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.Three times now, Miliana had accidentally dipped a corner of the volume in her bath, and although the water suffered, the book itself seemed none the worse for wear.Once safely locked inside her room, Miliana gave a gentle smile.On a warm summer's day, nothing could be more delicious than bathing with the doors to the balcony wide open.It brought in the sunlight, and helped stop her spectacles from clouding up with steam.Safe and secure with her high elevation, Miliana Mannicci, mistress of a thousand freckles, pulled the stopper from her bath faucet and began the pleasurable task of loosing her clothes.The Blade Kingdoms were blessed by a firm grasp of plumbing technology.A gleeful team of fiery salamanders high up in the palace ceiling spent their days snacking on coal and bringing a water tank to the boiling point through the intense heat of their skins.A network of gleaming copper pipes—designed by madmen, but installed by efficient, military engineers—brought the water up across the garden wall, took a left turn at the outhouses, dripped merciless droplets into the Blade Council's meeting chambers, and finally coughed and spattered itself into Miliana's gigantic seashell bath.The first glorious clouds of steam arose and drifted through the jasmine creepers smothering the rails of Miliana's balcony.Unnoticed among those leaves, a long tube slowly edged itself up across the balcony.The crook-topped end, equipped with a big glass lens, hunted back and forth for a while, fixed upon Miliana as she entered, singing, through her bathroom door, then settled itself contentedly into the concealing jasmine flowers.Soothed by the sound of falling water, Miliana filled her bathroom with its essential supplies; towels, fuzzy slippers, her spellbook, and a mug of prootwaddle tea.Propping her book against a wooden washbasin, she began reading a page of confusing gibberish while beginning the wearisome task of undoing her bodice stays.Frilly pants, gown, and pointy hat all ended up in an untidy heap on the floor, leaving Miliana naked but for a kiss of fine brown freckles.The girl closed her eyes and stretched herself, feeling the skin draw tight across her ribs, then opened one eye in puzzlement as an excited metallic clank came from the direction of the balcony.The girl instantly ducked and scuttled like a crab for the shelter of a towel.Polishing her spectacles free of steam, she darted suspicious glances at the rooftops far and wide.The skies were free of hippogriffs, and her jasmine creepers concealed her utterly from view.With a sniff of her pert snub nose, the girl turned away and went to check on the progress of her tub.Seen as the gods intended, Miliana seemed much like a svelte, bad-tempered, bookish nymph.Warm beneath a streaming cloak of her own soft brown hair, the girl leaned across the bath and dipped in an experimental finger, then instantly whipped about as yet another noise sent alarms chasing up and down her naked spine.Nothing moved; no floorboards creaked, nor did any shadows move.Miliana thought of repeating her attempt to detect hostile magic with a spell, then remembered that her last attempt had instead drifted her helplessly out into the air above the courtyard.While no bad thing in and of itself, her current state of dress might make a repeat performance somewhat embarrassing.Feathers rustled in the ceiling overhead.The noise, it seemed, had just explained itself—although the local cormorants must have reached the size of elephants, given the way they shook the plaster from the walls.With a sharp breath of self-irritation, Miliana turned back to her bath.She eased herself into the tub one inch at a time.Hissing, sapped of energy and turning a quiet lobster pink, the girl settled her head back against the wall, closed her eyes, and let her mind wander off into a whirl of steam.For three days and nights, Miliana had felt a hidden, watchful presence in the house, when she slept, when she dressed—even as she bathed.Experimenting with magic had brought the girl to grand new heights of paranoia; in her mind's fancies, she could imagine herself attracting the attention of unseen, unwholesome powers.Any sorceress worth her salt must surely be in constant danger.The alternative suggestion, that Miliana was too insignificant for dire, extraplanar fiends to even waste a minute's time about, was simply too miserable a thought for her to contemplate.Still, the thought had a certain common sense about it.Propping her cheek on her hand, Miliana heaved a great, unhappy sigh.It would be a bewitching fantasy to consider herself even vaguely important, but the real facts were less than kind.There were no secret birthmarks on her backside, no hidden prophecies that made her the key to liberating mighty empires from evil overlords.Not even a magic talking pony as her special, secret friend.It simply wasn't fair! Every other princess in the world seemed to have a damned prophecy! They were inheritors of evil dooms, magic powers, or the fates of empires.Instead, Miliana had an untranslatable book made from the skin of a dead toad (actually, a number of dead toads), and an attic full of overweight birds.The girl hurtled a pewter jug across the room in helpless frustration, hitting the jasmine creepers on the balcony and making an instant noise of breaking glass.Bits of lens and bent brass pipe went spinning to the courtyard cobbles—all unnoticed as Miliana flung her dripping arms about her knees and hugged herself in impotent misery.She felt stifled, trapped by a world of rules
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