Shadows and Light

having left the company of a short-haired woman and a young girl, who waved at them before disappearing into the house.
    The dog stopped a few feet in front of the bench and barked as if determined to let the whole county know there were strangers at his house.
    “Oh, shut up, Idjit,” Breanna muttered.
    The dog barked and danced in front of them, paying no attention to the command.
    “ Sit , Idjit,” Breanna said firmly.
    The dog stopped barking, ran a couple of steps, then leaped as if someone were holding a hoop for him to jump through. He turned and leaped again.
    Breanna sighed. Then she looked at Lyrra and smiled.
    Lyrra was always suspicious of merchants who smiled like that.
    “Wouldn’t you like to have a dog on your travels?” Breanna said brightly. “He’d be a good companion, and he could warn you when strangers approached.”

    “Like he warned you?”
    Breanna waved that aside. “And he can do tricks.”
    “He’s ... interesting.” Was that noncommittal enough?
    “I’ll give you twelve coppers to take him.”
    “He’s not that interesting.”
    Breanna huffed. Lyrra looked toward the house.
    “I’ve already been warned not to offer him to young girls,” Breanna said sourly.
    Lyrra laughed. It felt good to laugh, felt good to talk with another woman, felt good not to hide what she was.
    She was still chuckling when she noticed Aiden walking toward them. The dog watched him, too, and didn’t let out a single yip.
    “Some guard dog,” Lyrra muttered.
    “You’ll never be surprised by a squirrel,” Breanna replied with a straight-faced sincerity that made Lyrra laugh again.
    That’s how Aiden found them, laughing over something neither was willing to explain. Lyrra saw his surprise when he got close enough to see that she’d released the glamour. After a moment’s hesitation, he released the glamour, as well, then bowed to Breanna.
    She studied both of them, then asked, rather wistfully, “Are you really the Bard and the Muse?”
    “Yes, we are,” Aiden replied.
    “I don’t suppose ...” Breanna shook her head.
    Lyrra frowned. “You get little entertainment here?” It was hard not to remember Ari, and how she wasn’t welcome in the nearby village and was excluded from any amusements that might have been available.
    “Oh, there are entertainers who come by, and we’ll go into Willowsbrook from time to time when a minstrel stops for a day or two. But they don’t know any new songs.”
    Aiden grinned as he looked at Lyrra. “We have a new song or two.”
    The wretch. He was going to trot out that mouse song.
    “And we’d be pleased to do a song or two for all of you,” Lyrra said. She gave Aiden a clench-toothed smile.
    “That’s wonderful,” Breanna said. “I’ll see if Elinore and Brooke want to stay for the evening meal so that they can hear you, too.” She hesitated, looked at both of them.
    “Perhaps your other guests would find so much honesty disconcerting?” Lyrra asked, guessing that Breanna was wondering if the gentry would feel easy dining with the Fae.
    “Perhaps,” Breanna said a bit ruefully.

    Lyrra glanced at Aiden. They resumed the glamour that gave them human masks.
    Breanna gave Aiden a speculative look as the three of them walked back to the house. “How would you like—?”
    “No,” Lyrra said firmly, “he would not.”
    “I wouldn’t?” Aiden asked, sounding confused.
    “No, you wouldn’t.”
    “You didn’t even give me a chance to offer the twelve coppers,” Breanna protested.
    “He wouldn’t take them.”
    “I wouldn’t?” Aiden said.
    “No,” Lyrra replied, “you wouldn’t.” She looked at Breanna. “And if you don’t mention it again, we’ll play an extra song.”
    Breanna grinned. “That’s the best offer I’ve had.”
    “It’s the only offer you’ve had.”
    “That, too.”
    Two women in charity with each other and one confused man walked into the house to wash up for the evening meal.
    Aiden tuned his harp. It had been a good decision to talk after the evening meal and save the songs for last. He could give the ladies here something sweet to sleep on after he and Lyrra had told them about the things that were happening in eastern villages—and in the Old Places. And it had been wise of Nuala and Breanna to cut up a couple of apples and send Keely and Brooke out to the stables to give the horses a treat. He wasn’t sure what had happened to Keely that had kept her a child in a woman’s body,