|
"Exaggerate? Why yes, they do, don't they?" Rollan was saying, when a treble wail from the courtyard made everyone in the Common Room jump.
"That was Sereth!" Asta whispered. "What can have happened now?"
Rollan briefly held his hand over his eyes. "I don't know, Asta, but I'm starting to think this play will be the death of me..." He sighed. "Come on, then, I suppose we'd better find out who's got into a mess this time, and how bad it is."
Master Ingold caught them in the doorway. "If I may make so bold as to speak to you, Master Rollan? This doesn't come easy, what with you customers of long-standing and never a breath of scandal before and always paying your bill on the hour– but I can't have much more of it. Brawling in my Common Room and my niece trailing after your actors all day and no mind for her work, and now–"
"Master Ingold," Asta cut in crisply, "what you just heard was merely one of our players rehearsing her part as a Ringwraith. I'll let her know it's having the desired effect."
She swept into the hall before the innkeeper had a chance to reply.
"Good thinking," was Rollan's only comment, but Asta could see he was impressed at her presence of mind. She could hardly blame him, as she was quite impressed with it herself.
Not that she had much time for self-congratulation, for as they hurried across the courtyard they could hear bitter sobbing coming from Brinn's waggon, broken by voices raised in anger or fright.
"The waggon must be on fire!" Asta gasped. "Or maybe Branor and Therian have really been arrested this time! That must be it, no-one's seen hide nor hair of them since last night. Or maybe..."
The scene that met their eyes in the cramped interior of the waggon was a dramatic one. Sereth was bawling her eyes out, held by the little maid, whatever her name was, who also looked to be on the brink of tears, while Coldan and Brinn were staring at them helplessly.
"Asta, they're... they're cancelling the plaaaay," Sereth sobbed. "Our lovely, lovely play that we've worked so hard on!"
"It's true," Ingold's niece confirmed, between sniffs. "She told me. Elanor the perian made them!"
"Why, I don't believe it! That scheming little– I wish I'd wrung her neck! Brinn–" Asta turned to her sister, who was opening and shutting her mouth, almost as if she were trying to speak, "how could you let this happen? Are you blind? Couldn't you see the scheming little monster was up to no good?" In her mind's eye the remembered face of Elanor acquired shifty eyes and a knowing smirk. Asta was sure, now, that she had never trusted the halfling for an instant.
|