And there, made almost ill by the effluence of...
And there, made almost ill by the effluence of the tanner's craft, which quite overwhelmed the salt of the sea, he was given an open bottle of green, no questions asked, in a tavern called The Bird, by a shambling, loose-limbed innkeeper whose eyes were probably inadequate to the dark shadows of his windowless, one-room establishment
Even this nondescript, evil-smelling hole was completely fullAstibar was crammed to overflowing for tomorrow's start of the Festival of VinesThe harvest had been a good one everywhere but in Certando, Devin knew, and there were plenty of people with astins or chiaros to spend, and in a mood to spend them too
There were certainly no free tables to be had in The BirdDevin wedged himself into a corner where the dark, pitted wood of the bar met the back wall, took a judicious sip of his wine, watered but not unusually so, he decided, and composed his mind and soul towards a meditation upon the perfidy and unreasonableness of women
As embodied, specifically, by Catriana d'Astibar these past two weeks
He calculated that he had enough time before the late-afternoon rehearsal, the last before their opening engagement at the city home of a small wine-estate owner tomorrow, to muse his way through most of a bottle and still show up soberHe was the white chanel purse experienced trouper anyhow, he thought indignantlyHe knew the performance routines like a hand knew a gloveThe extra rehearsals had been laid on by Menico for the benefit of the three new people in the troupe
Including impossible CatrianaWho happened to be the reason he had stormed out of the morning rehearsal a short while before he knew that Menico planned to call the session to a haltHow, in the name of Adaon, was he supposed to react when an inexperienced new female who thought she could sing, and to whom he'd been genuinely friendly since she'd joined them a fortnight ago, said what she'd said in front of everyone that morning?
Cursed with memory, Devin saw the nine of them rehearsing again in the rented back room on the ground floor of their innFour musicians, the two dancers, Menico, Catriana, and himself singing up frontThey were doing Rauder's "Song of Love," a piece rather predictably requested by the wine-merchant's wife, a piece Devin had been singing for nearly six years, a song he could manage in a stupor, a coma, sound asleep
And so perhaps, yes, he'd been a little bored, a little distracted, had been leaning a little closer than absolutely necessary to their newest, red-headed female singer, putting perhaps the merest shading of a message into his expression and pink louis vuitton bag voice, but still, even so
"Devin, in the name of the Triad," had snapped Catriana d'Astibar, breaking up the rehearsal entirely, "do you think you can get your mind away from your groin for long enough to do a decent harmony? This is not a difficult song!"
The affliction of a fair complexion had hurtled Devin's face all the way to bright redMenico, he saw, Menico who should have been sharply reprimanding the girl for her presumption, was laughing helplessly, even more flushed than Devin wasSo were the others, all of them
Unable to think of a reply, unwilling to compromise the tattered shreds of his dignity by yielding to his initial impulse to reach up and whack the girl across the back of her head, Devin had simply spun on his heels and left
He'd thrown one reproachful glance at Menico as he went but was not assuaged: the troupe-leader's ample paunch was quivering with laughter as he wiped tears from his round, bearded face
So Devin had gone looking for a bottle of Senzio green and a dark place to drink it in on a brilliant autumn morning in AstibarHaving finally found the wine and the tenuous comfort of shadows he fully expected to figure out, about half a bottle from now, what he should have said to that arrogant red-maned creature back in the rehearsal room
If only she dolce and gabbana handbags replica wasn't so depressingly tall, he thoughtMorosely he filled his glass againLooking up at the blackened crossbeams of the ceiling he briefly contemplated hanging himself from one of them: by the heels of course
"Shall I buy you a drink?" someone said
With a sigh Devin turned to cope with one of the more predictable aspects of being small and looking very young while drinking alone in a sailor's bar
What he saw was somewhat reassuringHis questioner was a soberly dressed man of middle years with greying hair and lines of worry or laughter radiating at his templesEven so:
"Thank you," Devin said, "but I've most of my own bottle left and I prefer having a woman to being one for sailorsI'm also older than I look
The other man laughed aloud"In that case," he chuckled, genuinely amused, "you can give me a drink if you like while I tell you about my two marriageable daughters and the other two who are on their way to that age sooner than I'm ready forI'm Rovigo d'Astibar, master of the Sea Maid just in from down the coast in Tregea
Devin grinned and stretched across the bar for another glass: The Bird was far too crowded to bother trying to catch the owner's rheumy eye, and Devin had his own reasons for not wanting to signal the man
"I'll be happy to share the bottle with you," he rolex day date said to Rovigo, "though your wife is unlikely to be well pleased if you press your daughters upon a traveling musician
"My wife," said Rovigo feelingly, "would turn ponderous cartwheels of delight if I brought home a cowherd from the Certandan grasslands for the oldest one"That bad?" he murmuredWe can at least drink to your safe return from Tregea, and in time for Festival by a fingernailI'm Devin d'Asoli bar Garin, at your service
"And I at yours, friend Devin, not-as-young-as-you-lookDid you have trouble getting a drink?" Rovigo asked shrewdly
"I was in and out of more doorways than Morian of Portals knows, and as dry when I left as when I'd entered Devin rashly sniffed the heavy air; even among the odors of the crowd and despite the lack of windows, the tannery stench from outside was still painfully discernible"This would not have been my first or my tenth choice as a place for drinking a flask of wineWill I seem eccentric if I tell you I always come straight here when the Sea Maid is home from a voyage? Somehow the smell speaks of land to me
"You don't like the sea?"
"I am quite convinced that any man who says he does is lying, has debts on land, or a shrewish wife to escape from and…" He paused, pretending to have been suddenly struck by a thought"Come to think of chloe handbag it