Lark and Wren

t-t-time on a ha-ha-halfwit.'

Talaysen's fists clenched and he forced himself to relax them. The bastards. The lazy bastards. A stutter is curable-and even if it wasn't, most people don't stutter when they sing, and they knew it! But this poor child had no one to speak for him, and he was a foreigner. So out he went.

'Jonny, you are not a halfwit,' he said quietly, but forcefully. 'Whoever told you that was an idiot. The Guild Masters were too lazy to train you, and too foolish to see your worth, so they got rid of you and told you that to keep you from trying to get your rights.' He thought quickly about all he knew of Guild law. 'You came to Kingsford as an acknowledged apprentice. You had a right to another Master when yours died. You could have gone to any other Guild in Kingsford and gotten help to enforce that right-but the Bardic Guild Masters told you that you were a halfwit to prevent you from claiming that right.'

'Th-th-they did?' Jonny's eyes cleared a little.

'I would bet fair coin on it. It's just the kind of thing they would do.' He kept a tight hold on his temper; this was all in the past. Nothing could be done about it now-except to rectify what the Guild had done himself.

'B-b-but they s-s-said I c-c-couldn't s-s-sing, or wr-wr-write m-m-music-' he objected. 'And I c- c-c-can't.'

'Jonny, when did anyone ever teach you to do those things?' Talaysen asked gently. 'Those are skills, not things that you absorb just by being around Bards. Ask Rune; she'll tell you.'

'Two years,' Rune replied, leaning back into the wagon so she could be heard. 'It took me two years to learn those things, and several different Masters.'

'You see?' Talaysen's lips tightened. 'Now if you really want to know what I think was going on-it's simple. The Bardic Guild is full of lazy, self-centered fools. They saw you had no Master, you weren't important to anyone, and in fact, no one in this country even knew you were here. So they decided you were too much trouble and sent you out the door.'

Jonny nodded, slowly, his own hands clenched at his sides, knotted into tight little white-knuckled fists.

'Then what did you do?' Talaysen prompted. 'After you left?'

'I w-w-worked. At wh-wh-whatever I c-c-could. Wh-wh-when the Faire came, I w-w-worked the Faire. Animals, m-m-mostly. Animals l-l-like me.'

Talaysen could well imagine how the inarticulate lad had sought refuge in caring for creatures who didn't demand speech of him.

'How did you get from Kingsford to the Kardown Faire?' he asked.

'H-h-hiring fairs,' the lad said simply. 'G-g-got j-jobs all over. Had a j-j-job with a herder b-b-brought me here, b-b-but he sold his g-g-goats, and he d-d-didn't need me, and the m-m-man that b-b-bought them had his own h-h-h-herders.'

Hiring fairs. That made sense. Hiring fairs were held in the spring and the fall, mostly for the benefit of farmers looking for hands or servants. Sometimes other folk would come looking for skilled or unskilled laborers-and Talaysen had heard of fairs that even had mercenaries for hire. The problem was, the unskilled labor jobs seldom lasted more than a season, as Jonny had undoubtedly learned. 'So, that got you to the Downs. When?'

'Ab-b-b-bout two w-w-weeks ag-g-go,' he said, sighing heavily. 'Was all right d-d-during Faire, b-b-but there wasn't nothing f-f-for me after.'

Gwyna laughed without humor. 'True, when the Kardown Faire is over, the town pretty much dries up, unless you're an experienced hand with sheep. Shepherd's classed as skilled labor, not unskilled, and the only person that might be trusted to come on without experience is a Gypsy.'

'And I take it you've always applied as unskilled?' Talaysen asked the young man. 'And you've never learned a trade?'

He shook his head dumbly.

'G-g-got n-n-no one,' he whispered. 'And n-n-nothing. N-n-no g-g-good for anything. I w-w-was h-h-hungry, and I s-s-saw you b-b-buying th-th-things. I th-th-thought you w-w-wouldn't m-m-miss a c-c-copper or t-t- two.'

'You play the harp the way you just did, and you say that?' Talaysen replied indignantly. The young man's mouth opened and closed as he tried to say something; Talaysen held up a hand, silencing him.

'You listen to me,' he said fiercely. 'You're among friends now. The Guild Bards may be fools, but the Free Bards aren't. I don't ever want to hear you say that you aren't good for anything. Not ever again. Is that understood?'

The young man had scooted back on the bunk as far as the limited space would permit when Talaysen began the tirade. With wide eyes, he nodded his agreement.

Both Gwyna and Rune had turned around, and their eyes carried a message to him that was child's play to read. Not that he minded, since he'd already made his decision about this young man.

'All right,' Talaysen said, as much to them as to Jonny. 'You're a Free Bard now. We'll undertake to do for you what the Guild should have. You, in turn, will have to abide by our rules. No theft, no troublemaking, no law-breaking. Treat us the way you would treat your family. When we play together, it's share and share alike, no holding anything back for yourself. Abide by those and we'll teach you everything we know, take you with us, with chores and profits shared alike. Will that do?'

For a moment, Talaysen feared the young man might burst into tears. But instead, he pulled himself up, looked each of them straight in the eyes, and said, with only a trace of a stammer, 'Y-yes, sir. That w-will do. Y-you have my w-word on it.'

'He'll need an instrument,' Gwyna said from the front bench, her attention seeming to be entirely on the team. 'He can use my harp until we get him his own-unless I find one I like better.'

This time Talaysen distinctly saw him blink away tears before replying. 'Th-thank you,' he said. 'Very