Young Writers Society

Despite Buck's apathy towards the mood-killing chronicle, he had to admit that it was a good opportunity to showcase his voice. He especially enjoyed singing about battles which ended in huge bloody messes, because he was able to raise his pitch to a thin, haunted tone. He'd always been able to sing surprisingly high pitched, and he thought it lent his sadder songs a plaintive innocence. From the moments when he glanced around to check Princess Myal's reaction, her wide eyes seemed to agree.

He kept his eyes fixed on a spot two thirds of the way up the far off wall, looking distant as he sang of troubled times. So when he looked down at the crowd as his song came to a close, he was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone was staring at him with jaws hanging open. The fight had been completely brought to an end. When he'd been silent for a few moments, applause started to spread. He offered the crowd a bow, straightened, then turned to face the princess and bowed again.

"That was beautiful!" Dorrea cried, rushing forward to wrap him in a hug. Buck staggered back slightly. He'd been intending to say a few words to the crowd, but instead found himself burying his face in the warmth of his mum's shawl.

When they pulled apart, he cleared his throat and said, "Thank you, mum. I'm glad you got to see me sing."

"Me too," she said, squeezing his arm.

He turned back to the crowd and said, "Well now, if I can do that anyone can. Let's get this night going!"

"Thank you so much for that beautiful rendition, Buttane," Myal said, rising from her throne to stand beside him. "Please, if any more of you would like to sing come to the front and give your name to Feni."

Buck smiled at her as a scribe shuffled up to the side of the stage, holding a piece of parchment and a battered grey quill.

"My pleasure, your Highness," he said, giving her one more quick bow.

Once he was down off the stage, with his mum and Olean in tow, Victane rushed up to him. He stopped, his arms clearly going up for a hug, but then he glanced behind Buck, towards Dorrea, and stopped himself. Buck smiled, wondering if he felt awkward showing affection for Buck in front of his actual parent. He hugged Victane anyway, then gave Hilene a high five.

"That was incredible!" Hilene exclaimed. "I've never heard you sing with so few jokes."

"And hopefully you won't again any time soon," Buck said, leading his friends towards one of the tables around the side of the room. "I almost put myself to sleep."

"No, it was really good," Hilene said as they all settled down onto the stone benches. "Powerful."

It seemed so powerful, in fact, that barely five minutes later Hilene had signed himself up to sing. Buck stared at Victane as he headed over to a scribe who was compiling an order.

"Did you know he could sing?" Buck asked.

Victane shook his head, eyes wide. "I did not. Frankly, I still don't. Gods, I hope he can."

Hilene came back moments later because a sudden flux of sign-ups had meant he was now fourth on the list Nevertheless, the next singer began, then the next, then the next. By the time it was Hilene's turn, the hall had filled with song and dance of surprisingly varied genres for being spread over only three songs.

He was pretty good, as it turned out. His voice was quiet and clearly nervous, but he managed to sing an old spooky Resadorian folk tale about the dead coming back to life. Everyone in the hall seemed to love it, even if it had originated in a place they weren't familiar with. Buck brought Hilene a drink and clapped him on the back as he came down off the stage. He praised him the whole way back to their table, where Victane hugged him so hard he lifted him up into the air.

Hilene drank quickly, then immediately bounced up to dance. Buck grinned as he took his hand and joined on the end of the Strip the Willow line. He could barely comprehend that this was the same Hilene who'd barely looked up from his puzzle box whenever Buck had passed through the city gates.

Buck danced with Hilene for a while, then Dorrea, then Olean, then stranger after stranger until his feet felt like they were made of sharp metal and he had to go take a seat. He wasn't so dazed, however, that he didn't notice the shepherd they'd spoken to on the way in, the one who'd tried to break up the fight. He was sitting by himself in the corner, staring into space with a furrowed brow. Buck had a feeling he wasn't intentionally putting on a distant, plaintive expression like Buck had during his song.

He flopped down on the bench next to the shepherd and stretched, yawning. "Hey, it's Raddig, right?"

The shepherd had jumped a little when he sat down. Now he blinked and focused on Buck.

"Yes, that's my name," he said. "What's yours?"

"Buttane," said Buck, without even hesitating. He was getting good at this. "My mum is Dorrea. Do you know her?"

"Oh, I know Dorrea," he said, crossing his arms, but offered no explanation. He chewed on his bottom lip. "Is that what Erson is doing down south? Dancing and having fun?"

"Maybe." Buck shrugged, anxious not to give off the impression that he'd come straight from where Erson was.

"I doubt it," Raddig said. "That man's never cracked a smile in his life. I doubt I'll ever see him dancing. But if he's stayed longer in Resador... maybe..."

Buck clicked back into the mindset for this sort of conversation. "What did you mean, by the way, that the queen didn't like you? I know she has mixed feelings on shepherds at the mom-"

"No, no, nothing like that," Radding said, staring into space again. "It's more personal..." He tailed off then suddenly stood up.

"Would you like to dance?" Buck blurted.

Radding whirled around to face him. "What? No! I'm not like you and that southern boy. I don't know what you do down there but up here it's not like that."

Buck sat back, letting him leave, as the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. He stood up, and spotted his mum sitting at the table they'd originally taken. He jogged over to her.

"Mum," he said, tapping her on the shoulder. "Could I talk to you somewhere? Somewhere quieter?"

It was only at that moment that he noticed Victane sitting on her other side. His hands were in the air in front of him, as if he were in the middle of a hand gesture accompanying an interesting story.

"Uh, later is fine," said Buck.

Dorrea chuckled and stood up. "Don't worry, now is fine. I'll be back, Victane."

Victane gave her a quick, abbreviated wave, then turned back to his drink with bright red cheeks.

Dorrea led Buck across the dancefloor, which Princess Myal was looking down on with a wide, beaming grin. Then she took him into a corridor, and around to a smaller room with eight tables lined up neatly in two rows of four. Buck strode to the furthest away one and sat down.

"Mum, I need to ask you a few questions about Raddig."

"Och, you're not still worried about him, are you?" Dorrea took his hand. "He's just grumpy all the time."

"Mum, this is important," Buck said, taking his hand away to bring his parchment out of his pocket. "Do people share his views?"

"About southerners, folks with darker skin? Oh, a few maybe, but most keep it to themselves," she said.

Buck nodded, scribbling a few words. "What about other things, other views? Did you notice anyone looking at me and Hilene kind of funny when we were dancing together?"

"Again, maybe a few..."

"And Raddig seemed very anxious to express those views. Now, usually that just means someone's particularly sure of themselves, but Raddig was very curious about Erson, and whether he might one day see him dance," Buck said, feeling a grin coming on.

But Dorrea frowned. "Well, even if that is true don't spill the boy's secrets. There's plenty of people who find the prince very handsome."

Buck waved his hands in the air. "Of course not, especially not in an environment like this. But I think it's interesting that Raddig would be so curious about whether Erson had been loosening up or whatever, especially since Erson's mother famously doesn't like him. You'd think he'd just want to forget about the family and dance the night away."

Buck was gesturing wildly with his quill and his mum's eyes were following it. When he stopped moving, she blinked and focused on him.

"I think I may have predicted your next question, my clever, clever boy. You've remembered someone else the queen doesn't like, haven't you?" Dorrea looked at him, searching his eyes.

Buck nodded. "The queen also doesn't like whoever Erson is in love with."

"Buttane," Dorrea hissed, grabbing his hand and settling his quill down on the table top. "You have to stop right now. If you've got this right... This isn't court gossip! Erson, however inflexible he can sometimes be, is a good person. You cannot just go telling his secrets."

"Of course. I wouldn't dream of it," Buck said, nodding even as he tried to figure out how the hell this situation could end in Erson's marriage to Pires.