Georgio's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Volpi smiled wide when Georgio nodded yes. The stranger seemed almost boyish in his delight, shifting his weight on the path beside the chapel. A nearby street lamp had just been lit, its three flames glowing soft above them. Georgio's eyes dropped, and that was when he saw the boots. They were tall, polished leather, stitched with fine scrollwork along the shaft. No commoner owned boots like that. No traveler from another city wore gold thread at the seam. Georgio felt the lie sit between them like a third person. He opened his mouth, then closed it. Whatever this man wanted, Georgio wanted to know more than he wanted to be right. "Where to?" Georgio asked. His voice came out steadier than he felt. Volpi tilted his head, thinking, then grinned. "Which inn has the best mead?" Georgio almost laughed. A duke's boots and a drunkard's question. He pointed down the lane toward the warm windows of the hearth inn he knew well. They walked together under the lamp's triple glow. Georgio kept the secret of the boots tucked behind his teeth. He had agreed to guide a stranger, and instead he was guiding a man wearing a mask. The wall between his two worlds had cracked in the chapter before. Tonight, walking beside Volpi, he chose to step through it.