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."I should have some contracts inhere, too, if the beetles haven't gotten to them-" he mumbled, mostly to himself, it seemed."Ah! Here they are!"He emerged with a handful of papers, looked them over, and found the one he wanted.Ithad been nibbled around the edges, but was otherwise intact.He placed it on the table nextto the cider, and leafed through the book."Here it is.Wedding." He looked up."I'm supposed to give you a great long lecture at thispoint about the sanctity of marriage, and the commitment it means to each of you, but youboth strike me as very sensible people.I don't think you need a lecture from me, who doesn'tknow a thing about women.And I don't expect you're doing this because you don't haveanything else to do tonight.So, we'll skip the lecture, shall we, and go right into thebusiness?""Certainly," Talaysen said, and took Rune's hand.She nodded and smiled at Father Bened,who smiled back, and began.* * *"Well, did that suit you?" Talaysen asked, as they spread their blankets in Father Bened'shardly used spare room.There was no furniture, the light was from one of their own candles,and the only sounds were the snores of Father Bened's mastiffs in the other room and thespattering of rain on the roof."Practical, short, to the point, and yes, it suited me," Rune replied, carefully spreading theirblankets to make one larger bed.It practically filled the entire room."There's a duly signedsheet of parchment in your pack that says we're married, and the next town we go through,we'll drop the Church copy off at the clerk's office." She stood up and surveyed her work."Now, are you happy?"Talaysen sighed."If I told you how happy I was, you probably wouldn't believe it-"Rune turned, smiled, and moved closer to him, until there was less than the width of a hairbetween them."So why don't you show me?" she breathed.He did.It was a long time before they slept.CHAPTER NINETEEN"I cannot believe this!" Talaysen fumed, testing the bonds about his wrists and giving theeffort up after a few moments.A good thing, too; since they were roped together at thewrists, his efforts had been wrenching Rune's shoulders out of their sockets."First the damnGuild gets all free-lance musicians barred from the last three Faires-and now this-"Rune didn't say anything, which was just as well.There wasn't much she could say-andcertainly none of it would have made their guards vanish, eased his temper, or gotten themfree of their bonds.There were three major Faires up here in the north of the kingdom, all within a week of eachother: the Wool Faire at Naneford, the Cattle Faire at Overton, and the Faire of Saint Jewelat Hyne's Crossing.Talaysen had planned to make all of them, for all three of them weregood places to make contacts for wintering-over.All three were held within the cathedral grounds inside each city-and at all three, whenTalaysen and Rune had tried to gain entrance, they had been turned back by guards at thegates.Church guards, even though the Faires were supposed to be secular undertakings.Each guard looked down his nose at them as he explained why they had been barred.Therewere to be no musicians allowed within except those with Guild badges.That was thebeginning and the end of it.The Guild had petitioned the City Council and the Church, andthey had so ruled; the Council on the grounds that licensing money was being lost, theChurch on the grounds that musicians encouraged revelry and revelry encouragedlicentiousness.If Rune and Talaysen wished to play in the streets of the city, or within one ofthe inns, they could purchase a busking permit and do so, but only Guild musicians and theirapprentices would be playing inside the Faire.They found out later that there was no "free"entertainment in the Faires this year; anyone who wished to hear music could pay up acopper to listen to apprentices perform within a Guild tent, or a silver to hear Journeymen.That was the entertainment by day-anyone who sought music after dark could part with threesilvers to listen to a single Master at night.There were no dancers in the "streets" orotherwise.In fact, there was nothing within the Faire grounds but commerce and Churchrituals [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]