The Rope Dancer

The Rope Dancer by Roberta Gellis

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Authors: Roberta Gellis
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chartered city, he had less empathy for the landed nobility than Deri, whose family had been rich yeomen rising toward knighthood.
    “I wonder how many will stay home to guard their keeps now that this fighting has started,” Deri said, ignoring Telor’s cynical remark. The mild disagreement between them was old. “You know, Telor, if there are few guests, we are likely to have made this trip for nothing.”
    Telor laughed. “Nothing except the steadiness of my head on my shoulders. It is true that de Dunstanville might be too busy to trouble himself with me at once if this war spreads, but he has a long memory, and I suspect this area would never have been safe for me again if I failed him.”
    Telor sounded as if he spoke half in jest, but Carys’s terror was still too recent for her to dismiss even a shadow of a threat from a lord. She looked over Telor’s shoulder at the huge stone walls looming above them and shuddered while the horses climbed the road. When they passed under the keep, she had seen that it was taller than the walls, which extended from it to enclose the inner bailey. The lower portion was blank stone, the second floor marked by thin arrow slits. Only on the highest level were there narrow windows, set deep into the thickness of the walls. Had she been in such a keep, Carys thought, rather than an old-style wooden one, she would have been dead by now—or, worse, still screaming and praying for death. Carys was deeply grateful to Telor for dressing her as a boy, and she went over in her mind every detail she could remember of the points Morgan had made of the differences between boy and girl in voice, gesture, and manner. She was determined to be just one more servant boy to whom no one would pay attention.
    In this case, Carys’s anxiety was wasted. The latest outbreak of unrest had created one advantage for her as a member of Telor’s party. Those of any importance in Combe keep, who might at a time of celebration eagerly scrutinize each new troupe of players to judge what sort of entertainment they would be getting, were far more interested in the noble parties arriving. Who came and who did not now had a significance it would not have in times of peace, showing support or suspicion of de Dunstanville.
    There was not even the usual interest Telor’s arrival would have generated when no guests were expected at Combe. At such times, the rumors and news Telor brought from the towns he passed and the other castles at which he entertained were of deep interest to de Dunstanville and the knights and squires of his establishment. The influx of noble guests made such secondhand information unimportant. The guards at the outer entrance, some of whom knew him from previous visits, waved him through the gate and turned back to what they considered far more interesting conversations with other men-at-arms, who had come with one or another noble guest.
    Carys gripped the back of Telor’s saddle nervously with sweat-slicked hands as they passed into the dark, narrow tunnel that pierced the walls, but neither outer nor inner guards gave their party more than a single glance. Telor and his dwarf, although horsed and decently dressed, were not important enough to send a messenger off to keep or stables—and Telor was as pleased as Carys at the lack of attention. Had the guards notified some officious understeward of his arrival, he would surely have been told to leave his animals in a pen in the outer bailey or even been banished to the village. As it was, he had an excellent chance of simply handing Teithiwr, Surefoot, and Doralys over to the grooms in the stable in the inner bailey. Once they were in, Telor was sure the grooms would do their best to give his animals preference for space over any but the mounts of the great lords. It was Deri they wanted to please, since Deri cared for the beasts himself, saving the grooms work—and put on a show for the grooms in the process.
    By the time they were well

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