sort!'
Ulia swelled with indignation and pointed toward the corridor with one trembling, pale hand.
'Wretch! I see sterner measures must be taken. I have been soft, but I shall be soft no longer!'
Ulia sank down onto a stool, exhausted by the wicked ways of the world.
'Whatever can you young folk be thinking of today? I ask you. I beg you! Our Lomatran suitor is invited here, into my own home, to our very victory ball-and does he appear? Does he make himself known to his sweetheart or his future mother-in-law? No, he does not! He disappears, like a thief in the night.'
Lady Ulia stood, turned her back upon her stepdaughter and went into a magnificent huff. 'I shall discharge my own responsibilities, even though the rest of Toril sees fit to let civilized manners die! To the library with you, my girl! To the library to study heraldry until your eyes can bear no more. You shall be locked inside, nor shall you stir forth until the supper has been laid.
'Now get thee gone!'
Miliana slapped her hands together in satisfaction, picked up her hems and marched gleefully off down the corridors. She ducked out of Ulia's sight, dove into the empty library, and briskly slammed shut the door.
Her tall pointy hat made the perfect speaking trumpet; removing the very tip, she placed it near her magical box of words, directing the tedious monologue toward the corridor. Lady Ulia's suspicions would thus, hopefully, be soothed, leaving Miliana free to clamber like a spider monkey along the upper shelves for many profitable hours.
In pursuing her private studies, Miliana's primary problem seemed to be basic comprehension. Not only did she hardly understand the terms used in her only source books, but she could scarcely comprehend the language in which the books were written. It seemed to be a most unusual, antiquated tongue, and although the symbols used to frame the spells needed no translation, she really did need to get a better grip on the whole wretched thing. A translation of the spellbook's index would be her best next move. Trying to cast newly discovered spells at random was proving more hazardous every day. Miliana's last attempt at sorcery had summoned a great clap of licorice- scented steam, and had created a sort of big green-furry-thing which had promptly leapt out of the window, burrowed a hole into the palace pantry, and eaten all the pickled eels.
While her own voice droned ceaselessly on and on a dozen feet below, Miliana wobbled precariously at the top of a ladder, piling her arms with books. Half an hour of devoted search uncovered treasures of the finest kind: guides to ancient languages, cabalism and folklore brimmed between her arms, along with some dust-covered scrolley things that must have been interesting, otherwise they would not have been so well hidden behind the shelves. Utterly engrossed, smeared with dust and teetering beneath a vast mountain of literature, the girl never anticipated disaster until it struck at her from below.
Rising over the brain-dead drone of Miliana's speaking box, there came a subtle scratching at the door. From time to time a skewer poked in through the lock, followed by curses and more frenzied activity from outside. Finally, the lock sprang open with a decisive click; the door yielded, and a tall young man strode hastily inside.
His progress was blocked by Miliana's ladder. The youth looked up in puzzlement, caught an eyeful of Miliana's frilly pantalettes, and instantly gave a leap of fright.
Inevitably, this crashed his skull against the ladder, which skittered off across the floor. Abandoned twelve feet above the ground, Miliana blinked, hung poised in midair as ancient principles of gravity took hold, and with an almighty squawk tumbled down to the rug. She was saved the worst indignities of a bruised derriere by having the idiot-youth's head break her fall.
Shocked, dazed and stinging, Miliana found herself collapsed upon the ground under an avalanche of fallen books and paperwork. A wild commotion began somewhere under her skirts as a struggling victim desperately called for air.
Rescuing her spectacles, which were dangling ignominiously from one ear, Miliana managed to focus her bewildered senses and draw up her skirts. Struggling up between a shapely pair of legs clad in stockings, bows, and knee-length underwear came a young man in shabby court attire-a man clutching the crushed ruins of charcoal drawing sticks. The youth pulled dark hair back from his eyes, blinked dazedly up at Miliana, and suddenly blushed, bright as a summer's dawn.
'Oh-it's you!'
Rearing up like a scruffy cobra, the young man took Miliana by the hand and vigorously introduced himself.
'Lorenzo! Lorenzo Utrelli Da Lomatra. I'm a scholar-well, an inventor, really. And an artist. You've probably seen my work here and there. I did the portrait piece the embassy brought for Prince Mannicci-'The Sea Goddess Rising From the Waves.' Not that you can have seen it yet; it's still at the embassy. But it's ever so good!'
Crawling painfully out of the rubble of unbound books, Miliana slapped down her skirts and sourly tried to snatch back some of her dignity.
'So, you're Lorenzo.' The name almost seemed to ring a bell. 'Very pleased to meet you, I'm sure.'
'Oh-my pleasure! No really-I mean, I've seen you about the palace. You must work here.' The boy tried to clamber his way up from the floor. 'What do you call yourself?'
'Angry.'
'Angry?' The young man screwed up his face in puzzlement, then suddenly paled as two and two made four. 'Oh-oh angry. Oh, I am so sorry! So-so very…'
The boy made an attempt at dusting off Miliana's posterior, slapping her backside in a manner which made the girl peer down in alarm.
A big, black charcoal handprint now marred her dress-a handprint placed in a manner that would make Lady Ulia scream for the nearest headsman.
The corridor floor trembled; Ulia herself could be heard approaching the library door. Miliana leapt to her feet, slammed shut her 'noise box' and jammed the portal back in place. As she surveyed the mess of fallen books, young man and drawings all about the carpet, a hunted look possessed her face.
Alone in a room with a man-and with his handprints all over her rump! Miliana planted her back against the door and let her breast heave in utter panic.
'Miliaaaa-naaaaaa! Miliana, whatever was that noise?'
Lady Ulia's voice struck fear straight into Lorenzo's soul. The boy dove beneath a table and scuttled about the floor on all fours like a demented rat looking for its hole. Miliana heard footsteps approaching from the corridor and nearly expired from fright.
'The chimney! Take the books and hide inside the chimney!'
'Eeerk!' Lorenzo peered up into the chimney in dismay. 'There's a half-eaten pickled eel in here!'
'Just do it! Quickly!'
Lorenzo burrowed out of sight; Miliana took a calming breath, tried to still her pulse, and briskly opened up the library door. She managed to intercept Lady Ulia with a false, befuddled smile.
'Um… hello…'
'Miliana, I require nothing more of you than diligent-nay, unceasing effort!' Lady Ulia bowled Miliana aside and peered suspiciously about the room. 'What, pray tell, is that lumpen object moving about in the fireplace?'
Young Lorenzo's backside could be seen jammed like an unseemly cork into the bottom of the chimney. With a squawk, the youth suddenly lost purchase and fell down in the cinders, almost immediately drowning beneath a cascade of books and scrolls.
'Oh… oh he's just…' Miliana blinked behind the blank shield of her spectacles, searching for a suitable set of words. 'The cleaner! He's th-the library cleaner. He cleans the books… you know, keeps the pages all clear and sparkling.'
'Sparkling!' Ulia's voice roared, rattling the plaster-work. 'The boy's nothing but a mass of soot!'
Miliana crammed her backside against a wall, hiding the telltale handprint on her rear.
'Charcoal absorbs foul smells, Ulia. 'Tis a well-known fact.'
'Is it? Is it indeed?' Ulia squared her shoulders and narrowed down her eyes. 'Cleaner or no cleaner, his presence serves as a distraction. And I must say that I find it most unsuitable for you to be sharing a room alone with a male commoner.' Ulia pulled a quizzing glass from her cleavage and used it to examine the young man as though he were a particularly noisome species of bug. 'Goodness-why does he smell of eels?'
'I have no idea, milady.'
'Hmmmmph.' Ulia sank her lens back into its cavernous hiding place. 'Well, as long as he's here, have him
