City of Flowers Read Online Free PDF Page B

accompany the Duchessa to the weddings. You will meet him. And find he is very much alive, in Talia.’
    Sky sat down on a low wall. He remembered Lucien – a slim boy with black curls, two years above him at school. He vaguely remembered that Lucien was good at swimming and was also musical, but that was about it. He hadn’t known him well, and when the head teacher had told the whole school in assembly one morning that Lucien had died, Sky had felt only that shock that everyone feels when death comes to someone young and familiar.
    But now he was being asked to believe that this person was not dead at all but living in another world, somewhere in the past, and that he, Sky, was going to meet him. It was too far-fetched for words.
    Looking around him, he noticed that he and Sulien were not the only black inhabitants of Giglia. There were not many others but there were some, which struck him as odd, if this was a sort of Italy, goodness knows how long ago. Although Sky was taking history AS, he realised that he had only the vaguest of ideas about life in Renaissance Italy. And then had to remind himself that this wasn’t Italy at all. But he was glad not to attract any strange looks, except from a rather scruffy boy lounging apparently aimlessly round the food stalls.
    The boy caught his eye and made his way towards Sky and Sulien.
    â€˜Hello, Brothers,’ he said.
    Sky knew it was because of his robes that the boy called him that, but it made him jump all the same.
    â€˜Sandro,’ said the boy, nodding at Sulien and sticking out his hand towards Sky.
    â€˜Celestino,’ said Sky, remembering his new name.
    â€˜Brother Celestino,’ said Sandro, with a sideways glance at Sulien. ’You’re new here, aren’t you?’

Chapter 3
    Brothers
    Sulien knew the Eel’s boy and he hesitated about letting his new visitor spend time with him. But the friar couldn’t continue to neglect his work at the Farmacia and it was essential for Sky to learn his way about the city.
    â€˜Brother Celestino is newly arrived from Anglia,’ he told the younger boy. ‘He is a stranger to Giglia – indeed he has never been to Talia before. Perhaps you would like to show him around?’ He pulled Sky to one side and whispered, ‘I have to get back. Let Sandro teach you about the city – no one knows it better than him, but tell him nothing of what I have said to you, particularly about the Stravaganti – he works for the di Chimici. And keep out of the full sun – you can always say it’s too hot for you after chilly Anglia. When you want to leave, get him to direct you back to Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines. You must go back home without fail before sunset. The talisman will take you if you hold it while falling asleep anywhere in the city, but it’s best to come and go from my cell.’
    â€˜Come and go?’ whispered Sky. ‘So I am coming back again?’
    â€˜Certainly,’ said Sulien quietly. ‘That’s what Stravaganti do – travel between worlds and do what is required of them in both.’
    Sky had the strangest feeling that this friar was not so mad after all and that he knew all about his life in the other world. Brother Sulien slipped off round the side of the cathedral, waving to the two boys, and Sandro, who had been cleaning his nails with an alarming-looking dagger, gave Sky a big grin.
    â€˜Ready, Brother?’ he asked. ‘There’s plenty to see.’
    And so Sky found himself being shown round Giglia by Sandro. The boy had asked no questions, except for Sky’s name and if he was attached to Sulien’s friary. And those Sky could just about manage to answer, though it was odd to think of himself as Celestino – or Brother Tino, as Sandro began to call him, a novice from Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines. It was like taking a part in a play or a role-playing game.
    Sandro was much more interested in telling