Four and Twenty Blackbirds

'But I was never more romantic than I was practical,' she pointed out to him. 'Unfeminine of me, but there it is. In some ways, Tal, you and your peers have far more freedom than me and mine. I knew that the boys my age were all under the same constraints that I was; we had to marry or take positions to suit our families. If we didn't, we'd be cut off, the way my cousin Gwydain was when he passed the Trials and joined the Bardic Guild against his father's wishes. Even when he became a Master Bard and was feted by everyone, his father refused to acknowledge him. Of course,' she smiled crookedly, 'being in the Guild was no great hardship, and being a Master Bard meant he had any luxury he wanted, so he didn't lose anything by his choice. And neither did I, if it came to that, and once I knew Icould be a mage I'd have gone into the Church whether or not my father consented. He knew it, I think, so—' She chuckled. 'It's a good thing we're a great deal alike. He knew not to push me too far, and I knew not to push him, either.'

'But running off with an inappropriate boy—'

'Would have gotten both of us cut off from family and support, with neither of us suited to or trained for a trade, and I didn't care to live in poverty,' she said crisply. 'Love in a hovel quickly turns sour for those who aren't mentally and emotionally inclined to sacrifice. Great sacrifice, anyway, all for love and all of that—there was some sacrifice involved in going into the Novitiate, but those who are granted exceptional gifts get exceptional treatment, inside the Church as well as outside of it.'

But there was a tinge of regret in her voice, and Tal was suddenly taken with a devilish wish to pursue the subject, but she might have sensed that, and she turned the tables on him.

'And you—there's nothing wrong with your looks, and the constabulary doesn't require celibacy, so why aren't you married?' she asked, a wicked gleam in her eye. 'What happened to all those pretty girls you yearned after?'

He flushed in confusion. 'I don't know—' he confessed. 'For a while, none of those girls was interested in anyone who was earning barely enough in the constabulary to support himself—they'd flirt with me, but they married tradesmen. Then later, when I was a full constable, I didn't ever see anyoneI wanted to pursue. I suppose it was because I was always in districts that didn't have any decent women. I mean, they had decent women, but the ones who weren't married were brainless. Even most of the ones whowere married were brainless. And when I saw ones who had a few brains, they spoiled it all by falling in love with some muscle-bound idiot who'd get them with child then leave them with the baby and spend most of every night with a pretty barmaid.' He shook his head. 'I never understood it.'

'Well, maybe they fell in love with muscle-bound idiots because that's what they thought they were supposed to do,' Ardis commented sardonically. 'It's amazing what sheep women are, sometimes. But it's equally amazing how happy men are to have them that way, so there's plenty of blame on both sides.'

'I suppose so,' Tal began, and she fixed him with that penetrating stare again.

'Yousuppose so? Did you ever go to one of those women who attracted you and encourage her to think for herself? Did you ever compliment her on making a clever decision? Did you ever show her that you valued brains over looks?' At his shamefaced flush, she nodded. 'I thought so. Well, what's a girl to do, when her parents are telling her she has to be a pretty little fluff-head, her peers are rewarding the behavior of a pretty little fluff-head, and the handsome fellows only seem impressed by big, empty eyes and a slender waist? If her parents can't afford to apprentice her, and they don't have a business she can learn or they won'tlet her learn it, what is she to think and do?'

He felt obscurely ashamed. 'I suppose—they do what they feel they're supposed to do.'

Ardis was clearly relishing her low-key but heartfelt tirade. 'If someone ever gave them encouragement to think for themselves, youmight get a few girls outside of the Novitiate who find pleasure in spending as much time cultivating and nurturing their intelligence as they do their hair,' she said crisply. 'You know, I tried starting a school down in Kingsford for girls with brains and ambition, and it got nowhere, because there weren't anymen saying that girls with brains and ambition were attractive. The ones that stuck ended up in the Novitiate, where they'd have gone anyway.'

'That was then,' he pointed out, rather desperate to get his gender out of trouble. 'Maybe now you would be able to make it work. You're a High Bishop, you're a woman, young girls haveyour example. Things have changed in Kingsford, and there are a lot of women who've had to make their own way —'

'Yes, well, maybe now it would work,' she admitted, grumbling a little. 'Especially now that I could get a Free Bard tutor or three from my cousin, some help and encouragement from Duke Arden and Lady Asher, and I could requisition quite a few folk from this Abbey as teachers. I know Kayne would be perfectly happy to provide her services as exampleand teacher.'

'You see?' he said eagerly. 'You just took on too much by yourself. All you needed to do was to wait until you had the authority to get more help, and the power yourself to be an example.'

She gave him an odd, sideways look. 'You can be very persuasive yourself, Tal Rufen,' she said. 'I shall have to requisitionyour skills for this school; then we'll see what you have to say about it.'

'So long as all you ask me to teach is history, I have no particular objection,' he said, surprised by the sudden longing that came over him when she made the suggestion. 'I am not suited to teaching much of anything else.'

Again, she gave him one of those sidelong glances. 'Perhaps I shall do just that. But in the meanwhile, we have another sort of work ahead of us.' She brooded for a moment. 'I want you on the street, Tal. Go make those inquiries we spoke about; get some coin for bribery, and see if anyone knows anything. And warn the women.'