Banquets and parties were common, for the elf-folk in these parts love a festival above all else and make it the chief aim of all their work. There are twenty-seven grand festivals in the rural elf’s calendar, and any number of lesser local ones. The feast hall over there”-Pettyl pointed to a large amphitheater structure that had a wooden roof on it that had partially collapsed-“held most of the festivities when the weather was inclement. Other times, marquees would be raised and bonfires built. It was customary to visit other villages during local celebrations, so that elves from hundreds of miles around would come to know each other, enjoy each other, love each other . . .”
Pettyl’s voice trailed off. The cart rattled on through the dead streets and soon the village was behind them.
“Where are we going?” Daniel asked. “Where is the market held? Is it in a city?”
“No, but it will seem like a village, if one made of tents and booths. It is a gathering place-a very old one. It is near a large standing stone which marks the confluence of several counties and has been a festival site for many generations. In times past it used to be a station on the King’s Circuit-he would visit once a year and dispense justice to those who gathered there. Obviously, that doesn’t happen anymore. The princes sometimes keep this custom, but if they do, it is only to revel.”
“When was the last time you were here?”
“On market day last season.”
Their path joined a wider road, and Daniel could see another cart, this one covered, some distance ahead of them and, after cresting a hill and looking down upon a shallow valley, more wagons ahead of that. The traders were coming to market.
A procession of riders on magnificent horses passed them. First came what Daniel assumed were guards-they were dressed in leathers stained stained forest green and wore armour made of silver; each carried a long spear that was tipped with a head of bronze. Then came a young noble and his lady. He was dressed in blue and purple garments-a large, flowing cloak, heavy waistcoat, and trousers that ended at his knees where long riding boots began. He wore a wide-brimmed hat with long feathers of purple and black. Behind him, riding sidesaddle in a dress made up of layers of green silk and velvet, was a beautiful young woman. She also wore a large hat with black and green feathers. Unlike the Elfin gentleman, there were little silver bells attached to her clothes, gloves, saddle, and bridle, which jingled softly, like wind chimes, when the horse pranced past.
The riders passed by without a word being said on either side and eventually disappeared into the road ahead. “Who were they?” Daniel asked.
“Just travelers. A lord and lady, by the look of it,” K?yle remarked tersely.
They were passed by another elf on horseback, this one dressed in clothing that was quite hard to make out, since it was completely covered with brightly coloured ribbons of varying lengths. His hat was squat and had streamers erupting from the top of it. All this was dazzling, but that was nothing compared to the elf’s smile, which was like a blazing sunbeam when he flashed it in Daniel’s direction.
“Good day to you, collier K?yle,” greeted the rider. There was a large instrument, rather like an oversized cello, lashed to his saddle, the neck of which was wide, fretted, and extended above his head.
“Good day, Awin Kaayn,” responded the collier. “Where will you be performing this market?”
“In the usual place-the common court-except for this evening when I will be entertaining the Elfin Prince Lhiam-Lhiat in the feast hall.”
“Is he one of the nine?” Daniel asked Pettyl in a low voice, but loud enough that the musician heard him.
“Aye, he is,” the brightly costumed Faerie said. “The Secondeldest of the Nine Great Rulers. Do you want to meet him?” he asked with a sly grin.
“Would I be allowed?”
“All things can happen for a price.”
“I don’t have any money-”
Daniel stopped talking as the collier placed a hand on his knee.
This act was not unnoticed by the minstrel, who merely continued to smile wryly.
“All of us are given great treasures at birth that may be negotiated and bartered with. Do you have an artist’s eye? What good is it to you if you don’t use it-you might enjoy having a musical ear instead, so why not trade it? Why hold on to your dancer’s toe if you never exercise it? Better to have a hound’s nose or the tongue of the birds. Nearly every virtue is saleable-as are all of the vices, except for one-do you know what that is?”
Daniel didn’t respond, but Awin Kaayn seemed determined to wait for an answer, so he shook his head.
“Greed! You’ll never find anyone willing to part with it!” He laughed merrily at his joke. K?yle and Pettyl frowned and continued looking stonily at the road.
“Well,” the minstrel said, evidently knowing when a crowd had turned sour. “I’ll be off. Find me at the Fayre, young master,” Kaayn said to Daniel, “and I’ll play a song just for you.”
And with a final flash of his smile, the minstrel spurred his horse and galloped on ahead, disappearing from sight a few minutes later around a bend in the road.
“It will go better,” K?yle said to Daniel after a time, “if you allow me to deal for you at the Fayre, or you will find return to your own world quite beyond your means.”
Nothing more was said and no other travelers greeted, until the Fayre was finally visible. There were indeed tents and booths set up, into the hundreds, and some were well over two storeys and made of many different composite parts. The booths were generally cubic and regularly spaced. The tents above them were of variable heights and sometimes spanned multiple booths. All were festooned with bright flags and banners embroidered with symbols of their trade. Freestanding tents were often erected in complex star-shaped patterns layered on top of each other, sprouting other tents out of their sides and sometimes out of their tops. Daniel wondered if they actually had different floors in them- some of them seemed as big as hotels.
The people were no less strange and vibrant. All of them were dressed in such dazzling colours and fabrics that Daniel nearly became hypnotized by the ever-shifting crowd. More than a few nobles were swanning about in clothes decorated with glittering metals and stones.
Due to the size of K?yle’s wagon, they were made to circumnavigate the Fayre in order to reach the area where the collier would set up his stall. This was in a lower part of the site, which was already quite muddy and where elves dressed in less ostentatious outfits seemed to be engaged in bartering for livestock or food stock.
The collier hopped down from the cart and led the horses by their bridles to a large authoritarian figure whom the chaotic swarm of workmen seemed to orbit. They exchanged a few words, and Daniel saw the rotund elf point towards a bank of flimsy structures that some worker elves were attempting to erect. K?yle led the cart to their designated booth, which was little more than three flimsy walls that reminded Daniel of the fencing around his garden when he was young. There was also a large central post that rose from a hole in the middle of the site, which leaned at a disconcerting angle.
As Daniel helped Pettyl unload some of the smaller barrels packed with charcoal, K?yle went to borrow some tools from the workers. He returned with a mallet and some wooden pegs, which he hammered into the ground alongside the walls and central posts in order to more firmly anchor them. It was the work of a moment and made the thin panels sturdy and upright.
Then they set up their stall. Pettyl took the job of raising the tent as the other two unloaded the large barrels of charcoal.
Daniel watched Pettyl scale the central pole, gripping a loop of string that she tied at the top and used to hoist the canopy, which was green and grey.