"Begun?" Koe laid his hand flat against the strings; such music as there was stopped instantly. "Begun what, lady fair?"
Pretending ignorance was not the most noble of moves. And certainly the White Riders were not a military organization, even if she looked as though a sergeant made her feel every ounce of his hatred not five minutes gone. There was the off chance that she was simply born that way. But she was also the person he might be relying on to save him from a gut wound in the next few minutes. Koe tried to reserve judgment based on that fact. A difficult feat to accomplish, but then, if he'd wanted an easy task he would have stayed in the mountains building his home.
"I thought we was payin' for your time?" One asked in annoyance.
"You sure do play some inscrutable music," Two noted wistfully.
"Inscrutable?" Koe repeated softly, almost as if he didn't believe it. "Well, perhaps so. You have a depth of soul I had not dared imagine, sir poet."
"I has a what?" Two turned sour at the prospect of having something he did not want.
All the while, of course, their new companion seemed to grow darker with anger. Koe was certain any person with that much anger in them ought to erupt into flames, but perhaps she had not noticed the crossbow. It was cleverly concealed by Two, beneath the surface of the table, as though he were clutching the toe of his boot for comfort's sake. They were not bad at their job - part of the reason, he assumed, that Urill had retained their services in the first place - but he did think the girl had rather more say in which muscle was hired and retained.