"Shall I come back here or meet you on the other side of town?"

Other side?

If you circle about the town and then come back toward the river, you will find more of the road there, I explained. Shall we find one another there?

That would be good. The less time we spend near this den of humans, the better.

Fine, then. I shall find you there before morning, I told him.

More likely, I shall find you, numb nose. And I shall have a full belly when I do.

I had to concede that was likelier.

Watch out for dogs, I warned him as he faded into the brush.

You watch out for men, he rejoined, and then was lost to my senses save for our Wit bond.

I slung my pack over my shoulder and made my way down to the road. It was full dark now. I had intended to reach town before dark and stop at a tavern for the talk and perhaps a mug, and then be on my way. I had wanted to walk through the market square and listen in on the talk of the merchants. Instead I walked into a town that was mostly abed. The market was deserted save for a few dogs nosing in the empty stalls for scraps. I left the square and turned my steps toward the river. Down there I would find inns and taverns aplenty to accommodate the river trade. A few torches burned here and there throughout the town, but most of the light in the streets was what spilled from poorly shuttered windows. The roughly cobbled streets were not well kept up. Several times I mistook a hole for a shadow and nearly stumbled. I stopped a town watchman before he could stop me, to ask him to recommend a waterfront inn to me. The Scales, he told me, was as fair and honest to travelers as its name implied, and was easily found as well. He warned me sternly that begging was not tolerated there, and that cutpurses would be lucky if a beating was all they got. I thanked him for his warnings and went on my way.

I found the Scales as easily as the watchman had said I would. Light spilled out from its open door, and with it the voices of two women singing a merry round. My heart cheered at the friendly sound of it, and I entered without hesitation. Within the stout walls of mud brick and heavy timbers was a great open room, low-ceilinged and rich with the smells of meat and smoke and riverfolk. A cooking hearth at one end of the room had a fine spit of meat in its maw, but most folk were gathered at the cooler end of the room on this fine summer evening. There the two minstrels had dragged chairs up on top of a table and were twining their voices together. A gray-haired fellow with a harp, evidently part of their group, was sweating at another table as he fastened a new string to his instrument. I judged them a master and two journey singers, possibly a family group. I stood watching them sing together, and my mind went back to Buckkeep and the last time I had heard music and seen folk gathered together. I did not realize I was staring until I saw one of the women surreptitiously elbow the other and make a minute gesture at me. The other woman rolled her eyes, then returned my look. I looked down, reddening. I surmised I had been rude and turned my eyes away.

I stood on the outskirts of the group, and joined in the applause when the song ended. The fellow with the harp was ready by then, and he coaxed them into a gentler tune, one with the steady rhythm of oars as its beat. The women sat on the edge of the table, back to back, their long black hair mingling as they sang. Folk sat down for that one, and some few moved to tables against the wall for quiet talk. I watched the man's fingers on the strings of the harp, marveling at the swiftness of his fingers. In a moment a red-cheeked boy was at my elbow, asking what I would have. Just a mug of ale, I told him, and swiftly he was back with it and the handful of coppers that were the remains of my silver piece. I found a table not too far from the minstrels, and rather hoped someone would be curious enough to join me. But other than a few glances from obviously regular customers, no one seemed much interested in a stranger. The minstrels ended their song and began talking amongst themselves. A glance from the older of the two women made me realize I was staring again. I put my eyes on the table.

Halfway down the mug, I realized I was no longer accustomed to ale, especially not on an empty stomach. I waved the boy back to my table and asked for a plate of dinner. He brought me a fresh cut of meat from the spit with a serving of stewed root vegetables and broth spilled over it. That and a refilling of my mug took away most of my copper pieces. When I raised my eyebrows over the prices, the boy looked surprised. "It's half what they'd charge you at the Yardarm Knot, sir," he told me indignantly. "And the meat is good mutton, not someone's randy old goat come to a bad end."

I tried to smooth things over, saying, "Well, I suppose a silver bit just doesn't buy what it used to."

"Perhaps not, but it's scarcely my fault," he observed cheekily, and went back to his kitchens.

"Well, there's a silver bit gone faster than I expected," I chided myself.

"Now that's a tune we all know," observed the harper. He was sitting with his back to his own table, apparently watching me as his two partners discussed some problem they were having with a pipe. I nodded at him with a smile, and then spoke aloud when I noticed that his eyes were hazed over gray.

"I've been away from the river road for a while. A long while, actually, about two years. The last time I was through here, inns and food were less expensive."

"Well, I'd wager you could say that about anywhere in the Six Duchies, at least the coastal ones. The saying now is that we get new taxes more often than we get a new moon." He glanced about us as if he could see, and I guessed he had not been blind long. "And the other new saying is that half the taxes go to feed the Farrowmen who collect them."

"Josh!" one of his partners rebuked him, and he turned to her with a smile.

"You can't tell me there are any about just now, Honey. I've a nose that could smell a Farrowman at a hundred paces."

"And can you smell who you are talking to, then?" she asked him wryly. Honey was the older of the two women, perhaps my age.

"A lad a bit down on his luck, I'd say. And therefore, not some fat Farrowman come to collect taxes. Besides, I knew he couldn't be one of Bright's collectors the moment he started sniveling over the price of dinner. When have you known one of them to pay for anything at an inn or tavern?"

I frowned to myself at that. When Shrewd had been on the throne, nothing was taken by his soldiers or tax collectors without some recompense offered. Evidently it was a nicety Lord Bright did not observe, at least in Buck. But it did recall me to my own manners.

"May I offer to refill your mug, Harper Josh? And those of your companions as well?"

"What's this?" asked the old man, between a smile and a raised eyebrow. "You growl about spending coin to fill your belly, but you'd put it down willingly to fill mugs for us?"

"Shame to the lord that takes a minstrel's songs, and leaves their throat dry from the singing of it," I replied with a smile.

The women exchanged glances behind Josh's back, and Honey asked me with gentle mockery, "And when were you last a lord, young fellow?"

"'Tis but a saying," I said after a moment, awkwardly. "But I wouldn't grudge the coin for the songs I've heard, especially if you've a bit of news to go with it. I'm headed up the river road; have you perchance just come down?"

"No, we're headed up that way ourselves," put in the younger woman brightly. She was perhaps fourteen, with startlingly blue eyes. I saw the other woman make a hushing motion at her. She introduced them. "As you've heard, good sir, this is Harper Josh, and I am Honey. My cousin is Piper. And you are…?"