call him “Sweetsong” because his voice will make any woman sweet between the legs, and I’ve never known him to stop at a wedding vow.’
Jessum scowled. ‘Rojer,’ he said, pulling him off the horse, ‘run in and stay with Mum.’
Rojer nodded, hitting the ground running.
‘The last Jongleur ate fire,’ Rojer said. ‘Can you eat fire?’
‘That I can,’ Arrick said, ‘and spit it back out like a flame demon.’ Rojer clapped his hands and Arrick turned back to gaze at Kally, who was bending behind the bar to fill him a mug of ale. She had let her hair down.
Rojer pulled his cloak again. The Jongleur tried to tuck it out of reach, but Rojer just tugged on his trouser leg instead.
‘What is it?’ Arrick asked, turning back to him with a scowl.
‘Do you sing, too?’ Rojer asked. ‘I like singing.’
‘Perhaps I will sing for you later,’ Arrick said, turning away again.
‘Oh, give him a little song,’ Kally begged, putting a foaming mug on the counter before him. ‘It would make him so happy.’ She smiled, but Arrick’s eyes had already drifted down to the top button of her dress, which had mysteriously come undone while she fetched his mug.
‘Of course,’ Arrick said, smiling brightly. ‘Just a pull of your fine ale to wash the dust from my throat.’
He drained the mug in one quaff, eyes never leaving her neckline, and reached for a large multicoloured bag on the floor. Kally refilled his mug as he produced his lute.
Arrick’s rich alto voice filled the room, clear and beautiful as he gently strummed the lute. He sang a song of a hamlet woman who missed her one chance to love a man before he left for the Free Cities, and forever regretted it. Kally and Rojer stared at him in wonder, mesmerized by the sound. When he finished, they clapped loudly.
‘More!’ Rojer cried.
‘Not now, my boy,’ Arrick said, ruffling his hair. ‘Perhaps after supper. Here,’ he said, reaching into the multicoloured bag, ‘why not try making your own music?’ He produced a straw fiddle, several strips of polished rosewood in different lengths set into a lacquered wooden frame. A stout cord attached it to the wand, a six-inch stick with a lathed wooden ball at the end.
‘Take this and go play a bit while I speak with your lovely mother,’ he said.
Rojer squealed in delight, taking the toy and running off to plop down on the wooden floor, striking the strips in different patterns, delighting in the clear sounds each made.
Kally laughed at the sight. ‘He’s going to be a Jongleur one day,’ she said.
‘Not a lot of custom?’ Arrick asked, sweeping his hand over the empty tables in the common room.
‘Oh, it was crowded enough at lunchtime,’ Kally said, ‘but this time of year, we don’t get many boarders apart from the occasional Messenger.’
‘It must get lonely, tending an empty inn,’ Arrick said.
‘Sometimes,’ Kally said, ‘but I’ve Rojer to keep me busy. He’s a handful even when it’s quiet, and a terror during caravan season, when the drivers get drunk and sing till all hours, keeping him up with their racket.’
‘I imagine it must be hard for you to sleep through that, too,’ Arrick said.
‘It’s hard for me,’ Kally admitted. ‘But Jessum can sleep through anything.’
‘Is that so?’ Arrick asked, sliding his hand over hers. Her eyes widened and she stopped breathing, but she didn’t pull away.
The front door slammed open. ‘Wards are patched!’ Jessum called. Kally gasped, snatching her hand away from Arrick’s so quickly she spilled his ale across the bar. She grabbed a rag to soak it up.
‘Just a patch job?’ she asked doubtfully, her eyes down to hide the flush in her cheeks.
‘Not by a spear’s throw,’ Geral said. ‘Honestly, you’re lucky they lasted as long as they did. I patched the worst of them, and I’ll have a talk with Piter in the morning. I’ll see him replace every ward on this inn before sunset if I have to hold him at spearpoint.’
‘Thank you, Geral,’ Kally said, casting Jessum a withering look.
‘I’m still mucking the barn,’ Jessum said, ‘so I staked the horses out in the yard in Geral’s portable circle.’
‘That’s fine,’ Kally said. ‘Wash up, all of you. Supper will be ready soon.’
‘Delicious,’ Arrick proclaimed, drinking copious amounts of ale with his supper. Kally had roasted an herb-crusted shank of lamb, serving the finest cut to the Duke’s herald.
‘I don’t suppose you have a sister as beautiful as yourself?’ Arrick asked between mouthfuls. ‘His Grace is in the market for a new bride.’
‘I thought the Duke already had a wife,’ Kally said, blushing as she leaned to fill his mug.
‘He does,’ Geral grunted. ‘His fourth.’
Arrick snorted. ‘No more fertile than the others, I’m afraid, if the talk around the palace holds true. Rhinebeck will keep seeking wives until one gives him a son.’
‘You might have the right of that,’ Geral admitted.
‘How many times will the Tenders let him stand and promise the Creator “forever”?’ Jessum asked.
‘As many as he needs,’ Arrick assured. ‘Lord Janson keeps the Holy Men in check.’
Geral spat. ‘It’s not right, men of the Creator having to debase themselves for that …’
Arrick held up a warning finger. ‘They say even the trees have ears for those who speak out against the first minister.’
Geral scowled, but he held his tongue.
‘Well, he’s not likely to find a bride in Riverbridge,’ Jessum said. ‘There ent women enough for those of us here. I had to go all the way to Cricket Run to find Kally.’
‘You’re Angierian, my dear?’ Arrick asked.
‘Born, yes,’ Kally said, ‘but the Tender had me swear an oath to Miln at the wedding. All Bridgefolk are required to swear to Euchor.’
‘For now,’ Arrick said.
‘So it’s true, what they say,’ Jessum said. ‘Rhinebeck is coming to lay claim to Riverbridge.’
‘Nothing so dramatic,’ Arrick said. ‘His Grace simply feels that with half your people of Angierian stock and your bridge built and maintained from Angierian timber, that we should all have a …’ he eyed Kally as she sat back down, ‘… closer relationship.’
‘I doubt Euchor will be quick to share Riverbridge,’ Jessum said. ‘The Dividing has separated their lands for a thousand years. He’ll no sooner yield that border than his own throne.’
Arrick shrugged and smiled again. ‘That is a matter for dukes and ministers,’ he said, raising his mug. ‘Small folk such as us need not concern ourselves over such things.’
The sun soon set, and outside, there were sharp, crackling retorts, punctuated by flashes of light that leaked through the shutters as wards flared. Rojer hated those harsh sounds, and the shrieks that came with them. He sat on the floor, striking his noisemaker harder and harder, trying to drown them