Azure bonds - Kate Novak [79]
Alias shrugged. "She doesn't remember teaching me, but she did. I know she did," she said vehemently.
The old man peered at Alias through half-closed eyes, considering her answer. Finally he asked, "Do ye know any other good, old songs? One about the moon maybe?" He pointed to the bright sphere. "And the lights that follow it?"
"The Tears of Selune," Alias said.
"It's a love song, isn't it?" the old man asked.
"Yes," Alias answered. "About how the goddess of the moon weeps because her lover, the sun, is always on the other side of the world."
"That's the one. Where'd ye learn it?"
"You want me to sing it?" she asked.
"That's not what I asked, now, is it?"
"No."
"Well?" the old man prompted.
Alias did not answer. He'd laughed when she said Jhaele had taught her the song about the Standing Stone. If she told him she'd learned The Tears of Selune from a Harper, he probably wouldn't believe that either.
As though he were reading her mind, the old man asked "Do ye think ye learned it from a Harper maybe?"
It was Alias's turn to stare at him.
"Your short friend, the bard, was singing a song about Myth Drannor. She said a Harper had taught it to her."
Alias snorted. "Sounds like Olive."
"You savin' she didn't learn it from a Harper?"
"She learned it from me," Alias said.
"Which leaves the question-where did ye learn these songs?"
"A Harper," she admitted.
"I thought so," the old man said smugly. "What was this Harper's name?"
Alias thought very hard, but she drew a complete blank. "I don't know," she whispered.
"I thought not," the old man said.
"No, you don't understand. I'm telling you the truth. I just don't always remember things."
"Oh, I understand, all right. More than ye know. I believe ye. Ye learned the song from a Harper, but he never told ye his name."
"That's not possible," Alias said, wracking her brain for memories of the Harper. "We were close…" Her voice trailed off. She could not even remember the Harper's face, let alone where or how they had met. "He was a Harper," she insisted.
"He was," the old man echoed.
Warmed by the fire, Alias pushed her sleeves up to her elbows without thinking.
"An interesting tattoo you have there," the old man said, nodding at her right arm.
Alias was about to pull her sleeve back down, but the old man snatched her wrist and pulled her arm toward him. The firelight flickered over the blue sigils. The markings remained still for the moment: they could almost pass as a normal tattoo. Yet, Alias felt uncomfortable revealing the sigils to strangers. "It's not mine," she said.
"Oh. Ye just rented it for the month of Mirtul?'" the old man joked.
"Someone put it on me without my permission," Alias explained. "I must have been drunk." She shrugged.
The graybeard raised his eyebrows and squinted. "Nice work, nice work, indeed. I've seen naught like it. They aren't very nice symbols, are they?"
"What would you know about them?" Alias asked, trying to yank her arm back, but the old man's grip was surprisingly firm.
He tapped the sigil at the crook of her arm. "Flame Daggers," he muttered.
"Fire Knives," Alias corrected.
"Oh, right. Right. They're a guild of Thieves and Assassins from Cormyr. Young Azoun sent 'em packing. They operate out of a warehouse in Westgate now."
Surprised by the old man's knowledge, Alias quit struggling and let her arm rest in his grip.
"And the two below," she prompted him.
He snorted. "What do I look like? A sage?" he retorted.
"Well, yes, kind of," Alias said.
The old man chuckled. "Ye can't live in a town as small as this one without pickin' up stuff. Elminster's always out advisin' on the lambin' and the hayin', always tellin' stories. He could tell ye what these were without blinkin'."
"We've never met," Alias replied with a sniff.
"I suppose not. He doesn't care much for adventurers."
"Oh. I suppose he prefers greengrocers," Alias retorted.
"Greengrocers?"
"Townfolk. Farmers. Traders. People more interested in profit than adventure,"
The old man chuckled again. "They've got land and a town to show for it.