Page 78 - Fearless Females

Dragon: Drop that Icon!

Now the dragon was truly inflamed, belching brimstone as he
gasped for the air to stoke his internal furnace.
“What! How dare you! Forgeries! Why, I’ll have you know I
obtained these works from the holiest of holies, the inner sanctums
of major churches. Their provenance is impeccable—and I’ll roast
anyone who says otherwise!”
His eyes gleamed a golden menace, his forked and fireproof
tongued flapped and lolled and the scales on his neck and cheeks
began to glow incandescently. Mikhaila delicately mopped her brow
with a lace handkerchief.
“Yes, it is difficult to face up to being the victim of fraud. I know
you took those icons in good faith, not knowing that the priests had
sold the originals long ago to foreign art dealers and replaced them
with these very clever fakes. It is only with my special knowledge of
brushstrokes and pigments that I am able to perceive this; I can see
how a collector of your taste and discernment would have been
fooled, particularly in the dim light and smoky atmosphere of those
old churches. All that incense!”

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