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.The room was packed with people.Five musicians in the corner struck up a reel, and several people began dancing on the wooden floor.The dancers' shadows swayed against the wall whenever someone bumped into one of the oil lamps hanging from the low ceilings.The tables and chairs of the Fish's common room were built for durability rather than style, not carved, but hewn, and polished, not with wax, but by generations of oily hands and elbows.Lem, the inn's owner, was tapping a fresh keg of ale, banging the spigot into the barrel in time to the music.He looked up at Giogi and gave him a wink.Giogi searched the room for Sudacar while people coming in and out jostled him.Finally the young noble spotted the local lord in a corner opposite the musicians.He was seated with a few members of the town guard and some adventurers Giogi did not recognize.Sudacar rose to greet one of the travelers who'd just come in—a wool merchant.The two men gave each other a hearty handshake.Sudacar offered the newcomer a seat and signaled for more drinks before sitting back down himself.Giogi suddenly felt very nervous.True, Sudacar had invited him, but the local lord was obviously very busy with friends and associates.Uncertain as to what sort of reception Sudacar would have for him, Giogi turned about and left the inn.Once outside again, Giogi felt aimless.He meandered toward the market green with his hands stuffed deep in his cloak pockets and his head tilted back toward the stars.At the near end of the green stood a statue of Azoun III, grandfather of the present king.The stone monarch sat on a granite stallion frozen in the act of rearing and trampling rock-carved bandits.Giogi leaned against a stone bandit and sighed loudly."This was not the homecoming I expected," he explained to the bandit.The wind, chill and damp, blew from the lake.Giogi sighed again and watched the ghosts of his breath drift east toward his own home."The house felt like a tomb when I got in last night," he told the bandit."I have to spend my second day back, tomorrow, visiting the family crypt.Shaver says I missed the best summer regatta in ten years.His yacht, The Dancing Girl, came in second against four hundred-to-one odds.And Chancy says that his sister, Minda, did not wait for me.She married Darol Harmon, from over in Arabel.Not that there was anything official between us, mind you.I thought we had an understanding, but I guess a year is a long time for a girl to wait."Giogi studied the bandit's grimace."I suppose, though, that you have your own troubles."The bandit did not keep up his end of the conversation, so Giogi continued."Everyone laughs at my boots, and no one wants to listen to the tale of my travels.I'll admit, there aren't any princes or elves or casts of thousands in it, but it does have a whopping big dragon, and an evil sorceress, and a lovely, but quite mad, lady sell-sword.Wait.There was one person who was interested," Giogi amended."Gaylyn, Freffie's wife.Nice girl, and pretty, too.Olive Ruskettle, the renowned bard, wrote a song in honor of their wedding—Freffie and Gaylyn's wedding, that is.Now, how did it go?"Giogi began singing snatches of the song: "Something, something, syncopated breath.Something, something, love transcends even death.""Giogioni!"Giogi was so startled, he slid off the stone bandit.Samtavan Sudacar had to grin at the sight of the young nobleman lying beneath the hooves of the stone monarch's stallion as if he were being trampled with the bandits about him."That's no sort of company for you to keep, boy," Sudacar said, offering him a hand up.Giogi accepted the assistance gratefully, and as Sudacar hefted him to his feet, he could easily imagine the well-muscled arms slaying giants."What are you doing here?" Giogi asked.Sudacar laughed."Coming to fetch you.Lem said you came in but left.Couldn't find me in the crush, eh?"Giogi nodded, then shook his head.It would be too difficult to explain that he was afraid he wouldn't be welcome."I came out to bring you back inside, unless you're too busy rendering assistance to Azoun's granddad.Getting to be a habit with you, I hear.""What?" Giogi asked, wondering if Sudacar meant that rumors abounded that he drank heavily and often collapsed beneath town monuments."Lending the royal family a hand.Someone told me tonight you weren't just abroad, you were on a mission south for His Highness.""Oh, that," Giogi replied."It wasn't much, really.Just a messenger job."Sudacar chuckled at the nobleman's modesty."You'll have to tell us all about it inside.If you're not too hoarse or too tired to tell it again."Giogi grinned.Someone wanted to hear his story.He stood up straighter."Love to oblige."The two men walked toward the Five Fine Fish, but just outside, Giogi hesitated."1 just remembered.I, uh, seem to have mislaid my purse."Sudacar looked at the nobleman darkly."You, too, eh? A lot of that going around lately.Seems we have a new element in town.I've got to have Culspiir look into it.Don't worry.Tonight you're in my hands.We've got to raise that glass in honor of your father."Entering the Fish with Sudacar was very different from entering it alone.Sudacar knew everyone, and everyone in turn seemed to know and like Sudacar.The crowd parted for him.He had the best table in the house.He sat Giogi down at his right-hand side and introduced him around as Cole Wyvern-spur's son.Many of the older merchants and their even older adventurer bodyguards nodded in approval.Giogi saw some of the younger adventurers whisper a question to their elders, and when the veterans whispered back the answer, the younger adventurers turned friendly smiles on the nobleman
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