'I'm only going to Yesh's,' said Matt. 'I haven't told her I've pa.s.sed yet.'

He climbed in and put on the seat belt. The car started first time and he pulled out like a star pupil. His parents and brother waved him off and he waved back at them in the rear-view mirror.

'Both hands on the wheel!' shouted Jan.

'Yeah, yeah,' muttered Matt. He felt great.

He had hardly thought about Talia for the last few weeks and hadn't been there for over a month but he suddenly thought of Luciano stranded there for ever. He would never drive round to see his girlfriend and take her out for a pizza, even though he did live in a sort of Italy.

Poor sod, thought Matt. And at that moment he wouldn't have changed places with anyone in the world.

Ludo took a longer break from flute-playing and slaked his thirst with a tankard of Bellezzan ale. Doctor Dethridge came to join him and they sat drinking companionably on the terrace, watching the dancers whirling round inside the ballroom.

'The Lovers,' said Ludo, smiling, nodding at Luciano spinning Arianna around.

'Aye,' said Dethridge. 'The Prince of Fishes that is to bee. Skilled in debate. And his Princesse courageous and headstrong. They make a fine paire.'

'You saw that in your reading the night that Luciano had dinner with Prince Filippo?' asked Ludo.

Dethridge drank deep. 'There were two wayes to divine the meaninge of that arraye,' he said. 'The Boke with the Scales and the Dethe carde so close to the Magician and the Salamandires mayde me fear its meaning was dethe by burning as the penaltie justice would deal out for the use of magycke or the printinge of the secret bokes.'

'So that could have been me or Matteo or even Luciano if the Governor had found out he was a Stravagante,' said Ludo.

'Aye, yt coulde have bene ony of us,' said Dethridge. 'Myself, or Professire Constantine or even Maistre Rudolphe.'

'But in the end it was me,' said the Manoush. 'Me and my people, just for following our religion.' He shuddered in the cold night air, remembering how close he had come to losing his life in the flames of the Padavian bonfires.

'Bot there was anothire way to rede it whenne the tyme came,' said the Doctor. 'The Dethe carde was a skeleton and I beganne to thynke it was the Anatomie that was meant and thatte whenne yonge Lucian escaped the knife he wolde overcome the verdicte of the courts with his fine powers of argument.'

'You weren't sure though?' asked Ludo.

'Nay, bot there was anothire carde next to the Boke remembire?' said Dethridge, his eyes twinkling. 'Yt was the Moone and yt reminded me thatte I had bene explaining to the studentes how to reckon the tyme of an eclipse. Some werke with my chartes and tables and I knew the moon would hide hirself thatte nyghte.'

'Thank G.o.ddess for your learning, master,' said Ludo, standing up and making the Elizabethan a deep bow.

Doctor Dethridge raised him up and clapped him on the shoulder.

'Backe to the danse,' he said. 'Yt is notte a nyghte for darke thoghtes.'

Ludo followed him back into the ballroom but it took several dances for him to shake off his sombre mood.

A week after Christmas, on New Year's Day a state visitor came to Bellezza. Messer Antonio, the Governor of Padavia, wanted to see the d.u.c.h.essa and her parents. He was one of the few people who knew that Silvia, the previous d.u.c.h.essa had not died in the Gla.s.s Room two and half years before but was living privately as the wife of the Regent.

'Antonio,' said Silvia, when he was shown in. 'It is a pleasure to see you.'

Her daughter, the d.u.c.h.essa, was altogether frostier and more formal. The last time she had seen this man he was standing on a wooden platform reading the names of thirty prisoners condemned to a horrible death.

That was what he had come about.

'The Cavaliere's speech before the burning made a deep impression on me,' he said, looking at Luciano, who was standing by the d.u.c.h.essa's chair. 'I have decided to follow your recent example here, Your Grace, and remove Death by Burning from the statute as a means of applying the most extreme penalty. There will be no more public fires in Padavia.'

'I am glad to hear it,' said Arianna. Her silver mask glittered with diamonds.

'And I . . . Well, I have held a special Senate and we have agreed to remove the recent anti-magic laws from the statute book,' he continued.

'And no doubt your wife is pleased about that,' said Arianna, more kindly.

'I think I saw one of the condemned Manoush in the courtyard,' said Messer Antonio. 'The tall red-haired one with the flute.'

'They are frequent visitors at my court,' said Arianna. 'And the music of the Manoush is always welcome here.'

'And will be again in Padavia,' said Antonio. 'I admit I was wrong.'

'What made you change your mind?' asked Rodolfo.

'What happened that night,' said Antonio. 'I knew I was wrong when the Cavaliere spoke and the Cardinal ordered the fires set.'

'But you gave the signal,' said Arianna. 'You can't blame the Cardinal.'

'I was stubborn and stupid,' said Antonio. 'But what happened next is what really changed my mind. I don't like magic but I had to admit that it took a miracle to save my city from the fire that night. And it was not my church and the Cardinal's that delivered it. What people witnessed in Padavia was beyond laws and decrees beyond the natural order but without it I would be governor of a heap of ashes.'

He looked at Luciano and Rodolfo. 'I want to offer both the Regent and the Cavaliere the freedom of the city of Padavia,' he said, drawing out from his bag two large silver ceremonial keys. 'And if you can tell me the whereabouts of the others who helped you to douse the flames on that night I would extend the same privilege to them.'

'Well,' said Luciano, looking at Rodolfo. 'One lives in your city himself. He is no other than my teacher, Professor Constantin. He comes from outside Talia but now lives as a citizen of Padavia.'

'I have been told as much,' said Antonio. 'I will visit him on my return and see what further honours he will accept.'

'I think,' said Luciano, 'that he would settle for having a proper team of fire-watchers in the city.'

'And another of our number is the Cavaliere's foster-father,' said Rodolfo. 'Dottore Crinamorte, although a citizen of Bellezza, also came to lecture at your university.'

'Ah, yes, the famous Astronomer,' said Antonio. 'I should be glad to meet him. But my informants tell me there was a fifth who wrought the miracle on that night, a young man who worked as Constantin's apprentice. Yet he has not been seen in the Scriptorium since. There is a rumour among the pressmen that he perished on the night of the fire.'

'That is what Constantin allowed them to think,' said Luciano. 'Once his role in Padavia was over. But Matteo is alive. He lives in another place.'

'And he is coming here tonight!' said Arianna. 'He and Constantin. I am sending the ducal carriage to bring them to the ferry. We are having a special party here in the palace. I hope you will join us?'

In Giglia the bells were ringing for more than the New Year. In the early hours of the morning, a little ahead of her time, the Grand d.u.c.h.essa had given birth to an heir Prince Falco Niccol Carlo di Chimici.

Fabrizio thought his heart would burst with joy and pride as the tiny swaddled prince was put into his arms. 'You will be my heir,' he whispered into the flushed ear of the baby Grand Duke Falco the First of Tuschia.'

'That's an awfully big t.i.tle for such a little boy,' said Caterina fondly from where she lay propped up on a heap of pillows in their four-poster bed.

'You have made me so happy,' said Fabrizio to his young wife.

'I'm glad,' said Caterina. 'And so glad I could give you the son you wanted.'

'Did you suffer terribly my darling? It seemed to take an awfully long time.'

'Not too much, Rizio,' lied the Grand d.u.c.h.essa. 'It is always supposed to be hard with the first one. Our next will be easier.'

'You are already thinking of the next?' asked Fabrizio.

'Well,' said Caterina, blushing. 'As soon as I am well enough to have you back in my bed. I hope we shall have lots of children.'

Fabrizio lay the little prince back in his absurdly elaborate cradle and took his wife very gently in his arms.

'I should like to watch over you both tonight,' he said. 'I can sleep in the chair. And when you really are well again, we shall indeed make more babies. We shall fill all of Talia with our children. And one day there will be one ruling in Bellezza and another in Padavia and the other independent cities too.'

'We must leave somewhere for Gaetano and Francesca's children too,' said Caterina, stroking her handsome young husband's hair.

'Perhaps,' said Fabrizio. 'Now, if you will excuse me for a short time. I must send messengers out all over Talia with the good news.'

Matt and Constantin were on their way to Bellezza as Antonio was having his audience with the d.u.c.h.essa.

It hadn't been difficult for Matt to stay after dark. It was easy enough to provide a cover story at home for why he was not going to be there in the morning. His body would lie in Ayesha's room where he had left it, safe till he got back with his talisman.

This was his first visit to Bellezza but it was quite a short distance from Padavia, which he now thought of as 'his' city. It would be good to see Cesare and Ludo again, who were bound to be there for Luciano and Arianna's betrothal feast.

Betrothal! They were only a year older than him and Ayesha but Matt couldn't imagine getting engaged, at least not for ages yet.

'Talia makes you grow up quicker,' Luciano had told him. 'If you and your girlfriend lived here, you'd be in a hurry to get on with it too.'

Matt tried to imagine it. Living in Padavia all the time. Listening to music played on lutes and recorders, instead of on electric guitars and keyboards. Drinking ale and wine instead of water and lager. Going to inns instead of coffee bars.

And riding in carriages instead of fast cars. On the other hand there was no pollution from cars or even from city lights. He thought he would never forget the sight of the full moon over Padavia on the night of the burnings, just before the total eclipse.

But his time in Talia had taught him something even more important. He now knew that he could do things. OK, the reading and writing were still a problem and he doubted that he'd ever be as fluent in his own world as he was in Talia. But once you have rescued not just one person from a horrible death but thirty, and then gone on to save a whole city, taking a bit of stick about being dyslexic didn't seem like much of a problem.

Something that used to feel like a boulder he had to bear the weight of every day had somehow dwindled to a pebble he could keep in his pocket.

'What are you thinking?' asked Constantin, as they set off across the lagoon to Bellezza.

'That they've got plenty of water to hand if their city ever catches fire,' laughed Matt.

'G.o.ddess forbid they will ever need it,' said Constantin.

'I expect she will forbid it,' said Matt. 'They've got three Stravaganti to defend it after all.'

'And in time perhaps more,' said Constantin. 'It is as well. They will need as many as they can get. Your job might be done here but there will always be a need for more Stravaganti in Talia, as long as there are di Chimici.'

About the Mary Hoffman.

Mary Hoffman has written more than ninety books for children and young adults. She also reviews regularly for the Guardian and other newspapers and journals. She blogs weekly at www.maryhoffman.co.uk, where you can also find her tips on writing.

Mary's pa.s.sion for Italy is well known and she still studies Italian once a week in Oxford. She has three grown-up daughters and lives with her husband and three Burmese cats in a converted barn in the Cotswolds. And yes, she does have an Aga.

www.stravaganza.co.uk.

www.maryhoffman.co.uk.

www.bloomsbury.com.

THE STRAVAGANZA SEQUENCE.

By Mary Hoffman.

Stravaganza: City of Masks.

Stravaganza: City of Stars.

Stravaganza: City of Flowers.

Stravaganza: City of Secrets.

Stravaganza: City of Ships.