"Thank you, sir." Glyneth entered the common-room.with caution. At other inns she had been subjected to indignities: drunken kisses, over-familiar pats on the haunch, leers and tickles. At the counter sat a man of medium size, with a look of prim sobriety, belied by the stoup from which he drank his ale.
Glyneth approached him confidently; here was no man to take liberties.
"Sir Numinante?"
"Well, lass?"
"I have a criminal act to report."
"Say on; this is my business."
"At the crossroads we met a Nahabod, or Nab the Narrow, who waited for the cadavers to drop that he might take their clothes. We talked a bit, then went our way. Not half a mile along, out from the woods jumped a robber who took all we owned."
Numinante said: "My dear, you were robbed by the great Janton Throatcut himself. Only last week I hanged high his six henchmen. He was in the act of taking their shoes for his collection; he does not care a fig for clothes."
"But he told us of Tonker the carpenter, Bosco the chef, the two robbers Pirriclaw and I forget the other—"
"Possibly so. They ranged the countryside with Janton like a pack of wild dogs. But Janton is leaving these parts and will take his business elsewhere. Someday I will hang him as well, but— we must take these pleasures as they come."
"Can't you send out to search for him?" asked Dhrun. "He took my amulet and our purse of money."
"1 could send out," said Numinante, "but to what prpfit? He has bolt-holes everywhere. All I can do at the moment is feed you at the king's expense. Enric! Feed these children on your best. One of those fat pullets from the spit, a good slice of beef and another of suet pudding, with cider to wash it down." "At once, Sir Numinante."
Glyneth said, "One thing more, sir. As you see, Dhrun here has been blinded by the forest fairies. We have been advised to seek a magician who will set matters straight. Can you suggest someone who might help us?"
Numinante swallowed a good pint of ale. After reflection he said: "I know of such persons, but by reputation only. In this case I cannot help you, since I have no magic, and only magicians know other magicians."
"Janton suggested that we visit the fair at Hazelwood, and press our inquiries there."
"That would seem sound advice—unless he proposes to meet you along the way and rob you yet again. I see that Enric has laid you a good meal; eat with appetite."
With sagging shoulders Dhrun and Glyneth followed Enric to the table he had set and though he had provided his best, the food lacked savor. A dozen times Glyneth opened her mouth to tell Dhrun that he had lost only an ordinary pebble, that his fairy stone had been broken to bits; as many times she closed her mouth, ashamed to admit her deception.
Enric showed them the road to Hazelwood, "It's up hill and down dale for fifteen miles, then through Wheary Woods, then across the Lanklands, up and over the Far Hills, then follow the Sham River into Hazelwood. You'll be a good four days in the going. I take it you carry no great sum of money?"
"We have two gold crowns, sir."
"Let me change one into florins and pennies and you'll have an easier time of it."
With eight silver florins and twenty copper pennies chinking in a small cloth sack, and with a single gold crown secure in the waistband of Dhrun's trousers, the two set out along the road to Hazelwood.
Four days later, hungry and footsore, Dhrun and Glyneth arrived at Hazelwood. The journey had been uneventful save for an episode late one afternoon near the village Maude. A scant half-mile short of town they heard moans emanating from the ditch at the side of the road. Running to look, they discovered a crippled old man who had wandered from the road and had fallen into a growth of burdock.
With vast effort Dhrun and Glyneth brought him to the road and assisted him into the village, where he collapsed on a bench., "Thank you, my dears," he said. "If dying must be done, better here than in a ditch."
"But why should you die?" asked Glyneth. "I have seen living folk in far worse case than you."
"Perhaps so, but they were surrounded by loved ones or were able to work. I have not a copper to my name and no one will hire me, and so I will die."
Glyneth took Dhrun aside. "We can't abandon him here."
Dhrun spoke in a hollow voice. "We certainly can't take him with us."
"I know. Even less could I walk away and leave him sitting here in despair."
"What do you want to do?"
"I know we can't help everyone we meet, but we can help this particular person."
"The gold crown?"
"Yes."
Wordlessly Dhrun worked the coin from his waistband and gave it to Glyneth. She took it to the old man. "This is all we can spare, but it will help you for a while."
"My blessings on you both!"
Dhrun and Glyneth continued to the inn, only to discover that all the chambers were occupied. "The loft over the stable is full of fresh hay, and you may sleep there for a penny, and if you'll help me in the kitchen for an hour or so, I'll serve you your supper."
In the kitchen Dhrun shelled peas and Glyneth scoured pots until the innkeeper rushed forward. "No more, no more! I can see my face in them now! Come, you've earned your supper."
He took them to a table in the corner of the kitchen and served them first a soup of leeks and lentils, then slices of pork roasted with apples, bread and gravy and a fresh peach apiece for dessert.
They left the kitchen by way of the common-room, where a great festivity seemed in progress. Three musicians, with drums, a flageolet and a double lute, played merry quicksteps. Looking through ranked onlookers Glyneth discovered the old cripple to whom they had given the gold coin now drunk and dancing a boisterous hornpipe with both legs flying through the air. Then he seized the serving wench and the two danced an extravagant prancing cakewalk up and down the length of the common-room, the old man with one arm around the serving wench and the other holding high a great pot of ale. Glyneth spoke to one of the bystanders: "Who is that old man? When I saw him last he appeared to be crippled."
"He is Ludolf the knave and no more crippled than you or I. He'll saunter out of town, make himself comfortable beside the road. When a traveler passes he starts to moan in a pitiful fashion, and as like as not the traveler helps him into town. Then Ludolf blithers and sniffs and the traveler usually gives him a coin or two. Today he must have encountered a bashaw from the Indies."
Sadly Glyneth led Dhrun to the stable, and up a ladder into the loft. Here she told Dhrun of what she had seen in the common-room. Dhrun became furious. He gritted his teeth and drew back the corners of his mouth. "I despise liars and cheaters!"
Glyneth laughed mournfully. "Dhrun, we mustn't trouble ourselves. I won't say we've learned a lesson, because we might do the same thing again tomorrow."
"With many more precautions."
"True. But at least we need not feel ashamed of ourselves."
From Maude to Hazelwood the road took them through a varied landscape of forest and field, mountain and valley, but they encountered neither harms nor alarms, and arrived in Hazelwood at noon on the fifth day out of Lumarth. The festival had not yet commenced, but already booths, pavilions, platforms and other furniture of the fair were in the process of construction.
Glyneth, holding tight to Dhrun's hand, appraised the activity, "It looks as if there will be more merchants than ordinary' folk. Perhaps they'll all sell to each other. It's truly gay, with all the hammering and new bunting."
"What is that delightful smell?" asked Dhrun. "It reminds me of how hungry I am."
"About twenty yards to windward a man in a white hat is frying sausages. I agree that the smell is tantalizing—but we have only seven florins and a few odd pennies to our name, which I hope will keep us until somehow we can earn morel money."