I moved around the house and felt that Rachel mustn’t have voiced her thoughts to all that many people but I had a good suspicion that Angela had been told. I would have to find a way to pluck the idea from her as well. I debated telling the Duke Ursal of what might be transpiring but he had a lot on his plate with the war on his doorstep. I would have to find excuses to spend time in the other houses and try to build a network of spies through the servants.
I wove magic into my words when addressing Rachel and put a thought into her mind like a seed in the ground that would sprout and grow into something I could harvest later. “I think it would be rather nice if you, Angela, and maybe a few servants from other households would enjoy some tea together. Is there a place around here that servants can meet up in their downtime?”
She looked over her shoulder at me while she was escorting me to afternoon tea with young Patricia. “I think that could be arranged. What would you be wanting to accomplish with such a meeting with women?”
“Oh, some of the male servants wouldn’t be coming along?”
“The men like to drink with one another and don’t tend to want to spend time with the women that serve alongside them.”
“I see, well I do enjoy a drink every once in a while. Maybe I can have it both ways and spend time with both groups when they meet?” I queried.
With a shake of her head she looked forward, “We don’t all have the same times off to spend outside the walls of our masters and it is more of a rotation of duties. Honestly the masters would probably have more to say about it if they paid attention to who was serving them everyday. I’ll arrange for you to meet some of the men though and they can invite you to drinks.”
With a nod she opened the door and I walked into the same tea room that Patricia had used earlier and was abandoned by Rachel. I bowed deeply to the young girl as she had a sister with her and the teacher as well, “I’ve come at your summons young Lady Patricia. How may I best serve you this afternoon?”
With a smile she looked at her teacher and nodded as if they had an unspoken agreement. “I’d like you to come and sit with us at the table so that we can discuss something I think would only be proper over tea.”
I set my lute gently down in the corner and approached the tea table. I again bowed gently and pulled my chair out before placing myself as comfortably as possible. My knees were slightly closer to my chest as the chair seemed to be made for a much shorter person. A kindness no doubt from their parents to make them comfortable while they had lessons.
“How may I be of service to you if I am not playing or telling a story?”
Patricia smiled at me the way only a child could. Her round cheeks puffing out and dimpling adorably. “I would like to buy you from the Ursal household. I think you would be better suited to come and work for us at the Truose family estates and entertain us all. I can compensate you mightily and make sure that you are never want for anything.”
“Lady you cannot promise such things, Sir Dolan you would come into employment as a servant but receive the utmost care that a servant can have from us. You wouldn’t be treated like a guest as the young lady just spoke of.”
Patricia pouted lightly but nodded, “I doubt that you would be asked to anything but entertain us all. You’d get strong wages, more than what the Ursal family could pay you. They are a lesser of the Duke houses you see and we have such a strong economy thanks to the sea that we could afford to pay you great wages.”
I let them talk and absorbed what they were saying. I could distance myself from the Ursal household but I would be downgraded in how I was being treated as well. I would be at the beck and call of this family and most likely Patricia herself would be most demanding of my skills and attention. They would be a better household to support me into becoming a minstrel of the courts if they would part with my services that is.
I doubted Patricia would be very enthused at my choice to leave their house for the greater court. She could easily dissuade her father from letting me step away from their services.
My thinking face must have shown that I wasn’t too keen on the proposition so Patricia continued trying to sell me the idea, “Our highest paid servants get a whole five pence a week. I’m sure I could convince my father to give you such a lavish and unheard of amount of wages. You could buy a better fancier lute. Your own quarters in the poorer places in town. A peasant can make a good living with that much money.”
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“I’m sorry Lady Patricia, I have already promised my services to Sir Ermine in the coming days and then I wish to apply to be a court minstrel and live in the castle as a servant there. If I didn’t have such a lofty dream I would be more than happy to take you up on that offer. However I do not think that would be the best choice for me to accomplish my dreams. I do hope you forgive me.”
“Seven Pence a week!”
“Lady Patricia, you cannot promise such extravagance! Not even the head servant makes that much, he would practically revolt against is should he learn that we were paying a new servant more than him. I’m sorry Dolan please disregard what she is offering.”
I bowed my head deeply as I looked at them both. “Again I am sorry I have lofty goals that my master had given me upon his deathbed and I cannot let myself disappoint his spirit in this task. If you would like me to leave here so that you can have privacy and no longer care for my entertainment for the afternoon and evening I can depart.”
Patricia, face full of pouting and youthful displeasure, looked away from me. I caught a glimpse of her eyes tearing up. “That won’t be necessary. Please go sit down and play us some music while I enjoy my snacks and tea. I’m sure that would be acceptable would it not Instructor.”
I could hear the frosty tone and lack of a name she addressed her teacher with and stepped as calmly away from the table. She would have kept offering more and more without the authority to do so if not stopped by her servant. It was a childish response and I could expect nothing more from Patricia.
Gathering my lute and sitting down I started strumming as the echoing offer of such a wage would be far more than what Tracey was offering me. If I wasn’t here to infiltrate the greater court and find some way to the secret journals of the noble families so that I could find any trace that Profitable might still be alive hidden away somewhere bringing this kingdom the sudden boon in wealth that it was experiencing I might’ve even taken that for this lifetime.
There was also the looming threat that the coming calamity was going to be. I had no idea what form it would take, it had been so many things in the past, from the birth of a god, to the freezing of the world, the shattering of the lands, and others. I had kept the humans alive through those most trying of times.
I thought about when the world shattered and the great land that had once flourished with titanic life. The struggles of ancient tribes as they relied on me to fight their most dangerous of predators. I was a leader through the frozen times, teaching the tribes how to survive with the mammoths that wandered the waste with their uncanny ability to find places that still thrived with life enough to sustain themselves and the wandering peoples.
I kept thinking about if there was a pattern that had taken place that I had not yet noticed and if I could somehow prepare for something in particular. I would have to keep my eyes out for any signs of what it could be.
I concluded my thoughts and songs and looked up at a quiet room. Patricia was sulking in her chair and refusing to converse with her teacher. Her arms were crossed and she looked down at her shoes that were kicking back and forth. I’m sure she would break from the boredom in a few more minutes and engage once more in her lessons. I started up another tune and let my mind wander.
Once the tea was concluded I was escorted instead to somewhere else outside the servants quarters by a much older gentleman. “Where are we headed?”
The man looked back at me and down his nose, I could sense an air of arrogance and superiority in him and could only guess that he was the head servant and believed himself better than his peers. “The master of the house has summoned you. Something to do with what he discussed with Sir Ermine yesterday.”
I was led up to the third floor and brought to a set of beautifully carved wooden doors. They depicted a scene where Sondet was handing a bag of coins the the downtrodden masses and introducing money to this world and elevating us past the ways of bartering that had been so prevalent. The servant knocked gently and stood at attention.
“Come in,” Came the deep voice of the Truose leader.
The head servant opened the door and waved one arm ushering me inside. The room was beautiful and full to the brim with books and ledgers. Wooden planks with writing on them and a whole shelf of scrolls as well. The strong scent of parchment and ink filled the room with his aroma of knowledge.
Sir Truose, leader of the family stood behind a desk that seemed too large to have been brought into this room and I assumed it must have been built here at some point in the long past. The wood it was made of was dark as night and seemed to shine with wax in the waning sunlight streaming through the windows spread throughout the room. Several candles were ready to be lit later this evening.
I bowed deeply with the head servant as I waited to be fully addressed by this noble man, “Please come sit down and tell me how my daughter behaved today. I know she can be rambunctious.”
I took a chair across from him and bowed my head, “Lady Patricia was very much a great example of a student that I was honored to help entertain. Her tastes are still of a whimsical nature and she seemed quite taken by the Spider’s Court song that I had played for her. It is an older song that not many of her age truly grasp but I think she took the lesson to heart.”
Sir Truose nodded as he listened to me and had a scrutinizing gaze that pierced me as sharply as any spear could. “What about this afternoon, she told me of what she planned to offer you so that she could listen to your tales and songs whenever she wanted. How ridiculous did her offer get?”
“She offered me up the seven pence a week for my services. I had to turn it down, I’ve promised my services to the Ursals until I am taken in by the court should that day ever come.”
“Seven pence. That is quite the offer to turn down. I don’t know what the Ursal family is paying you but it cannot be that much at all.” Sir Truose took out a pipe and lit it was a puff and the aroma of the potent herb filled the air as he smoked in thought. “My wife wouldn’t want me to smoke in here, so don’t tell her,” He said with a wink. “I would like to buy something else off you though. Rumor is you ran across someone that was in the initial attack and had helped make sure to warn the lands. Is that true?”
I nodded quietly, “I was. He was rather shaken up and had to be detained for leaving his post at the castle. I thought that was quite silly.”
The man took out a pence and five bits and placed them on the table. “Tell me everything about it and this money is yours.”
So I began to regale him of my tale of running across the man, to his haunted nightmares and his admittance that they had slaughtered the civilians in an attempt to make sure the food lasted as long as possible during the siege. Once I was finished he pushed the coins to me and nodded. “It is too bad that he didn’t have any insight on the true size of their troops and what equipment they have managed to bring to bear. That’ll be all. Please head back to the Ursal estate so that my daughter doesn’t make a fool of herself at dinner.”
With that I left the place and headed to the Ursal house. Winding through the streets the same way I had come earlier that day.