appreciation, sounding like the ebb and flow of distant seas. The rear courtyard suddenly dissolved into a noisy chaos of bellows, shouts, and screams, while the whole palace shuddered to an unseen blow.
Having lost the party mood, Luccio ignored it all and sadly trailed a finger into the cool water at his side.
A penniless father had left Luccio the heir to an empty house and a world of debt. Without funds, there were no mercenaries-without mercenaries, no votes, and without votes, a gentleman had no influence at all. Disinclined to don a metal suit and join the troops himself, Luccio normally faced his misfortunes with a flippant smile.
Heaving a sigh, Luccio laid himself back against a marble statue of a spouting dolphin and let his velvet cap fall to the ground. Spray from the fountain kissed his cheek as he closed his eyes to the flash and glitter of artificial stars.
'It's true, really. I don't really have anything to offer. Nothing but poor old Luccio-who, frankly, is not much of a prize. No fortune, no mansion, no votes, no ties; a simple promise of devotion doesn't hold any water these days.'
A stream of ripples in the fountain drifted to a halt; the whole world seemed to draw a quiet breath.
'It never really seems to work out for me. There's nothing to fall back on but myself-and I keep wondering if that's anything to offer to a girl.
'But a real girl-someone just… different. Someone who could maybe see that there's a prize here for the taking… now that's a dream worth having!'
Behind Luccio, a pair of startling lavender eyes shone beneath the waters. Tall, delicate, fish-finned ears rose quietly up into the air.
With his back to the water, Luccio ran his hand across his brow.
'When I close my eyes, I can see you drifting there in front of me. You and I-two creatures almost from different worlds. Who knows what adventures might greet the explorer's eyes? The pounding pulse-the alien touch of scents and dreams. We owe ourselves the experience. Let us seize it while we may!'
A figure erupted from the water with an excited squeal and clasped Luccio in its arms. A curvaceous, scaly body, bright eyes, and wild pink hair flashed briefly in the light of fireworks as the nixie locked Luccio in a passionate, soaking kiss. With a shout, the man spilled backward into the freezing waters while the nixie damsel drew a breath, crammed his face up against her impassioned breast and happily wrapped him against her scales.
Cool and quiet in the darkness, Lorenzo stated his case with an admirable degree of calm.
'Look-traditionally, all beauty is judged by ultimates; the perfect figures, the studied poise… you know the kind of thing.' Lorenzo sat cross-legged on the floor of a cupboard, trying to be the voice of sweet reason in the storm. 'I merely determined that if I wanted to define the actual basics of beauty, I would have to try to discover the beautiful within a subject who exhibits absolutely none of the… ah… the actual… that is, none of the accepted attributes of feminine…' The artist stumbled, sensing himself sliding into even more trouble.
Lorenzo's refuge shuddered as Miliana's halberd blade viciously hacked its way in through the door.
'Come out of there, you-you suitor, you! Open that damned door!'
Inside the cupboard, Lorenzo watched his barricades and makeshift locks splinter one by one. He tried to keep himself adrift inside a sea of studied calm.
'I realize that I have behaved badly-nay, inexcusably. I can only say that what I did was done from the most pure of motivations, and that my respect for you is utterly sincere. Nor did I realize until last night that you were actually my… intended.
'Now perhaps we ought to get the nude painting of you back into hiding before it goes out on public display.'
'What?'
Miliana hurtled the halberd aside, rammed a fist through the broken door and undid the lock with one sharp tug of her hand. She dragged Lorenzo out into the light and shook him like a stick insect in her claws.
'What do you mean it's going on display?'
'Well it's… it's the only painting that's missing!' Lorenzo felt the words being squeezed bodily out of his throat by Miliana's grasp. 'Someone must ha-have taken the picture to put up for the ceremony!'
The girl released her victim, turning herself quite green with shock.
'Was it anything like those-those sketches?'
'Um…' Lorenzo tried to see a way to somehow escape with his life. 'Um-no…'
Miliana felt a brilliant ray of hope. 'No?'
'Well… yes.' Lorenzo felt the sweat pour off him as he glanced at the halberd leaning against a nearby wall. 'Um-quite a lot like them actually.'
Scorched, torn, and wild, Miliana hoisted Lorenzo up to his feet, turned him about, and dragged him toward the ruins of his apartment.
'Come on! Get the painting of the sea goddess! It's going to take both of us to carry it!'
Confused, Lorenzo felt himself being propelled across the rubble by a freckled amazon in skirts.
'Aren't you going to kill me?'
'I'll kill you later. Now help me get that painting back!'
Standing on a balcony that faced off across the Akanamere, Lady Ulia Mannicci stood in splendor, wearing a hat that would have done justice to the goddess Umberlee herself. Puffing out her indignant bosom, the lady watched the brilliant fireworks with an air of irritation and disdain.
'Miliana should be here to applaud this display! Cappa, my dear-where has your unruly daughter hidden herself now?'
Prince Cappa Mannicci scowled and scanned the crowds, then signaled for the services of an aide.
Standing proud and hostile amidst a crowd of haughty elves, the lady of the Yuirwood threw her cloak back from her pale shoulders and pushed free from the crowds to confront her awesome hostess.
Ulia turned to face the elf like a stone giant confronting a sprite. The two women met eye to eye in a strange fellowship of mutual anger and pride.
'I am called Lonereed Silverleaf, of the Clan of Wandering Spray.' The slim queen tilted her angry silver eyes. 'I have come here as a guest to your house, and I claim a guest's right of justice!'
Ulia's bodice swelled like a galleon's sails before a storm.
'Justice, you ask? Then my dear, it is justice you shall have!' The human woman gazed down from the celestial heights of her pride. 'How have you been wronged within my city, and under my roof?'
'Theft!' The elf drew her robes tight against her narrow frame. 'My most prized of jewels-a love gift from my people-has been stolen from me. Stolen! And the thief has the insolence to wear the necklace right here before my very eyes!'
'Then this outrage shall be dealt with at once.' Ulia took the elven woman by the arm and led her away from the thunderstorm of fireworks outside. 'Tell me the identity of the thief.'
Lady Silverleaf raised a long index finger and summoned a figure from among her courtiers; Brightlightning Dragonsbane strode forth and knelt before his lady's feet. Lady Silverleaf indicated the man with a wave of her hand.
'My bodyguard and boon companion has followed the thief to her lair.'
'Good.' Ulia settled her stomach in its spun-steel and adamantine girdle. 'Then describe her to me.'
'My lady-it is the girl who stood beside you to welcome us into your home.' The elven bodyguard showed no small satisfaction in having completed his assigned task. 'The short, speckled human female with eyepieces made of glass.'
Half expecting outraged denial, the elves swapped cool glances as Lady Ulia swelled up like a puffer fish in imminent danger of detonation. With a look of triumph in her eye, the woman felt all her worst-and, therefore, her most cherished-suspicions confirmed.
'Miliana! I knew the little wretch had two sides to her coin.' Sumbria's first lady signed for two of her own guards and two ladies-in-waiting, then beckoned the elves to follow in her wake. 'Lady Silverleaf-come! We shall take back your jewel and at last uncover the whys and wherefores of this city's little cat burglar!'
'Tekorii-kii-kii! Tekorii-kii-kii!'
