Without Rhythm (The Lament) by P.S. Power

Author:P.S. Power [Power, P.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
Published: 2012-10-19T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter nine

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

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