Edra watched him go, then turned and gave Daneen a smile that was all tooth. “Run along now, Lost Girl. Wouldn’t do for you to be lost when the curtain comes up.”

Daneen giggled. She found the gap in the curtain, and they returned to the backstage area. “Don’t you mean before the curtain comes down?”

Edra looked off ahead of them. “Mmm. Do I?” She looked sharply back to Daneen. “We’ll soon see, won’t we? Such a thing it is, when Jesters do not jest, is it not, Lost Girl?”

Daneen shrugged. “I thought we were plenty funny tonight. At any rate,” she said, more formally, “I am honored that you have come to see me.”

Edra mockingly imitated Daneen’s curtsey - making it clumsy and somehow sinister at the same time. The long sleeves of her dress swept the floor. “No honor, Lost Girl,” she said, mimicking Daneen’s voice uncannily. “The Queen sent me to clear out the riff-raff. She can’t stand Jesters lurking in the Keep.”

“You lurk anywhere you want,” Daneen snapped, forgetting for a dangerous moment how terribly she needed this woman’s approval.

But, to her surprise, Edra smiled, tiny wrinkles crinkling at the corners of her pale green eyes. “The Fool may be anywhere,” she said, returning to her own voice. She stared at Daneen until the girl squirmed. “And anyone may be a fool.”

“Surely the Queen’s Fool could tell her that the Jesters pose no threat to her. She doesn’t need to be afraid us.”

“Doesn’t she?” Edra looked around the drafty, timbered room. “What do Jesters see, Lost Girl? What do Jesters say?”

“We say nothing,” Daneen said, drawing up to her (admittedly unimpressive) full height. She stood considerable inches short of Edra - who always looked larger than she was, anyway, because of the mass of curls piled high above her head. But Daneen would not be cowed. “That is our code. Which you should remember, since you took it the same as the rest of us.”

Edra waved a hand. “A lifetime ago. But a Queen’s Fool is bound by no code.” She cocked her head and stared at Daneen. “One of the few who is not.”

Daneen wanted out of this line of conversation. “Did you hear my song tonight?”

“I did, Lost Girl.” Edra nodded. “I heard it clearer than you sang it.”

“What’s that mean?” The instant she asked the question, Daneen wished she hadn’t. The greatest part of the Fool’s gig was that she got to say anything she wanted - and it didn’t have to make the slightest bit of sense. Anyone who demanded clarity from a Fool was generally counted an even bigger fool.

Edra’s eyes glinted. “You take risks, Lost Girl, that could cost you what is dearest to you.”

Daneen paled. “Was Princess Sof that displeased by my verse about Lord Tannismir? I only thought to–”

“Hold your peace, Jester,” Edra said sharply, and Daneen swallowed her words with a mouthful of anger. “The Princess was not moved one way or the other by your song. But there are others who watch.”

“I’m not afraid of Lord Tannismir,” Daneen scoffed.

“There are many things you are not.” Edra smoothed her fingers along the front of her dress. “Things you should perhaps learn to be.”

“There’s only one thing I’m interested in learning to be,” Daneen said.

Edra smiled - and for a moment she seemed almost sad. “Of all the things I could accuse you, Lost Girl, inconstancy is not among them.”

That statement took Daneen a moment to sort out, but when she did, she smiled. It was the nearest thing to a compliment she’d ever received from Edra. “I wish I could study with you,” she said. She froze. What in the stars had possessed her to say that aloud?

Edra smiled wider. “The Fool’s apprentice. Has a lovely ring to it. But a Jester apprenticed to anyone othe than the Master Jester? No child - however funny she may be - is worth putting myself in the path of Lorris’s fury.” She brought her hands together sharply, the clap echoing through the empty space. “Now, Lost Girl, I believe it is far past time for you to return to the Jesters’ Camp - lest you find yourself in the path of Lorris’s fury.”

Her grin threatening to swallow her entire face, Daneen hoisted the prop chest across her back. “Thank you, Edra.” The Fool nodded and headed back toward the Hall and its access to the Keep proper.

Edra thought she was funny. Edra might have considered apprenticing her if Lorris weren’t standing in her way.

Outside the performers’ entrance to the Keep, Daneen stopped and inhaled deeply, feeling the sharp Autumn air bite into her lungs. The squall storms would begin in less than a month. Daneen’s favorite time of year was on its way.

And Edra thought she was funny.

Daneen began the walk back to the Jesters’ Camp, her thoughts bubbling over too fast to catch. She did not see a stocky boy in a black coat detach himself from the shadows of the shadows of the Royal Hall, a thoughtful expression on his face, and make his way quickly across the Keep.