Even after eating, Cam didn't leave the food hall, in case whoever Gabriel had mentioned couldn't find him. It wasn't that Cam desperately wanted to know about this competition thing, it was just that his curiosity had been tickled and he couldn't think with it niggling at his mind. So he waited.

Brother Zachary was a stout man in his late thirties - but he gossiped like a teenage girl. Cam was forced to spill all his secrets before he got any information. 

But when he did get information, it was good.

"Yes, a contest, indeed," Zachary said. "I'll tell you what I know, but I'm not gonna tell you who told me, okay, so don't expect it. My ways of finding out secrets are secret." A giggle. "There is going to be a contest of some kind. If you go to the market tomorrow, you'll get to hear the official speech. I'd head there early, so you don't miss it." 

Cameron nodded. The town centre wasn't more than a half hours walk from the monastery. 

"So no-one knows the prize, but it's gonna be something big. Big. Important. Money, land or something. Maybe even a title." Zachary stared wistfully into the distance. 

"All the rumours I heard, they don't say what kind of contest. It could be a beauty contest, for all I've heard."

"But if they're just rumours, they probably aren't true," Cam said. "What if I go there for nothing?"

"Some rumours are true, my boy." Zachary nodded wisely. "More have truth to them than you would think. That's why it's always best to keep an ear open. "