Of All of the Gin Joints.TORTALL.
Two characters have a secret. It's the same secret. This is how they find out.
PG
Myles went down to the city between tests, Roald’s eternal dinner parties, and visits to Olau. He’d started when Roald has first asked him to teach - there was probably a connection there, but Myles was just as good at not thinking as he was at thinking, and when his brain wandered in that direction, it was time to exercise the former talent. Myles, after all, wanted to continue teaching.
Most days, anyway. Obviously not on the days Jonathan was trying to be witty or Alex was being overly rational.
He’d just finished grading the pages’ tests on the last ruler of Scanra (a very effective man right up until his wife assassinated him and placed her lover on the throne, thus causing the first of the civil and tribal wars that had ripped Scanra apart for the last two hundred years) and they weren’t due for another test for at least a week. Probably longer, given the inevitable occurrence of yet another discussion of the Code of Chivalry.
That today had been one of those days was a contributing factor to his presence at the Dancing Dove. There was nothing like Solom’s beer to get you drunk enough to forget about the Code of Chivalry and argue theology with Scholar. He’d opened his mouth to refute a point the forger had just made - or to take another sip of beer, he hadn’t made up his mind just yet - when the door opened and Myles wished he’d picked another night to be here.
Or listened more to what Alan of Trebond had said the night he brought in the reports from the Rogue. But that was months ago and…
Mithros. Jonathan - the Crown Prince of Tortall! In the Dancing Dove!
He hadn’t been spotted yet - Or maybe he had.
(Scholar, seeing the expression on his face, vacated the table quickly, but stayed close enough to watch what went on.)
Any feeble hope Myles had had of slipping out the back door unnoticed dissolved when Jon spotted him.
“Myles?” said the prince, his eyebrows a single black line above his forehead.
“Yes,” Myles said. “I - ah - ”
“Alan introduced me to the place,” said Jonathan very quickly. “Um, we come here sometimes. George is - ”
Myles nodded tiredly. “Alan told me some of it. I see that I am,” he added dryly, “going to have to speak to him. I hope you’ve gotten better at unarmed combat.” He noticed Jon’s smirk and sighed. He really was going to have to speak to Alan about this. “Well,” said Myles, “have a drink with me. Tell me about the King of the Rogue.”
Jon grinned and sat down. “The thing about George,” he began, “is that he knows more about ruling than most nobles do.”
Original.