Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world)
And the march continues.
First Impression: Buck got famous fast. That's for sure. Also the Princess comes off as a pretty nice person so far which is in stark contrast to the queen. And she seems to have a bit of a competitive streak with the prince too.
This time, the path brought them down towards the front entrance of the palace. The tall, arched double doors were lying wide open. And out of them streamed a long, straggly queue that spread out into a crowd, who were milling around in the courtyard. As Buck clambered down from Victane's back, he wondered if perhaps he'd got the wrong day and Myal hadn't wanted to see him until tomorrow. But as soon as he stepped past the low stone wall, into the courtyard, several people turned around and cheerily waved him over.
Well they must have really lacked entertainment if they are so eager to do this.
Holyon looked around for a moment, then gasped and said, “Oh, I see! You don’t recognise your own audience, eh? Come along, Myal will explain all.”
Small point here. He refers to the people as Buck's audience but they all turn out to be people auditioning to join this concert thing so calling them an audience seems wrong.
When they reached the main hall, Myal was once again sitting on the stage. However, her throne was pulled up much closer to the stage’s edge this time, and she was leaning over to talk to the people at the front of the queue. For the queue had gone through the lobby, wound along a corridor, and now stretched the entire length of the hall, right down the middle.
I like how you've made all your royalty pretty nice in general. No one gives off any snobby vibes which is definitely something nice to see.
“Oh, you know how news spreads,” Myal said. She stood up and ushered Buck towards the back of the stage. “I did, in truth, intend to approach you first about a permanent position as my first official court singer, but, well, I made the mistake of telling Holyon. I really should have just told Raddig – he always does what he’s told with not a grunt more than is necessary. They really are the oddest pasture partners.”
So the princess at least seems to like Raddig.
“I – of course,” Buck mumbled, hoping he wasn’t stumbling into a role too similar to his role at Pires’s court. He still needed for Erson not to recognise him.
Yaa wouldn't his singing voice be recognizable even if he sung different songs?
Buck gaped at Victane, but Victane only shrugged and spread his hands wide. Buck figured this was what he’d signed up for after all, even if it had only been thirty seconds ago. He turned back to Myal with a smile.
So what was she planning to do if he denied? Seems like she should have confirmed with him first.
“You do?”
“We were drunk,” Buck said, “Now we’re just hungover.”
Victane chuckled. “There’ll be alcohol at the concert, no?”
“Sure, sure,” Buck said, “But I’d need the princess to show up wrecked from the start.”
Well this is a fun exchange to read.
It was only as Buck clambered back up onto the stage that he remembered he’d been supposed to have lunch with his mum. He felt a sudden itching urge to go apologise, but just at that moment the singer began to play. Buck found that finally, he’d come across someone with such talent that he couldn’t draw himself away.
Well that's nice to see although I wonder if Victane also forget to go have lunch. That might lead to some issues.
And that's it for this one.
Overall: Nice little scene. Looks like Buck's plan might work. And this princess and the people in the north in general seem pretty nice.
As always take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
I remember being kind of hungry when I wrote it? Which always takes me out the flow. Anyways, yeah I kind of meant apologies that .2 ends here, there is indeed a .3 to come. I guess I don't really need to worry about that in terms of the novel as a whole, I just didn't have time to make the ending of this week's chapter as satisfying as I'd have liked. I would have fact liked to end after the performance, now I gotta do like 4 things in .3.
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