The Robin And The Kestrel

some of the hot rage gone from her expression, replaced by determination and a colder fury. 'Some of that Padrik could learn to do on his own, but most of it was done with accomplices. That means that not only is someone teaching him, someone is helping him! And I am going to find out who it is!'

Kestrel nodded, remembering she had told him that the Gypsies swore never to reveal their tricks to outsiders. This was an even greater betrayal of that oath than teaching Gypsy magic to him would be, by an order of magnitude. He was, after all, a Gypsy by marriage, and he suspected that if he really needed to learn the tricks, Gwyna could get permission from the head of her Clan to teach him. But to teach them to a complete outsider_worse, to one who was using those tricks to promote an agenda that would ultimately be very bad for other Gypsies_that was the worst of betrayals.

'N-not only wh-who,' he told her, 'but why. P-Padrik is already hurting n-nonhumans and F-Free B-Bards; h-how long b-before he s-starts on G-Gypsies?'

'Good point.' She straightened her skirts. 'We've done enough business already that no one will question our packing up early_in fact, if I drop the right remarks as I pay our tithe as we leave, we might even be considered very pious for not making too much of a profit from the faithful.'

'S-so wh-what are we d-doing?' he asked, opening the back of the wagon again, to let them both out modestly, through the door, rather than crawling out the window over the bed.

'We're hunting information,' she told him, as he took the reins of the mares, and she counted out the tithe from the bag of coins she'd hidden under her skirt. 'Who and what and why.'

When they paid the reckoning for the next week in advance, the innkeeper was positively faint with gratitude. Kestrel felt very sorry for him; apparently he'd lost two more patrons who had simply not been able to conduct the business they needed. The nonhuman gem-carvers these men wished to patronize had left in the summer, and the quality of the gems that the humans who had bought their business produced was apparently inferior to the original work.

So the innkeeper was only too happy to learn that their business was prospering and that they were prepared to stay some time. But then Robin took him aside for a long discussion in hushed whispers, and the man looked so alarmed that Kestrel wondered what on earth she could be telling him. When she returned, she had a set of written directions in her hand and a smug expression on her face.

'I thought with a name like 'The Singing Bird' this place had to have some sort of connection to the Free Bards or the Gypsies or both,' she said, as she took his arm and led him from the inn into the street. 'I said as much and frightened him half to death until he realized I was both a Free Bard and a Gypsy and not some sort of informer or blackmailer. Then he was frightened because he thought I was going to demand something unreasonable from him.' Her tone grew a little bleaker. 'I'm afraid that there are already some musicians in gaol here on the charge of 'perverting public morals,' and I think he expected me to ask for help in getting them out.'

'Are th-they F-Free B-B-Bards?' Kestrel asked nervously, keeping a discreet eye out for anyone who might be following or listening to them.

'No, they can't be,' she told him. 'They've been in gaol since early fall, and we would have heard something if they were Free Bards. Someone would have missed them and passed the word. No, I'm afraid they're just ordinary musicians with bad luck. Or else they simply didn't pay enough attention to what was going on with the High Bishop. Wylie says they were arrested for singing 'The Saucy Priest' right at one of the street preachers.'

Kestrel shook his head sympathetically. They had performed the same song any number of times, and quite often when there was a clergyman who clearly deserved to hear it nearby. Bad luck, bad timing, and worse ability to observe the situation around them, that was all it was.

'Wh-what's the c-connection t-to the Free B-Bards?' he asked, out of sheer curiosity.

Gwyna chuckled. 'Dear old Master Wren again. When Wylie tried to start this inn, he was in a bad case, bills piling up and no customers coming in. Wren offered to play for room and board alone all one winter if he always gave Free Bards the best venue thereafter. He filled the inn every night within the first week and kept it filled all winter. So Wylie renamed his place 'The Singing Bird' in Talaysen's honor, and he's always kept the bargain.'

It was a little past midday, and the street preachers were already out in force. But there were none of the 'dangerous' type, the trained clerics. That confirmed Kestrel's notion that they were real Priests; or at least it did in his own mind. Real Priests would have duties during the day that they could not avoid; teaching, performing holy offices, attending to the business of the Church. Only after the workday was done would they be free to come down to the street to pretend to be one of the common folk, and spread Padrik's word to those who might not come to the Cathedral to hear it.

'S-so what d-did you ask him f-for?' Kestrel asked, grateful that everyone on the street at the moment apparently had somewhere to go. The street preachers were pouring their exhortations out to the empty air. None of them had an audience, except perhaps a few idle children with nothing else to do at the moment.

'Directions. Turn here.' She nodded at a sidestreet that cut away from the main street.

He followed her direction, obediently. 'D-directions to wh-where?'