“I was down th’ road with some people—” He hesitated; how much did he dare say? He had been down at Master Soren’s house, of course, all of Lydia’s group had gotten together to enjoy the last night of the holiday, the last night all of them would be free to get together as a group until the next holiday of the Spring Equinox. They had not yet made up their minds about when the girls were going to humiliate those mercenaries . . . and in fact, Mags was getting the impression that they had begun to have second thoughts about that idea, and Marc’s words a few moments ago had confirmed that. But he couldn’t tell Bear about any of that. And he couldn’t quite figure out how he could readily explain how someone like him was friends with the circle around Master Soren’s niece.

“ ’S no matter anyway,” he continued. “ ’Cause if I’d a knowed you were comin’ last night, I’d a been here, not there!”

Bear shook his head. “We weren’t in any mood to be around, Mags. Things didn’t go well at home for either of us. And we would rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind.”

He was rather taken aback by his friend’s words, in fact, he was rather hurt. Wasn’t he their friend? They had obviously confided in each other, so why not in him?

He wanted to blurt out all of this, but his mouth had other ideas, and said nothing more than, “Well, we gonna study t’gether tonight? Or at least hev supper t’gether?”

“No studying, that was mostly all I did at home,” Bear replied. “But supper, absolutely. And you can probably find Lena up at Bardic if you want to go look for her.”

He ducked his head, and hurried on his way, leaving Mags staring at his retreating back in puzzlement.

Although Bear had not seemed particularly encouraging, Mags went up to Bardic, looking for Lena. He realized as he was halfway there that he had never been to her room, and he suddenly felt very diffident about trying to find it. There were implications to looking for a girl’s room that he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with. His steps slowed, and finally, when he reached the door of Bardic Collegium, stopped altogether.

He stood uncertainly, looking up at the wooden façade of the building, noting that it was getting pretty shabby. What to do?

Finally, another girl, a little older than Lena but also in Trainee rust-red, came up from behind him and moved to go around him. “Hey—” he said awkwardly, and she stopped. “I don’ s’pose ye know Trainee Lena? Little bit of a thing, dark hair.”