Lark and Wren

'Just the lute-piece-which you proceeded to play through on an instrument it wasn't intended for.' Tonno shook his head. 'Rune, I've been debating this for the past two weeks, but I can't be selfish anymore. You're beyond me, on both your instruments. I can't teach you any more.'

It was her turn to stare, licking suddenly dry lips, not sure of what to say. 'But-but I-'

This was too sudden, too abrupt, she thought, her heart catching with something like fear. She wasn't ready for it all to end; at least, not yet. I'm not ready to leave. There's still the whole winter yet, the Faire isn't until Midsummer-what am I supposed to do between now and then?

'Don't look at me like that, girl,' Tonno said, a little gruffly, rubbing his eyebrow with a hand encased in fingerless gloves. 'Just because you're beyond my teaching, that doesn't mean you're ready for what you want to do.'

'I'm-not?' she said dazedly, not certain whether to be relieved or disappointed.

'No,' Tonno replied firmly. 'You're beyond my ability to contribute to your teaching-in music-but you're not good enough to win one of the Bard apprenticeships. And I've heard some of your tunes, dear; you shouldn't settle for less than a Bardic position. Of all the positions offered at the Faire, only a handful are for Bardic teaching, and you are just not good enough to beat the ninety-nine other contenders for those positions.'

Good news and bad, all in the same bite. 'Will I ever be?' she asked doubtfully.

'Of course you will!' he snapped, as if he was annoyed at her doubt. 'I have a damned good ear, and I can tell you when you will be ready. What we'll have to do is find some of my truly complicated music, the things I put away because they were beyond my meager capabilities to play. You'll practice them until your fingers are blue, and then you'll learn to transpose music from other instruments to yours and play that until your fingers are blue. Practice is what you need now, and practice, by all that's holy, is what you're going to get.'

I guess it's not over yet. Not even close. She sighed, but he wasn't finished with his plans for her immediate future.

'Then there's the matter of your other lessons,' he continued inexorably. 'I've taught you how to read music; now I'll teach you how to write it as well-by ear, without playing it first on your instruments. I'll see that you learn as much as I know of other styles, and of the work of the Great Bards. And then, my dear, I'm going to drill you in reading, history in particular, until you think you've turned Scholar!'

'Oh, no-' she said involuntarily. While she was reading with more competence, it still wasn't something that came easily. Unlike music, she still had to work at understanding. History, in particular, was a great deal of hard work.

'Oh, yes,' he told her, with a smile. 'If you're going to become a Guild Bard, you're going to have to compete with boys who've been learning from Scholars all their lives. You're going to have to know plenty about the past- who's who, and more importantly, why, because if you inadvertently offend the wrong person-'

He sliced his finger dramatically across his neck.

She shuddered, reflexively, as a breath of cold that came out of nowhere touched the back of her neck.

'Now,' he said, clearing the music away from the stand in front of her, and stacking it neatly in the drawer of the cabinet beside him. 'Put your instruments back in their cases and come join me by the stove. I want you to know some hard truths, and what you're getting yourself into.'

She cased the lute and Lady Rose obediently, and pulled her short cloak a little tighter around her shoulders. Tonno's stove didn't give off a lot of heat, partially because fuel was so expensive that he didn't stoke it as often as Amber fueled her fireplaces. Rune would have worried more about him in this cold, except that he obviously had a lot of ploys to keep himself warm, He spent a lot of time at Amber's in the winter, Maddie said; nursing a few drinks and keeping some of the waiting clients company with a game of pentangle or cards, and Amber smiled indulgently and let him stay.

I wonder what it is that he did for her, that they're such good friends?

Rune followed him to the back of the living-quarters, bringing her chair with her, and settled herself beside him as he huddled up to the metal stove.

He wrapped an old comforter around himself, and raised his bushy gray eyebrows at her. 'Now, first of all, as far as I know, there are no girls in the Guild,' he stated flatly. 'So right from the beginning, you're going to have a problem.'

She nodded; she'd begun to suspect something of the sort. She'd noticed that no one wearing the purple ribbon-knots was female-

And she'd discovered her first weeks out busking that every time she wore anything even vaguely feminine out on the street, she got propositions. Eventually, she figured out why.

There were plenty of free-lance whores out on the street, pretending to busk, with their permits stuck on their hats like anyone else. She found out why, when she'd asked the dancers that performed by the fountain every night. The permit for busking was cheaper by far than the fees to the Whore's Guild, so many whores, afraid of being caught and thrown into the workhouse for soliciting without a permit or Guild badge, bought busking permits. The Church, which didn't approve of either whores or musicians, ignored the deception; the city frowned, but looked the other way, so long as those on the street bought some sort of permit. Real musicians wore the ribbon knots on their sleeves, and whores didn't, but most folk hadn't caught on to that distinction. So, the result was undoubtedly that female musicians had a reputation in the Guild for being something else entirely.

But still-the auditions should weed out those with other professions. Shouldn't they? And why on Earth would a whore even come to the trials?

'The reason there aren't any females in the Guild,' he continued, 'is because they aren't allowed to audition at the Faire. Ever.'

She stared at him, anger warming her cheek at the realization that he hadn't bothered to say anything to her about this little problem with her plans before this.