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“Now Taborlin needed to escape, but when he looked around, he saw his cell had no door No s All around hi but smooth, hard stone It was a cell no man had ever escaped

“But Taborlin knew the nas were his to command He said to the stone: ‘Break!’ and the stone broke The wall tore like a piece of paper, and through that hole Taborlin could see the sky and breathe the sweet spring air He stepped to the edge, looked down, and without a second thought he stepped out into the open air…”

The boy’s eyes ide “He didn’t!”

Cob nodded seriously “So Taborlin fell, but he did not despair For he knew the name of the wind, and so the wind obeyed him He spoke to the wind and it cradled and caressed hiently as a puff of thistledown and set him on his feet softly as a mother’s kiss

“And when he got to the ground and felt his side where they’d stabbed him, he saw that it weren’t hardly a scratch Now maybe it was just a piece of luck,” Cob tapped the side of his nose knowingly “Orunder his shirt”

“What ah a mouthful of stew

Old Cob leaned back on his stool, glad for the chance to elaborate “A few days earlier, Taborlin had h Taborlin didn’t have much to eat, he shared his dinner with the old man”

“Right sensible thing to do,” Graham said quietly to the boy “Everyone knows: ‘A tinker pays for kindness twice’”

“No no,” Jake gruht: ‘A tinker’s advice pays kindness twice’”

The innkeeper spoke up for the first tiin the doorway behind the bar

“A tinker’s debt is always paid:

Once for any simple trade

Twice for freely-given aid

Thrice for any insult made”

Thethere They’d been coht forof his own before Not that you could expect anything else, really He’d only been in town for a year or so He was still a stranger The smith’s prentice had lived here since he was eleven, and he was still referred to as “that Rannish boy,” as if Rannish were son country and not a town less than thirty miles away

“Just so I heard once,” Kote said to fill the silence, obviously embarrassed

Old Cob nodded before he cleared his throat and launche

d back into the story “Now this aold nobles, but on account of Taborlin’s kindness, the tinker sold it to hi but an iron penny, a copper penny, and a silver penny It was black as a winter night and cold as ice to touch, but so long as it was round his neck, Taborlin would be safe fros Demons and such”

“I’d give a good piece for such a thing these days,” Shep said darkly He had drunkEveryone knew that soht, but since they were good friends they knew better than to press hi, not as sober as they were

“Aye, ouldn’t?” Old Cob said judiciously, taking a long drink

“I din’t know the Chandrian were demons,” the boy said “I’d heard—”

“They ain’t demons,” Jake said firmly “They were the first six people to refuse Tehlu’s choice of the path, and he cursed them to wander the corners—”