Free Dragon's Ring by Dave Freer Page B

boost." And he made a stirrup of his hands, and lifted her, so that she had her waist over the top. With a scrabble Meb tumbled headlong into the small yard.
     
    He came over the top as easily as a lizard.
     
    "Good." he said quietly. "No dog."
     
    The idea hadn't even occurred to her. She really wasn't very good at this, the inner person admitted, but she was so tired . . .
     
    He hauled up a bucket of water from the well, and they washed hands and faces. The water was cold—and it wasn't going to do anything for her clothes. But the gleeman seemed to have thought of that too. He slipped into the barn and returned as she was still scrubbing. "Here," he said, handing her a bundle from the pack he'd retrieved from a hayloft. "I've . . . um . . . outgrown them a little. Fling those clothes of yours in the manure pile, and toss a bit of straw over them. I'm going to open a back way in for us. I think we'll have been here quietly, all evening."
     
    Meb was relieved when he went so that she could change, anyway. But her very tired mind did ask her if she knew quite what she was getting herself into. And that was no reference to the red and yellow jester's knee-breeches and the loose tunic-top he'd given her. There was even a cloak, too. It was good cloth, if rather worn. She scrambled into them hastily. And there were boots . . . she'd never had real shoes. They fitted surprisingly well, even if they did feel odd.
     
    "Ah. Well, you'll pass as a jester 'prentice," said her new-found mentor, coming back so quietly that she hadn't heard him. "Got rid of those clothes yet?"
     
    "No . . . but there's good wear in them yet. They just need a wash," she said.
     
    "Tch," he clicked his tongue. "People will maybe be looking for a fisher-boy. Those are too recognizable. And too smoky by half. Give." She handed them over to him. He shook the bundle, and shook his head. "You even forgot to take the money out of the pockets, Scrap."
     
    She blinked. "Sorry. Very tired."
     
    He patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Food and sleep then. We'll need to make an early start tomorrow. We want to be a long way gone when Zuamar starts looking at his tax hall."
     
    "We?"
     
    He grinned. "It would seem that you're probably the worst possible choice for an apprentice rogue. Therefore I've decided to take you on."
     
    She blinked. Gaped at him. "But . . . my step-brothers. I've got to wait for them. They're off at sea. They won't be back for days."
     
    "Best place for them to be," said the gleeman. "I suspect that there is going to be a fair amount of trouble tomorrow. Some people are going to remember you jumping out of the chief tax-inspector's window."
     
    "How will they ever know we did it?" asked Meb, fearfully.
     
    He made a face. "Trust me. They will know someone did. And the bigger the thief, the nastier they get about being robbed, even if it is nothing but some small change you took from their pockets. Come on. There's a back window unlatched. You'll have to keep quiet. Someone is asleep in the room."
     
    On her own Meb would never have dared to go into a room via the window, let alone past two sleeping people, snoring together in bass and alto harmony. She stumbled over some garments abandoned on the floor, but the jester caught her arm before she fell into the bed with the snorers. They navigated through the room to a dimly-lit interior passage, and slipped into the tap-room, to a table in a back corner.
     
    A slatternly, tired-looking woman came to the jester's wave. "We'll have another drink," he said. "And maybe a plate of stew, eh, Scrap?"
     
    "Have you got money to pay for it?" the waitress asked suspiciously.
     
    The gleeman shook his head sorrowfully. "Where's charity these days? Here." He held out a small silver coin. "The boy's had the flux for half the evening. I suppose he'd better just have food. Or maybe a half of ale. He's not used to drinking yet."
     
    The coin improved her expression.