really appreciate it. There isn't anything special in my pack, but it's all I've got.'
'You're welcome,' he told her, serious and proper. Then, as if her politeness opened up a floodgate, the questions came pouring out. 'Are you staying with the Free Bards? Are you partnering with Master Wren? Are you going to be his lover? He needs a lover. Robin says so all the time. Do you want to be his lover? Lots of girls want to be his lover, and he won't be. Do you like him? He likes you, I can tell.'
'Sparrow!' Gwyna said sharply. 'That's private! Do we discuss private matters without permission?'
'If she's with us, it isn't private, is it?' he retorted. 'If she's a Free Bard she's part of the romgerry and it isn't private matters to talk about-'
'Yes it is,' Gwyna replied firmly. 'Yes, she's staying, and yes, she's a Free Bard now, but the rest is private matters until Master Wren tells you different. You won't ask any more questions like that. Is that understood?'
For some reason that Rune didn't understand, Gwyna was blushing a brilliant scarlet. The boy seemed to sense he had pushed her as far as he dared. He jumped to his feet and scampered off. Gwyna averted her face until her blushes faded.
'What was that all about?' Rune asked, too surprised to be offended or embarrassed. After all, the boy meant no harm. She'd spent the night an arm's length away from Talaysen; it was perfectly natural for the child to start thinking in terms of other than 'master and apprentice.'
'We all worry about Master Wren,' Gwyna said. 'Some of us maybe worry a bit too much. Some of us think he spends too much time by himself, and well, there's always talk about how he ought to find someone who'd be good for him.'
'And who is this 'Robin'?' she asked curiously.
'Me,' Gwyna said, flushing again. 'Gypsies don't like strangers knowing their real names, so we take names that anyone can use, names that say something about what our Craft is. A horse-tamer might be Roan, Tamer, or Cob, for instance. All musicians take bird-names, and the Free Bards have started doing the same, because it makes it harder for the Church and cities to keep track of us for taxes and tithes and-other things.'
Yes, and I can imagine what those other things are. Trouble like I got myself into.
She turned a face back to Rune that might never have been flushed, once again the cheerful, careless girl she'd been a moment earlier. 'Talaysen is Wren, Erdric is Owl, I'm Robin, Daran-that's the tall fellow that knew you-is Heron, Alain is Sparrow, Aysah is Nightingale. My cousin, the one who's making up your medicines, is Redbird. Reshan is Raven, you know him, too, the fellow who looks like a bandit. He's not here yet; we expect him in about a week.' She tilted her head to one side, and surveyed Rune thoughtfully. 'We need a name for you, although I think Wren tagged you with the one that will stick. Lark. Lady Lark.'
Rune rolled the flavor of it around on her tongue, and decided she liked it. Not that she was likely to have much choice in the matter. . . . These folk tended to hit you like a wild wind, and like the wind, they took you where they wanted, without warning.
There's a song in that-
But she was not allowed to catch it; not yet. Erdric advanced across the tent-floor towards her, guitar in hand, and a look of determination on his face. She was a bit surprised at that; she hadn't thought there was anything anyone could want from her as badly as all that.
'My voice isn't what it was,' Erdric said, as he sat down beside her. 'It's going on the top and the bottom, and frankly, the best way I can coax money from listeners is with comedy. Now, I understand you have about a dozen comic songs that no one else knows. That's nothing short of a miracle, especially for me. You've no idea how hard it is to find comic songs.'
'So the time's come to earn my bread, hmm?' she asked. He nodded.
'If you can't go out, you should share your songs with those that need them,' Erdric replied. 'I do a love song well enough, but I've no gift for satire. Besides, can you see a dried-up old stick like me a-singing a love ballad?' He snorted. 'I'll give the love songs to you youngsters. You teach me your comedy. I promise you, I'll do justice to it.'
'All right, that's only fair,' she acknowledged. 'Let's start with 'Two Fair Maids.' '
The Free Bards all came trickling back by ones and twos as the sun set, but only to eat and drink and rest a bit, and then they were off again. Mostly they didn't even stop to talk, although some of them did change into slightly richer clothing, and the dancers changed into much gaudier gear.
Erdric, his grandson, and Gwyna did quite a bit more than merely 'watch the tent,' she noticed. There was plain food and drink waiting for anyone who hadn't eaten at the Faire-though those were few, since it seemed a musician could usually coax at least a free meal out of a cook-tent owner by playing at his site. Still, there was fresh bread, cheese, and fresh raw vegetables waiting for any who needed it, and plenty of cold, clean water. And when darkness fell, it was Gwyna and Erdric who saw to it that the lanterns were lit, that there was a fire burning outside the tent entrance, and that torches were placed up the path leading to the Free Bard enclave to guide the wanderers home no matter how weary they might be.
Talaysen had not returned with the rest; he came in well after dark, and threw himself down on the cushions next to Rune with a sigh. He looked very tired, and just a trifle angry, though she couldn't think why that would be. Erdric brought him wine without his asking for it, and another dose of medicine for Rune, which she drank without thinking about it.
'A long day, Master Wren?' Erdric asked, sympathetically. 'Anything we can do?'
'Very long,' Talaysen replied. 'Long enough that I shall go and steal the use of the bath before anyone else returns. And then, apprentice-' he cocked an eyebrow at Rune '-you'll teach me in that Ghost song.' He drained half the mug in a single gulp. 'There's been a lot of rumor around the Faire about the boy-or girl, the rumors differ-who won the trials yesterday, and yet has vanished quite out of ken. No one is talking, and no one is telling the truth.' His expression grew just a little angrier. 'The Guild judges presented the winners today, and they had their exhibition-and they all looked so damned smug I wanted to break their instruments over their heads. I intend the Guild to know you're with us and if they touch you, there'll be equal retribution.'
'Equal retribution?' Rune asked, swallowing a lump that had appeared in her throat when he'd mentioned broken instruments.
'When Master Wren came to us, the Guild didn't like it,' Gwyna said, bringing Talaysen a slice of bread and cheese. ' 'Twas at this very Faire that he first began to play with us in public. He wasn't calling himself Gwydain, but the Guildsmen knew him anyway. They set on him-they didn't break his arm, but they almost broke his head. We Gypsies went after every Guild Bard we caught alone the next day.'
Talaysen shook his head. 'It was all I could do to keep them from setting on the Guildsmen with knives instead of fists.'
Erdric laughed, but it wasn't a laugh of humor. 'If they'd hurt you more than bruises, you wouldn't have. They didn't dare walk the Faire without a guard-even when they wandered about in twos and threes, they're so soft 'twas no great task to beat them all black and blue. When we reckoned they'd gotten the point and when they started hiring great guards to go about with 'em, we left them alone. They haven't touched one of us since, any place there're are Gypsies about.'
'But elsewhere?' Rune winced as her head throbbed. 'Gypsies and Free Bards can't be everywhere.'
'Quite true, but I doubt that's occurred to them,' Talaysen said. 'At any rate'-he flicked a drop of water at her from his mug-'there. You're Rune no more. Rune is gone; Lark stands-or rather, sits-in her place. The quarrel the Bardic Guild has is with Rune, and I don't know anyone by that name.'
'As you say, Master,' she replied, mock-meekly.
He saw through the seeming, and grinned. 'I'm for a bath. Then the song; I'll see it sung all over the Faire tomorrow, and they'll know you're ours. When you come out with the rest of us in a week or two, they'll know better than to touch you.'
'Come out? In two weeks?' she exclaimed. 'But my arm-'
'Hasn't hurt your voice any,' Talaysen replied. 'You can come with me and sing the female parts; teach me the rest of your songs, and I'll play while you sing.' He fixed her with a fierce glare. 'You're a Free Bard, aren't you?'
She nodded, slowly.
'Then you stand up to the Guild, to the Faire, to everyone; you stand up to them, and you let them know that nothing keeps a Free Bard from her music!' He looked around at the rest of the Free Bards gathered in the tent; so did Rune, and she saw every head nodding in agreement.
