Read City of Flowers for Free Online

than asking. He loved explaining his city to someone so ignorant, especially someone older than him.
    â€˜This is one of the grandest streets in Giglia,’ he said at the end of their wanderings, taking Sky up the Via Larga some hours later. ‘The Duke has his palace just up here and my master lodges not far away.’
    â€˜What do you do?’ asked Sky, amazed that someone so young could have a job; perhaps he was an apprentice of some kind? Or perhaps boys in this time – he still had no idea when it was and only the haziest idea about where – went to work much younger? He had assumed that Sandro was only about fourteen.
    But Sandro just tapped the side of his nose mysteriously and said, ‘What you don’t know can’t hurt you. Maybe I’ll tell you one day when we know each other better.’
    He insisted on treating Sky like a big simpleton, more naïve than himself. Sky felt his mouth curving in a smile; it was how he imagined having a little brother might be.
    â€˜Here it is,’ said Sandro proudly. ‘The Palazzo di Chimici. Where Duke Niccolò lives when he is in Giglia.’
    Sky saw a magnificent building, much bigger than the others around it, taking up an entire block of the street. A grand pair of iron gates inside an arch allowed the two boys to look into the huge courtyard beyond. A fountain played in the middle of geometrically arranged flower beds, separated by what looked like patterned marble slabs.
    â€˜Hey there, young Sparrow,’ said a voice from behind them, and an absurdly overdressed little man attempted to put his arms across both their shoulders. It was easy enough to manage with Sandro but Sky was a head taller than him and the man had to stretch to reach.
    He was wearing a blue velvet suit with a lace collar and a hat with a curling feather, and Sky couldn’t help noticing a powerful smell of stale sweat.
    *
    Prince Gaetano entered the gate to the Lesser Cloister of Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines; he had always liked this Dominican friary. It was here that his family’s great fortune had begun, when they backed the researches into distilling perfume from flowers and gained their surname of di Chimici, meaning Chemists. But he hadn’t been here recently, not since the arrival of Brother Sulien as Pharmacist and Senior Friar.
    Gaetano recognised Sulien from Luciano’s description. He was supervising the delivery of cartloads of hothouse irises at the back door of the Great Cloister. But he stopped and came over as soon as he saw the young prince.
    â€˜Welcome, your Highness,’ he said. ‘I have been expecting you.’
    *
    The guard at the gates of the di Chimici palace knew the Eel well and let him in with his two companions, even though a scruffy boy and a young novice were hardly likely visitors for the Duke. But the Eel was not on his way to see the Duke – not yet. He wanted to show off in front of his young apprentice and his new friend.
    â€˜Come along, Sparrow,’ he said, leading the two boys into another, larger courtyard, where a bronze statue of a naked Mercury with a sword stood guard over some very elaborate flower beds. ‘Who is your friend?’
    â€˜Brother Tino,’ said Sandro. ‘He’s new. He lives up at Saint-Mary-among-the-Vines.
    â€˜Really?’ said the Eel, with an unctuous grin. He was genuinely interested. That Dominican friary was one of the few places where he didn’t have a spy planted and he wondered if this rather simple-seeming novice might be useful as a source of information. ‘Let me introduce myself,’ he said, extending a none too clean hand from his blue velvet sleeve. ‘Enrico Poggi, confidential agent of Duke Niccolò di Chimici, ruler of the city of Giglia, at your service!’
    Sky accepted the handshake but felt wary; this employer of Sandro’s didn’t seem like the sort of person a duke would have much to do with and Sky