with you? I’ll admit it’s a rather nice one, but why carry it around all day? Isn’t it a tad heavy?”
“There’s a problem with muggers,” Arren lied. He’d prepared this excuse beforehand. “I don’t want to be attacked on the way home.”
“Ah, I see,” said Roland. “Fair enough, I suppose, but there’s no need to keep the thing on your back all day. Just put it over by the door until you leave, why don’t you? I wouldn’t worry about anyone stealing it. The chicks will yell loud enough to wake the dead if they smell anyone they don’t know come in here.”
Arren hesitated a moment before he obeyed, but he quickly saw that Roland was perfectly correct. No-one would attack him in here. Not with so many witnesses. He undid the straps holding the scabbard onto his back, and put the sword down by the door, leaning it against the wall of the pen beside it. Then he picked up his broom and resumed sweeping the floor.
Roland wandered over to inspect the sword. “I can see you’ve been taking good care of it,” he said, pulling it out of the sheath and examining the blade. “That’s good. My father was very fond of this sword. He told me it was used in proper warfare by his grandfather. Against Nor—oh, I’m sorry, Arren.”
Arren shrugged and pushed a heap of dust toward a hole in the floor. “I’m not all that good with it, but I’m very proud to own it. I keep thinking I should get someone to teach me proper swordplay. I mean, I know the basics, but that’s about it. I practise, though.”
“Well done,” Roland said approvingly. “Truth be told, when Rakee was still alive, I never took much of an interest in fighting. In fact, for a while I considered joining the priesthood.”
“You did?” said Arren, surprised. The priesthood was highly respected, but the only griffiners that ever joined it were the ones who had been deemed to be useless or undesirable in some way.
“Oh yes,” said Roland. “I was very religious back then. But my mother wouldn’t hear of it. ‘Wait until you’re old, if you really must,’ she said.” He chuckled. “Of course, by the time I’d started to go grey I’d already lost interest in that idea. I never could settle down to anything when I was your age. Or when I was twice your age, come to that. No, the priesthood is holy and everything, and learned, of course, but nowadays I think they were rather out of touch with the rest of the world. Always looking back when they should be looking forward.”
Arren had seen the city’s temple from the outside plenty of times but had never been inside it. “I don’t think I really believe in any gods,” he said, turning to sweep out a particularly stubborn corner. “I’ve always liked the idea of religion, but I never really could believe. Not properly.”
“Didn’t your parents pass their beliefs on to you?” said Roland.
“No. They taught me about it, but, well, they’re not very religious. I know that—” He paused, almost embarrassed to say it. “Well, Northerners never had priests, as far as I know. They worship on their own. You know, in private. So it’s just between them and their god.”
Roland gave him a quizzical look. “They, Arren?”
“That’s what I said.”
Roland paused a moment and then shrugged and made for the door to his home. “Well, I think we’ve done about enough for today. You can be off home once you’ve finished with the floor. Just wait a moment and I’ll get you your pay.”
He disappeared into his home and returned to put a bag of coins on the table before bidding Arren goodbye and going back through the door.
Arren finished sweeping the floor and put the broom back on its hook. He yawned as he pocketed the money. It had been another long day. He’d had to help Roland with a recalcitrant chick that didn’t want to swallow its medicine, and the thing’s talons had left a large hole in his tunic. He’d have to sew that up before he went to bed.
He picked up his sword from its spot by the door and strapped it back on, then left the hatchery. It was sunset, and the horizon was bright orange and gold. He sighed when he saw it, and turned for home, walking quickly and keeping to places where there were plenty of people.
He turned the corner into his