He didn’t mean to be, but he’d passed the last hour drinking with his friends, and before he realized it, he was tipsy. Probably more than tipsy, but he was good at pretending he wasn’t. Now every senior trainer at Blackchurch was walking him back to his cottage, and most of them, especially Payne, were singing bawdy tavern songs.
Loudly.
“There once was a lady fair,
With silver bells in her hair.
I knew her to have,
A luscious kiss… it drove me mad!
But she denied me… and I was so terribly sad.
Lily, my girl,
Your flower, I will unfurl
With my cock and a bit of good luck!
Your kiss divine,
I’ll make you mine,
And keep you abed for a fuck!”
There must have been five or six choruses of it, all the way up the road from The Black Cock and then once they entered the gatehouse. They also sang a naughty song called “Tilly Nodden,” and another about a whore named Rose, but Lily seemed to be the preferred song. Payne’s and Tay’s voices were reverberating off the walls and trees and anything else that provided a sound barrier. They were having a grand time of it, finally quieting by the time they entered the trainers’ village because there were children around.
Theirchildren.
It looked like any other village with a well in the town square. One would expect to see villagers and merchants, but not here. Everyone who lived in this village served a purpose at Blackchurch. Long ago, it was a thriving village before the Lords of Exmoor claimed it and incorporated it into the Blackchurch world. All of the trainers lived here and had their own cottages, and those who assisted the trainers lived here as well, but it was usually two or three assistants to a cottage in their case—assistant trainers and helpers who, at this moment, were out with the recruits and the dregs while the senior trainers celebrated a marriage. Even if the trainers weren’t training today, a very rare thing indeed, instruction at Blackchurch still continued.
“Listen,” Payne said, holding on to Kristian as they stumbled up the road toward Creston’s cottage. “Do ye hear them?”
“I hear nothing,” Ming Tang said. He and Amir were the only ones who weren’t drunk, mostly due to their religious convictions. “Once we leave Creston with his new wife, we should find yours. Astria would not want you walking around in this condition.”
Payne looked at the man as if he’d been deeply insulted. “I’ll walk where I want,” he said hotly. “And Idohear the children. They’re playing up the hill, by the kitchens. Such a lovely sound.”
Ming Tang simply nodded his head in agreement, though he was fairly certain there were no sounds of children around. They were more than likely with their nurse, sitting somewhere in the sun. Perhaps they were inspecting the chickens, as they so often liked to do. In any case, he couldn’t hear them, and a look at Amir told him that he couldn’t hear them either.
“Of course, Payne,” Amir said, coming over to walk next to a badly weaving Payne. “I hear them too.”
Payne slung a big arm around Amir’s shoulders. “Do ye?”
“I do.”
“Ha!” Payne guffawed. “Then ye have the hearing of a god, because I canna truly hear them. I just said that.”
Amir rolled his eyes as Payne laughed loudly at the man’s expense. By this time, they were nearly to Creston’s cottage and Creston came to a halt, turning to the men following him. He was in the grip of Cruz, who had his arm around Creston’s neck as Creston tried to remove it.
“This is where you stop,” he told everyone, unwinding Cruz’s arm from his head. “I will go in alone. I appreciate the escort, but no further assistance is necessary.”
“Lad,” Tay said seriously, “you have never been married before. I will give you some advice.”
Creston shook his head firmly, and that nearly toppled him. “I do not need advice,” he said. “I know what to do.”
“Do you?” Sinclair said, approaching him and trying to wrap him up in a bear hug. “Cres, stop moving. I must tell you something.”
Between pushing Cruz away and keeping clear of Sinclair’s flailing arms, Creston was starting to back away, trying to get free of his friends.
