"Everyone admits he's a genius, including Floreste himself," said Sessily.
"He wants to build a grand new Orpheum, and bring artists:
and audiences to Araminta from all over the Reach. He'd sell his^ grandmother to get funding."
Wayness asked Sessily: "What kind of music will you be playing?"
"Different kinds. On Verd evening I'll play flute and tzingal with the trio. On Milden evening I'll just have a few runs on the mellochord. On Smollen night, for the Phantasmagoria, I'll play flute in the? orchestra until my butterfly part, and then it's over!" .;
"I wish I had your competence," said Wayness.
"I'm inept.
My;
fingers won't work together." I Sessily gave a grim laugh.
"Your fingers would work well enougfcj if your mother's name was Felice."
"Really? Is that all there is to it?" knack in the first place. Having a mother named Felice teaches you scales and exercises. I'm grateful she never admired lion tamers Or people who walk on red-hot coals;
these would be new skills for my repertory."
"We'll leave those for Squeaker to learn," said Glawen.
"And speaking of lion taming: look what just prowled in."
"What is it?" asked Wayness.
"It's called a Bold Lion. Eight of them have formed an exclusive society."
"Evidently not a temperance group," suggested Milo.
"Definitely not- You can tell this one is drunk by the way it drags its tail along the floor. I think I recognize my distant cousin Aries Clattuc."
"Ho, ho!" exclaimed Sessily.
"See that Ruby Empress out on the Quadrangle? That is his mother, Spanchetta. Poor Aries!
She has seen him."
"Worse than that," said Glawen.
"She intends to have a word with him."
Spanchetta entered the arbor and went to confront Aries. The tawny shoulders hunched; the massive Bold Lion head sagged forward.
Spanchetta made a crisp remark, to which Aries gave back a surly grumble, whose tenor Glawen deduced and reported.
"Aries asks: "Is this not Parilia? Let the flowers bloom freely!"" Spanchetta spoke again, then turned on her heel and departed the Old Arbor. Aries went to a table and was served a bowl of fish chowder.
Spanchetta, returning to the Quadrangle, went to sit on a bench, where she was joined by a masked satyr with horns and hairy goat legs.
"There's Latuun," said Sessily.
"It's actually Namour, who is said to maintain a discreet relationship with Spanchetta."
"It's incomprehensible," said Glawen.
"Still--there they sit!"
A small girl wearing loose white pantaloons, a white blouse and a tall conical white hat approached the table. Her face was disguised by white paint and a large lumpy nose.
Glawen said: "I notice the arrival of a certain Miranda, long ago known as Squeaker but no longer. She carries important news, as usual."
"How do you know?" asked Miranda.
"I can tell by the way your nose twitches."
"You can't see my nose! It's hidden behind this false nose."
"Oh. My mistake."
"Glawen! My nose isn't a big lumpy thing! You know better that that!"
"I remember now. Well, what's the news?"
"Mother wants Sessily to come."
Sessily sighed.
"It would be so easy to get drunk like Aries an wallow around in front of Mother and make inarticulate noises whe she spoke."
Miranda cried out: "Go ahead, Sessily! I'll get drunk with yoi We'll do it together. Mother wouldn't dare to kill us both."
"Don't be too sure," said Sessily.
"I suppose I must go.
Com< Miranda."
"Maybe Glawen will get drunk with me."
"You keep your greedy little hands off Glawen! He's mine!"
Sessil rose to her feet.
"Come along, you naughty creature!
