“Shh! You want the guards after us?”
“But—but—you were! You and Tich’ki were in it together, weren’t you? What did you do, Tich’ki? Use fairy magic so no one would notice you? That’s it, isn’t it? You looked at the other players’ hands and slipped Lydia the right cards—You were both cheating!”
Lydia stopped. Placing her hands firmly on the bardling’s shoulders, she told him, “My naive young friend, what did you think the others were doing? Hell, boy, we were all cheating, I realized that from the first hand! I just cheated better, that’s all.” Grinning, she released him. “You know who those two men were? The fellow with the beard—well, I don’t remember his name; it’s been a while. But he is a very successful gem merchant. The other one, the beardless guy, hasn’t changed much at all. His name is Selden, and he sits on the city council. Neither one of them are going to miss what we took from them!”
“You Stole from a city official!”
“He’s not going to let anyone know he was—let’s see, how does the formal term go?—participating in an illicit gambling operation. Come on, Kevin: smile! We’ve got our funding back, and more. Now let’s go bribe ourselves somebody useful.”
But just then an angry voice shouted, “There she is! That’s the woman who robbed me! Guards, after her!”
“Oh, right,” Kevin said sarcastically. “He’s not going to let anyone know.”
And then he and Lydia were running for their lives.
As the guards charged, Tich’ki leaped straight up into the air, wings a blur. “See you later!”
She darted off at top speed as Kevin and Lydia raced through the crowded streets of Westerin, weaving in and out of knots of people, the guards’ heavy footsteps pounding behind them. The air rang with cries of “Thieves! Stop them!” But no one even tried to block their path.
Of course not! Kevin realized. Nobody wants to risk getting involved!
“This way!” Lydia gasped, pointing to a narrow alley.
But Kevin stumbled to a stop, staring. In there^ The place stank! It was filthy with piles of garbage and who knew what else. Worse, it also looked like a dead end!
He almost hesitated too long. “Got him!” a guard yelled. A rough hand grabbed at the bardling’s arm, nearly pulling the lute from his back. Kevin kicked out savagely and heard a grunt of pain. The guard lost his hold, and the bardling dove into the alley.
Wonderful. Now rveassatiUedacitygtwrd.Ju^wcmder^
Trying not to breathe too deeply, he raced after Lydia, struggling to keep his footing on the slippery, muddy earth, telling himself the puddles he couldn’t help splashing through were water, only water.
None of it seemed to bother the guards. They came pounding after him, swearing, armor and weapons dashing as they ran.
“Kevin!” Lydia whispered, snatching at him.
Where did she think she was going? That didn’t even qualify as an alley! It was only a—a crevice, a space where the backs of two buildings didn’t quite meet.
“Come on, Kevin!”
Well, if she could fit ...
The bardling hurried in after her, trying not to let his lute bang against a wall. How weird! None of the houses in this area seemed to meet exactly, and as a result there was a whole little maze of not-quite alleys back here. He hoped the woman knew where she was going, because if she didn’t, they were going to wind up good and lost—
Lydia stopped so suddenly Kevin nearly crashed into her. She held up a hand, listening. “Damn!”
“They’re still after us.”
“Right. They don’t usually follow anyone in here. Must be an election year.” The woman shrugged. “We’ll have to try something else.’’
She started off again. Kevin, who had just barely caught his breath, groaned and followed. They suddenly came out into a wider way, the back alley of a street of shops. The bardling noticed the rickety piles of storage crates and barrels and thought in sudden inspiration, What if ...?
“Lydia, wait!”
He pointed. She stared, then grinned in comprehension. “You’re catching on fast, kid!”
As the guards charged out into the alley, they yelled to see their prey standing as if winded, leaning helplessly against a wail. “There they are! Take them!”
But the boy kicked at a crate and the woman at a barrel, and a whole avalanche of crates and barrels came thundering down, nearly burying the guards and totally blocking the alley.
“That does it!” Lydia crowed. “Let’s get out of here before they can dig themselves out.”
The small, open square might have been grand at one rime, but Westerin had grown out and away from it long years back. Now it was a shabby little place, cobblestones cracked and broken where they hadn’t been stolen outright. In the center of the square stood a fountain so chipped and worn Kevin guessed water hadn’t flowed in it since Westerin had been founded.
Its rim made a fine place for two fugitives to sit and catch their breach. “No sign of the guards,” Lydia said after a time, “Guess they finally lost us.”
“What do you suppose happened to Tich’ki?”
Lydia shrugged. “She can take care of herself. No one’s going to find a fairy who doesn’t want to be found!” She glanced at Kevin. “That idea with the barrels was pretty clever. How’d you think of it?’’
“I didn’t,” the bardling confessed. “I remembered it from an adventure ballad.”
“Ha! Looks like music’s good for something more than just pretty notes!”
Oh no, he wasn’t going to fall into her trap. Biting back his indignant reply, Kevin asked instead, “Where are we, Lydia?”
The woman glanced about. “Pretty much where we want to be. In the..—shall we say ... less elegant section of town. The section that every city has, where the guards don’t go too often and never alone, and where no one asks too many questions.” At his raised eyebrow, the woman added jauntily, “Just trying to talk like a proper Bard!”
I will not let her bait me! “ In other words, we’re in the slums.”
“Exactly. Just the spot for a few carefully placed bribes.”
“Here?”
“Of course here. You don’t find the weasels and rats we need in palaces!”
“What’s to keep those rats from calling the guards?”
Lydia laughed. “The kind of folks we’re going to meet are hardly going to be on the best of terms with guards. They’re not going to call ‘em down on us.”
“Sure. Just like that city official wouldn’t.” “Huh! This adventure’s turning you too cynical, kid! Come on, let’s go rat-hunting.”
The first tavern was small and crowded, and stank of stale beer and staler humanity. But at least, Kevin thought warily, the men inside looked reasonably normaclass="underline" sweaty, thick-set laborers and dock workers who’d stopped in for a quick drink.
Lydia shook her head in disapproval. “This won’t do. Too honest Come on.”
The second tavern hid in the basement of a half-collapsed tenement It was so dark in there that for one nervous moment Kevin, poised on the top of a short, rickety stairway, couldn’t see anything at all. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he swallowed drily. This cluster of men and ... not-quite humans lurking down there in the shadows couldn’t have had anything honest to them at all.