Brightly Woven

the Good Queen. I was so miserably wet and cold that I didn’t bother to see if there were any other taverns to choose from.
    It was painfully obvious that there was something wrong with North. He kept his head down during the entire meal and barely spoke.
    “Are you going to meet with the Sorceress Imperial tomorrow?” I asked.
    “I was hoping to look for her tonight,” North said, his finger tapping against his knife. “But tomorrow seems a little more realistic.”
    “And what about Oliver?” I asked. “He’s a member of the Guard, isn’t he? Could you talk to him about this?”
    North sat perfectly still as the group of men behind him roared over some unheard joke.
    “Of course I can talk to him about it,” North said, “but I don’t particularly enjoy the thought of his laughing in my face.”
    “In any case, you two will have to manage without me,” Owain said. “I’ll be down in the undercroft of the castle, helping to secure the gates.”
    “Lovely,” North muttered. “Down there with the rats.”
    “North,” I gasped.
    “What are you implying by that, lad?” Owain asked severely.
    “It’s exactly what I told you before,” North said, leaning across the table. “The Guard isn’t going to look on you as anything but that. You should have stayed out of this like I told you. It might have saved you some loss of pride, at least.”
    “Don’t confuse how folks feel about me with how they feel about you,” Owain said. “I’ll do everything I can to help protect my country, whether I have to knock in a few wizard skulls or not.”
    North leaned back in his seat, a dark expression crossing his features. Owain’s hand dropped to the hilt of his sword.
    “That’s enough out of both of you,” I said. “It’s obvious we need to rest if we’re already at the point of drawing blood.”
    “Fine,” North said, pushing back his chair. “I’ll go check the availability of rooms—”
    The sword thrust down so quickly, I didn’t have time to even gasp. The blade cut straight through North’s bag, pinning it to the floor.
    North fell back into his seat, looking annoyed but unsurprised. The dark-haired man sitting directly behind him, proudly wearing his black leather armor, leaned back in his seat with an infuriating smile on his face.
    “I think,” he said, “you’d best come with me instead.”
    North pulled the sword up from the floor, tossing it back to the other man in disgust, and examined his torn bag. “That was completely unnecessary!” he said. Owain’s hand had returned to his own sword.
    “You have a lot of nerve coming here,” the other man—wizard—said. “It’s unfortunate for you that I know this is the only rathole you stay in.”
    North clucked his tongue thoughtfully. “So I suppose you’re here to arrest me, then, for evading the registry? It’s a little sad they’ve forced you to stoop to this—I’m sure you have far more important things to do with your time. Drinking wine with the court, for example, or writing pretty letters. However did you fit me into your day?”
    “If you take him, you’ll be going through me first,” Owain warned. “Don’t think I won’t break that pretty face of yours.”
    The wizard favored him with a look of annoyance, but Owain didn’t back down.
    “I’m here to tell you that the Sorceress Imperial wishes tospeak to you,” the wizard said. “Though I have no idea why she continues to waste her time with you.”
    North chuckled. “Maybe she just likes me better than you, Ollie.”
    This is Oliver , I thought, the very same one I had been hearing about for so long. His dark hair was perfectly trimmed, and he was shorter and stockier than North. With that uniform and loud voice, he had seemed much older at first glance. But now I saw the way his teeth ground together when North spoke and how his hands were fidgeting with the red fabric braided into the hilt of his sword.
    “This routine of yours ceased to be amusing when we were children,” Oliver said. “You’ll come with me and avoid making a fool out of yourself in front of your kind.”
    “I’ll go with you, but only because I have something to say to her as well,” North said. “Owain, will you take Syd upstairs when you’re done? I’ll be back a bit later.”
    I opened my mouth to protest, but North was faster.
    “Go with Owain,” he said to me in a tight voice. “I’ll make sure she understands.”
    I stood, grabbing my bag in