Lorn turned towards
Bier to signal the next song, fully aware of the thin looks the fiddler was getting from
the skydancer seated nearby. But so long as the Inn was shut up for the night and the guests stranded, Lorn knew he and Bier had no choice but to keep the patrons entertained. The skydancer would wait.
As Lorn ran the next ballad through his mind, however, Bier jerked his head to the side where
Gentian hovered at the edge of the crowd, looking in a way that said he had something to discuss.
"Listen," Lorn said, leaning towards the gathering of dragons before them, "why don't you all cozy down and put the kitchen to work for a bit? We've got to take five."
As their audience filtered back to their seats, Lorn and Bier headed to Gentian. Over his shoulder, Lorn heard the skydancer intercept Bier and start a hushed argument with him. Lorn wasn't about to get into the fiddler's squabbles, but Bier spoke loudly enough for Lorn to overhear a firm, "No, I don't know when I'll be ready to talk. I'll let you know." The snapper's footsteps were heavier afterwards, and Lorn let out an exasperated whistle as Gentian's eyes wandered towards
a striped pearlcatcher sitting at one of the back tables.
"What's Sid doing here?" Bier groused.
"All he said--" Gentian began, but Bier cut him off.
"They."
Gentian looked between the pearlcatcher and Bier, his eyes questioning. Then he shrugged. "
They. All they said was that it was Citadel business. Are they important? If they're not, I can tell them you're busy."
"Citadel business," Lorn repeated, the words flat on his tongue. He had no great love for the coolness of society there, preferring instead the messy raucousness of the Inn and the Plains. "I've no truck with the Citadel."
"
My father works with Sidney, more or less," Bier said, his voice a low, deep rumble, like an earthquake. "Sid's the Citadel's very own Keeper of the Watch."
Gentian looked uncomfortable between the performers and the waiting pearlcatcher. "I don't want us in any heat with the Citadel. Please hear them out." Then he turned back to the room and began taking orders for dinner.
Lorn sighed through his nose, then looked at Bier, whose jaw was set and his eyes pinned on the stranger. That look made him worried. "Bad blood?" Lorn asked.
"Not with Sidney," Bier answered, then lumbered towards the Keeper's table. Lorn followed, his steps light where Bier's were heavy, trying to learn all he could of the situation before it fully unfolded.