“But—”

“Come on,” Dain said impatiently. “And be quiet. We’re going to sneak out through the side door and leave him behind.”

Thum’s thin, freckled face grew alight with mischief. “Think you that we can?”

Dain nodded. “I have no intention of spending my day with him on our heels.

Come!”

But Thum hesitated. “You have no protector with you. If aught—” “You’re protection enough,” Dain said shortly. “No one in all this great throng knows who I am. There is no danger. Now stop swooning like a maiden and hurry!” The king’s tourney proved to be a shifting, colorful mass of cheering crowds and brutal fighting. The enclosure itself was small, barely long enough to hold the jousting lists and as wide again. The muddy ground was much trampled. Stone risers filled the central section of the stands, with an arched wall at its very top. The king’s pennants flew from this point, and garlands of entwined flowers festooned his box. Guardsmen in the palace colors stood watch in the aisles of the stands. Beyond the king’s box, the stands were filled with courtiers, visiting diplomats, and lords and ladies of the realm. At the west end, wooden stands for the common folk towered on rickety supports. And more spectators thronged the gates, jostling and craning for a look inside.  By the time Dain and Thum arrived, there were no places left. Guards turned them away from the seats reserved for those of title.

“Get away with you, young rascals!” one of the guards said gruffly. “Passing yourself off as lords. That’s a serious offense, that is. Count yourselves lucky I don’t haul you before the town jailer for such shenanigans.” Smarting with embarrassment, Dain swung away. Thum’s freckled face turned as bright as his hair. He drew in a deep breath to argue with the man, but Dain snagged him by his sleeve and pulled him along.

“It’s no good arguing,” Dain muttered. “We’ll think of something else.”

“But you are chevard of—”

“Never mind,” Dain said.

“I mind a great deal!” Thum said hotly. “My father is—”

“We’ll sit in the west stands,” Dain said. “Anything to get a quick seat and miss no more than we already have.”

“And whose fault was that, Lord Lazybones?”

Dain ignored the gibe and started into the cheapest section of the wooden stands, only to find his way blocked by a burly guard who was sweating in the heat.

“Nay, you two. There’s no more bodies what can be let onto this. It’ll fall from the weight and crush all a-perched on it.”

Dain frowned up at the tall structure. It was indeed swaying visibly as the spectators on it shifted about. Women screamed and men shouted in excitement.  None of them seemed afraid. “We’ll take our chances,” Dain said, but the guard shook his head.

“Falls most every year, and a sad business it is, sorting out the dead from the living afterward. There’s always someone who talks his way onto it and becomes the one too many for it to hold. The lords in the palace lay bets on it, see?  But it ain’t happening on my watch. I’ve sworn to that.”