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“Should we eat this?” I asked as Fiona calmly grabbed her fork and started to divide the food to get some on her plate. Upon my question, she looked up confusedly. I decided to explain. “The innkeeper might suspect we are of noble blood if we eat all these casually.”
“No,” Dearen replied before Fiona could open her mouth. “In this part of town, they don’t ask questions.”
“You mean they’ll just assume we ‘found’ a nobleman’s purse,” Fiona said dryly.
“Yes,” Dearen replied.
“Great,” I said, trying to ease the tension that was slowly forming between them. “I’m starving.”
We started to eat. For a while, I felt at peace. Kieran was beside me, and although I did not know what the kiss meant, I allowed myself to feel happy for a while.
The minstrel was playing a sad song about a girl and her lover who could never be together. I did not particularly pay attention to it, but the melancholic melody was calming as I ate the delicious food before us.
“I can’t believe how hungry I am,” I said when I paused to take a sip of my ale.
“You haven’t eaten anything in two days,” Kieran said. “We were only able to give you water. We were afraid you might choke on food.”
I nodded.
There was a momentary silence.
“You’re fine now!” Brigid said from my other side, patting me on the back.
“I am,” I said, smiling at Kieran to make sure he believed it. “I ate like a monster, but I don’t think that means anything bad.”
To my surprise, everyone at the table laughed.
“Let’s eat!” Brigid said.
We all listened. Kieran let go of my hand, and we started to chat and eat as though we were simply friends who had met for dinner at an inn. Everyone was happy that I was back amongst them, and I appreciated their concern for me and felt their relief.
The change in the music was what took us out of the little bubble at our table and made us focus on our surroundings. Suddenly, the melody was full of joy and hope, and the difference between the songs that the minstrel had played before this one was too obvious to ignore.
When I looked up, I realized that the minstrel had changed. A pretty girl with long brown hair played a joyful song on her lyre. Her elegant fingers worked the instrument as the inn fell into silence to listen to her song as she opened her mouth to sing.
Under the moving sky of winter blown;
She will never be blind in song
But the enemy comes,
To take it all,
And the chosen wonder has thrown her own
Her voice was euphonious. As soon as she started singing, all we could do was listen. Every single patron inside the inn became extremely silent as she went on. Kieran dropped his fork and faced the minstrel.
Under the ruling sky of winter blown;
Their songs will never be carved in stone
For here she comes
To save us all;
And the unseen evil will miss her dawn.
Her fingers picked up pace as she continued into the chorus. The joyful tune of the song was in direct contradiction to the solemn stature she had chosen. She did not move her feet to the rhythm as most minstrels did, nor did she smile as she kept her head low.
