Without Rhythm (The Lament) (17 page)

The words that Mara had said came back to her then. Total commitment. That was the true secret power of the Guardians. They did what they had to, no matter what the cost.

She grinned, not liking the idea at all, and walked out of the room holding the instruments. She'd have to practice first and was only getting two songs, near the middle of Ben's longer set. Other than that she'd just hand him his instruments and keep back. Perhaps keep his water glass full. It was what a new apprentice Bard would be doing after all. She was clearly not that great an apprentice either, if one of her instruments was supposed to be the tampan. A stick with bells on it... She could play it, but that was the point,
anyone
could. It was the easiest thing to play in the world.

Pran was a little surprised that Bard Ben even had one.

Given what she had planned for her disguise, she went to Claire first and fairly demanded the sharing of her best clothing. The woman made a face and sighed, then came up with a light white dress that was made of soft fabric that draped liberally in the front, showing a lot of chest. It had woven straps to hold it up and tied in place from the back, which was impractical for anyone that didn't have a servant to help them into it.

"You do realize that this won't last the night, right? It would be dicey enough if I was just a Bard, but..." It was pretty fragile looking. Nice though. Clearly the finest thing the woman owned.

"I know. Still, we need you to look the part..."

It got handed over then and Claire didn't look too troubled by the idea as Pran left, her face resigned and almost peaceful. Everyone had to make sacrifices after all. Feeling almost breathless she went to find Mara, since the woman obviously cut her own hair regularly. She'd need to borrow the tools.

The next two hours were a race, her hair being taken off to a low bristly shadow of its former self with shears, then shaved off totally with the help of a razor from the stores. It left her feeling light and her head chilled, but looking different enough that she didn't recognize herself in the mirror.

Then, after taking an hour to practice and getting more help from Mara, she used some of Ben's stage make up to paint half her head a brilliant orange, to go with the yellow of the cloak. It was precisely half her face, the other, past a thin line of brilliant red right down her nose, was left bare. The rest of her head was harder to do, but she managed it just in time. When she walked out to the front of the ship everyone stared at her, including Clark and Mara. They didn't seem upset by the change. Just appraising of her work.

Ben recovered first.

"Good. Come sit next to me in the wagon and we'll discuss the plans for the evening again. Do you know what you're going to do?" He seemed almost blasé about the whole thing, which was no doubt cultivated. No Bard wanted to seem scared before a performance.

"First 'The Riding Circle' on the Reed Flute, then 'Homecoming Fire' on the Tampan." They were good choices, being medium hard to perform, but well within what she could do on short notice. The rest of her duties were pretty standard. Ben would just ask her to do things softly and she would. That way if he wanted to change the timing of something on the fly it could be done without any difficulty.

No one mentioned the rest of the thing. The real reason for going in the first place. Those odd people with their hard looks, selling the things they were. It had to be more than just some merchants as well, or the Mayor probably wouldn't have reported them. He might even have turned a blind eye or bought some things for his own use. No, Pran didn't know what was going on in the town, but it almost had to be something bigger than just that. Even the Guardians hadn't been that upset over the beam lights and it was part of their job to make sure things like that didn't get out of control. Too much luxury could lead to waste after all. That and unequal distribution of resources.

Pran just sat and mentally rehearsed her part, since it was her real job at the moment. No matter what, she had to give a real show, just like Ben did.

When they rode into town the wagon creaking and a soft cool wind blowing, the sky dark already, the streets were empty again. Only one building had lights on, and those, very sensibly, were oil lamps. It was a big building, the meeting hall most likely. The outside was stained red to protect it from the elements, but made of old and heavy logs. It had a gentle ramp up to the doorway, instead of stairs. They pulled up in front of it, with Paul smiling as he turned back to look at the carriage behind them.

"Now, Bard Benjamin, no fair starting the show before we get the horses seen to! Everyone will want to see you and the new apprentice." Not everyone was there of course. Most of the ship's crew wasn't in fact. The Captain was in the carriage, with Claire, Mara and Roy was in the back of the wagon, along with Dovish, but the rest were back on the ship, with orders to lift off if anyone tried to take it. That didn't seem likely, but it was a real thought, given that no one knew what was really going on. Losing a whole airship would be embarrassing after all.

"Of course good sir! We wouldn't dream of doing this without you there to support our efforts." Bard Benjamin sounded different then, his voice booming and deeper than normal. A performance voice, the act having already begun.

"Come Apprentice Pran. Bring the instruments and ready yourself. We'll be giving these folks a show the likes of which they've seldom seen!"

It was a bit over the top, but Pran nodded and played along.

"At once Master Bard Benjamin! I can't wait to see the smiling faces of everyone in this wonderful town!" She pitched it so that people inside would have a chance to hear her.

After all, it was part of the show.

The scene inside the meeting hall was both familiar to Pran and odd. Only two of the merchants they'd seen earlier were in the room at all, and it looked like almost everyone else had shown up. Not everyone liked music, so that almost never happened. In a town of a hundred people like this one, there should have been at most forty in attendance. This looked more like ninety.

They didn't seem happy about it either.

Not just cold or a little sad, they all seemed to be horribly frightened for some reason. As if they expected to be beaten or die at any moment. No one seemed to have a weapon on them, so that didn't make a lot of sense. That there was something wrong seemed clear, but what it was, Pran just couldn't tell.

Bard Benjamin just smiled at the crowd as if they'd welcomed him with open arms and started playing automatically, not even introducing himself. It was an opening trick that they were all taught in school. It generally kept the people from having a chance to dislike you too much. People were used to hating others for their words, but not for music. He didn't sing or anything, just playing a decently complex lute piece. When it was finished he got a smattering of polite applause.

"I'm Bard Benjamin Foley and this is my Apprentice, Pran. Next I'd like to play a few songs to get the night started..."

The musical choices were all good and eventually, about twenty minutes and five songs, into the evening's show people started to clap along or tap their feet. They still seemed subdued, but it was better. Almost like a real crowd. The people that had come with them were more animated, Claire acting happy, dancing in place, and Roy looking at her like she was a freak, but also grinning like a fool. Only Dovish seemed uneasy looking at the merchants who stood near the back, hands on the things under their tunics. It didn't make a lot of sense for the slow man to be doing that, but whatever sense he had of such things allowed him to tell who the real threat in the room was.

Clark was next to Claire, and Mara went outside for a few moments just as it was Pran's turn to play finally. The flute song went over well enough, but when she started to play the tampan Clark stood and ran toward the back of the space, hitting the two merchants, or whatever they were, before they could do more than make a few rough noises of pain.

Pran sang then, trying to find the beat of the song, one that didn't normally have words.

"Everybody clap along!" She cried out, trying to get them to help cover the sounds of the bodies. It took a few seconds but it worked, a rhythmic thumping sound started as people started to stomp their feet on the floor boards.

Most of the people in the room looked horribly shocked, or scared, including Ben and Roy, but she didn't lose the beat, or stop the flow of words.

When her song wound down, after just a minute, it was clear that they needed something more to cover the fact that Clark was headed out the door.

Painfully, feeling so stiff and uncomfortable she nearly couldn't stand, Pran climbed to her feet and started stomping herself with her right foot.

"The Ballad of Clemance!" She had to shout the words, as a few people, led by Claire, started to stamp along. Ben picked it up too and started to strum the simple cords on his guitar. The song wasn't so much a performance piece as an excuse for people to yell on the chorus. At the very top of their lungs. The people of Danning didn't seem to be in a mood to hold back at all. After that, picking up on the mood, if not the full plan, Bard Benjamin took over again, with another popular sing along.

By the time that was over the two senior Guardians came back, unhurt, but with only three prisoners between the two of them.

Everyone stopped singing to look at them as the woman from the merchant's booth and two young men that Pran hadn't noticed before were dropped in the center aisle.

"The rest ran. To the west. I don't suppose anyone would care to explain all this to us?" Clark sounded dark and a bit out of breath himself, then he'd hurried in carrying two full grown men, so that might well do it.

It was the Mayor that stood, addressing Claire rather than anyone else.

"It started about three weeks back. We woke up one day to find near on twenty strangers in town. They had weapons, like Kinetic pistols, but different, things that make loud booms when they go off. They killed our town guard, Old Jim and told us that if we resisted at all they'd do the same to us. We aren't fighters, and they didn't leave us alone much. We all had to work, making things for them. Illegal things, some I didn't recognize at all. When you came, as scheduled, I tried to slip you that message, not knowing if it would be picked up or not. I figured I was dead, but none of them seemed to care about me giving you those flowers. Like they didn't know the code. That or didn't care." He had a raw tone to his voice, one that hadn't been there before, not that Pran noticed.

Judge Claire stood then and waved at the five people on the floor.

"We need to secure these prisoners and see about pursuing those that are trying to escape. Did they leave on foot?"

Clark nodded, but then shook his head. Mara did much the same thing, looking baffled.

"At first, then we heard roaring from a distance. Like thunder or the engines on The Lament, only louder."

No one knew exactly what that meant, but it was clearly a sign of something being used that wasn't supposed to be. Some kind of energy using transportation that worked on the ground. All of those were forbidden. Airships were the most energy intensive transportation allowed that way. Pran hadn't known that, but Paul did and told them all that in no uncertain terms. He should know after all, being the First Mate on one like he was.

Much to everyone's relief the Guardians went to check and make certain no one was left, going house to house with each owner, the whole group moving with them. It meant that the people that lived out of town didn't get home for hours, but everyone felt better because of it. It seemed alright for a while, until a huge crashing sound came from the far edge of town.

The Mayor, who lived in the center of town but was still with them anyway, started running in that direction as the night lit up around them.

"I think that's the old granary. It was where they had us assembling those things for them."

Everyone not in their home was running toward it, including the people from the ship, which turned out to be a mistake. Paul grabbed his right side after the first loud popping sound and fell to the ground. Then the Mayor went as well. Pran didn't get it at first, but noticed that something seemed to tug at her cloak. Then, as she stood and saw more people falling she understood it.

They were under attack.

"Run!" It was Mara that called it out, shifting in that odd fashion the Guardians had, the timing so strained and odd that she seemed to vanish and come back several times before Pran lost sight of her. If Clark did that she couldn't see, but she tried it herself, knowing that the glow from the big fire would make her light up incredibly. She paused and started suddenly, kicked herself backwards and then off to the side, not actually doing what Mara had at all, but not being hit by whoever was trying to stop them either. So maybe it was working a little.

Or maybe the bad people just didn't think she was a threat. They were right of course. She didn't even have a weapon on her at all, since it hadn't gone with her costume and disguise. Bards didn't go around armed and it would have been a dead giveaway if she had. Without thinking about it, not knowing where the attack was coming from, she headed directly toward the sound. The irregular popping was hard to track, but the flash of light from the trees was clear enough, she dove to the ground, calling on her tumbling lessons to let her roll, which was an awkward thing that took her suddenly to the side at a diagonal.