The Eagle And The Nightingales

He had to stop, rest and enjoy some cool water more than once in the course of his recitation. It all took a very long time, even for someone like him. His people relied on oral history before they met the Deliambrens, and as a consequence they were very good at organizing their memories. Still, it took time to get everything out, and when he was finished, he was well aware that it was very late.

'That was fabulous,' Tyladen said with admiration as he tapped a few more things into some sort of device on his desk and slipped the device itself into a drawer. 'You are going to prove to be a lot more useful than you thought, I'm sure of it. This is all information none of our human agents were high enough to obtain.'

'I hope you are correct,' T'fyrr told him sincerely. 'I was not as sanguine about this position of mine as Harperus was; I simply did not see what a simple musician could learn that would make any difference to all of us.'

It was the Deliambren's turn to snort. 'Well, most 'simple musicians' can't hear a mouse squeak five hundred sdaders away, either. You're overhearing far more than anyone has any reason to believe. Don't let them know that, whatever you do.'

'I won't!' T'fyrr hastened to assure him. 'My safety lies in that, as I know all too well! Don't think for a moment that I am not aware of that.'

'Good.' Tyladen pushed himself away from his desk. 'I need to go into the back and transmit all this home. Can you see yourself out? Oh_you can feel free to stay a while if you want. I left orders that whatever you ask for is no charge.'

After all that_hmph. I should hope so. Then T'fyrr chided himself for the uncharitable thought and thanked his host. 'Perhaps I will. Right now, I should like just a drink of something for my throat, and then I will look around a little, perhaps.'

'Whatever.' The Deliambren opened a door in an apparently blank wall. 'Enjoy yourself.' He slipped inside, and the door closed behind him, leaving, again, an apparently blank wall.

Evidently Tyladen literally meant for T'fyrr to show himself out. And evidently he trusted T'fyrr not to snoop around in the office, either.

Not that it was any kind of a temptation, no more than it had been a temptation to snoop in Harperus' exotic travel-wagon. If this had been a library full of music recordings, perhaps, but there was nothing likely to be in this office that would hold even a hint of interest for T'fyrr.

Not unless there is something on the personal records of the musicians here_

No. No, he would not try to look up Nightingale to see what had brought her here. That would be rude.

But he could go out and at least listen to her sing without revealing his presence. That wouldn't hurt anything or anyone.

Maybe, if the opportunity presented itself, he could find a way to contact her discreetly, privately. A note or a message, perhaps.

So with that thought in mind, he opened the door and walked out into the main room, which was once again crowded with dancers, preoccupied with the idea of seeing his friend again, and a little surprised at the pleasure that gave him.

CHAPTER SIX

It can't be T'fyrr. But how can it not be? It must be_but how can it be him? The thoughts circled one another in her head, mutually antagonistic. For a while, Nightingale was so taken aback by the appearance of a Haspur who could be T'fyrr's twin that she didn't pay a great deal of attention to the customers as people, only as her audience. That is, she reacted to them and paid attention to the way in which they reacted to her, but as a group, not as individuals.

And she also wasn't watching them for potential trouble. She used to keep a careful eye on every person in her audiences when she was on the road, because she never knew who or what was going to cause a problem for her. Sometimes trouble came from someone who just happened to be offended by the lyrics of a particular song; sometimes it came from a more obvious source, a drunk, or a person who had arrived with his own set of prejudices riding his shoulders like a pack. She had gotten out of the habit of looking for problems in her audience since she'd been here, and maybe that wasn't such a good thing....

It wasn't until her second set was over that she shook herself out of her reverie and began that kind of 'watching' that was normally second nature and due entirely to a Free Bard's healthy sense of self-preservation. Even when trouble erupted around a Free Bard, it generally came to include the Free Bard, even if it hadn't been intended to.