Magic's Promise

Skinny runt like you, hold ye least a fortnight.'

Renfry gave Valdir a look brimming with satisfaction. 'That'll get you across the Border, easy, and there's a Harvestfest going on over there right now. Boy with a voice like yours that can't get coin at a Harvestfest don't deserve t' call himself a minstrel.'

'Hey, 'Fry!' An insolent urchin slid in under Renfry's elbow, Valdir's pack and blanket in one hand, his lute in the other. 'These whatcha lookin' fer?'

Valdir snatched the lute out of the child's hand and held it to his chest, his eyes going moist. 'Oh, gods - Renfry, I - '

I never dared hope for this much help from him. Never even prayed for it.

“Don't you cry on me!' Renfry growled, cuffing his ear. 'Just getting my competition out of town, I told you. Tel, here - pack up the boy's food.' He scraped everything but two small silver pieces off the table and poured them into the cook's hand. The handful of copper bits vanished into a pocket of the stained apron, and a hand rivaling Bel's for size and strength took the pack. 'Now, listen careful, because I'm only going to tell you this once. You go down to the west gate. I know it's the wrong way, just circle around the city walls once you get outside. You ask for Asra. You got that?'

'Asra,' Valdir repeated, nodding. 'West gate.'

'You tell him Renfry sent you, and you give him one silver. That's his standard bribe to let folks out after dark, and don't let him tell you different. Then when you get to the Border, you give the other to our lads. That'll get you past them. Valdemar folk don't give a hang about who crosses to their side, so long as you don't look like a fighter or a trader. Fighter they'd question, trader they'd tax. You got that?'

'One silver to Asra at the west gate, one to the Border Guards.'

'Good lad.' Renfry nodded approvingly. 'Now belt that blanket around you under your cloak; you're going to need it, it's cold out there. When you get 'round the walls, you take the east road as far as the second farm on the right tonight. You stop there. There's a haybarn right on the road and the old boy that owns it don't give a hang if people sleep there so long as they don't build fires. After that, you're on your own.'

Valdir was pulling his threadbare cloak on over the blanket when the cook returned with his pack bursting at the seams. He tucked the two tiny coins into his now-empty purse, slung pack over one shoulder and lute over the other, and turned to Renfry, trying to think of some way to thank him.

Renfry took one look at his eyes, and softened. 'Damn. Wish you could have stayed a while,' he said gruffly, and suddenly pulled Valdir into a quick, rough embrace. 'Now get out of here, before Bel comes looking for you.'

Vanyel made the best meal he'd had in a fortnight of half a loaf, the cheese, and a couple of apples. Yfandes got the rest.

:Funny, how you seem to be able to find friends in the most unexpected places,: she mused. :Sometimes I wonder...:

'Friends? What are you talking about?' he asked her, cinching the blanket pad in place, and pulling himself up on her back. 'Gods.' He clung there for a moment, as another wave of disorientation washed over him.

:Never mind. Are you all right?:

'I'll be fine. Just low on resources, and worn out.' Anxiety cramped his stomach a moment. He wouldn't have stopped long enough to eat if he hadn't found his legs giving out as he circled around the city to his meeting place with Yfandes. The shadows under the trees seemed sinister. The wind in the near-naked branches moaned as if in pain. He had to get back -

- but the old man was one of those that died. The thought kept nagging at him. He must have loved that old man, given his reaction to Jervis. That wasn't feigned. I can't believe that he would have killed the only person he trusted, even in a fit of uncontrolled rage and fear.

Never mind. The important thing was to take this knowledge back, now - before it was too late. Before the same thing could happen at Forst Reach. It still might not have been Tashir who killed the Remoerdis Family, but he dared not take that chance.

'All right, 'Fandes,' he said aloud. 'Let's get out of here.'

And she leaped out onto the moon - flooded road.

Eleven