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could no longer see herself or her family in the same light as before. Carlo had probably killed young Davide before the weddings and she was sure her father had committed or at least ordered murders. Hadn’t he wanted to kill all the remaining Nucci and let Filippo die of his wounds? Those terrible scenes of six months before had taught Beatrice how fragile and vulnerable human flesh was; nothing was worth the deaths and wounds she had seen – not even the honour of the di Chimici. These ideas stayed with the Princess, haunting her dreams, and the magnificent new palace did nothing to dispel them.

    Matt’s day at school seemed as if it would never end. He was tired and confused and more impatient with his reading problems than he had been for years. He just wanted to leave them all behind him and move forward the way he had in his dream. He was distant with Ayesha at break and saw that he had hurt her. But it was as if he was moving in a bubble, like a hamster in a plastic ball, and couldn’t reach out to her.
    He looked curiously at the students Constantin had told him were Stravaganti – Sky, with the locks, Nick, the fencer, and Georgia, the girl with the stripey hair. The professor hadn’t said anything about Alice, Sky’s blonde girlfriend but she was probably one too. Matt caught himself thinking that what he had dreamed was real but that was ridiculous. Yet the four students were regarding him just as curiously.
    At the end of school, he found them waiting for him at the gate.
    â€˜You OK, Matt?’ asked Nick.
    â€˜You look tired,’ said Georgia.
    â€˜Bad night?’ added Sky.
    â€˜Whoa,’ said Matt. ‘What is this? The Sleep Police?’ But he had the strangest feeling they knew exactly what had happened last night.
    â€˜Really,’ said Georgia. ‘Did you have . . . a sort of weird dream?’
    They were all looking at him intently, even Alice. At that moment, Ayesha came out. Normally he would have walked her home but she hesitated when she saw him talking to a group of people she didn’t know.
    In that instant, Nick asked eagerly, ‘Did you go to Talia?’ and Matt knew he had to talk to them some more. He turned away from Ayesha and saw out of the corner of his eye that she was leaving, her head ducked down as if she was upset.
    â€˜Let’s go and get a coffee,’ he said.
    They moved off towards Café@anytime, the only independent coffee shop in their bit of Islington. It was a popular hang-out with Barnsbury students. Ordering their drinks and finding a table big enough for five covered up what might have been an embarrassing silence. But once they were all served they couldn’t avoid the subject that had brought them together.
    â€˜How did you know I dreamed about Talia?’ demanded Matt suddenly.
    â€˜Because it wasn’t a dream,’ said Nick. ‘You didn’t dream it – you really went there.’
    â€˜But how did you . . . ?’ Matt stopped, seeing four pairs of eyes looking at him with identical anticipation. ‘You’ve been there, haven’t you, all of you?’
    They all nodded but quiet Alice said, ‘Only once. I went to prove to myself that was what the others were doing. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it.’
    â€˜That book you bought from Mortimer is your talisman, isn’t it?’ asked Georgia. ‘He told us after you’d gone that it came from the same place as mine.’
    â€˜Talia?’ asked Matt.
    â€˜Originally, yes, but Mortimer doesn’t know that. He thinks it came from an old woman’s house near the school.’
    â€˜The one I live in now,’ said Sky.
    â€˜Where did you go? What city?’ asked Nick.
    â€˜Pad . . . something,’ said Matt.
    â€˜Padavia,’ said Georgia. ‘That’s where Luciano was going to university. Did you see him?’
    Nick was looking at her