BURGLARS
LATE AUTUMN, 6E6,
TO EARLY SPRING, 6E7
As they trekked along Argon Way to the center of town, “Lor, lor,” said Binkton, “there are people everywhere. How does someone stand to live in such crowds?”
“On their two feet,” said Pipper, grinning.
“What?”
“You asked how someone could stand to live in such crowds, Bink, and I said-”
“Oh, Pip, you know what I mean. People all jam-packed together. No wonder this is a lawless city, what with folks all banging and bumping into one another.”
“I don’t see a lot of jostling,” said Pipper.
“Well, if there isn’t any, there should be,” snapped Binkton.
With their duffle bags over their shoulders, the two buccen sidled their way through the throng, and Pipper said, “I don’t see how we’re ever going to find Tark and Queeker in this mess.”
“I don’t know either,” gritted Binkton, “but find them we will.”
They wove their way a bit farther, and then Binkton burst out, “Aargh! I’ve got to get away from this horde.”
“Bink, it’s no different from any jammed common room where we’ve performed. I mean, we draw packed houses and-”
“That’s different,” growled Binkton. “I mean, in a crowded tavern or inn we could always go to the outside. But this is the outside, and it’s worse than any common room we’ve ever been in. Come on, let’s go down one of these side streets and get free of this mob of towering Humans. I mean, we’re like minnows swimming among trout, and I’m like to get swallowed up.”
Pipper sighed. “All right, but we’ll have to come back into the stream and swim with the fishes, if only to find a place to stay. I mean, I doubt if there are any inns whatsoever outside of this street.”
They turned and made their way onto one of the twisting lanes leading off to the right. The narrow street was laden with shops of various sorts-curios, books, clothes, boots, and other such.
The route became less congested the farther they went, and finally Binkton heaved a great sigh of relief, glad to be able to walk without stepping this way and that to avoid being run over.
“I don’t understand you, Bink,” said Pipper. “I mean, they shackle you in chains and lock you in fetters and shut you up in little boxes and tie you up in ropes, and you don’t seem to mind that a bit. But stick you in a crowd and it’s as if you can’t breathe. I would think it’d be the other way ’round.”
“Maybe if it were Warrows instead of Humans,” said Bink, “I wouldn’t mind it so much. But the Big Folk, the Humans, well, they are just a menace, I think. I mean, how can they live that way, all bumping elbows, so to speak?”
Pipper said, “I am put in mind of what Uncle Arley said when I asked him to name the gifts of the various folk.”
Binkton looked at Pipper, one eyebrow raised in an unspoken question.
Pipper smiled. “He said the gift of Elves is grace and ageless life, and that of Dwarves is never to lose their feet, for once they tread a path, it is with them forever. And he said the gift of Warrows is heart.”
“Heart?”
“Yes. It seems we have the courage and will to follow through, once we take up a cause.”
“What about Humans, then?”
“Uncle Arley said their gift is fecundity, and that’s why there are so many of them.” Pipper gestured back toward Argon Way. “So, you see, Bink, in this place we are witness to the Human flair.”
Binkton turned and looked back toward the center of the city, and though the twisting street they followed blocked his view, he said, “Well, if they continue to try to fill up the world like they did this city, I think there will be no room for the rest of us.”
“That’s what the Elves say, Bink, or so Uncle Arley told me.”
They strolled a bit farther, but finally Pipper said, “Bink, we’ve got to go back, ’cause we need a place to stay.”
“Go back, Pip? Never.”
“Well, are we just going to sleep on the streets like those urchins back in Argon Ferry Town?”
“No, Pip.” Binkton pointed. “We’re going to stay right there.”
Pipper’s gaze followed the direction of Binkton’s outstretched arm, and above a small shop proclaiming itself to be Lady Jane’s Millinery-Fine Hats for Fine Ladies-a sign in a second-storey window declared, “Room to Let.”
“Well, I never had any of your folk ever stay in one of my rooms before,” said the matronly woman, silver glints here and there in her hair.
“We won’t be any bother, Lady Jane,” said Binkton.
“Oh, it’s not that I think you would be,” she replied. “I mean, I am honored to have Waldana live here, heroes of the Dragonstone War and all. I mean, my Grady-that’s my boy. Wounded in the war, he was. Took an arrow in the leg, he did. Walks with a limp, he does. Kept on fighting, though. Made it all the way to the Red Hills for the final battle. Anyway, my Grady, he says that when the Dragons came, all the Host were like to bolt, but then the little golden-armored Waldan blew on her silver horn, and the men looked to see the entire company of Waldfolc standing fast, and the Host took heart and stood fast as well.”
“That was our cousin Triss who sounded the call,” said Pipper.
“Was it now? Well, then, I’m doubly proud to have Waldana taking my room. Wait’ll I tell-”
Pipper threw up a hand to stop her words. “Ma’am, I wish you wouldn’t let anyone know that Warrows are in residence here. You see, we are on a mission of sorts. One that we’d rather keep quiet.”
With a puzzled look, Binkton stared at Pipper, but Lady Jane peered about as if to spy eavesdroppers and, seeing none, she whispered, “Ooo, a mission. One for the High King, I suspect.”
“We’d rather not say,” Pipper replied.
“Well, then, mum’s the word,” said the woman. “Oh, and if I might, and to help keep your presence secret, I’ll make you hats-caps, really-to cover those pointed ears of yours.” Then she frowned. “But I don’t see how to disguise those jewel-like eyes of yours-sapphire blue, emerald green.-Oh, wait, I know: hats with tall crowns and brims. They’ll shadow your faces. I have some lovely fabric.”
Pipper snapped his fingers as if at a sudden thought and said, “We’d rather look like urchins.”
Binkton’s jaw dropped a fraction.
Lady Jane frowned. “Urchins? Oh, I see. The better to blend in, you being so small and all. Well, then, I’ll find something to make do.”
Lady Jane bustled off, and Binkton looked at Pipper and asked, “What in the name of Adon was that all about?”
“Look, Bink, we can’t let word leak to Tark and Queeker that we are in town. I mean, they might just hie out of here.”
Binkton frowned a moment but then brightened. “Ah, I see. They probably heard about us dealing out swift and sure justice to those brigands, eh?”
“No, Bink, I was thinking more along the lines of-”
“Here we are,” declared Lady Jane, rushing back into the room. She held a cloth tape measure in hand, and she wrapped it around Binkton’s head. “Hmm. . For one so small you have a considerable brow. All right. All right. Don’t wiggle so. There now.” She jotted a note on a pad from her pocket, and then turned to Pipper and made another set of measurements.
As she rushed out again, Pipper said, “Come on, let’s unpack and then get something to eat.”
“Without our urchin disguises?” Binkton snorted, and then added, “We have to blend in, you know.”
“Oh, right,” said Pipper. “We’ll have to wait.”
