'Oh, he's intelligent.' Miliana looked over at the bird, which was in danger of getting his head caught inside a flower vase. 'Well-sentient, anyway. He does have a language.'
'Truly?' Lorenzo inspected the patterns on the bird's tail feathers with his magnifying glass. 'How can you tell?'
'You just have to watch him for a while. One picks it up eventually.'
The bird stood on one foot, using his other claw to hold a big round cheese; he seemed to be consuming the hard rind and letting the soft center fall in pieces to the carpet. Miliana sighed and wondered how she was ever going to make the room seem clean. A maid would run wailing straight to Ulia; the only thing for it was to sweep up the filth herself, then see about patching the ceiling. Miliana stood to survey the damage, fists on her hips and her pointy hat tilted far back from her brows, while behind her Lorenzo and Tekoriikii deepened their acquaintance.
Using his magnifying glass, Lorenzo inspected Tekoriikii's talons, feet, and eyes; he flipped though pages of his book, thoughtfully holding drawings up against the light, then solemnly shaking his head in disappointment.
With her sleeves rolled up and a broom in hand, Miliana came to peer across the young noble's shoulder and scan his current page.
'Well, have you discovered what he is?'
'Absolutely!' Lorenzo closed his guidebook with a great, satisfied bang. 'Master Tekoriikii is a phoenix.'
The announcement was met by an unconvinced adjustment of Miliana's spectacles. Lorenzo decided that his professional judgment was being belittled, and opened up the pages of his book by way of proof.
'Here-see? Phoenix Nobilus Conflagrata-the sacred, or fiery, phoenix.'
Miliana looked down at the picture in Lorenzo's book. It detailed a lean, elegant creature with willowy proportions and a haughty air sitting on a nest of crackling flames. The girl pushed her spectacles down her nose, peered across the rims toward the happy-go-lucky Tekoriikii, then swiveled hazel eyes back to Lorenzo's hopeful face.
'I think not.'
'But milady, it's the same color. Look, do you see? Orange pinions and highlights of flame red hue.'
'He is not a phoenix!' Miliana prevented the bird from swallowing a ball of potpourri. 'Phoenixes are big on spontaneous combustion and very big on brains.'
'Why does that rule out this specimen?'
Tekoriikii went avidly on about his affairs; Miliana irritably shifted the potpourri out of reach again. 'Just call it woman's intuition. I think we can rule out the phoenix thing.'
Lorenzo paused, sucking on the wrong end of his pen.
'We could always set fire to him and see.'
'Not with my giant bird you don't!' Miliana threw protective arms around Tekoriikii's neck, and the bird blinked in surprise. 'Now just search the book. Doesn't it say anything?'
Lorenzo sat cross-legged in the plaster dust and flipped through the pages of his references. Miliana swept the floor all around him; the bird soon came to her assistance and began carrying broken boards and plaster in his beak-usually depositing his loads on the patches of floor Miliana had just finished sweeping. Unseeing and uncaring, Lorenzo kept on with his studies, calling out possibilities through the legs of the fruit cart.
'Peacock?'
'A peacock?' Miliana's voice pealed loud in shock. 'He's two yards long! Twelve if you count the tail.'
'Maybe he's a giant peacock. Anyway, his tail's nowhere near ten yards. Maybe as many feet, but…'
Tekoriikii couldn't help a glance at his backside, then something like a shrug.
'Maybe.' Miliana began dragging her bathtub over to her balcony. 'Keep looking.'
Lorenzo flipped a page, oblivious to the girl's surprising display of strength.
'Here's an axe beak. A sort of flightless carnivore. Would you say he's flightless?'
Tekoriikii obligingly extended a short, feathery wing. Lorenzo sighed and went back to his books.
'It would help if we knew where he came from. He can't possibly be native to the Blade Kingdoms. I still feel the red coloring indicates an affinity for fire.' A drawing slipped from Lorenzo's volume, a detailed drawing of a falcon's wing. 'Ask him if he came from an area of pronounced volcanic activity-like the Smoking Mountains of Unther or the Lake of Steam.'
Miliana cocked an eyebrow at the bird, who threw back his head and began to play out a little dance.
'Tekorii-kii-kii! Tekorii-kii-kii!'
The creature danced a little to the left, danced a little to the right; shook his tail high while bobbing his head down low. Finally he extended one great yellow talon and made a ghastly noise reminiscent of a wet leather trombone.
Miliana turned back to Lorenzo with a sigh.
'He says he doesn't know.'
Every other princess in the world managed to win themselves a magical talking horse or a pegasus or even a blink dog as their companion. Instead, Miliana seemed to have just acquired a giant, crazed, orange bird-of- paradise.
Lorenzo closed his books with a helpless shrug. The two young humans sat side by side on Miliana's bed and watched the bird preening the feathers under his wing.
'Will you make him a cage?'
'Certainly not!' Miliana was utterly outraged. 'What a wretched suggestion. He's not doing anyone any harm up in the attic.'
Lorenzo watched the busy bird with a blossoming sense of awe.
'I'd like to study him some more. Still-maybe we ought to make him feel more at home.'
'How?'
'Maybe we could make an enormous seed bell?'
The bird had taken an interest in Miliana's picture books. He stood with his head cranked over to one side staring at a painted fairy tale. Handsome as a cast bronze god, the bird settled itself down and began to happily turn page after page.
Miliana regarded the creature with loving fascination; the expression lit her from within like a pure, new summer's dawn.
'This isn't so bad. I mean, how much trouble can a big orange bird be?' Her face suddenly innocent and eager, Miliana turned bright eyes upon Lorenzo and trapped him in her gaze. 'Hey! Have you ever heard any prophecies about birds and princesses?'
'No.' Lorenzo swayed, trapped by Miliana's brilliant gaze. 'No, I can't say that I have. Why?'
'It was just a thought.'
Evening was falling. In the palace courtyard, Lady Ulia's voice could be heard as she harassed decorators, servants, cooks and guards. The starlings swirled high above Miliana's balcony heading for their noisy beds.
Lost in peace and quiet, maiden, boy and orange bird all sat to watch the sky stream with tints of rose.
Lorenzo turned to watch the young woman at his side; her whole being seemed to shimmer as she smiled.
'Milady? How are you going to explain the broken ceiling?'
'I'm working on it.' Miliana propped her chin on her knees and watched the glorious bright bird. 'Let's just take one thing at a time…'
Skies darkened, starlings whirled, while in Miliana's room, Tekoriikii the firebird posed for Lorenzo's sketching charcoal with every appearance of joy.
Smeared with dust and cobwebs, Orlando Toporello thundered in through the Mannicci stables and slung his cloak across a stall. Mice squeaked and skittered from his path as he chased grooms out from hiding and bid them attend to his mount. Prince Mannicci watched all from his perch atop his own great golden horse, then swung himself down to greet his friend man-to-man.
'No sign, Toporello?'
'No sign, my lord!' Old Toporello slashed at a night-spider's web with his riding crop. 'Another necklace stolen last night, right from under the eyes of the patrol. I have men combing every street, and there's not even a footprint to this cat-burglar's name.'
'The festival will calm him.' Prince Mannicci fell in step beside his oldest friend. 'The parties will fill the
