Early afternoon on We'yetday, there were no patrons at the Boar & Bear; there usually weren't many, in the early afternoons. Today the tavern was freer than normal of customers, as it was closed to the public. The place was not, however, empty; Marc Protestant's band was practicing on stage, when they weren't conversing with the adventurers and other musicians present. Marc's Aunt Marie was spending much of the day catering, free of charge, to her nephew and his friends; lunch and frequent snacks, and later there would be supper. The adults present insisted they themselves should pay for their own food and drink, but Marie insisted more strenuously otherwise, so everyone got a free lunch.
There were four in the band (all sixteen years old), including Marc, who played drums. The others were Jae Furthingtame, the majitar-player (one of but two in all the world) and sometime singer; Jae's girlfriend Anja Frontrun, who sometimes played dulcimer and sometimes microlliope (an instrument of her own creation); and the lead singer (who also played a little Frinn horn), Rain Weatherprophet- she went by Rain W, however. The four of them collaborated on songwriting, as well as playing songs written by others, sometimes songs from other worlds (as was common on the Land, especially if you happened to have a connection to a spirit-talker). The others present at the Boar & Bear at the moment- besides its proprietors- were Darius, Tino, Ginger, and Tiejo. Alecstar and Cameron were out giving Tom his final lesson in flying. He'd already learned in the past week to pilot a wagon and a recliner, and had begun to learn carpets. He proved a very quick study, and made his latest masters quite proud. Emma was working on final preparations for the journey, which was to begin two days hence, on Wor'ginday, the 26th of Sp'gin.
It was still common practice, when getting to know someone new, to ask about their order-names. The surname law had only been enacted eight years ago, after all, in 904 (and many didn't get around to choosing a surname for their clan or themselves until the First Census the next year). And so, when the band had arrived mid-morning to begin practice, found a few folks they'd barely met, and decided to put off practice for a bit in order to get to know them, that was among the first questions everyone asked. George had introduced his nephew while Marie brought out drinks of hot or cold cider or milk, according to each person's declared preference.
"Friends, this is my nephew-by-marriage, Marc Protestant. Marie's brother's son."
"Pleased to meet you," said Darius, and the others echoed the sentiment.
Tino said, "Marie, your family's name is Protestant, eh? I did not know that. No relation to Ginj, eh?"
Handing him a hot cider, she replied, "Now you know 'Protestant' isn't exactly a regular clan-name. Just ever so many folk as feel a great connection to that religion chose it. Enough as the Order's First Census-takers realized it'd be useless trying to make them all stick to the general 'one name to one clan' rule. Besides, they wanted to demonstrate their willingness to let bygones be bygones, and accept the continued existence of the Protestants."
"And... a cynic might say, it'd be an easy way of identifying their enemies if they ever wanted to dispose of them," said Darius.
"A cynic might, yes," said Marie. "But of course, whatever truth there might be in that, the Order would surely also realize that a great many people who chose other names would also be Protestants by religious practice. So they'd have to be careful; there'd be plenty of friends left around to avenge such a disposal, even start a whole new war. I think they're not so interested in creating martyrs. ...Who wants cookies?" Whatever she talked about, her voice never failed to hold the same cheerful tone. It made for rather little indication of change of subject, and could be jarring to those who didn't know her well. Luckily, everyone here had spent at least a little time with her before, except Tiejo, who was of course mad, which helped him take almost everything in life in stride. They all nodded, and she popped back into the kitchen. She was not one who often worried about spoiling meals.
Tiejo had obviously been having trouble restraining himself from speaking for the past few minutes. He hadn't wanted to interrupt, but he had something he wanted to say, and could now see Tino seemed about to change the subject, and hurried to get a word in edgewise. "Like Streetrats, are Protestants. Rats all."
"Excuse me?" said Ginger, not yet sure whether to be amused or offended.
"Not such clan-name. Many non-relatives. Kind of thing as Streetrats, large not-family. Fellowship, or other subword Darius helping me find will be, hmmm? Streetrats, and Dockrats, Hillrats, Riverrats, Woodrats... all. But Order does not fear; Order does not care, simply. Unimportant, call us what we will."
"Ah, I see," she said, nodding. She still wasn't quite sure about amusement, but she had decided offense was out.
Turning back to Marc, Tino asked, "Any spirit-talkers in your family, then? Ginj is one, like her dad was, but I guess she doesn't talk to many."
"My cousin Drew. He sometimes gets us songs from other worlds through one of his spirit friends. You guys-" He was interrupted by Marie returning with a platter of cookies, of which everyone got up to partake, then returned to their seats. Marie just sat down at a table roughly halfway between the far sides of, but set a bit aback from, the scattered assemblage of conversers, to listen silently. Her nephew resumed, "You guys get any songs like that?"
"Mostly," said Ginger, "Cameron and Emma write our stuff. But we do get a few offworld songs, whether from spirits I know, or just stuff that other 'talkers have already published."
Marc nodded, and began introducing his bandmates. "Anyway, this is our lead singer, Rain W.," he said, gesturing in the direction of the short, wild dark-haired, fair freckle-faced girl carrying a Frinn horn case.
With her free left hand, she waved. "Hi, everybody."
"W?" asked Darius. "Is that your whole order-name?"
"Well... no. I just feel kinda silly using my real surname with my first name. See, my folks are weather-predictors, they've both always loved the weather. They do a column on it for a local daily journal. So, it seemed only natural for them to name me after one of their favorite types of weather- they met in the rain one spring day you know, and married in it, and still frequently dance in it...."
"Et cetera," put in Jae with a wicked grin.
Rain shot him a momentary scowl, but quickly decided it'd be best to ignore him. "...Rather unrelated, when the surname law was later passed, it seemed similarly natural for them to choose a name based on their profession- obviously, most people did. So they called themselves- and along with them, their kin- 'Weatherprophet.' So I'm Rain Weatherprophet. They neglected to consider that when choosing the surname. Parents are good at causing their kids no end of embarrassment, yeah?"
"Yeah," agreed the other members of the young band, as well as Darius.
"Anyway..." she said, and shrugged, thinking of nothing further to say.
So, Marc picked up with the next introduction. Pointing to the tallest of the young musicians, with dark, unkempt- but not as unkempt as Rain's- hair, he said, "Jae Furthingtame."
"Your folks must be in a fun line of work," said Ginger.
"You might think that. Of course, they continually get more scrapes and bruises than I ever got when I was a kid. But at least I've never lacked for good pets."
"Tiejo furthing has. Streetfurthing, untame but good. Warm, soft, purr, good protection and alarm. Rennon call him. Good Rennon. Cute cute. Good furthing. Meet sometime you may."
"Maybe," said Jae.
"I'd love to," said Ginger. "I love furthings."
"So do I," said Darius. "I had a housefurthing when I was a kid. His name was Kitt. Died when I was a little older than you kids."
"You're still just a little older than us," said Anja, a couple of inches taller than Rain, with neat, straight, red hair, and a complexion paler than Rain's.
"Well, I was some years younger than I am now. I was closer to your present age than to my present age. And you are?"
"Anja Frontrun. As for my name, I guess you may've heard of my dad, Zip-"
"Zip Frontrun, gold-medal winner for running at both World Fairs," said Darius. "No mystery where your name comes from."
Ginger was still looking at Jae, or rather at his instrument, which he'd just taken out of its case. "Excuse me... Jae... I don't believe I've ever seen one of those. What is it?"
He grinned broadly and held it out to her. She took it carefully and eagerly, running her hands over its body and strings. "It's a majitar," he said. "Very rare. I couldn't tell you how many there are in world, but I expect you could count them on one hand. I learned to play from the man who invented it, a Protestant Sorreter named Guy Artisan. He said the basic design is based on an old Earth instrument a spirit told him about. I forget what he called it, but the majitar is named for it. The 'maj' part is from majik- that's M-A-J-I-K, a spelling he says he prefers to the regular one. Anyway, apparently there were several different types of the Earth instrument, and the one he wanted to make required a science a wee bit beyond us yet, so he used majik instead. It's not quite the same effect, but close enough."
"It has magic in it, then?" said Ginger. "Does it have to be recharged?"
"Depending on how much it's played, every five to ten years. I've had it now three years, and I keep in touch with Guy via t-mail. He's a world-traveler, you know. Anyway, he should be back around this way by the time it needs recharging. Unless we get a whole lot of gigs soon." And he glanced at George.
"We'll see, son. Do well, and the audience will demand more."
"So, you can't just take it to a garage," said Darius.
"Oh, of course no other Sorreters know his brand of majik."
"He'll have to train others in making and upkeeping these," said Ginger, handing it back to Jae.
"Perhaps," said Jae. "Anyway, I never let pass an opportunity to remind him I'd love to be apprenticed to him if he's ever interested in taking any on."
"Speaking of rare instruments- Anj, I've never seen one of those," said Tino, pointing to a rather large and odd-looking contraption already set up on the stage.
"Ah, rarer still. Unique, in fact. I invented it myself. Like Jae's majitar, it's based on an Earth instrument, but I've had to do my best to reproduce it. It's not quite the same, and that's only partly intentional. I mean, I was trying to make a smaller, more portable version of it. One could only take that so far, though, and still retain anything of the original. ...It's called a microlliope. And I'm the only one who can play it."
The other three members of the band beamed at her. Marc said, "We're so proud. Little genius inventor we've got here. And Jae with his majitar, and Rain's a damn good singer..."
"I'll reserve final judgement till I've heard you all play tonight," said Tino, "but I think you kids are gonna be big. I'm proud to have met you. ...Y'know, you all kinda remind me of a band I used to be in, back in the '90s, though we surely couldn't have been nearly as good or have had the potential you all probably have.... Anyway, I'm afraid I didn't show up much. Constantly disappointing the others."
"Some things never change," said Ginger dryly.
Tino, sitting beside her, grinned and put an arm around her, gave her a little squeeze and a peck on the cheek. "Yup. But hey, I'm a lot better about such things than I used to be. Really."
"Well," she admitted, "at least you're always there for performances. And your performance is never really disappointing."
"-Wait," said Anja suddenly. "The nineties? That'd make you what, like in your late thirties now or something? You don't look any older than Ginger." She hastily added, "...Who couldn't be more than 25."
"Twenty-six, actually. But who's counting?" said Ginger.
"Yeah, well..." said Tino. He didn't say anything further, and it became apparent he found that an adequate answer.
"He never talks much about his past. Of course, that isn't much different from any of us. But at least we know each other's birthdays. To say nothing of birthyears."
"Say, and do you even have an order-name?" Anja asked.
Tino shrugged. "Never saw the need. Orderlies don't bother me."
"Tom's gonna love you," said Darius with a grin.
"But what about the First Census-takers?" asked Marc.
"Saw neither hide nor hair of them. Fell between the cracks, I did."
"Good singer-mouthharpist 'Streetrat' can be," said Tiejo.
At this, Tino grinned and replied, "Thanks. I may take you up on that."
"Or 'Protestant,'" said Ginger, giving him a squeeze of her own, "if you ever let me make an honest man of you."
Tino gave her rather more than a peck, and not on the cheek. After which he said mischievously, "We'll see, kid. Maybe someday."
"I think," said Darius with a sudden thought, "that we're missing something of fundamental importance here." All eyes turned to him. After a moment's dramatic pause he asked, "Well? What's the name of the band?"
"Black Radly," they all said simultaneously. Marc continued, "It's from an Earth book Drew got from one of his spirits. 'Black Radly' was the name of a type of bow, in the book. What that could possibly have to do with music or with us, I'm sure I don't know. All I can say is, when I-"
"When each of us in turn," Anja corrected.
"...When we all read the name of the bow, we all had the same reaction: 'That'd be a cool name for a band.'"
"Indeed," said Darius. "Well now, I should think I'd like to read that book sometime, if you can get me a copy. I love offworld books and such. Especially from Earth."
"Doesn't everybody?" asked Ginger.
"I know I do," said Tino. "And hey, I've even read that book. I have a favorite writer from Earth about the time the Land itself was created, and I try to read a lot of his stuff, and stuff he liked by other writers. Such as the one who wrote the book your name comes from."
"That's another mystery about Tino," said Ginger. "He knows so much about Earth, you'd think he was a spirit-talker. You aren't, are you?"
"Nope," he said. She didn't bother pressing for more information; she knew him well enough to know it wouldn't be forthcoming. Instead, he went on to amend one of his earlier statements. "Those books, I should say. Damn good series. Lynn Flewelling, the author's name was."
The four kids stared at Tino in surprise. "A series?" asked Marc. "Drew never mentioned that; we've only read the one."
"Well then, ask him about the rest next time you see him. Maybe he doesn't even know about the rest. Spirits don't always volunteer information which would seem to be related to the conversations they're having... so I hear."
"That's certainly true enough," said Ginger. "They can be damned frustrating to talk to sometimes. Which is a big reason I don't do it professionally. That, and of course my love of music..."
"Speaking of which," said Jae, "perhaps we should get on with practicing for tonight."
Tino slapped his forehead. "Did I say I'd reserve judgement on you all till I heard you tonight? Duh- I'm gonna hear you right now!"
"Of course," said Rain, "it won't be quite the same as a real performance, where we hopefully will be playing songs straight through without occasionally stopping and discussing things amongst ourselves about what we think we're doing right or wrong- and perhaps asking you and Ginger for advice?"
Ginger raised a demurring hand. "Not our place," she said. "But we'll do our best to give our opinions and thoughts, as you like. Just keep in mind, as we surely will, you all are not us, and need not- should not- conform to our style."
"Naturally," said Anja. "That's not the way for artists, which I think we here all are. Still, it never hurts to get input from people both inside and outside the field."
"Outside Tiejo say how he thinks, too."
"Thanks, Tiejo," said Marc. "Now..." And the young bandmembers made their way to the stage to finish setting up their instruments and conduct a hushed discussion among themselves before beginning. Meanwhile, the others in the room resituated themselves to get a better view of the stage, and waited. (Darius, of course, would avert his eyes from the musicians off and on throughout their performance; he'd always been about as uncomfortable looking at people on a stage as he was looking at people with whom he was conversing, or simply in close proximity to.)
They didn't have to wait long before the band was ready and the first strains of Jae's majitar opened the first number. It was a sound that bore obvious similarities to that of traditional instruments such as Ginger's lyre or Emma's mandolin, but... but it was also obviously unlike anything any of them had ever heard before. It was not difficult to believe that it was indeed at least partially magical. They could also clearly tell that as keenly interesting as this introduction to the new instrument was, it must surely be but the barest hint of the majitar's full potential. They very much hoped they'd soon be getting a fair sampling of what could be done with it.
These thoughts, half subconscious, barely had a chance to register before Jae began singing as well as playing... both were still fairly low, quiet, slow.... At the same instant as his singing began, Anja began playing her microlliope, just as softly and slowly as Jae. It went on for a minute in this vein, when suddenly Marc's drums- certainly different from Star's, thought Ginger- thundered to life, temporarily overshadowing the other two. Then the speed and volume leveled out somewhere between the previous low and the recent sudden high, and Rain took over singing duty from Jae, who occasionally contributed his voice over the next few minutes of the song. His majitar occasionally produced sounds even louder and faster than Marc's initial drumwork.
It was clearly a different generation of minstrelry. And all present decided unequivocally that it was well time for this music to come to the Land. George was already thinking of what Frank would do if he heard these kids play, and made a mental note to invite him one night soon; tonight, if possible on such short notice. The first song was played uninterrupted, and everyone stood and applauded when it was finished. Subsequent songs were played sometimes haltingly, sometimes completely. Everyone offered up their opinions and advice at any chance, though mostly all they could think to say was, 'Don't change a thing.'
This was all before lunch, which they took a bit late, around 2:6:50. They might well have put it off longer still, but Marie insisted they stop to eat. Over lunch, they continued their earlier conversation. "Anyway," began Anja, between bites of a threenut butter and pineana sandwich, "so you know all about our order-names. What about yours?"
"Protestant, I think we've covered," said Ginger.
"Also Streetrat," said Tiejo.
"I've always found Lonewander rather self-evident," said Darius.
"Haven't got one," said Tino.
"And your friends?" asked Marc.
"Tom hasn't got one either," said Darius.
"Pseud none of us has a clue about," said Ginger. "But obviously her real name would start with 'Des.' No idea of her clan, though. Now, Piper's one of your more obvious surnames. I think that just leaves Star..."
"Aside, of course," put in Darius, "from our good hosts, the Taverners. Also an obvious, respectable name."
"And don't think there wasn't competition," said George. "Or at least, others who'd have liked it. But, it was first come, first served, in the Census. Can't imagine nobody claimed it in First Village, but, apparently they didn't. And Tonad was the second village of course, and the Census spread out from the capital in order of villages' founding, so they got to me fairly early on. Since then, of course, fellow taverners have expressed a bit of jealousy, to me. Still, everybody's got some name- almost everybody, that is," with a glance in Tino's direction. "Plenty of conversation-starters yet."
"Mmm," agreed Darius.
"Anyway," Ginger picked up where she'd been interrupted, "all Star will say regarding his order-name, Inco, is that he and a childhood friend made up their own... language, he called it.... He said that's a subword that implies there are words that... well, great sets of words... that are different, somehow set apart from other sets of words, and not everybody speaks the same set. That is, on other worlds. Sometimes not even just different worlds, but a single world, like Earth, can have lots of different... languages.... Even said some of our subwords come from what on other worlds would be considered different languages, even if even on those worlds the words are commonly understood and spoken by people of many different languages.... It's all terribly convoluted, and I think the one who has the most fun talking about it with him is Emma. Anyway, she's the one who understands it best. I'm not quite sure where Star got his knowledge of... languages from. Must be some spirit-talker he once knew, I guess."
"Say, I rather understand the concept of languages," said Tino. "I've babbled with those two about it on occasion, y'know." He was trying to suppress a grin, but didn't entirely manage it. Ginger knew he often made jokes that couldn't possibly make sense to anyone but him. Which was better than most could do; most couldn't even tell he was making a joke at all. They just thought he was batty. Not that she never thought that, herself....
But anyway, she hadn't been finished. "Where was I? Um... oh, yes. Anyway, Star and his old friend had made up their own language when they were kids. Just sort of tinkered with ordinary words enough that it might be hard to recognize them unless you were in on it, but close enough to the original words that it wasn't much trouble for them to remember what they were substituted for. Inco is one of those words from their language, but he won't say what it means. Heck, for all we know, it might be based on a subword that isn't even in common usage on this world yet."
"Well," said Anja with a smile, "you're all fairly crazy, I'd say. True artists, then."
No one was inclined to disagree with the sentiment. But as no one could think of anything further to say for the moment, they concentrated instead on finishing their lunch, after which everyone went out for a brief walk to settle the meal. The young musicians returned with George and Marie to the Boar & Bear to continue practicing. The others went to meet up with Alecstar, Emma, Cameron, and Tom. They'd all return to the tavern later to watch Black Radly's performance, enjoy some drinks, and generally relax. Tomorrow would also be for resting and final discussions, and the next day the adventure would begin.
All contents of this site © David A. Ward