Melting in my guard’s uniform, I followed Lady Arenda, a spindly woman with graying hair, through the manor’s hallways and the courtyard gardens. I cringed listening to her gossip with her pack of bootlicking friends, but this was better than earlier when I had to stand outside the lord and lady’s bedroom door and listen to them fucking loudly. By the Maker, what kind of potion did Seran make them?

“Oh, I know,” Lady Arenda was saying. “That kur girl… Nina? She’s stopped by my husband’s office so many times today that I’m starting to wonder if she’s trying to seduce him.”

Her friends laughed, but I scowled. Ninau wanted nothing of the sort, I could have guaranteed that. Not with that crinkled, flabby old man.

“Honestly, I’m getting tired of seeing her face, along with… the rest of her,” the lady continued. “I may have to find a replacement.”

“Oh, you should,” one of her friends said. “I don’t know if I could tolerate the little whore hovering around my husband.” Demons take these women.

Lady Arenda cackled. “That’s precisely what she is! I’ll have to convince Ledda to let her go.” She must have noticed my expression out of the corner of her eye, and she glanced back over her shoulder. “Why the long face, Kalay? I swear, I need to keep you around more often. One look at you, and anyone unsavory would run for the mountains.”

“And he’s not bad to look at for us, either,” a friend said, only pretending to try to keep me from hearing.

The women burst into laughter and went back to ignoring my existence.

In the late afternoon, I changed out of my uniform in the barracks, then stopped by the servants’ quarters in the basement. Several kur girls and women hurried past me with frightened looks, but I wasn’t here for them, and absolutely not for what they thought.

Ninau stepped out onto the the bare stone of the basement’s hallway, wearing her own sleeveless top and straight knee-length skirt, and she tilted her head at me with a smirk. “Paying me a special visit? What will your sister think?”

“She’s not my sister, and she can think whatever she wants. I’m not worried about her.”

Her smile widened, with her head still tilted. “But you’re worried about me?”

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I sighed sharply. “Lady Arenda is planning to get rid of you.”

She giggled and flicked her dark hair behind her shoulder. “She can try. I’m pretty sure the lord is fond of me. Or at least the idea of me.”

I didn’t want to picture what she meant. If Lord Arenda ever touched Ninau, I’d— do nothing. There would be nothing I could do, but there would be plenty of things I’d want to. Ninau was no Seran, but she was the only kur servant who wasn’t afraid of me. She was the only person other than Seran in the whole damn city who bothered to know me.

She read my expression and patted me on the shoulder as she started walking. “Don’t worry about me, Kalay. I can take care of myself.” I matched her pace but said nothing. Like me, I wasn’t sure there was anything she could do if the lord decided to take what he wanted. If she fought back, she would just be killed, and no one would bat an eye. I needed to stop with these thoughts. “What did Lady Arenda say about me, anyway?” Ninau asked.

I didn’t want to repeat it, but this woman could handle it. “She called you a whore.”

She stared at me for a second then laughed. “Oh, by your Maker, she’s just so stupid.”

I snorted. Ninau was brave to say that out loud, but she wasn’t wrong.

We stopped at the base of the stairs leading back up to the main floor. “You’d better go ahead,” Ninau said. “Wouldn’t want you to be spotted with the whore.”

I shook my head but took the stairs two at a time without her, then headed for Seran’s office.

My “sister” turned to greet me when I stepped into the room, and my heart beat just a little faster. With her blond hair and green eyes, she stood out in this city of beiges and browns, whether she liked it or not. Without her cloak to hide behind, her gray dress hugged her voluptuous shape, and her thin lips parted into a wide smile that lit up her round, freckled face, beautiful even if no one else seemed to notice.

“How was your day?” she asked.

I thought of everything I’d overheard. “Interesting.”

“Hm. So was mine.”

“What kind of potion did you give the lord?”

She covered her mouth as she laughed, the sound raising goosebumps along my arms. “He’s been having trouble getting it up, I guess.”

I groaned. That explained it. “Let’s get out of here.”

Seran hooked her arm in mine, and if I was as pale as her, she might have noticed the red in my face. “What do you want for dinner?” she asked. Her stomach rumbled, and she blushed adorably.

I took a moment to think of what we even had. “Eggs and lentils,” I said. “With garlic.”

“What? Garlic?”

“I bought some.”

“How much did that cost?” she demanded.

“I earned more than enough from the last tournament to pay for it.”

“You only made it to the semi-finals.”

“Ouch. Semi-finals still pay, you know.”

“You’re not joking? You really bought garlic?”

“I really did.”

Seran grinned so brightly, I almost couldn’t breathe.

We walked the rest of the way in silence until we came back to our house, ordinary as all the others except for Seran’s little herb garden lining the front wall on either side of the door. We made dinner, though she did most of the work, and I smiled as she devoured even more than I did. I’d train even harder to win the next tournament, for more of that garlic.