Lark and Wren

things were going; she had picked that up from listening to some of the conversations going on around them. Exchanging of insults and stealing or wrecking anything on the disputed land was one thing-but so far six men had been killed in this little enterprise, and the common soldiers were, Rune thought, justifiably upset. They had signed on with the Sire to be guards and deal with bandits-and to harass their neighboring Sire now and again. No one had told them they were going to go to war over a silly piece of land.

Another man-at-arms approached on heavy feet, walking towards them like a clumsy young bull, and the nervous fellow perked up. Rune reckoned that their captivity was at an end-or that, at least, they were going somewhere else.

Good. There's pebbles digging into my behind.

'The cap'n 'll see the prisoners now,' the burly fellow told their guard, who heaved a visible sigh of relief and wandered off without any warning at all. That left the burly man to stare at them doubtfully, as if he wasn't quite certain what to do with them.

'You got t' get t'yer feet,' he said, tentatively. 'You got t' come with me.'

Talaysen heaved a sigh of pure exasperation. 'That's going to be a bit difficult on both counts,' he replied angrily. 'We can't get to our feet, because you've got us tied back to back. And we can't walk because you've got us hobbled like a couple of horses. Now unless you're going to do something about that, we're going to be sitting right here until Harvest.'

The man scratched his beard and looked even more uncertain. 'I don't got no authority to do nothin' about that,' he said. 'I just was told I gotta bring you t' the cap'n. So you gotta get t'yer feet.'

Talaysen groaned. Rune sighed. This would be funny if it weren't so stupid. And if they weren't trussed up like a couple pigs on the way to market. It might get distinctly unfunny, if their guard decided that the application of his boot to their bodies would get them standing up . . . she contemplated her knees, rather than antagonize him by staring at him.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching; yet another man-at-arms neared, this one in a tunic and breeches that were of slightly better quality and showing less wear than the other man's.

'Never mind, Hollis,' said the newcomer. 'I decided to come have a look at them myself.' He surveyed them with an air of vacant boredom. 'Well, what do you spies have to say for yourselves?'

'Spies?' Talaysen barked in sheer outrage. 'Spies? Where in God's Sacred Name did you get that idea?'

Rune fixed the 'captain,' if that was what he was, with an icy glare. 'Since when do spies camp openly beside a road, and carry musical instruments?' she growled. 'Dear God, the only weapons we have are a couple of dull knives! What were we supposed to do with those, dig our way into your castle? That would only take ten or twenty years, I'm sure!'

The captain looked surprised, as if he hadn't expected either of them to talk back to him. If all he's caught so far are poor, frightened farmers, I suppose no one has.

He blinked at them doubtfully. 'Well,' he said at last, 'if you aren't spies, then you're conscripts.' As Talaysen stared at him in complete silence, he continued, looking them over as if they were a pair of sheep. 'You-with the gray hair-you're a bit long in the tooth, but the boy there-'

'I'm not a boy,' Rune replied crisply. 'I'm a woman, and I'm his wife. And you can go ahead and conscript me, if you want, but having me around isn't going to make your men any easier to handle. And they're going to be even harder to handle after I castrate the first man who lays a hand on me.'

The captain blanched, but recovered. 'Well, if you're in disguise as a boy, then you're obviously a spy after all-'

'It's not a disguise,' Talaysen said between clenched teeth. 'It's simply easier for my wife to travel in breeches. It's not her fault you can't tell a woman in breeches from a boy. I'm sure you'll find half the women in this area working the fields in breeches. Are you going to arrest them for spying, too?' The captain bit his lip. 'You must be spies,' he continued stubbornly. 'Otherwise why were you out there on the road? You're not peddlers, and the Faires are over. Nobody travels that road this time of year.'

'We're musicians,' Rune said, as if she was speaking to a very simple child. 'We are carrying musical instruments. We play and sing. We were going to Kardown Faire and your road was the only way to get there-'

'How do I know you're really musicians?' he said, suspiciously. 'Spies could be carrying musical instruments, too.' He smiled at his own cleverness.

Talaysen cursed under his breath; Rune caught several references to the fact that brothers and sisters should not marry, and more to the inadvisability of intercourse with sheep, for this man was surely the lamentable offspring of such an encounter.

'Why don't you untie us and give us our instruments, and we'll prove we're musicians?' she said. 'Spies wouldn't know how to play, now, would they?'

'I-suppose not,' the captain replied, obviously groping after an objection to her logic, and unable to find one. 'But I don't know-'

Obviously, she thought; but she smiled charmingly. 'Just think, you'll get a free show, as well. We're really quite good. We've played before Dukes and Barons. If you don't trust both of us, just cut me loose and let me play.'

Not quite a lie. I'm sure there were plenty of Dukes and Barons who were passing by at Kingsford when we were playing.

'What are you up to?' Talaysen hissed, as she continued to keep her mouth stretched in that ingenuous smile.

'I have an idea,' she muttered back out of the corner of her mouth. And as the captain continued to ponder, she laughed. 'Oh come now, you aren't afraid of one little woman, are you?'

That did it. He drew his dagger and cut first the hobbles at her ankles, then the bonds at her wrists. She got up slowly, her backside aching, her shoulders screaming, her hands tingling with unpleasant pins-and-needles sensations.