CHAPTER 20 It Was a Spectacle!
CHAPTER 20
It Was a Spectacle!
Brownie
Brownie’s brows squished in deep thought. She even momentarily stopped playing a tune to tap her chin twice.
“The trick is if the riddle contains a silent k ,” she mused, “making it a type of knot, or it’s a heavy backwards not … I think … the second. So my answer would be ‘a ton’?”
Rufus grinned, showing his canines. “You’re brilliant. That’s exactly right.”
One of the things that Bronwynn was beginning to realize about the commander general was that the man didn’t hesitate to praise. Sometimes overly much so.
It was nice.
“Which is good,” Rufus continued, leaning back and sweeping the forest with his eyes, “because I’m terrible at riddles.”
His ears twitched. She’d noticed this about him when they first left the city; his heightened senses made him seem on edge.
“Wait, really?” Brownie stared openly at the beastman.
“I’m great at figuring out people , not a random series of statements designed to test factual ingenuity.” Rufus coughed. “If I wanted an intellectual challenge, I would prefer to test the bounds of emotional intelligence.”
He waved his hands animatedly. “What is the focus point between each topic? How long can I look in a person’s eyes before discomfort sets in, and what does that say about them? What part of someone’s childhood left inherent values that aren’t being recognized by their partner—” He stopped and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I’ve gone off topic. I’m terrible at riddles.”
“Unless those riddles are people.” Brownie nodded.
“What can I say”—he gave her a wolfish grin—“I like people watching. ”
“Then as your sole traveling companion, I will try to be interesting,” she said. “Actually, I think I spend a lot of time people watching myself.”
The minstrel plucked her strings, once, twice, and thrice. An arpeggio. It sounded beautiful, but somber.
“It’s not the same, but I think I spend half of my time reading the crowd, and the other half hoping I’ve read the crowd right.” Brownie had a history of wonderful concerts because she was a good performer and she recognized that … But there had been a few shows that had turned into disasters. “This one time, I sang the wrong song, and someone burned down the stage.”
Rufus stiffened beside her.
“It was a spectacle !” She pushed down the embarrassment and recounted the tale. “I was invited to perform at a luncheon in Sumbria by my fan club, and everything started out great … But near the end of my set, I started taking requests. Someone called for ‘The Tragedy of Magicians.’”
“And?” Rufus stared at her with a pained expression. He must not be a fan of that particular song. It was a pretty dark song about the history of King Simon of Drendil—Henrietta’s father, actually—killing off the magicians in Drendil twenty years back.
The Drendil court astronomer had made a terrible prophecy: that a magician would end the royal line of Drendil. In fear and frustration, the king had gathered up the five practicing magicians in his kingdom and ordered them put to death. That had proved his undoing, because one of them had managed to free himself at the last minute and [Curse] the king with his dying breath.
It never would’ve been possible to commit such atrocities if the Mages Tower hadn’t been dealing with the aftermath of the Sumbrian revolution at the time. But it had happened, and Mykal Kell the Bard had written an amazing ballad capturing the story.
Brownie laughed. “So this young mage was unsuspectingly eating his lunch—and heard the story for the first time. The boy was so overwhelmed, he miscast and hit the stage with a fireball!”
Rufus choked. He gathered himself. “And how did that make you feel?”
The man was a walking counselor, she knew, and watching him slip into habits when he got concerned was cute. Brownie reached out and patted his furry arm. It was very soft. “Don’t worry, I was fine! And one of my patrons paid for the damages.”
It was a generous donation. She was amazed at how her life had turned out.
She was still amazed that she even had a fan club!
“And you weren’t upset that the entire show was ruined because of someone’s song request?” Rufus asked .
Brownie shook her head. “Don’t overthink it. Burning down the place isn’t even that bad. It’s better than the time I sang at a banquet for Duke Francis, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I lost so many knives that night.”
She sighed sadly, mourning the loss. She’d had to beg her mother to send her replacements as an early birthday present.
The hair on the beastman beside her shivered to attention. His eyebrows dropped, and shadows darkened his eyes. His forced calm fell away to reveal a very angry Rufus. “What did he do to you?”
Not that it was his business , but Brownie considered the question. “Honestly?”
His golden eyes burned into hers, and she returned his grim look with a sudden, vicious smile.
“I’ll tell you the whole thing. Let’s start at the beginning.” They had a while until they reached civilization, and she loved a good story. “It was just last summer, and I’d gotten a letter from Queen Thalia saying she wanted to hire me for her nephew’s birthday. Who was I to deny a queen ? I learned my mistake almost as soon as I arrived at the duke’s castle …”
Her audience of one listened, captivated.
“The newly elevated Duke Francis was an idiot—and didn’t realize that a pretty face like mine wasn’t the birthday gift.”