The Gold Falcon - Katharine Kerr [62]
“I can, sir.”
“Very well. Here’s the bargain. If everything’s safe, you get the coins. However, if anything’s missing, I dock you one coin for each stolen good. Fair?”
“Very fair, sir.” The lad crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the door. “I’ll not have much work to do till later, so I can stay here.”
Up on the commons hill, the market swarmed with farmers selling produce, craftsmen manning little wooden booths, townsfolk haggling with peddlers, horse-traders parading their stock back and forth. Salamander wandered through, studying everyone and everything, and planned his strategy. From Dallandra he knew a fair bit about the dragons already, but they provided an excellent way to open conversations. To ask right out about Horsekin might be dangerous at worst, if they should have a spy in Cengarn, or at the least, a good way to frighten off any potential informants.
Eventually Salamander found an empty ale barrel. He rolled it to a level spot, then turned it upside down and climbed on top of it. When a few people paused to watch him, he took a pair of silk scarves from his shirt. He flung them in the air, caught them, made them disappear up his sleeve and produced them again from his collar. A dozen fascinated children flocked around. After a few more scarf tricks, the crowd swelled to include adults.
“Good morrow, good citizens of Cengarn,” Salamander said. “I am Salamander, a gerthddyn from Eldidd, come to amuse, distract, and delight you. Have you heard of Cadwallon, the mighty sorcerer who dwelt in the fabled halls of King Bran? Do you know that he once tamed a dragon with soft words alone?”
Most of those crowded around called out, “We don’t!” When they all sat down on the ground, Salamander climbed down from the barrel. He proceeded to tell the tale for free while the crowd grew to a profitable size. At that point he made a great show of coughing and clearing his throat.
“Alas, good people, I am far too thirsty, parched veri tably, to continue.”
The crowd laughed, and some flung copper coins his way. As he collected them, a small boy trotted over with a tankard of ale.
“From my da,” the boy said. “He’ll want the tankard back.”
“I’ll make sure he gets it.” Salamander took a long swallow. “And very good ale it is.”
He finished the tale and the tankard together, punctuating the one with sips from the other. More coins came his way, which he answered with profound thanks; then he gave the empty tankard back to the boy.
“Well, lad,” he said. “Did you enjoy the tale?”
“I did, sir. We’ve got dragons round here. Did you know that?”
“I’d heard it, truly. One black and one silver, is that right?”
“It is, but we don’t see the silver one much. Just the black one.” The boy sighed with a sad shake of his head. “She steals cows now and then. My da says there’s naught to be done about it. Dragons are just like that.”
Salamander sent the boy back to his father, then strolled through the market fair. Now that he’d made himself known as an entertainer—a rare and precious thing here on the edge of the kingdom—everyone was willing to strike up a conversation about the local dragons. While he learned little new, it did become clear that the silver dragon tended to shun human settlements, whether farm or town, while the black showed no fear of nor shyness around anyone or anything.
“A fair pest she can be,” said a woman who was selling chunks of roast pork on sticks. “I’m just glad she scorns pig when she can get beef.”
“She can’t take too many of your animals,” Salamander said. “Or she’d have eaten the town out of house and home by now.”
“True-spoken, good sir. She must hunt venison, mostly, and other wild creatures. I suppose a good cow is a treat, like, to her. The silver one must eat mostly deer, or maybe a nice fat bear now and again.”
Salamander smiled, but his stomach twisted in disgust at the thought of his brother killing game and eating it raw. He’s not really Rhodry any longer, he reminded himself. But still, the image appalled him, especially the thought of eating bears, laden with worms