The Eagle And The Nightingales

there is a Deliambren running a tavern in the city, a place called Freehold. His name is Tyladen. He probably has a great deal more knowledge than I.'

'I know the place,' the captain replied. 'Many of my men have been there, now and again, and they speak highly of the place. I've been there myself.'

For entertainment? Not primarily, I warrant. Probably to see if it was a hotbed of Fuzzy subversion. But it wasn't, and so he permits his men to visit it recreationally.

'Tyladen of Freehold might be persuaded to come attend to his fellow countryman's needs,' T'fyrr said, and Nightingale sensed his fragment of ironic pleasure at the notion that Tyladen just might be forced to do something besides sit in his office like a spider in a web, collecting information at no cost or danger to himself. She was beginning to have a very poor opinion of Tyladen's courage, and she knew T'fyrr shared it. 'Other than Tyladen, I am your nearest source, and I assure you, it would be much better to wait until Lord Harperus wakes of his own accord. It could be dangerous to try to bring him to consciousness at this point.'

The Captain acknowledged T'fyrr's expertise with an unwilling nod. 'I'll have that noted, Sire T'fyrr,' he added politely. 'Now, by your leave, I'll take mine.'

T'fyrr bowed slightly, and the Captain walked out, at a slightly faster pace than he'd arrived. T'fyrr had impressed him with a level head and good sense, at any rate.

They both returned to their seats beside Harperus' bed. Nob had long since closed the curtains against the night and lit a lamp or two, turning them low. Most of the room was in shadow; the rest in half-light. Curtains pulled halfway around the bed to keep the light from disturbing the occupant left the bed itself in deep shadows, in which Harperus' white hair gleamed softly against the pillow.

The Haspur turned to Nightingale and touched her hand, as lightly as a puff of down, with the talon that had just come close to crushing the wrist of the interfering physician. She smiled tremulously at him.

'When do you think he'll wake?' he asked her in a tense whisper.

She closed her eyes and again dropped briefly into the healing-spell with three key notes of the chant. The song Harperus wove about himself was coming to a close, winding in and around itself the way that all Deliambren music ended, in a reprise of the beginning, a serpent swallowing its own tail. 'Soon, very soon,' she said, opening her eyes again. 'Within an hour or two at the very most, I suspect.'

T'fyrr sighed with relief. 'It cannot be too soon for me.'

'Nor for me,' she replied. 'I still need to invoke healing on you again_'

'And I on you,' he interrupted, and a gentle warmth washed over her as he touched the back of her hand again. 'But we may be sitting here guarding Harperus until_'

'Until what?' came a weak voice from the shadows. 'Until the moon turns blue? Until the Second Cataclysm?'

'Until you wake, old fool!' T'fyrr said, turning quickly toward the head of the bed. 'By the winds, you had us worried!'

'Not half so much as I worried myself,' Harperus replied with a groan and a sigh as he tried to sit up. 'I'm too old to be practicing self-healing. It is a bad habit to get into, relying on self-healing too much.'

'It is a worse habit to put yourself in situations where you need to practice it,' Nightingale scolded. By now the guards just outside the bedchamber had heard the third voice, and one had come to investigate. He had come in at least twice so far today, fooled by T'fyrr's mimicking ability while they were practicing their music.

'Lord Harperus is awake and ready to speak,' T'fyrr told him, as the man opened his mouth to ask what was going on. 'While you are notifying those in authority, you ought to send a servant to bring some food for Lord Harperus_'

'Light food,' Nightingale interrupted. 'Suitable for an invalid. And make sure it is tested before you serve it to him. Remember, we do not know who attacked him, or what positions his attackers hold. They could work in the kitchen.'

'Oh, not tea and toast!' Harperus complained, but subsided at her glare, sinking into the shadows of the bed. 'Well, all right. I suppose you know best, Nightingale, you are healer-trained. What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you wouldn't promise to come here!'

'I wouldn't,' she said, tartly, in the Gypsy tongue. 'And this is the reason why! I've been here all along; I'm T'fyrr's accompanist. I just didn't want you delightful people to endanger my safety by telling everyone on the planet that I was your agent. None of you Deliambrens have an ounce of sense among you when it comes to keeping secrets.'

The Deliambren sighed and lifted a hand to rub his head. He replied to her in the same language. 'For once, I have to agree that you were probably right. But in our own defense, Nightingale, we never thought that anyone