The Painted Man d-1

by Peter V. Brett

  I love you!

  He rubbed the hair between the thumb and ring finger of his crippled hand. Only a jagged scar remained where his first two fingers had been, but because of her, he had lost nothing else.

  I love you!

  The talisman was Rojer's secret ward, something he didn't even share with Arrick, who had been like a father to him. It helped him through the long nights when darkness closed heavily around him and the coreling screams made him shake with fear.

  But day had come, and the light made him feel safe again. He kissed the tiny doll and returned it to the secret pocket he had sewn into the waistband of his motley pants. Just knowing it was there made him feel brave. He was ten years old.

  Rising from his straw mattress, Rojer stretched and stumbled out of the tiny room, yawning. His heart fell as he saw Arrick passed out at the table. His master was slumped over an empty bottle, his hand wrapped tightly around its neck as if to choke a few last drops from it.

  They both had their talismans.

  Rojer went over and pried the bottle from his master's fingers.

  'Who? Wazzat?' Arrick demanded, half lifting his head.

  'You fell asleep at the table again,' Rojer said.

  'Oh, 's you, boy,' Arrick grunted. 'Thought it'uz tha' ripping landlord again.'

  'The rent's past due,' Rojer said. 'We're set to play Small Square this morning.'

  'The rent,' Arrick grumbled. 'Always the rent.'

  'If we don't pay today,' Rojer reminded, 'Master Keven promised he'd throw us out.'

  'So we'll perform,' Arrick said, rising. He lost his balance and attempted to catch himself on the chair, but he only served to bring it down on top of him as he hit the floor.

  Rojer went to help him up, but Arrick pushed him away. 'I'm fine!' he shouted, as if daring Rojer to differ as he rose unsteadily to his feet. 'I could do a backflip!' he said, looking behind him to see if there was room. His eyes made it clear he was regretting the boast.

  'We should save that for the performance,' Rojer said quickly.

  Arrick looked back at him. 'You're probably right,' he agreed, both of them relieved.

  'My throat's dry,' Arrick said. 'I'll need a drink before I sing.'

  Rojer nodded, running to fill a wooden cup from the pitcher of water.

  'Not water,' Arrick said. 'Bring me wine. I need a claw from the demon that cored me.'

  'We're out of wine,' Rojer said.

  'Then run and get me some,' Arrick ordered. He stumbled to his purse, tripping as he did and just barely catching himself. Rojer ran over to support him.

  Arrick fumbled with the strings a moment, then lifted the whole purse and slammed it back down on the wood. There was no retort as the cloth struck, and Arrick growled.

  'Not a klat!' he shouted in frustration, throwing the purse. The act took his balance, and he turned a full circle trying to right himself before dropping to the floor with a thud.

  He gained his hands and knees by the time Rojer got to him, but he retched, spilling wine and bile all over the floor. He made fists and convulsed, and Rojer thought he would retch again, but after a moment he realized his master was sobbing.

  'It was never like this when I worked for the duke,' Arrick moaned. 'Money was spilling from my pockets, then.'

  Only because the duke paid for your wine, Rojer thought, but he was wise enough to keep it to himself. Telling Arrick he drank too much was the surest way to provoke him into a rage.

  He cleaned his master up and supported the heavy man to his mattress. Once he was passed out on the straw, Rojer got a rag to clean the floor. There would be no performance today.

  He wondered if Master Keven would really put them out, and where they would go if he did. The Angierian wardwall was strong, but there were holes in the net above, and wind demons were not unheard of. The thought of a night on the street terrified him.

  He looked at their meagre possessions, wondering if there was something he could sell. Arrick had sold Geral's destrier and warded shield when times had turned sour, but the Messenger's portable circle remained. It would fetch a fair price, but Rojer would not dare sell it. Arrick would drink and gamble with the money, and there would be nothing left to protect them when they were finally put out in the night for real.

  Rojer, too, missed the days when Arrick worked for the Duke. Arrick was loved by Rhinebeck's whores, and had they treated Rojer like he was their own. Hugged against a dozen perfumed bosoms a day, they gave him sweets and taught him to help them paint and preen. He hadn't seen his master as much then; Arrick had often left him in the brothel when he went off to the hamlets, his sweet voice delivering ducal edicts far and wide.

  But the Duke hadn't cared for finding a young boy curled in the bed when he stumbled into his favourite whore's chambers one night, drunk and aroused. He wanted Rojer gone, and Arrick with him. Rojer knew it was his fault that they lived so poorly now. Arrick, like his parents, had sacrificed everything to care for him.

  But unlike his parents, Rojer could give something back to Arrick.

  Rojer ran for all he was worth, hoping the crowd was still there. Even now, many would come to an advertised engagement of the Sweetsong, but they wouldn't wait forever.

  Over his shoulder, he carried Arrick's 'bag of marvels'. Like their clothes, the bag was made from a Jongleur's motley of coloured patches, faded and threadbare. The bag was filled with the instruments of a Jongleur's art. Rojer had mastered them all, save the coloured juggling balls.

  His bare feet slapped the boardwalk, too calloused to fear splinters from the worn wood. Rojer had boots and gloves to match his motley, but he left them behind. He preferred the firm grip of his toes to the worn soles of his bell-tipped, motley boots, and he hated the gloves.

  Arrick had stuffed the fingers of the right glove with cotton to hide the ones Rojer was missing. Slender thread connected the false digits to the remaining ones, making them bend as one. It was a clever bit of trickery, but Rojer was ashamed each time he pulled the constrictive thing onto his crippled hand. Arrick insisted he wear them, but his master couldn't hit him for something he didn't know about.

  A grumbling crowd milled about Small Square as Rojer arrived; perhaps a score of people, some of those children. Rojer could remember a time when word that Arrick Sweetsong might appear drew hundreds from all ends of the city and even the hamlets nearby. He would have been singing in the temple to the Creator then, or the duke's amphitheatre. Now, Small Square was the best the Guild would give him, and he couldn't even fill that.

  But any money was better than none. If even a dozen left Rojer a klat apiece, it might buy another night from Master Keven, so long as the Jongleur's Guild did not catch him performing without his master. If they did, overdue rent would be the least of their troubles.

  With a 'Whoot!' he danced through the crowd, throwing handfuls of dyed wingseeds from the bag. The seedpods spun and fluttered in his wake, leaving a trail of bright colour.

  'Arrick's apprentice!' one crowd member called. 'The Sweetsong will be here after all!'

  There was applause, and Rojer felt his stomach lurch. He wanted to tell the truth, but Arrick's first rule of jongling was never to say or do anything to break a crowd's good mood.

  The stage at Small Square had three tiers. The back was a wooden shell designed to amplify sound and keep inclement weather off the performers. There were wards inscribed into the wood, but they were faded and old. Rojer wondered if they would grant succour to him and his master, should they be put out tonight.

  He raced up the steps, handspringing across the stage and throwing the collection hat just in front of the crowd with a precise snap of his wrist.

  Rojer warmed every crowd for his master, and for a few minutes, he fell into that routine, cartwheeling about and telling jokes, performing magic tricks, and mumming the foibles of well-known authority figures. Laughter. Applause. Slowly, the crowd began to swell. Thirty. Fifty. But more and more began to murmur, impatient for the ap
pearance of Arrick Sweetsong. Rojer's stomach tightened, and he touched the talisman in its secret pocket for strength.

  Staving off the inevitable as long as he could, he called the children forward to tell them the story of the Return. He mummed the parts well, and some nodded in approval, but there was disappointment on many faces. Didn't Arrick usually sing the tale? Wasn't that why they came?

  'Where is the Sweetsong?' someone called from the back. He was shushed by his neighbours, but his words hung in the air. By the time Rojer had finished with the children, there were general grumbles of discontent.

  'I came to hear a song!' the same man called, and this time others nodded in agreement.

  Rojer knew better than to oblige. His voice had never been strong, and it cracked whenever he held a note for more than a few breaths. The crowd would turn ugly if he sang.

  He turned to the bag of marvels for another option, passing over the juggling balls in shame. He could catch and throw well enough with his crippled right hand, but with no index finger to put the correct spin on the ball and only half a hand to catch with, the complex interplay between both hands when juggling was beyond him.

  'What kind of Jongleur can't sing and can't juggle?!' Arrick would shout sometimes. Not much of one, Rojer knew.

  He was better with the knives in the bag, but calling audience members up to stand by the wall while he threw required a special license from the Guild. Arrick always chose a buxom girl to assist, who more often than not ended up in his bed after the performance.

  'I don't think he's coming,' he heard that same man say. Rojer cursed him silently.

  Many of the other crowd members were slipping away, as well. A few tossed klats in the hat out of pity, but if Rojer didn't do something soon, they would never have enough to satisfy Master Keven. His eyes settled on the fiddle case, and he snatched it quickly, seeing that only a few onlookers remained. He pulled out the bow, and as always, there was a Tightness in the way it fit his crippled hand. His missing fingers weren't needed here.

  No sooner than he put bow to string, music filled the square. Some of those that were turning away stopped to listen, but Rojer paid them no mind.

  Rojer didn't remember much about his father, but he had a clear memory of Jessum clapping and laughing as Arrick fiddled. When he played, Rojer felt his father's love, like he did his mother's when he held his talisman. Safe in that love, fear fell away and he lost himself in the vibrating caress of the strings.

  Usually, he played only an accompaniment to Arrick's singing, but this time Rojer reached beyond that, letting his music fill the space Sweetsong would have occupied. The fingers of his good left hand were a blur on the frets, and soon the crowd began clapping a tempo for him to weave the music around. He played faster and faster as the tempo grew louder, dancing around the stage in time to the music. When he put his foot on one of the steps on the stage and pushed off into a backflip without missing a note, the crowd roared.

  The sound broke his trance, and he saw the square was filled, with people even crowded outside to hear. It had been some time since even Arrick drew such a crowd! He almost missed a stroke in his shock, and gritted his teeth to hold on to the music until it became his world again.

  'That was a good performance,' a voice congratulated as Rojer counted the lacquered wooden coins in the hat. Nearly three hundred klats! Keven would not pester them for a month.

  'Thank you…' Rojer began, but his voice caught in his throat as he looked up. Masters Jasin and Edum stood before him. Guildsmen.

  'Where's your master, Rojer?' Edum asked sternly. He was a master actor and mummer whose plays were said to draw audience members from as far as Fort Rizon.

  Rojer swallowed hard, his face flushing hot. He looked down, hoping they would take his fear and guilt as shame. 'I…I don't know,' he said. 'He was supposed to be here.'

  'Drunk again, I'll wager,' Jasin snorted. Also known as Goldentone, a name he was said to have given himself, he was a singer of some note, but more importantly, he was the nephew of Janson, Duke Rhinebeck's First Minister, and made sure the entire world knew it. 'Old Sweetsong is pickled sour these days.'

  'It's a wonder he's kept his license this long,' Edum said. 'I heard he soiled himself in the middle of his act last month.'

  'That's not true!' Rojer said.

  'I'd be more worried about myself, if I were you, boy,' Jasin said, pointing a long finger in Rojer's face. 'Do you know the penalty for collecting money for an unlicensed performance?'

  Rojer paled. Arrick could lose his license over this. If the Guild brought the matter to the magistrate as well, they could both find themselves chopping wood with chained ankles.

  Edum laughed. 'Don't worry, boy,' he said. 'So long as the Guild has its cut,' he helped himself to a large portion of the wooden coins Rojer had collected, 'I don't think we need to make further note of this incident.'

  Rojer knew better than to protest as the men divided and pocketed over half the take. Little, if any, would actually find its way to the coffers of the Jongleur's Guild.

  'You've got talent, boy,' Jasin said as they turned to go. 'You might want to consider a master with better prospects. Come see me if you tire of cleaning up after old Soursong.'

  Rojer's disappointment only lasted until he shook the collection hat. Even half was more than he had ever hoped to make. He hurried back to the inn, pausing only to make a single stop. He made his way to Master Keven, whose face was a thunderhead as the boy approached.

  'You'd better not be here to beg for your master, boy,' he said.

  Rojer shook his head, handing the man a purse. 'My master says there's enough there for a tenday,' he said.

  Keven's surprise was evident as he hefted the bag and heard the satisfying clack of wooden coins within. He hesitated a moment, then grunted and pocketed the purse with a shrug.

  Arrick was still asleep when he returned. Rojer knew his master would never realize the innkeep had been paid. He would avoid the man assiduously, and congratulate himself on making it ten days without paying.

  He left the few remaining coins in Arrick's purse. He would tell his master he had found them loose in the bag of marvels. It was rare for that to happen since money became tight, but Arrick wouldn't question his fortune once he saw what else Rojer had bought.

  Rojer placed the wine bottle by Arrick's side as he slept.

  Arrick was up before Rojer the next morning, checking his makeup in a cracked hand mirror. He wasn't a young man, but neither was he so old that the tools in a Jongleur's paint box couldn't make him look so. His long, sun-bleached hair was still more gold than grey, and his brown beard, darkened with dye, concealed the growing wattle beneath his chin. The paint matched his tanned skin so closely that the wrinkles around his blue eyes were all but invisible.

  'We got lucky last night, m'boy,' he said, contorting his face to see how the paint held, 'but we can't avoid Keven forever. That hairy badger will catch us sooner or later, and when he does, I'd like more than…' he reached into the purse, pulling out the coins and flicking the lot into the air, 'six klats to our name.' His hands moved too fast to follow, snatching the coins out of the air and putting them into a comfortable rhythm in the air above him.

  'Have you been at your juggling, boy?' he asked.

  Before Rojer could open his mouth to reply, Arrick flicked one of the klats his way. Rojer was wise to the ruse, but ready or not, he felt a stab of fear as he caught the coin in his left hand and tossed it up into the air. More coins followed in rapid succession, and he fought for control as he caught them with his crippled hand and tossed them to the other to be put into the air again.

  By the time he had four coins going, he was terrified. When Arrick added a fifth, Rojer had to dance wildly to keep them all moving. Arrick thought better of tossing the sixth and waited patiently instead. Sure enough, Rojer fell to the floor in a clatter of coins a moment later.

  Rojer cringed in anticipation of his master's tirade, but Arric
k only sighed deeply. 'Put your gloves on,' he said. 'We need to go out and fill our purse.'

  The sigh cut even deeper than a shout and a cuff on the ear. Anger meant Arrick expected better. A sigh meant his master had given up.

  'No,' he said. The word slipped out before he could stop it, but once it hung there in the air between them, Rojer felt the rightness of it, like the fit of the bow in his crippled hand.

  Arrick blustered through his moustache, shocked at the boy's audacity.

  'The gloves, I mean,' Rojer clarified, and saw Arrick's expression change from anger to curiosity. 'I don't want to wear them anymore. I hate them.'

  Arrick sighed and uncorked his new bottle of wine, pouring a cup.

  'Didn't we agree,' he said, pointing at Rojer with the bottle, 'that people would be less likely to hire you if they knew your infirmity?' he asked.

  'We never agreed,' Rojer said. 'You just told me to start wearing the gloves one day.'

  Arrick chuckled. 'Hate to disillusion you, boy, but that's how it is between masters and apprentices. No one wants a crippled Jongleur.'

  'So that's all I am?' Rojer asked. 'A cripple?'

  'Of course not,' Arrick said. 'I wouldn't trade you for any apprentice in Angiers. But not everyone will look past your demon scars to see the man within. They will label you with some mocking name, and you'll find them laughing at you and not with.'

  'I don't care,' Rojer said. 'The gloves make me feel like a fraud, and my hand is bad enough without the fake fingers making it clumsier. What does it matter why they laugh, if they come and pay klats to do it?'

  Arrick looked at him a long time, tapping his cup. 'Let me see the gloves,' he said at last.

  They were black, and reached halfway up his forearm. Bright coloured triangles of cloth were sewn to the ends, with bells attached. Rojer tossed them to his master with a frown.

  Arrick caught the gloves, looked at them for half a moment, and then tossed them out the window, brushing his hands together as if touching the gloves had left them unclean.