Free Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling Page B

My captors expressed their displeasure most emphatically and discarded what was left of me rather far from the town. They thought I was dead; I remember having a few doubts on the matter myself. When I woke up several days later, I was in a hut and there was Erisa.”
    “I’ll bet she has powers beyond just healing,” Alec said, remembering the sharp tingle from her staff.
    “She can control people if she chooses. I’ve seen her do it, though she dislikes the power for the most part. I’ll tell you something, though. She’s saved my life several times, and I hers, but I’m a little nervous around her. You seldom know what a drysian’s thinking, or how they see things.”
    “She knew I was listening.”
    Seregil chuckled in the darkness. “She’d have known if
I
was listening. Don’t worry, you do it very well for a beginner. Now you’d better get some rest. We have a busy day tomorrow. You need outfitting, and I want a good look at those soldiers.”
    Alec heard the bed creak again. Below their window, waves lapped softly at the pilings, lulling him into a comfortable doze. He was just drifting off when Seregil’s sudden laugh startled him awake again.
    “And you’ve got us singing for the mayor!”

5
F RIENDS M ET , E NEMIES M ADE
    A lec sat up blinking as Seregil threw open the shutters early the next morning. Cold air and early sunlight flooded the room. “I doubt you’d have heard a prowler in the night, but you blocked the door nicely,” Seregil observed, tucking his harp under his arm. “While you’ve been snoring the morning away, I’ve been thinking. Your idea of singing for the mayor was an inspiration. That’s where this Boraneus fellow is staying, after all. I have a few things to attend to at the market. Find yourself something to eat and meet me there later so we can see about getting you properly outfitted. Look for me at the swordsmith Maklin’s in an hour if you don’t see me sooner. Now out of my way!”
    As soon as he was gone Alec rose and pulled on his boots. Outside, the sun shone across the calm surface of the lake, shimmering around the distant sails that dotted the waters to the horizon.
    Anxious as he was to catch up with Seregil, the scents of porridge and frying sausage that met him as he hurried downstairs were too good not to investigate.
    “You’re the bard’s ‘prentice, ain’t you?” a woman asked as he paused in the doorway. “Come in, lad! Your master was just here and said I was to see you have all you want.”
    Seregil must have been generous
, Alec thought as she piled his trencher with plump sausages and oat porridge, then fetched a pitcher of milk and some hot ash cakes to go with it.
    “However did you get so thin with a master as kind as that, eh?” She smiled, watching with satisfaction as Alec tucked in to her cooking.
    “He only just took me up,” Alec told her around a mouthful. “I had some hard times before.”
    “Well, you stick by him, love. He’ll make an honest fellow of you.”
    Alec nodded agreeably, though he still had certain reservations on the matter. Leaving a coin of his own on the table when he’d finished, he set off for the market.
    “All I have to do is go back the way we came in last night,” he told himself, setting off on foot. But for all his skill in the wilds, Alec had always found towns rather baffling. One narrow, twisting street looked very much like another in daylight and before long he was so turned around he couldn’t even find his way back to the waterfront. Cursing all towns and those who built them, he gave up and decided to ask directions.
    Unfortunately, there were few people about. The fishermen had long since gone out, and most of their women were at the market at this hour, or indoors behind their shutters. He’d passed several gangs of children earlier, but the street he found himself in now came to a dead end in a cluster of warehouses and was quite deserted. Nothing to do, it seemed, but retrace