Dedicated to Ellen Guon;
writer, musician, and lady of quality
And to those who dream, then work to make their dream a reality
A GHOST OF A CHANCE
A voice, an icy, whispering voice, came out of the darkness from all around her; from everywhere, yet nowhere. It could have been born of her imagination, yet Rune knew the voice was the Ghost's, and that to run was to die. Instantly, but in terror that would make dying seem to last an eternity.
'Why have you come here, stupid child?' it murmured, as fear urged her to run away. 'Why were you waiting here? For me? Foolish child, do you not know what I am? What I could do to you?'
Rune had to swallow twice before she could speak, and even then her voice cracked and squeaked with fear.
'I've come to fiddle for you-sir?' she said, gasping for breath between each word, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
The Ghost laughed, a sound with no humor in it, the kind of laugh that called up empty wastelands and icy peaks. 'Well, then, girl. Fiddle, then. And pray to that Sacrificed God of yours that you fiddle well, very well. If you please me, if you continue to entertain me until dawn, I shall let you live, a favor I have never granted any other. But I warn you-the moment my attention lags, little girl-you'll die like all the others and you will join all the others in my own private little Hell.'
CHAPTER ONE
The attic cubicle was dark and stuffy, two conditions the tiny window under the eaves did little to alleviate. Rune reached up to the shelf over her pallet for her fiddle case, and froze with her hand less than an inch away. Her mother's nasal whine echoed up the stairs from the tavern sleeping rooms below.
'Rune? Rune!'
Rune sighed, and her hand dropped to her side. 'Yes, Mother?' she called over her shoulder. She'd hoped to get a little practice in before the evening customers began to file in.
'Have you swept the tavern and scrubbed the tables?' When Stara said 'the tavern,' she meant the common room. The kitchen was not in Rune's purview. The cook, Annie, who was also the stableman's wife, reigned supreme there, and permitted no one within her little kingdom but herself and her aged helper, known only as Granny.
'No, Mother,' Rune called down, resignedly. 'I thought Maeve-'
'Maeve's doing the rooms. Get your behind down there. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you can get on with that foolish scraping of yours.' Then, as an afterthought, as Rune reached the top step, 'And don't call me 'Mother.' '
'Yes M-Stara.' Stifling another sigh, Rune plodded down the steep, dark attic stairs, hardly more than a ladder down the back wall. As she passed the open doors, she heard Maeve's tuneless humming and the slow scrape of a broom coming from the one on her right. From the bottom, she crossed the hall to the real stairs taking them two at a time down into the common room.
The shutters on the windows on two sides of the room had been flung wide to the brisk spring air; a light breeze slowly cleared out the last of the beer fumes. A half-worn broom leaned against the bar at the back of the room, where Maeve had undoubtedly left it when Stara ordered her upstairs. Rune took it; her first glance around had told her that nothing more had been accomplished except to open the shutters. The benches were still stacked atop the tables, and the latter pushed against the walls; the fireplace was still full of last night's ashes. Nothing had been cleaned or put into order, and the only sign that the tavern was opening for business was the open shutters. Probably because that was all anyone had thought to tell Maeve to do.
Rune went to the farthest corner of the room and started sweeping, digging the worn bristles of the broom firmly against the floorboards. The late Rose, wife of Innkeeper Jeoff, had called Maeve 'an innocent.' Annie said she was 'a little simple.'
What Stara called her was 'a great lump.'
Poor Maeve was all of those, Rune reflected. She lived in a world all her own, that was certain. She could- and did, if left to her own devices-stand in a window for hours, humming softly with no discernible tune, staring at nothing. But if you gave her clear orders, she would follow them to the exact letter. Told to sweep out a room, she would do so. That room, and no more, leaving a huge pile of dirt on the threshold. Told to wash the dishes, she would wash the dishes all right, but not the pots, nor the silverware, and she wouldn't rinse them afterwards. Of course, if anyone interrupted her in the middle of her task, she would drop what she was doing, follow the new instructions, and never return to the original job.
Still, without her help, Rune would have a lot more to do. She'd never have time to practice her fiddling.
Rune attacked the dirt of the floor with short, angry strokes, wishing she could sweep the troubles of her life out as easily. Not that life here was bad, precisely-
'Rune?' Stara called down the stairs. 'Are you sweeping? I can't hear you.'
'Yes M-Stara,' Rune replied. The worn bristles were too soft to scrape the floor the way Maeve's broom was doing, but it was pointless to say anything about it.
So Stara didn't want to be called 'Mother' anymore. Rune bit her lip in vexation. Did she really think that if Rune stopped referring to her as 'Mother' people would forget their relationship?
