Azure bonds - Kate Novak [86]
"Dear Olive, I am as much a halfling as you are a bard." Phalse's smile spread until it almost split his head.
Olive gave Phalse a blank stare.
"Oh, I realize that everyone you've run into so far assumes that a halfling bard is merely one of those wonderful things they have never experienced, but the well-traveled will always recognize you for a charlatan."
"I can sing, play, and compose original verse," Olive replied, her tone quite chill. "It seems to me, therefore, that the burden of proof lies on my detractors. Threats of slander are ill-advised, especially here in Shadowdale where I already enjoy the gratitude of the population."
Phalse bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Bard or no," he said, still smiling that frighteningly large smile, "you are a halfling, and I have never seen a halfling walk away from a table full of coins."
Olive did not reply immediately. She would like to turn down Phalse's offer, just to replace that grin with a look of astonishment. People did not endear themselves to her by suggesting she did not take her art seriously. But the platinum coins were so beautiful. Not only their color and size and shape and the ringing sound they made, but the sheer number of them. Enough to wash your hands in, as her mother would say.
Olive sighed. "You are a good judge of halflings."
"I'm sure you know the saying-a halfling will never sell her own mother into slavery. Not-"
"-when she can be rented at a greater profit," Olive said sourly, beating the pseudo-halfling to the punchline. She hated that joke.
Phalse interpreted her knowledge of the saying as agreement. "Do we have a deal?"
Olive gave herself a moment to brood over the offer. As far as she could see, it would bring her no harm. Phalse's friends would take care of the sell-sword long before she caught on to Olive's treachery.
The halfling would miss the warrior. She'd have to get Alias to teach her as many songs as possible before Phalse's friends caught up with her, but then the songs would be Olive's. The unpleasant scene tonight, where Alias had swept the halfling's audience away and then returned it like a plate full of meat cut up for a child, would never happen again.
She'd miss traveling with this particular set of companions, too. They were the first adventurers who hadn't forced her into the role of cook. But who knew? Mavbe Akabar would come out of this unscathed and she would travel with him to the south.
Olive had no doubt that Phalse's friends would succeed And Dragonbait would probably lose his life defending Alias, though gods knew why. Olive didn't see that her decision made too much difference in the long run. She was, at worst, only hastening Alias's capture.
"I find your tale most interesting. Well worth the price. Leave the ring. And the coins. The woman who is a bard will stay with the human female."
*****
Akabar awoke with a stiff back from having spent an uncomfortable night in an overstuffed armchair. The morning light illuminated dancing dust motes in Lhaeo's office. The scribe sat at the desk, still scribbling on parchment, just as he had been when Akabar dropped off last night.
Akabar yawned and stretched. "Noble scribe, I don't suppose the sage is awake yet?"
"Oh my," Lhaeo said as he looked up at the Turmishman with a startled expression. "He's been here and gone. He rises early, when he does go to bed."
"What!" Akabar shouted. "You mean he's left?"
"Oh, yes, definitely. He's gone on an extended tour of the planes. You just missed him."
"Why didn't you wake me?"
"Well," the scribe replied matter-of-factly, peering over the rim of his wire-framed lenses, "I didn't have the proper form."
The door nearly snapped off its hinges as Akabar yanked it open and threw it against the wall. But, like many wizard-built things, its fragile appearance was deceptive. It had survived many men angrier than the mage and would survive many more in the future.
Lhaeo made a reproving tch-tch sound as the Turmishman stalked away from the building without closing the door behind him. With a wave