'Princess? May we assist you?'
Miliana paused in the guest corridors and gazed at one of her father's house patrols: four soldiers in brilliant particolored finery, and an apprentice mage in a ludicrous velvet toga. Miliana dismissed the men with an abstract wave of her hand; magicians irritated her, filling her with a stab of jealousy for the ease with which a man could study. The girl irritably stomped on her way, hardly deigning to spare the troops another glance.
A light shone from under Lorenzo's door. Miliana knocked on the lintel, frowning as a cherry-scented rat scuttled away behind a tapestry in the hall.
'Lorenzo? Lorenzo, I know you're in there-I can smell burning cherry-rat.' Miliana's head gave a warning jab of pain, and the girl wondered whether the morning's neutralize poison spell had perhaps been a little rushed. 'Lorenzo-aren't you coming to the party? They'll be presenting your painting in ten minutes' time. Come on… there's a display of these smoke powder things you'll probably find fascinating out in the…'
The door wrenched open in a trice. Lorenzo stood there before an astonished Miliana; he was bright eyed, bushy tailed, and brimming with delight. Miliana smiled and laughed, letting him take her hand and lead her into a room filled with easels, paints, and hairy brushes by the score.
Now that he had Miliana in his lair, Lorenzo seemed to stumble. The young man flushed and struggled to overcome an embarrassed silence.
'Are you well? I mean, have you recovered?'
Miliana drew herself straight, covering mortal embarrassment with a veneer of dignity.
'Um… Oh yes yes yes yes yes…' By pretending it had never happened, Miliana prevented herself from suffering over whatever maudlin drivel she had blabbed out to her companions. 'I must thank you for taking such care to see me home, and for… for other things.' Miliana lifted up her new pearl pendant and gazed down at it with fondness shining in her eyes. 'So many other things.'
'Oh, we had no trouble getting you back inside. Tekoriikii flew a line up to your room, and we hoisted you through the tower window.' Lorenzo seemed moderately pleased with the engineering skill involved. 'So you are all right now then? You're sure?'
'Quite sure.'
'Wonderful! Excellent!' Lorenzo clapped his hands with a loud, boisterous bang, making Miliana close her eyes and sway with the aftershock. 'In which case, I have something to show you. It's something special. It's to do with what you said to me last night.'
'Oh?' Miliana felt a worm of ill-ease slither stickily along her spine; she remembered vague impressions of crying her eyes out while slumped against Lorenzo's chest. 'Um-there was no need to take any trouble.'
'Trouble?' Lorenzo turned his clear, innocent, adoring eyes on Miliana, making her unconsciously reach up to touch the pearl hanging at her breast. 'You are my friend; more than that, you are my colleague. I admire and respect you above all others. Nothing I do for you can possibly be any trouble.'
He sat Miliana down in a chair and made her carefully fold her thin hands in her lap, just like a child at lessons. With an air of nervous excitement, he scuttled forward and dropped a pile of drawings on Miliana's knee.
'Now-now these are just the preliminary sketches for something which-well, which started as pure research, but ended as the profound inspiration for a work of pure and utter love.' Lorenzo wheeled a great blanket-hung canvas over before Miliana. 'It is my masterpiece-and I think you will be totally surprised by the insights that it shows.
The young artist whipped back his painting's cover and proudly watched Miliana's face for her reaction. To his great puzzlement, the girl leaned forward, removed and polished her spectacles, then replaced them on her nose. She stared at the painting with an expression of growing shock, and turned a strange shade of ashen gray.
She turned and regarded Lorenzo through grave, golden eyes.
'Lorenzo Utrelli Da Lomatra-I believe you may need medical help.'
Lorenzo whipped his head around the corner of the canvas to see the painting; instead of the expected masterpiece, the painting was a 'guesswork' sketch of Lady Ulia Mannicci in a swimming costume. The artist jerked in shock and took a second look to assure himself of what he beheld.
'No! This isn't the one!' A painting was missing; Lorenzo checked the back of the canvas to see if the lost artwork was there. 'It must be in the other room!'
Miliana calmly followed Lorenzo through the door into his studio. Two easels stood by the door, one empty, and one holding another shrouded canvas. Lorenzo slumped in sudden calm as he saw the full easel; he looked to Miliana in relief, and grabbed at a corner of the cover sheet.
'I'm sorry-it's this one here. Now, just stand there and behold! I call the work simply 'Beauty' '
The blanket flipped back, and Miliana wreathed her face in smiles.
'Why-it's stunning!' Miliana was honestly in awe. 'Lorenzo, you're a genius!'
Lorenzo beamed, basking in Miliana's good opinion. He puffed up his chest in pride as the girl strode forward to take his hand. She leaned closer to the canvas to study the careful layers of brush strokes, paint, and glaze.
'It's magical!'
'It is not-it is merely… inspiration.' Lorenzo bowed with reverence to his cherished colleague. 'You said last night that if you had one wish, it would be to be beautiful. Perhaps this small token will show you how I feel. It is, of course, yours-a gift I hope that you will cherish.'
Miliana regarded the canvas at arm's length with rapture shining in her eyes.
'Oh, Lorenzo, don't be silly! It has to go on display in ten minutes' time. This is something for the whole world to see.'
'Really?' The artist pulled at the collar of his tunic as though it had suddenly grown too tight. 'Well that is v- very courageous of you.'
'Courageous? It is a celebration of art, of form! It is a thing of the spirit-not merely a painting of the flesh!'
'Exactly!' Thrilled, Lorenzo stepped forward to worshipfully take Miliana's hands. 'Yes, that's it exactly! Oh… oh, Miliana, you understand!'
'Well of course I understand.' Miliana Mannicci laid an adoring arm about Lorenzo's waist and gave the man a squeeze. She stood with him to regard a beautiful painting of a sea goddess rising, singing, from the waves, riding the great sea dragon of the deeps. 'I never knew just how-how sensitive you were. This panting is utterly wonderful!'
The artist goggled at his painting in shock, and all the color drained from his face.
'This isn't the one…'
'What?'
'This isn't what I was trying to show you…' Lorenzo flung himself wildly about the room, peering behind settees, ripping open cupboards and setting a small green furry creature to flight. 'Where is it? Where in the Abyss has it gone?'
'Calm down.' Miliana made an easy gesture with one hand, playing the role of the quiet scholar as Lorenzo whirled past in a frenzy of despair. 'Tell me what it looks like, and I'll find it for you.'
'Well, the working sketches are in there!' Clambering atop a wardrobe, Lorenzo burrowed like a crazed mole through a vast wrack of scorched plaster, old papers, and half-eaten pickled eels. 'I put them in your lap in the other room. Those were the drawings for the painting!'
Utterly serene at the eye of the storm, Miliana lifted up her hems and cruised gently on into the other room. Through the open windows, she saw the fireworks demonstration light the sky with stunning starbursts, streaks and blasts. She breathed a sigh of appreciation, frowned at the deafening storm of noise, then spied Lorenzo's drawings lying abandoned on a chair.
Miliana retrieved the pile of drawings, spread the top ones out across a tabletop, then looked down upon them with a ladylike little smile.
She thoughtfully adjusted her spectacles and with an expression of vapid good humor on her face, she turned toward Lorenzo.
Firework flashes lit the room as Lorenzo lunged through the door.
'Did you find the drawings?'
Miliana made a gracious, inquiring little motion over the pile of sketches.
