There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that needed the attentions of Mags, and by extension, his family at the Harvest Fair. Now, this was not unexpected; Harvest Fair tended to be concentrated on farmers and their harvests rather than entertainment. There was some entertainment, of course, and vendors, because farmers with money in their pockets could be tempted to part with some of it, particularly if they had done well. But most of the entertainment was in livestock shows, livestock contests, and expanded versions of the sort of contests (archery, feats of strength and agility) every sizable village, town, and city in Haven put on at this time of year.

So there was plenty to see for free; since entertainers really could not compete with “free,” they confined their performances to evenings when there were no contests going on.

As a treat, Abi took Tory and Kee to everything they wanted to see for several days of the Fair; granted the Royal Family always made a joint appearance at the opening and closing of every Fair, but that wasn’t fun. They’d walk through the Fair surrounded by the Royal Guard after officially declaring the Fair open, compliment a couple of vendors, see one or two of the most important contests, such as the archery or the Prize Bull, and leave.

Amily had never been able to get away to take Tory and Kee to any of the Fairs, and until this fall, Abi and Perry hadn’t been free to do so either, and they certainly weren’t old enough to go on their own. So this was their first full Fair, ever, and both of them were round-eyed with excitement. Living in Haven all their lives, they’d never really seen anything smaller than a horse and larger than a chicken—there were chickens and dovecotes and even rabbit hutches at the Palace, but aside from the horses, cats, and dogs, these were the only animals they knew from outside of picture-books.

The sheep—especially the show sheep, with their wool washed and brushed for the competitions—absolutely enchanted them. A couple of indulgent shepherds allowed the boys to bury their hands in the wool of their ram’s backs and touch the curly horns, to their absolute delight. The goats frightened Kee a little with their strange eyes, but Tory coaxed him into petting a nanny and feeding her wisps of hay. Geese and ducks were new to them; they liked the ducks, but the aggressive behavior of the geese caused them to watch the flocks being auctioned off from a safe distance and marvel at how the goosegirls managed to boss their flocks around. Cattle were a strange mystery to them—big as a horse but nothing like a horse. And the huge pigs with their tiny, squinting eyes and grunting were of no interest whatsoever except as something to be wary of.