Kushiel's Dart

and extending his hand. "Will you do me the honor?"
    The fiddler doubled his vigor to see us join the dancing, winking at Hyacinthe, and we danced with good will. It brought more guests onto the floor, and with the exception of the Baronet's sulky wife and a couple of her companions, everyone not dancing laughed and clapped the time. I danced twice with Hyacinthe, then once each with several of his friends, and then the fiddler struck up a switch-reel, and everyone traded partners in a rush, whirling from one to the next, while those not dancing hastily moved chairs out of the way. When it was done, we were all breathless and flushed with merriment, and the fiddler bowed with a gasp, stepping down to wipe his brow and catch his wind with a mug of ale.
    We had not yet taken our own seats when a commotion from the street drew a handful of people outside. A slight young man with curly hair darted in to catch Hyacinthe's sleeve. "Hyas, come on, you've got to see this," he said, laughing. "It's better than baiting badgers!"
    Hyacinthe looked inquiringly at me.
    "Why not?" I agreed, high-spirited and ready for anything.
    A crowd of spectators had already gathered along the sides of the street, watching the entertainment taking place in the middle of it, but Hyacinthe pushed his way through to a stack of empty wine-barrels and upended one that we might stand upon it and gain a good view.
    I saw and groaned in dismay.
    It was a party of drunken young nobles, perhaps a dozen lords and ladies in all, returning to Mont Nuit with four adepts from Eglantine House, whom I knew by the green-and-gold of their attire. Their open carriage was turned sideways across the street, blocking the passage, and a distance behind it the young lords ranged in a semicircle, with hilarious expressions and drawn swords.
    In the center of the space they had created was one very uncomfortable young Cassiline Brother, being taunted mercilessly by the Eglantine adepts.
    "Joscelin," I sighed.
    An Eglantine flautist perched on the back of the carriage, playing a merry, skillful tune while another adept sang unabashedly bawdy lyrics, her well-trained voice so lovely it took a moment for listeners to realize the vulgarity of her song. The other two Eglantines were tumblers, male and female, and it was they who pressed Joscelin the hardest. As I watched, the male tumbler knelt and the female sprang off the balls of her feet in a neat somersault, landing atop his shoulders. He stood as she straddled his neck, and her rising cleavage was thrust nearly under Joscelin's nose.
    His face a study, he took a step backward, only to be prodded forward by the points of the lordling's swords. The female tumbler stood atop her partner's shoulders and he placed his hands beneath her feet, aiding her with a boost as she somersaulted over Joscelin's head. The male promptly went to a handstand, wrapping his ankles around Joscelin's neck and hanging suspended, ducking his head between the Cassiline's legs and grinning at the cheering crowd.
    With a look of disgust, Joscelin pried the tumbler's crossed ankles loose, and the Eglantine caught himself on his hands, rolling and bounding to his feet. Joscelin took a step in the direction of the carriage, only to be confronted by the other tumbler, who leapt up to wrap her slim legs around his waist, grabbing his face in both hands and kissing him. Disengaging himself from her, he turned back toward the lordlings, laughing faces and gleaming steel arrayed against him. The male tumbler snuck up behind him, pulling a pin from his neatly clubbed hair. A swatch of wheat-blond hair trailed loose.
    "Name of Elua," I muttered. "If you won't draw your sword, at least use your daggers, you idiot!"
    "He can't," Hyacinthe said beside me, eyes bright with amusement. "They're just having fun, and Cassilines take an oath to draw steel only to defend their lives or protect their companions."
    I sighed again. "I suppose I have to do it, then." Before Hyacinthe could protest, I hopped down from the barrel and squirmed my way through the crowd, stumbling into the open street in front of the sword-baiting lordlings. Joscelin caught sight of me with a startled look, and the flautist missed a beat.
    "Heya, leave off," one of the young lords complained, catching my arm and trying to pull me away. "We're just having fun with him!"
    I raised my arm, his hand still gripping it. "Joscelin? Serve and protect?"
    His vambraces flashed as he bowed, and both