The reason for their visit was getting less important to Nedric as the week progressed. He had only two more evenings to explore the city and he wanted to see everything, especially entertainers. Rialto now that he had passed on his message to his father was also keen to look around and wanted to explore those areas of the city that his father had avoided when the two of them had visited before. Therefore as soon as the two boys were released from their studies they were off and about.

Rialto led Nedric through some of the more cramped back alleys towards a part of the city that they had missed the previous night. The buildings had that look of once fashionable locations left to go to seed. The odd building that had been freshly painted stood out from the others like a cow in a field of sheep. The residents of this area matched the location and the two boys were glad that their second-hand clothing meant that they were more in keeping with the other pedestrians.

Nedric felt that there were eyes watching him everywhere they walked and surreptitiously moved his pouch under his clothing. Rialto led them further into the shambles and toward a particular street, renowned for its nightlife. Rialto was fairly sure that the two of them would be fairly safe at this time of the evening but was still relieved to see several guards walking around the area.

Fending off several women who offered the boys a good time if they wished to part with a fair part of their savings, the two walked into an establishment by the name of “The Black Lion”. This building was known throughout the city for its entertainment, which it provided in many different forms and at varying prices. What the two boys were looking to see was offered free to attract customers, as the place hosted more different entertainers than any other building in the city. Particular rooms were made available to travelling actors, musicians, magicians and other wandering entertainers. The entertainers benefited from a booking which was pretty much guaranteed once they had passed the audition but which was only offered once a month so there was no incentive not to travel between bookings.

The building was not in fact just one place but had been a number of shops that had been knocked together some years back. As the boys walked through the building the floors changed levels and so did the height of the ceilings. The rooms were of varying sizes and there had been no attempt to decorate the place in a consistent style. Incredibly plush and ornately decorated rooms were next to small, smoke-filled dens where card games were being played on baize covered tables. The two passed through a room where an extremely large woman was singing extremely loudly a strange song in a foreign language. The four string musicians behind her were almost drowned out. The boys left hurriedly when the pitch of her singing became so high that it was almost painful.

Moving further through the building they were beginning to get slightly lost when they found a room where rows of benches had been laid out facing a small stage. The benches were starting to fill so the boys decided to take a seat and find out what was about to happen.

Nedric noticed that all the people around them were older men. They seemed to be anticipating something but they were not talking to other people in the audience. There was a certain hushed expectancy when a woman walked into the room followed by an extremely tall and broad man. The woman made her way to the stage whilst the man stood by the side and faced the audience. It was obvious to Nedric that the man was there to protect the woman.

Turning his attention to the woman he could see that despite his first impression she was actually fairly old but wore heavy make-up to hide the wrinkles. She wore a large cloak that completely covered her and seemed to be waiting for something. A musician walked into the room and sat in a chair by the side of the stage and made himself ready.

As the musician started to play the woman removed her cloak and Nedric was surprised to see that she was wearing a garment that seemed to consist entirely of gauzy cloth. He glanced across at his companion and saw that Rialto’s face had turned a bright red and that he was looking uncomfortable. Before he could ask, Rialto had stood up and left the room. Nedric glanced at the stage to see the woman swaying around the stage in a manner he guessed was meant to be alluring before he hurried to find his friend.

He found Rialto waiting for him in the next room.

“That is disgusting! Has that woman got no morals? What did she think she was doing?”

Nedric was fairly sure that she was going to take all her clothes off and was quite interested in watching her but he wasn’t about to argue with his friend so instead decided to switch subjects.

“Let’s try and find a different type of entertainer, I still haven’t seen any jugglers!”

“I though I saw somebody in a weird outfit heading in that direction.” Rialto pointed. “Maybe we should head that way and see what’s there.”

As they walked they could hear laughter coming from the next room along and so hurried in that direction. They entered this room to see a man bending over to collect some juggling balls from the stage on which he stood.

“Do the donkey again!” someone shouted, but the juggler had moved onto a different part of his routine and was now demonstrating how well he could juggle four balls. He stopped to scattered applause and went into his bag for a fifth ball. Nedric was immediately interested. He had tried to juggle five balls quite often and had got nowhere it was much harder than he had thought before he started.

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The man on stage was making a big play of the difficulty. He made several aborted starts and Nedric was beginning to think that he couldn’t actually accomplish the trick. When he proceeded to juggle five balls the whole audience broke into applause. The man threw one of the balls high into the air, collected the other four balls in his hands and caught the final ball on his neck. The applause grew even louder.

What could the man do to follow that? He took three wooden clubs from out of his bag and proceeded to throw them around in a myriad of different ways. Under his legs, behind his back, high into the air, even balancing one on his chin whilst swinging the other two around. When he called for a volunteer to join him, there were quite a few members of the audience who stepped forward. He chose one man and asked him to lie on his back on the stage. As the man lay there, the juggler brought three torches from his bag and with encouragement from the audience proceeded to walk over the man juggling the three, lit sticks. Although he had been paid already for his work quite a few of the audience threw coins to him as he took his applause.

The two boys made their way to the front as the rest of the crowd dispersed to other parts of the building.

“That was a great show!” Nedric told the juggler. “I’ve been learning to juggle and I wondered if you had any tips.”

“Practice! Practice! Practice!” the juggler replied. “If you’re serious and you’re local then you can come to the Black Lion any weekend and a group of us practice in one of the rooms on the top floor. Ask any of the staff here and they’ll tell you where to find us. There’s a fee of a copper as they charge us rent for the practice room.”

“I’m only here for another two days but if I get the chance I’ll be back.”

“We will be happy to see you, now I have to get to another venue fairly quickly so I’ll say goodbye.”

“So long.”

They could have gone home then as far as Nedric was concerned but Rialto wanted to find a musician or two that he could talk with and learn where he could get replacement strings. They wandered further through the building and the size of the place astounded them.

“How can they afford to run this place?” Nedric asked his friend.

“From what I gather the place makes loads of money. Everyone in Elseth comes here at sometime or another and the place makes money on all the gambling and drinking, not to mention the drugs you can get here. Also loads of societies rent rooms here, as it is convenient for most of the city. I here the owner is as rich as some of the barons, which makes him a very powerful man.”

“Who is the owner?”

“That’s the strange thing, no-one knows, although rumours hint at half the nobles and merchants in the city. For all I know it could be anyone.”

It was something to ponder; one of the richest people in the country was completely unknown. Presumably some of the staff in the building knew but they must be completely reliable which was a rarity in itself.

As they passed through one of the bar areas Nedric spotted that one of the drinkers had a cased instrument beside him and pointed it out to his friend. The two boys headed over to the player and Rialto introduced them.

“Excuse me friend but I wonder if you could help me? I’ve been trying to get some spares for my instrument and don’t know where to find them.”

The player was a man in his late forties, thin of face and with dark hair silvering at the temples. He had a sallow expression but with a glint of mischievousness in his eye.

“Well then young man you’ve come to the right man. My name’s Iwan and I own Iwan’s Instruments the best music shop in Elseth. Mind you it’s the only music shop as well. If you want to call by the shop it’s on Sixsmiths street and I’m open until seven of the evening from which time you will find me here. Of course the only business I’m open to here is if someone wishes to buy me a drink.” He nudged his tankard with his left hand and the boys could see that he was missing a finger.

Iwan didn’t seem to mind that the boys were staring at his hand.

“Lost it in a silly accident when I was about your age lads. Otherwise I would be a first class harpist and I wouldn’t need to run the shop. Always be careful of your hands I say, they’re what brings you a living.”

The two boys didn’t know what to say to that but Rialto offered Iwan a drink and that seemed to go down well. They stayed talking to him for a while, until one of Iwan’s companions walked into the room and the boys made their excuses and left.

Finding there way out was harder than they had thought. The two thought they knew the route by which they had entered the building but very soon found themselves in rooms they had never seen before. The atmosphere of the building, with little lighting in most rooms and a lot of smoke did not make it any easier. In the end they had to ask one of the waitresses who floated around the rooms looking to get drinks. The exit she directed them to, was on the other side of the building and it took them a while to make their way around and back on the right route. The bells of the city were chiming the hour of eleven when they finally made it back to their residence and they were again hurrying to get in. This time trying to avoid notice from the masters.

They were stopped at the doorstep by a call. They turned to see Elsebeth beckoning them from the side of the building.

“What’s the matter?” Nedric asked.

“I’ve lost Rhianna and I can’t go in without her or we shall both get in trouble!”

“Where did you lose her?”

“On the way back from the market, we went down a crowded street and we got separated.”

Nedric had never been to the market so he really couldn’t be of much help. He glanced across to Rialto who indicated the direction they should head.

“Does Rhianna know Elseth at all?”

“She used to live here so I can’t understand how she managed to get lost and I didn’t”

It was odd for Elsebeth to be apart from Rhianna and Nedric realised that he had barely looked at her for years. His impression had always been that she was quite a small girl but she was actually taller than average, it was her way of fading into the background that had caused the false impression. She was also quite pretty with her long brunette hair and slim figure.

Anyway they had to find Rhianna but were undecided whether to stay together or split up to cover more area. Rialto was all for the three of them going off in different directions but he was the one who knew the city best. Nedric was less keen and Elsebeth seemed disinclined to be alone. They had just about decided that Rialto would try one route whilst Nedric and Elsebeth would retrace her route, when Rhianna came into sight.

It seemed like she had a slightly startled, if not guilty, look when she first noted the three people waiting for her. However by the time she had come up close to the group the look had been exchanged for her normal haughty expression.

“Where did you get to?” Nedric asked.

“Never you mind. Come on Elsebeth you don’t want to be hanging around these two.”

With that Rhianna walked past the group and into their residence. Elsebeth gave the boys a glance and shrug which seemed to convey the message ‘It’s Rhianna what can anyone do?’ and followed her friend. The two boys looked at each other, shrugged and then laughed.