“So, the urchin can play,” Reven said after the show. Kaleo looked at him, flushing some. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-one,” Kaleo answered. Reven winced. He was an infant by avian standards, barely into his first season of life.
“And your parents?” Reven continued. A flash of pain crossed the boy’s face.
“Dead,” he said with a heaviness that was nearly crushing. Reven had seen too many misplaced children of all races. It was far too common in his line of work. Children were sold into slavery or picked up by large guilds for thieving. Recently, there was a large increase in tirsai children owing to the fall of the Phoenix Empire some years back. Liam guessed that was where Reven originated from given how he spoke but they never discussed the matter further. Given how Kaleo spoke, the bard was inclined to make the same guestimation of the boy’s origins.
“They loved it!” Liam announced as he walked back stage. “Brilliant, mate, just brilliant - - lovey, did ya get the bauble?”
The thief-taker asked the last of Ajana, sidling up to her in a bit of stupor. He was drunk.
“Of course I did, without thanks to you,” she replied, bangled hands on decorated hips. She reached down to grab the satchel, keeping it at her side instead of handing it over like Liam wanted.
“Wha’?” Liam lilted. Ajana shoved him off, dropping pieces of costume in her wake, firmly grasping the satchel as if to keep the bauble for herself. “Wha’s wrong wiv’ ‘er?”
“You smell, Liam,” Reven replied. “Kaleo.”
“Yes?”
“I see no belongings, do you have any?” Reven asked. Kaleo only made a face of annoyance.
“I did but that beast of a human dragged me off before I could grab them. I highly doubt there’s anything left. Why?”
“Well, then we’ll be going shopping tomorrow.” “We?” the boy asked, dodging around Liam who peered at him through bloodshot eyes.
“Yes, ‘we’. I can’t have my urchin apprentice actually looking like an urchin. I’ve a reputation to maintain.”
“You… want me to stay?” Kaleo asked. Reven could hear the stifled excitement, the desire to hope being forcefully squashed down because it was too dangerous to have that kind of hope. Then Liam crushed it in one fell swoop. Kaleo glanced at his feet, his face flushed with shame and lingering adrenaline that made the bard’s ire begin to rise on the boy’s behalf.
“Are you mad!” Liam shouted. Reven glared with so much hate in his eyes he may have set Liam on fire on the spot. “The bloody hells ya need a kid for! An’ why tha’ kid! Pick a diff’nt one ya blasted loon!”
“I am not a loon ,you drunken shit, I am your bloody cash cow! That applause you heard was not for you, but the coin has already hit your pockets hasn’t it? And if you want to keep it that way then you’ll not say a single gods-dammed word or I will take my urchin, my drummer and quite possibly my dancer, too, and walk away to watch you wallow in your own piss while you beg for scraps on your own! Are we clear?”
Reven moved so close to Liam their noses practically touched. He smelled the liquor, felt the fear and anger that kept Liam’s mouth shut. The argument would come later, but for now Reven maintained the high ground, walking out with Serai and his new apprentice right on his heels. Ajana loitered a bit longer, then followed Reven, satchel in hand, and look of disgust on her scarred copper face.
***
Kaleo listened to the bard rail at the drunken duende man and smartly bit his tongue. He did not argue when the bard stormed out of the theatre, did not utter a single syllable and simply followed in stunned silence. The man looked like Gannon Oenel, but different enough to make Kaleo really wonder. The man’s hair was much shorter, for one, with darker coloring to it than the pale blond Kaleo remembered. He was darker in skin, too, and there was a scar near his brow that had not been there before. One thing remained the same, the one thing that made Kaleo’s stomach turn itself into a thousand knots - the man’s eyes. Kaleo would know those eyes anywhere. His sister had the same eyes, their father’s eyes.
“… you to find? What is that, it’s pulsing,” the bard said, gesturing at the satchel that the dancer held close to her breast. Kaleo felt it too, a subtle thumping like a heartbeat that made him feel a little dizzy. And hot. He was sweating and thoroughly exhausted. Every step he took was a struggle, his leg throbbing painfully with each step. He’d ignored it in all the rush and ruckus of the performance, but it was not so easy to do anymore.
Kaleo…
He did not answer his audeas, maintaining a solid lock on the bard walking just a few steps ahead of him lest he wake and find it all to be a dream. He needed proof, needed something solid to hold on to, to truly know that this man, this short-tempered strumpet was, in fact, Gannon Oenel.
“It is a gem,” the woman answered. “It bothers you, my love?”
“It’s annoying. Is it expensive?”
“Very,” the woman smiled. The bard smiled back. He then growled and glanced back at Kaleo who immediately dropped his gaze. “I will speak with Liam.”
“Don’t bother,” the bard said. “I’ll pay him myself. I’m altering my part of the contract with Luca, Ajana. I’m done letting Liam command me - or you, if you want it.”
The conversation continued, with the scarred woman smiling in appreciation at the offer given. It
