Free City of Flowers by Mary Hoffman

mean and why had he been chosen? Only more visits to Giglia would tell.
    Georgia was in a whirl of emotions. She hadn’t been back to Talia since the previous September, nearly six months ago, when she and Nicholas had made a dramatic stravagation to Remora together and he, as Falco, had ridden the flying horse around and above the Campo. She hadn’t seen Luciano on that occasion, hadn’t seen him for over a year and a half in fact, because Falco’s death in his old life and his new identity as Nicholas had caused the gateway between the two worlds to destabilise, so that more than a year had passed for her but not for her friends in Talia.
    And she and Nicholas could travel only to Remora, while Sky had been chosen to stravagate to Giglia, Nicholas’s home town. But if Luciano was coming to that great city, then that was the only place she wanted to be. She shook her head. This was madness. She had taught herself to do without Luciano after they had said goodbye in the Campo of Remora so long ago. He lived in a world she couldn’t inhabit, only visit, and then in the wrong city. And he did not love her, except as a friend. His heart was given to the young Duchessa of Bellezza, beautiful, clever and brave, who was going to Giglia in spite of all the dangers that awaited her there.
    Nicholas, too, was deeply unsettled. Like Georgia, he had learned to give up what he loved – his family, his city, all his old life. And he had adapted well. His physical health was the great prize he had surrendered everything else for and the sacrifice had been worth it. He had a comfortable home with Luciano’s parents, lots of friends, and Georgia.
    He was completely in thrall to her. Not just because of her bravery and daring, although that had been the initial attraction. It was her otherness, her coming from the magical world of the twenty-first century, which had not diminished now that he knew other people from the same time. And she had rescued him, had brought him here to the world and time that had cured him, so that he could ride and fence and, best of all, walk again without help. She had given him back his life and he would always adore her for it.
    But it didn’t alter the fact that she was nearly seventeen and he fifteen and such relationships were frowned on in their school, although there would have been no objections in Talia to his being engaged to a woman much older than Georgia. All he could do was settle for a close friendship and hope that things would change in time. He was ashamed at feeling secretly glad that Luciano was safely trapped in the other world of centuries ago.
    And now everything had changed; Talia had thrust itself back into the foreground the minute he had heard his old name. Just thinking that Sky might see his brother again in Giglia that night made this new world of school and cafeteria and gym seem thin and insubstantial.
    â€˜Goodness, you’re all quiet!’ said Rosalind when she got back in. ‘I thought there was no one here.’
    â€˜Sorry, Mrs Meadows,’ said Georgia, snapping out of her thoughts. ‘We’ve been . . . talking about the fencing championships.’
    â€˜Call me Rosalind, please. I didn’t know you were interested in fencing, Sky.’
    â€˜I am,’ he said quickly. ‘Nicholas here is the captain of our team. I wondered if I could learn.’
    Nicholas played along straightaway. It was instinctive the way they all wanted to protect both Sky’s mother and themselves. Their strange bond was as vulnerable as a newborn infant and they jumped at a chance to defend it and prolong its life.
    â€˜I think Sky could be good,’ he said now. ‘We’ve been arranging for me to give him some lessons.’
    And if Rosalind wondered why that made them all so solemn, she said nothing.

    Sulien was expecting Sky when he arrived in Giglia the next morning. It was early, because the boy had gone to bed