A short while later, the juggler was seated on a railing in front of an empty shop and was watching everything again with those funny eyes. Blaise, concealed, watched him eat his meager meal. Is he interesting or isn’t he? He had been while he was performing but now he blended right in with the rest of Worthe.

  Sarney scampered over to him. Blaise was close enough to hear the boy talking to the traveller. “Hey Mister,” he said, “Was that magic or not?”

  “You mean, the kind of magic where I turn lead into gold and men into frogs? No,” said Shrugg.

  “Then what was it?”

  “It was a trick,” said the man. “Look.” He brought out the nutshells again and selected a new pebble. He sat on the steps and put the shells on the wooden floor beside him. Sarney sat opposite. “Watch carefully, now,” he said as he mixed up the shells, except this time he only moved them twice. Blaise showed herself to look closer. was certain where the stone was this time.

  “It has to be there!” said the boy, pointing.

  “It’s not though,” said Shrugg as he turned over the shell, “Or there, or there.” All the shells were empty.

  “But where’s the pebble?” asked the boy.

  The traveler reached behind the boy’s ear and pretended to bring out the pebble, then showed it to the boy. Just for a second he was interesting again. This back and forth was giving Blaise a headache.

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  “Here,” he said to the boy, whose eyes shone. He put the pebble into the boy’s palm.

  “But what about the sparrow? How did you do that?”

  Mother Genell appeared and walked briskly over to her son. “Sarney, come away!”

  “Well met,” said Shrugg. “Mrs…?”

  “Genell,” she said with a fleeting wince. “Just Genell.” She regarded Shrugg suspiciously but like her son, she had to know. “How did you do it? The magic?”

  “I kept my eyes open.” Genell frowned and cocked her hip. “Do you remember what happened just before I produced the sparrow? No? Well, someone had become upset and threw all the shells on the ground.”

  “Oh yeah,” said Sarney. “Downie did that.”

  “At that point, I would have been lucky to get away with the apple. But I knew I had to be the one to pick up the shells, because I had to drop the pebble as I did so.”

  “The pebble was in your hand?”

  “The pebble was always in my hand,” said Shrugg. Blaise frowned. He really is a charlatan and a trickster. So much for being interesting.

  “But the sparrow!”

  “The sparrow was on the ground where it had fallen. I had my eyes open and was able to scoop it up with the shells. That sparrow brought me great good fortune at a moment when I might have gotten much worse.”

  “You just found it? Right then when you needed it?” asked Sarney. Shrugg nodded.

  “Well that’s a kind of magic all by itself,” said Genell.

  “I suppose so,” said Shrugg, wagging his head like he didn’t really believe it.

  A horn sounded from outside the village. Everyone jumped. It sounded to Blaise like an accusation. There had been horns on that day, the last day with her parents…once again she pushed the memories away.

  “What was that?!” Sarney scampered up the big oak tree to see better.

  “Get down from there!” said Genell. “Blaise, help him down!”

  “What do you see?” asked Shrugg before she could get there.

  “Men,” said Sarney. “Men on horses. With bows.”

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