‘What are you on about?’
‘He’ll then hope you buy it from the busker, who doesn’t know the alleged true value of the instrument, for a much smaller price. You’re meant to think you can sell it back to the well-dressed man for a huge profit, but all that will happen is that you hand over a lot of cash for what is, ultimately, a cheap drum. Meanwhile, they’ll have shared the coin and not even be in the same neighbourhood by the time you notice.’
‘You seem very sure,’ he laughed.
‘I have seen it done in many other taverns in cities across this continent. You’re not the first. You’ll not be the last. It is a very old trick.’
‘You’re a cynical man,’ he replied. ‘People are better than that!’
‘That may be so, but keep hold of that drum and wait to be approached – then you can comment fairly on my nature.’
With a cautious glare the tavern owner nodded and took his drum to the countertop nearby, placing it beside the sacks of fresh bread.
Titiana frowned at me, and gave a short laugh. ‘He’s right, you seem very sure of yourself.’
‘With the drum, I am, at least. Not so much with you it seems.’
‘You were confident enough last night.’ All I was getting was a half-smile, but I had waited for years to see just that much. ‘Yet you claim to struggle with me now?’
I shrugged. ‘Love makes things more difficult.’
‘Love. You said you loved me right before you gave me the wound on my back.’ The half-smile remained on her face. ‘If that is what you think of love, then you’re better off without it.’
This wasn’t going to be easy. Over the years I had speculated on this imaginary conversation, of how it would go and how we would both act, but in my head my words had come out effortlessly, and she had been a lot less hostile. I was better off sweeping away criminals from the streets of Vispasia, than trying to form pretty sentences with her.
‘Titiana, you might have married and started a new life, but I never really moved on. I’ve never had the opportunity to find a partner, or start a family. I’ve simply travelled from city to city, from street to street, dealing with those at the edge of the civilized world.’
‘You made your choices,’ she replied. ‘I notice that you can’t seem to apologize for your actions.’
Was it only pride from making me do so? ‘I am sorry for what happened, and for my part in it. I’m truly sorry.’
It didn’t seem that difficult, after all, to say the word.
Though we sat in silence for a few moments, it felt as if a tension had been ever so slightly dissolved. We could relax. The serving girl brought over a complimentary bowl of olives and a tiny loaf of sourdough bread, a refreshing gesture that would probably be reflected in the final bill. As she left a smartly dressed man in polished boots and a rich silver tunic with gold hem approached the tavern owner. After a moment of easy-going conversation, he pointed towards the drum.
Titiana must have caught me looking. She leaned forward, her face caught in the warm glow of the candlelight. ‘Now that it seems you’re right about this busker, are you going to be as unbearable as I suspect?’
Smiling, I shook my head. ‘I’m certainly not as bad as I once may have been. I’ve been involved in rather more important matters than this – which is simply one of the oldest confidence tricks going. It’s fascinating. Watch him: he’s full of charm, wearing the finest clothes, in order to gain the owner’s trust. It’s all very well planned.’
We observed the conversation between the men for a moment longer. Eventually the man in the crimson tunic walked out of the tavern.
The owner approached our table with a haughty look on his face. ‘Consider your meal free if you can tell me what happens next and, more importantly, how to make sure I am not conned out of any coin!’
I leaned back in my chair. ‘You’re OK for now. The busker will return, but all you really need to do is make sure he pays for his meal, and then you simply hand back the drum. He may seem hesitant – surprised, even – but simply concentrate on making sure you collect payment for his meal. Accept nothing else. He should leave you alone after that, and will probably head off to attempt this again in a more unlucky establishment.’
He nodded and turned to Titiana, gently pressing down on her hand. ‘If you ask me, you should keep hold of this fellow – in Tryum, there are too few like him.’
The expression on her face alone was worth the price of a dinner.
We ate our meal in a more pleasant mood than I could have possibly hoped for. What’s more, I couldn’t remember eating more flavoursome food: the taste of the fish was so intense and tender.
We talked, and I tried desperately to make her laugh in order to hear what it sounded like again. A hundred memories flashed back before my eyes. I didn’t know how accurate they were, given the layer of sentiments within them, but those moments from our younger days returned: day trips riding out to the coast; making love in the garden of the Temple of Festonia; long, hot days where we’d go swimming, then wade onto the shore where I’d proceed to kiss her skin under a ferocious sun. It didn’t really matter where we went or what we did, just as long as we had each other’s company, and our affair lasted for months without anyone ever knowing what we were up to. Was it any surprise I hadn’t really moved on?
Gradually, Titiana opened up to me – not much at first, but enough for me to know she no longer loathed me. Which was, ultimately, progress. It turned out she was living in Vellyum, which wasn’t as bad as things could have been. Her husband was a wine merchant for the middle classes, and spent much of his time out of the city ensuring the trade was running smoothly.
He was still out of the city, as it happened – and I did ask to make sure.
She had two children, a girl of four and a boy of five, who were staying with her husband’s sister, though she did not dwell on the subject too long. The feeling left me with happiness for her, and an emptiness inside myself. I had once imagined what it might have been like to raise a family together. No matter how much I asked her about her life, she seemed awkward talking about it, which was perhaps understandable. Her tentative gestures made me start to feel guilty that I had dragged a mother away from her family simply so I could entertain my senses of love and lust.
Titiana asked me of my adventures and I told her of the things I’d seen across Vispasia. Unlike Veron’s party, this time it was about the struggles of the people throughout the continent, of the damage left over by the old Detratan Empire that still, two hundred years later, left its mark on the world. I spoke of tribal wars, of political factions going rogue, of the delicate cohesion of the Royal Union. Finally, I commented dryly that the Sun Chamber was now my only family.
‘Still, the continent is all the stronger for being united,’ I continued, ‘even if the nations cannot always agree on the most harmonious paths at times.’
‘You walk in a different world to the rest of us, Lucan,’ Titiana sighed, as if partly jealous and partly proud of me. ‘More wonderful than mine.’
‘Each of our own worlds is challenging enough,’ I remarked. ‘It’s all a matter of context.’
The busker returned to the tavern for his drum and, true to my instructions, the tavern owner returned it to him and took the money for the meal. With a disappointed look on his face, and no longer smiling when he glanced at me, the busker trudged out of the establishment a disappointed man.
The owner approached our table once again. ‘I make a point of not disturbing lovers too much—’