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to magic that they used to create their toys. And the toys answered to anyone, mage or not.
"I've n-n-never s-s-seen a D-Deliamb-b-bren," he managed to get out. "D-d-do they all l-l-look l-like
th-that?"
Robin laughed, and reached up and hugged him. "Old Owl is not the only one you'll see on the road, and
that is just about the only place you ever will see them," she told him, all her good cheer back, now that
the stranger had offered his help. "Unless you earn an invitation to Bendjin, that is. They don't make very
many of those, so don't get your hopes up. I don't know if they all lookquite like that, but they are all
pretty flamboyant. We call himOld Owl because Erdric back at Kingsford is an Owl too, but Harperus is
his senior by a century or so."
Kestrel tried not to goggle at that. "Howold is he?"
She shook her head, as the rain slacked off a little. "I don't exactly know," she replied, after a moment of
thought. "Wren said he was at least a hundred years old, and guessed from records and stories that he
might be as old as two hundred. That was the best guess he had, but Wren said he couldn't be sure."
He hopped down off the back of the wagon to join her; she gave him a flirtatious kiss. "We'd better get
things ready so when he comes out, all he has to do is use our chains to pull us out." Kestrel nodded, and
waded through the mud beside her. They were already so wet and mired that a little more wouldn't
matter.
"I've been inside Bendjin," she offered, as they got the tow-chains out of the box on the back of the
wagon where they were kept safe from rusting in an oiled bag. "Once, when I was very small. They
brought inmy Clan to entertain for a festival of some kind. I don't think they let anyone but Free Bards
and Gypsies inside the walls; I don't think they trust anyone else." She chuckled. "I suppose they know
we have no reason to covet their powers, since no Gypsy would ever own anything he couldn't repair
himself in a pinch, and no Free Bard would care about anything other than making music."
"W-was it l-like they s-say?" he asked, fascinated by the mere idea of being inside the Deliambrens'
mysterious fortress-city.
Robin took her end of the chains and fastened them carefully to the loops built into the frame of the
wagon before she answered. "I wasn't very old, but it was rather amazing, even to a child. It was quite
dazzling, that's all I can tell you," she said reminiscently, as he copied her movements with the chains on
his side. "Lights; that's what I mostly remember. Lights everywhere. Not candles or lamps or anything of
that sort. They have lights outside that glow when darkness falls, and little light-globes inside that light up
and grow dark again at the touch of a finger. All the colors of lights that you can possibly imagine. They
do have wagons that move by themselves, without horses. And they have boat-shaped things that fly. I
only saw the little ones; Old Owl told me there were bigger ones that they use for their special trading
missions outside Bendjin, and some even bigger ones that they only use once in a while, because they
kind of break down a lot."
Kestrel grimaced. He couldn't imagine anything involving a Deliambrenbreaking down
"I wish I could describe what I saw for you," she concluded, with a little shrug of apology, "but I was
only five or six years old. I don't remember muchmore than that. Oh, I do recall one other thing; they had
some pet birds that were just as flamboyant as their costumes, birds that sat on your shoulder and talked!
I played with one for hours, and I really wanted one, but Old Owl told me that they just couldn't stand
cold, and it would die in the first winter."
"I'll f-f-find you one th-that w-w-won't," Kestrel promised, and was rewarded with a smile. A warm and
lovely smile, that said, Youunderstand . And he did. He truly did.
Besides, it was not all that difficult a promise to fulfill. With all of the creatures of Alanda, surely there
was a bird like that somewhere. . . .
"Well!" said Harperus, popping his head out of the door of his vehicle. "Are you ready?"
"I think so, unless you want to come down here and look things over first," Robin called up to him.
He nodded; that amazing hair was all tucked under a shiny hood, the hood of a coat made of the same
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