess Eleanora di Chimici – a fine match for him, but he was twenty and she was thirty-one. And perhaps not one of the most beautiful of her kin, though intelligent, pious and accomplished. On the day of the wedding young Donato sent a messenger to say he was indisposed. Indisposed to marry Eleanora, as it turned out, for he was also in negotiations with another family and another, younger, bride.’
    â€˜Poor Eleanora,’ said Sky.
    â€˜And poor Donato,’ said Sulien grimly. ‘He had the gall to show himself at a game of bowls the next evening and Eleanora’s younger brother, Jacopo, stabbed him in the heart.’
    â€˜What happened to Jacopo?’
    â€˜He left the city. He had only come to Giglia for the wedding; his family lived in Fortezza, another great city of Tuschia, where his father Falco was Prince. The next year old Prince Falco died and Jacopo inherited the title. Some say the old Prince was poisoned by the Nucci, but he was a good age.’
    â€˜And what happened to Eleanora – and Donato’s other girl?’
    â€˜No one knows what happened to the other girl. Eleanora di Chimici took the veil and so did her younger sister. Jacopo himself married – and had two daughters, one of whom is going to marry Prince Carlo di Chimici here in a few weeks. The other will marry her cousin Alfonso di Chimici, Duke of Volana.’
    Sky was beginning to see, among this muddle of names and titles, a pattern emerging.
    â€˜Is this Jacopo still alive?’ he asked.
    Sulien nodded. ‘He will give his daughter away to the second son of this city’s