‘Not watching us, and working hard at it.’
‘Do you know a disreputable ale house not too far from here?’
Ty grinned. ‘Just the place, around this next corner.’
‘Back door?’
‘On a nice alley. I have had to employ it occasionally.’
‘Fights?’
‘Women.’
As they moved down the street, glancing out of the corner of their eyes at the two men, Ty continued, ‘When we first arrived here, I was new to many things, including the charms of the ladies.’
‘You don’t have ladies in Olasko?’
‘I had a mother in Olasko.’
Hal laughed. ‘I understand.’
They turned the corner. ‘My mother thinks I need to settle down. She’s …’ His voice dropped. ‘My mother went through a great deal … well, let us leave it that she would be happier if I found some nice young woman and started a family.’
‘How does your father feel?’ asked Hal as Ty pushed open the door to the tavern. He glanced up at the sign they passed beneath. It showed a painting of a man in fancy livery being chased by a large black dog which was nipping at his heels.
‘Father thinks I’ll get around to it in my own good time,’ Ty answered. ‘He’s been through a lot as well, but it’s left him with a different perspective.’ He opened his arms expansively. ‘Welcome to the Running Footman.’
It was just what one would expect of a riverside tavern in a port town: crowded, filled with workers, sailors, river men, and no doubt thieves and cheats. ‘Not exactly the River House,’ muttered Hal.
‘True, but for me that’s the charm, don’t you see?’ Ty moved to the bar and shouted, ‘Babette! My love! Miss me?’
The woman behind the bar was at least fifty years of age, possibly more, with sallow skin and a badly applied mask of rouge on her cheeks. She had darkened her eyes with kohl, or kajal as it was sometimes called, and wore the most impossibly red wig Hal had ever seen, including those worn by travelling players and clowns. She smiled. ‘Ty! You wound me with your absence.’ Her voice was so gravelly that for a moment Hal wasn’t certain she wasn’t a man in some horrible mummery; but that might have been the result of the pipe that hung from her lips, or from its smoke, from the very pungent and strong tabac she preferred. ‘Who’s your friend?’
‘By name, Henry.’
‘Hal.’ He extended his hand and she took it and gave the fingers a squeeze.
‘Pleasure.’
‘We’re thirsty,’ said Ty, and Hal nodded.
‘Two blacks!’ she shouted and a young man behind her grabbed two large porcelain mugs and filled them with a very dark brew. He brought them forward and Ty slapped a silver coin down. ‘Let me know when that’s used up.’
He led Hal to a waist-high shelf against the far wall where they could place their drinks and stand, for there were no empty seats at any table. Hal took his first drink and was greeted by a thick, frothy mouthful unlike anything he had tasted before. It was nutty and slightly bitter, yet it had a lingering sweetness. ‘This is remarkable,’ he said. ‘What is it?’
‘Porter,’ answered Ty. ‘It’s been brewed for years for the porters who work up and down the docks and river. It’s unique to Roldem, and what we have here is an example of the best; Black Beauty it’s called.’ Lowering his voice he said, ‘Just sip it. It’s OK to look drunk, just don’t get drunk.’
Hal nodded. ‘How long?’
Ty knew what he meant. ‘If they don’t come in after us …? Maybe an hour, then we leave out the back. If they’re watching the front and waiting for us, we’ll skulk around the corner and see them before they see us.’
‘What if they’re watching the back?’
Ty grinned. ‘I guess we’ll see them at the same time they see us.’
‘Tell me about Olasko.’ The two young men had been constant companions for nearly a month since word of the possibility of war had come, and had got to know each other well enough for Hal to count Ty a friend. Yet there was much about him that remained a mystery.
‘Not much to tell, really,’ said Ty. ‘The original settlers were colonists from Roldem, so the language is much the same, save for an odd word here, or a strange accent there. It’s not much of a task to learn the difference quickly. Among the Eastern Kingdoms it was very influential, as the last ruler before the present Duke Varian, a man named Kaspar, was very powerful and held sway. But that was a long time ago.’ He sighed and his face became a mask for a moment, and suddenly he looked a great deal older. Then his smile returned and he said, ‘But the mountains are magnificent and the hunting remarkable.’
Hal said, ‘I should like to see it, and to go hunting.’
‘Then we shall do so, once this current madness is resolved. What of Crydee? How’s the hunting there?’
‘Very good. It’s mainly forested land from the foothills and up into the Grey Tower Mountains. We have boars that stand man-high at the shoulder.’
‘Certainly not!’
‘We do! The forest boars are big, fast, and mean. You need a boar spear ten feet long with a steel head and bolted cross below it or they’ll run right up the shaft and gore you while you wait for them to die! We have brown bears and lions, though they’ve almost been hunted out, and plenty of wolves and deer, stag, and elk.’ He shrugged. ‘And the occasional wyvern.’
‘Wyvern?’ said Ty, looking askance. ‘I bought the boar, but a wyvern? Dragon-kin?’
‘So they say, though that’s like saying one of those little dogs the ladies at court carry around is wolf-kin.’
‘You’ve seen one?’
‘Ha! My father has the head of one down in the basement. It used to hang in the trophy hall, but Mother made him take it down. Said it disgusted her.’ He grinned. ‘It was pretty disgusting, really. All droopy eyes and fangs, and the man who mounted the head for great-grandfather managed to make a botch of the ears, so they sort of went this way—’ he made a gesture with two fingers one pointing up and the other one pointing to the side.
‘Ladies?’
It was Hal’s turn to laugh. ‘Nothing like you have here, that’s for certain.’
‘There’s nothing like the ladies of Roldem anywhere,’ said Ty. ‘Men who hold riches, power, and rank, it’s a lodestone for beauties of all ranks, noble and common. Now, the ladies of Crydee?’
‘Few,’ said Hal with a shrug, ‘if you mean ladies of noble birth.’
‘Girls, then,’ said Ty impatiently.
‘A few worth spending time with.’ His expression grew wry. ‘Remember that problem you have in Olasko?’
‘Mother?’
‘I have one too, in Crydee.’ He sighed theatrically. ‘And she knows everyone, and I do mean everyone in the town. She cares for the ill and makes sure anyone who’s fallen on hard times has food, and takes charge of all shopping for the Duke’s household …’
‘So, gossip?’
‘Yes. There was one girl, a miller’s daughter, who caught my eye and I swear my mother had me in her room, bending my ear about not using my rank to take advantage … I was thirteen! It was my first kiss!’
Ty roared with laughter. ‘So, not a lot …?’ he shrugged.
