"Hasn't Lommy told you, yet?"
"Told me what?"
"Maybe you should climb up to the heavens and have a peek inside?" suggested Sivana. "But be quiet about it."
There was a ladder backstage, but it was faster to climb up the gallery rails and onto the stage roof. Both Sivana and Feena tsked at him as he took Lommy's preferred route.
"One day," Sivana always warned him, "you'll fall right through that thatching."
"Be careful up there," called Feena in a stage whisper. Tal crept along the thatching on all fours, trying to spread his weight as evenly as possible. As he approached the clarion door, he peered inside.
"Lommy?" he called softly. As his eyes adjusted, he saw the ragged outlines of the tasloi's nest. He had rarely climbed up to their lair, where Otter spent most of his time. The reclusive tasloi was virtually the opposite of his outgoing, clownish brother.
"Tal!" came Lommy's whispering voice, as did the sibilant sounds of Otter's response. Tal saw Otter curled protectively around an even smaller creature. Dark gray and wrinkly, it looked like a miniature tasloi-which is exactly what it was.
Lommy clambered over the window sill and sat on the thatching with Tal, uncharacteristically calm. Usually the little creature was a trembling spring, ready to shoot in any direction unexpectedly.
"I thought Otter was your brother," said Tal. "Otter brother," agreed Lommy, grinning. "Chaney little brother."
"I see," said Tal, gazing fascinated at the mewling infant. While Quickly's insistence that the tasloi never improve their pidgin Common might make them more charming for the audiences, Tal never anticipated such a profound failure to communicate.
"Tal big brother," said Lommy, climbing onto Tal's shoulder and clinging to his hair. "Tal happy?"
"Oh, yes," said Tal. "Tal very happy. Dumbfounded, flabbergasted, astonished, and a few other big words, but Tal happy."
They sat together on the roof, peering in every now and again to watch Otter cradling the baby. After a while, Lommy pulled Tal's ear affectionately and went inside to join his new family.
"It was hard enough dealing with one family," said Tal, "but now I've got three."
He and Feena lay on their backs in the yard of the darkened theater. They looked up at the waning moon as it dipped below the edge of the round roof.
"You've been with the players for years," said Feena, "you've come to good terms with your parents, and Lommy and Otter take care of little Chaney themselves. How hard can it be?"
"You have no idea," said Tal. "I just feel like I have to take care of everything these days, like I have to look out for everyone."
"And you're complaining? I thought that's what you liked best?"
Tal thought about that for a moment. "I do like it," he admitted. "It's better than having other people trying to look out for me all the time. But it's a lot of work."
"So you're whining because…?"
"I'm not whining," he insisted. He thought of Chaney and bit his lip. "All right, so maybe I was whining just a little."
"And you'll quit it now."
"And I'll quit it now."
Feena slipped her hand into his. They looked up at the moon and the stars, dreaming their separate dreams until Tal spoke again.
"Thank you, Feena."
"For what?"
"This past year, all the time you were helping me with the wolf, I kept expecting you to come to the point and insist I join your church."
"I know I came on strong at first," she said. "You weren't the only one who had a lot of anger to face."
"Rusk," said Tal.
"And Mother, for not dealing with him earlier."
"What could she have done?"
"I don't know," she said. "Moved away, joined his bloody pack… something. It feels as though I've spent my whole life waiting for them to kill each other, and now it's over. I don't know what to do next."
"What do you want to do?" he asked.
"That's the problem," she said. "I've never had to decide before."
She went silent, waiting for Tal to say something. A hundred thoughts surfaced in his mind, but he pushed them back down. Every one of them seemed too perilous, too likely to add even more worries to his life. He already had his family to deal with, and now he had taken responsibility for the players as well. Adding Feena to that confusing mix could be nothing but trouble. It was hard enough keeping his relationship with her a secret from his family.
And he realized his mistake Keeping secrets was not his virtue.
Tal turned on his side and ran a finger lightly along Feena's jaw. Even in the partial moonlight, her freckles stood out against her fair skin. She turned to face him, kissing his palm before nuzzling his hand.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
"I was thinking," he said, "I'd like to make a deal with you."