Valdemar 06 - [Exile 02] - Exile’s Valor (38 page)

He did not know for certain that Norris would be here tonight, but with no play on, there was a good likelihood that he would at least spend the afternoon in rehearsals, then have some dinner here, where he was fed for free, before going out anywhere. And at any rate, even if the man didn't start his evening here, there was a good chance that by careful listening, Alberich would pick up some gossip about him or his whereabouts.

But his luck was truly in tonight; not only did Norris begin his night here, but the rehearsal ran long, so that Norris came down from his room about two candlemarks after sunset, dressed in quiet elegance, all fawnskin breeches and fine linen shirt open at the throat, thigh-high boots nearly as tight as the breeches.

He stepped up to the bar and ordered himself a drink. And shortly after that, so carefully timed that Alberich did not for a moment think it was coincidence, someone came looking for him.

Except that the man didn't exactly come
looking
for him, the way an admirer would. He didn't begin by asking the doorkeeper if Norris was about, for instance, and he didn't come up to him openly, as a simple admirer would.

The stranger cast a glance around the common room; his eye lit on Norris, standing beside the bar and chatting, mug in hand. Since Alberich was watching Norris very carefully, he saw the actor catch the stranger's eye and hold it for just a moment. Then the newcomer took a seat of his own, in the same out-of-the-way corner that Alberich was already in. It was an awkward little cul-desac beneath the stairs, big enough for only a couple of two-person tables. Alberich already had the most exposed of the tables; the stranger took the one that was the least exposed to the rest of the room.

Alberich went on reading. He did not even look up as the man brushed by him, nor when the serving wench brought him his order. Norris didn't pay any great amount of attention overtly either—but after some time, the actor left the bar and drifted over in his direction. By this time, the common room was at its most crowded, and virtually the only seats left were at two-person tables like the ones Alberich and the stranger each had. Somehow Alberich didn't think that Norris was going to ask if he could join the scholar.

Norris paused for a moment beside Alberich; Alberich's neck prickled, but he didn't look up from his book. Surely it wasn't possible that the actor was going to sit at
his
table!

The actor certainly gave Alberich a good look-over. Alberich did just what his persona would have done: he read, outwardly oblivious to anything going on around him. Norris moved on, and said to the stranger, “Friend, would you mind if I sat at this table?”

“Be my guest,” the man said with every sign of indifference. And that would have been perfectly ordinary, if it hadn't been that both of them pitched their voices just a little louder than if they'd been talking merely to each other, and not for the benefit of anyone who happened to be nearby.

Alberich turned his page, and furrowed his brow. It was appropriate to furrow his brow at this point; the author was taking a slightly controversial stance, and one that someone like Alberich was bound to disagree with. Alberich had chosen this book quite deliberately; he was very familiar with it, and if challenged, could converse knowledgeably about the contents. And tonight, he just might have to. Despite the heat in the overcrowded room, he felt a chill of apprehension.

He heard the scrape of a stool on the floor; the sounds of someone sitting down behind him. He didn't actually
hear
anything then, but the serving wench materialized, as they all did, whenever Norris summoned them, however imperceptible the signal was to anyone else. The actor ordered dinner, and when it came, there was a pause as the wench flirted a little with Norris then was summarily shooed away.

“Is it all right?” said the stranger, in a very, very soft voice.

“Safe as houses,” Norris replied, casually. “Safer than my room. Can't tell who might be on the other side of the wall, there.”

Well,
thought Alberich,
That's what you get for insisting on the big corner room.
Norris had recently demanded—and gotten—one of the better chambers at the inn. Even with Myste keeping a jaundiced eye on the take, the innkeeper was doing a phenomenal amount of business thanks to the ongoing presence of the actors here, and couldn't afford to offend Norris at this point. The problem with the new room, however, was that while Norris had one of his fellow actors as a neighbor on one side, the other was a room that anyone could rent, and it was often taken by someone who wanted to be near the actor. That would practically
guarantee
a snoop with her ear to the wall.

“What about
him?
” persisted the stranger, and Alberich knew, by the prickling feeling on the back of his neck, that the man was pointing at
him
in some way. Probably with a little jerk of the chin; less obtrusive, unless you were watching for something of the sort.

“Hmm.” There was a scrape; Norris this time; Alberich could tell from the position of the chair.

He's going to do something.
Alberich thought he could guess what, and a moment later, it came. And now he had to do something that was against all of his instincts; he had to relax, not tighten his muscles in anticipation. The scholar would be deep in the book and would not even be aware of the rest of the world. You should be able to come up behind him and shout in his ear without his noticing.

There was the sound of a stumble, and Norris blundered into him, spilling his drink, knocking the book out of his hand, nearly knocking him over. Alberich did not try to save himself; he let the chair go over, and himself with it, as with a cry, he lurched for his book. Norris was there before him, picking it up, all apology, offering his hand, and when Alberich was on his feet, dusting him off.

“Horribly clumsy of me, I beg your pardon—” While Norris babbled on, he was managing to get a look at the book, in fact, at the place where Alberich had been reading. And thank the Sunlord for that, since it meant he was
not
looking closely at Alberich's disguise instead! He handed it back to Alberich so quickly, though, that it was unlikely anyone like the scholar would have realized that the actor had examined the book before relinquishing it. But an actor had to be a quick study; the man probably had both pages memorized by now.

Alberich snatched it away, glared angrily at him, and fussed over the book, making certain that none of the pages were bent, nothing stained. “You clumsy oaf!” he shrilled, pitching his voice to a whiny falsetto. “Curse you, fellow! Where did you think you were going?”

“I'll buy you a new drink,” Norris was saying, as the serving wench bustled up with a towel to clean up the mess.

“If you've so much as creased a page, you'll buy me a new
book,
young man,” Alberich replied querulously. “Copies of Canton's
Lives of the Philosophers
do not grow on trees!”

“No, they don't, I'm sure,” Norris said agreeably, as the serving wench brought another drink and Norris paid her for it. “And I would be devastated to think I had ruined one. I particularly admire his scholarly treatise on Loyal Hestalion, for instance.”

Alberich simply gave him a good long stare, as if suspiciously certain that Norris was only trying to jolly his way past Alberich's anger. “It's
Lowal
Hestalion, young man, as you would know if you had actually read the book, rather than making something up to try and worm your way into my favor. And what is more, the man may be sound enough on other biographies, but his treatise on Hestalion is little more than a repetition of scurrilous rumor!”

Norris threw up his hands and laughed. “Caught! Well, I most sincerely apologize again, I
have
restored your drink, and I hope I haven't foxed your book, so are we quits?”

“The book appears to be intact,” Alberich said icily, “I believe I am also intact. And I beg the pleasure of your absence.”

“Yes,
sir!
” Norris laughed, and went back to his place while Alberich ostensibly and ostentatiously reburied himself in his book.

“So, there, you see,” Norris said under the sound of the conversations all around them. “Nothing but a book-worm. We could burn down the place around him, and he wouldn't notice.”

“Good enough. The game's in play tonight,” the stranger said. “We think it will play out well.”

“Good news,” Norris said with satisfaction. “And my reward?”

“You'll get it when the bond is sealed,” the stranger replied. “Even if all goes well, there will be opposition. We may need you before then. And don't forget, we'll also need you after, for a time, anyway.”

“No, you won't,” Norris growled, sounding irritated now. “The boy's a natural seducer. And the girl's untried. And
I
absolutely the finest instructor in the arts of seduction that was ever born. You say he's showing his hand tonight. If he doesn't have her well enchanted before the week is out, and wedded within the moon, I'll eat my hat without salt.”

“All well and good, but he'll still need pretty speeches, and he's not bright enough to make them up on his own,” the stranger said, irritation in his own voice. “Until there's an heir in the offing, we're not safely home.”

“And
I
don't get my theater.” Norris sighed, as if much put upon. “All right, then, I'll stay available. But he'd better not drag this on too long. It doesn't take
that
long to get a girl with child, and after that, keeping her bound will be up to him. I've never seen a woman born yet that didn't make every excuse in the world for the father of her child.”

“After that, we'll have what we need,” the voice purred. The tone made the hair on Alberich's head stand up. There was something very sinister about it, that made Alberich wonder uneasily just what it was that the voice and his cohorts needed.

And he felt very sorry for the girl in question.

But it seemed that, whatever was going on here and now, it had little or nothing to do with the security of Valdemar. Evidently Norris had been coaching some unscrupulous young man in how to seduce a young woman, into marriage. He could almost picture her in his mind as he carefully turned another page in his book, some young, lonely, plain thing, but wealthy—for surely only great wealth could be the cause for such a scheme.

Would there be any way to warn her, assuming he could find out who she was?

Probably not. Even coming from a Herald, she probably wouldn't believe anything that anyone told her against her beloved. Not if she was as infatuated as Norris thought. And he was a practiced seducer, after all.

But he didn't fool Myste,
a little voice in the back of his mind reminded him.

Yes, well, Myste had been fooled at least once in her past, when she was younger. You had to have experience in something before you could recognize danger when you saw it, and since the stranger called the unknown young woman a “girl,” she probably wasn't old enough to have experience in much of anything. Poor thing.

He turned a page of his book, groped for his drink without looking at it, and took a sip. Well. Norris was very generous; this was much better beer than the stuff Alberich had ordered the first time around.

The scrape of a stool signaled someone's departure, and it turned out to be the stranger. He eased his way past Alberich, being exceptionally careful not to jar him. Alberich ignored him entirely, though he would very much have liked to get a good look at him. The best Alberich could manage was a quick glance at the man's profile. It looked faintly familiar, in the way that someone looked if seen once or twice. It could be anybody Alberich had seen around here. Alberich filed the face in the back of his mind.

Now Norris was alone—but not for long.

There was a bit of a commotion at the door, the sound of high, shrill voices, and a flash of bright color. Alberich heard Norris chuckle under his breath, and buried his nose even further in the book.

But Norris was the one who got up, and sauntered over to the trio of women who were clearly what Alberich's mother had been mistaken for.

Now, Alberich knew he was no expert when it came to women's dress, especially not here in Valdemar, but there were some commonalities among the ladies of negotiable virtue everywhere, and this lot showed every one of the sartorial signs. There were flounces and ribbons and curls and painted cheeks and lips, all done to excess. Colors were bright (including hair color, for all three sported hair of colors not normally found in nature), there was a great deal of cleavage, a great deal of bare arm and shoulder, and even a scandalous amount of leg showing. Jewelry was positioned the way a general arranged his best troops, with the intent of directing the enemy's sight to a particular object.

“Well, my lovelies,” Norris said genially, as they clustered around him like gaudy butterflies around a tall flower. “What brings you here?”

By this time, Norris had the attention of everyone in the room, and very well knew it. He was playing for the crowd, and the crowd sensed it was going to get a free show—short, maybe, but nonetheless, free.

“You,” said the boldest, flirting acid-yellow hair at him. “We've a bet on that you can't take all three of us at once.”

The entire room howled with laughter, in which Norris joined, throwing back his head and roaring. “In that case,” he shouted, and Alberich at last looked up with an affronted expression on his face, “You're doomed to lose, my bawd!”

“In that case,” cried the second of the trio, with hair the same blue-black as a raven's wing, boldly twining herself around him, “we win!”