Dragon Freehold by T.M. Baumgartner

Author:T.M. Baumgartner [Baumgartner, T.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Speculative Turtle Press

Nearly an hour later, they were back on the street, which had grown more crowded and noisy in their absence.

"That was…" Lisette tried to think of the right words to describe it, but came up blank.

"Indeed, it was." He took her arm, and they began walking toward the main thoroughfare.

Lady Merou's house itself might have been lovely had it not been crammed full of furniture and objects acquired on travels. The furniture, threadbare and damaged from long use, hadn't been particularly notable when new. Now it was unlikely to be useful for anything other than a bonfire.

As far as the art and other items taking up every available space, it looked like the sort of thing Lisette had seen being sold on the wharfs to travelers just off ships — they were the only ones gullible enough to buy it. She'd even seen an identical replica of the amphora Barlow had found.

"Do you suppose an affinity for terrible art is inherited?" Lisette didn't see how that much junk could be accumulated during one lifetime. It had to be a family project, carried out over generations.

"Until today, I hadn't thought so, but I admit — I'm revisiting my assumptions now. I might view it as a professional challenge to find anything worth stealing in that house." He shook his head. "Where to now? You said there was something you wanted my opinion on?"

"Yes." As they strolled uphill, Lisette explained what had happened to the children overnight, and then what had happened when she and Tiffany had gone into the tunnels together.

A trio of musicians had staked out a corner and drawn enough of an audience to block traffic. The fiddler had difficulty keeping in tune, though Lisette didn't know if that was due to lack of talent or some problem in the instrument caused by the damp night air. That didn't matter, though, as the chief attraction seemed to be the lyrics. A masked woman threaded through the crowd, shaking a tambourine in time and holding out a hat for people to throw coins into.

The listeners who stayed were laughing and singing along. Other people passing by listened for a bit, then sped up and hurried away.

Lisette and the thief paused on the edge of the crowd.

The singer, a handsome man with flaxen hair, waved his hands to encourage people to sing along as he reached the chorus. "Oh, the taxes are risin'/and the wine barrels dryin'/There's no stew left to thicken/but the duke paints a chicken."

At the last word of the chorus, Lisette grabbed the thief's arm. "We need to get away from here." They hastened up the hill, skirting around the people who had stopped to listen, while the singer clucked a bridge to the next verse. From the size of the crowd, the musicians had been there long enough for the guard to have heard about it. Lisette and her thief needed to get as far away as they could.

The thief kept pace with her. "The other night you said nobody in the city knew…"

"They didn't.

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