Soul Music

waiting to be filled up with music and you're still sitting around?'

Buddy handed the guitar back to the musician and swung his own instrument around on its strap. He played a few notes that seemed to twinkle in the air.

'But I can play this,' he said. 'Oh, yes.'

'Right, good, now get up there and play it,' said Dibbler.

'Someone else give me a guitar!'

Musicians fell over themselves to hand them to him. He strummed frantically at a couple. But the notes weren't simply flat. Flat would have been an improvement.

The Musicians' Guild contingent had managed to secure an area close to the stage by the simple expedient of hitting any encroachers very hard.

Mr Clete scowled at the stage.

'I don't understand,' he said. 'It's rubbish. It's all the same. It's just noise. What's so good about it?'

Satchelmouth, who had twice had to stop himself tapping his feet, said, ' We haven't had the main band yet. Er. Are you sure you want to—'

'We're within our rights,' said- Clete. He looked around at the shouting people. 'There's a hot dog seller over there. Anyone else fancy a hot dog? Hot dog?' The Guild men nodded. 'Hot dog? Right. That's three hot d—'

The audience cheered. It wasn't the way that an audience normally applauds, with it starting at one point and rippling outwards, but all at once, every single mouth opening at the same time.

Cliff had knuckled on to the stage. He sat down behind his rocks and looked desperately back towards the wings.

Glod trailed on, blinking in the lights.

And that seemed to be it. The dwarf turned and said something which was lost in the noise, and then stood looking awkward while the cheers gradually subsided.

Buddy came on, staggering slightly as if he'd been pushed.

Up until then Mr Clete had thought the crowd was yelling. And then he realized that it had been a mere murmur of approval compared to what was happening now.

It went on and on while the boy stood there, head bowed.

'But he's not doing anything,' Clete shouted into Satchelmouth's ear. ' Why're they all cheering him for not doing anything?'

'Can't say, sir,' said Satchelmouth.

He looked around at the glistening, staring, hungry faces, feeling like an atheist who has wandered into Holy Communion.

The applause went on. It redoubled again when Buddy slowly raised his hands to the guitar.

'He's not doing anything!' screamed Clete.

'He's got us bang to rights, sir,' Satchelmouth bellowed. 'He's not guilty of playing without belonging to the Guild if he doesn't play!'

Buddy looked up.

He stared at the audience so intently that Clete craned to see what it was the wretched boy was staring at.

It was nothing. There was a patch of it right in front of the stage.

People were packed tight everywhere else but there, right in front of the stage, was a little area of cleared grass. It seemed to rivet Buddy's attention.

'Uh-huh-huh…'

Clete rammed his hands over his ears but the force of the cheering made his head echo.

And then, very gradually, layer by layer, it died away. It yielded to the sound of thousands of people being very quiet, which was somehow, Satchelmouth thought, a lot more dangerous.

Glod glanced at Cliff, who made a face.

Buddy was still standing, staring at the audience.

If he doesn't play, Glod thought, then we've had it.

He hissed at Asphalt, who sidled over.

'Is the cart ready?'

'Yes, Mr Glod.'

'You filled up the horses with oats?'

'Just like you said, Mr Glod.'

'OK.'

The silence was velvet. And it had that quality of suction found in the Patrician's study and in holy places and deep canyons, engendering in people a terrible desire to shout or sing or yell their name. It was a silence that demanded: fill me up.

Somewhere in the darkness, someone coughed.

Asphalt heard his name hissed from the side of the stage. With extreme reluctance he sidled over to the darkness, where Dibbler was frantically beckoning him.

'You know that bag?' said Dibbler.

'Yes, Mr Dibbler. I put it—'

Dibbler held up two small but very heavy sacks.

'Tip these in and be ready to leave in a big hurry.'

'Yes, that's right, Mr Dibbler, because Glod said—'

'Do it now!'

Glod looked around. If I throw away the horn and helmet and this chain mail shirt, he thought, I might just get out of here alive. What's he doing?

Buddy put down the guitar and walked into the wings. He returned before the audience had realized what was happening. He was carrying the harp.

He stood facing the audience.

Glod, who was closest to him, heard him murmur: 'Just once? Cwm on? Just one more time? And then I'llll do whatefer you want, see? I'llll pay for it.'

There were a few faint chords from the guitar.

Buddy said, 'I mean it, see.'

There was another chord.

'Just once.'

Buddy smiled at an empty space in the audience, and began to play.

Every note was sharp as a bell and as simple as sunlight - so that in the prism of the brain it broke up and flashed into a million colours.

Glod's mouth hung open. And then the music unfolded in his head. It wasn't Music With Rocks In, although it used the same doors. The fall of the notes conjured up memories of the mine where he'd been born, and dwarf bread just like Mum used to hammer out on her anvil, and the moment when he'd first realized that he'd fallen in love.[29] He remembered life in the caves under Copperhead, before the city had called him, and more than anything else he wanted to be home. He'd never realized that humans could sing hole.

Cliff laid aside his hammers. The same notes crept into his corroded ears, but in his mind they became quarries and moorlands. He told himself, as emotion filled his head with its smoke, that right after this he was going to go back and see how his old mum was, and never leave ever again.

Mr Dibbler found his own mind spawning strange and disturbing thoughts. They involved things you couldn't sell and shouldn't pay for…

The Lecturer in Recent Runes thumped the crystal ball.

'The sound is a bit tinny,' he said.

'Get out of the way, I can't see,' said the Dean.

Recent Runes sat down again.

They stared at the little image.

'This doesn't sound like Music With Rocks In,' said the Bursar.

'Shut up,' said the Dean. He blew his nose.