Sleep had only graced the fools for a few hours. Their combined rest bound tightly together against the illusions that Motley held tightly to their skin. To hold others attention, to maintain the delicate magic of their trade was to keep the mind restless. Even in sleep Motley murmured to themselves, long limbs twitching against their bedfellow. Innes had become used to it after the years in the trade but he knew Motley was gifted with it. He could see why the King kept them, instead of moving them every few years to another court.

A natural restlessness set them both off to do their duty. They walked together in the grey-lit halls in silence, Innes poking and prodding his head into rooms, grazing his ear against doors and thin window slits. A night together cut short was a particularly tender morsel that he stared at with keen interest, unnoticed by the lovers as they exchanged a weary kiss and went their separate ways. One through the servants’ stairs.

Motley had dragged their upper body out of a hall window to peer out into the front yard and out past the gate. Palms steady against the windowsill and balanced with a stillness that let their feet playfully touch at the stones beneath one after another.

“That stable boy Jonnes is at it with the Steward’s wife now.” Innes spoke flatly as he watched Motley’s impromptu performance. He scratched at his bright green tunic and added, “He’s a busy fellow.”

“Mhm, not busy enough if he has time to tend to wives and horses.” Motley tilted their head back to speak, arching their back and making their body into a delicately curved shape. “Nothing else?”

“Not a mouse.”

Motley grunted and let themselves back into the hall, dusting off their front. “Well the caravan is here. An hour maybe?”

Innes clapped his hands on either side of Motley’s face, “What did you see poppet?”

Motley spoke with a spreading grin, “Banners! Great lusty things full of colour. You know what I didn’t see?”

“What?”

“Anything that spoke of you touching me! Get off me! Don’t touch.” Motley slapped Innes hands away, provoking a brief flurry of activity like quarrelsome chickens setting order in a yard.

“And here I thought you had something important to say.” Innes sighed. He took himself to the window and leaned as far as he dared, not having the height that Motley held. Nor the balance.

“When do I ever?” Motley tried to hold back a bleat of laughter and only managed to let it hiss out between their teeth. They could feel the roiling boil of their spells fighting with the constant sputtering of their own thoughts. The sensation of restless, endless motion rippled over Innes, past him entirely to wrap around Motley like a holy shroud. As they watched Innes strain to get their own look out the window, they supposed it was. In a way.

Doors and shutters around the palace began to creak into life. Motley could hear the distant movements of bodies imposing themselves through the halls and shifted their focus away from Innes as much as they could. Years of practice had made this a second nature to Motley. Their weight shifting from foot to slippered foot, hands and arms arcing elegant shapes around their boney head.

“Dancing already? What’s happening?” Talwyn’s voice slipped through the hall as Motley turned and beamed to look at her. All milk pale colouring that girl and ink bedded fingers Motley thought as they watched her pad closer. They would enjoy having some good news for her, hoping to lift some of the sour mood she’d been stuck in lately.

“Why don’t you look out of the window yourself and see, Yarrow?” Motley gave an elaborate bow, bending at the middle and sweeping their arm aside as Innes shifted smoothly to stand behind them.

Talwyn had half a mind to correct Motley on their choice of nickname for her but hope tugged her towards the window. Motley grasped roughly at the back of her dress as she lurched with surprise, raising herself up on her palms. She could feel the stone grinding into her palm but barely cared. Banners! The house banners!

“Thomas!” She nearly fell back down into the hall and darted away back to her room to change, to fetch her parents and wake them.

“Bless her.” Innes muttered, “It’s been a long year for her without her shadow hasn’t it?”

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