Walking beside Corwin, Speranzi could feel three things, the first was a sense of his own amusement, he was almost cocky. Cocky in a way her soldiers, and none of her other clients in the past had ever been.

And from a few wagons back, she could feel the stare of the helmeted woman, the only surviving bandit captive. ‘If there were more time to question her, I’d have done it already, but we lost enough time as it is.’ Interrogating that one could wait until nightfall when there were walls and guards paid by somebody else. It was difficult to place exactly what the eyes boring in the back of her head were, it didn’t feel quite like gratitude. Nor like fear. It remained a puzzling mystery that gnawed at the back of the commander’s mind.

Then there was the third and final thing, felt in the stares from the very back wagon. The rescued peasants eyed her with a mix of gratitude and terror. That at least had a welcome familiarity to it. ‘I could tell them I’m not taking them to some horrible fate, but that would probably just convince them that I’m doing exactly that.’ Speranzi told herself as she strolled beside Corwin’s wagon, ‘Not that I can blame them. They’re just peasants, they’re used to expecting the worst, and getting it. Even killing whoever that trash was and letting them have their justice done just convinced them that I’m the new arbiter of their lives.’

She almost sighed about it. ‘Almost’. But she no longer had sighs remaining for moments of exasperation like that one.

“You really are a funny one, you know?” Corwin asked, she felt the rhetorical nature of the question, and with someone else she would have simply grunted and killed any conversation before it began, but he was an exception.

“How do you mean?” She asked, turning her head to look up at his jolly fat face.

“You pretend you don’t give a flying shit about anything, but then you went out of your way to kill the source of their fears, instead of taking that monster in alive when he probably would have been worth more money that way. Or you could have just told those peasants to go off on their own. Instead you’re going to feed them out of the food you plundered, and buy extra ale and passage for them from me, out of your own pocket. You really are a nice person, Speranzi.”

Had it not sounded like the older man was speaking more like an affectionate and proud uncle, she might have been offended. As it was, she couldn’t find it in herself to be offended. Nor did she fail to notice what he said about paying for ale and passage.

“Of course you’re charging me for it.” It was the only thing she could say in response, and he cracked a tiny half smile out of one corner of his mouth.

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you a good rate, just enough to replace it… well…” He held up two fingers so that they were a hair’s breadth from touching, “maybe a little profit. I do have a business to run.”

“Fine, you know I won’t haggle when you’re kind enough to indulge me. Besides, it’s just to the nearest settlement, what’s a few coppers? The gods look favorably on those who show kindness to the damned.” Speranzi answered him, and it was Corwin who grunted.

“Gods, eh.” His smile fled his face. “You really believe in them, believe they help us, care for us, bless humanity?”

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For a few paces worth of time it was only the squelching of mud that spoke for Speranzi, she looked not at him, but at the long muddy road ahead that had been carved through the wilderness. After a few hours of walking the border fort was already visible and growing a little larger with every step. It was a formidable place of stone with iron gates and a garrison of some three hundred footmen and at least a dozen knights.

Having been there before, Speranzi knew the place had a resting house for adventurers, a decent tavern, it was really more of a small town unto itself rather than a mere border fort, with a dozen farms nearby that supported it with their produce and themselves with trade. In the previous year, the former blacksmith for the fort settled in the outside settlement… it was a growing and prosperous little place with a great river that sped travel and offered fish and monster meat alike.

In her mind, it was proof of the god’s favor of humanity that they had a place like that. So she answered him after those steps by saying, “Yes, of course I do. The ancient gods blessed our race and made us stewards over the whole world. You grew up in the faith, same as me, same as all of us, you know that’s how it is.” She replied as if it were obvious and she was speaking to a dullard.

What reaction she expected from Corwin Amber, richest of rich merchants, she hadn’t thought of, but sadness wasn’t it. “You know, I forget how young you are, Speranzi, so often you seem older than your years. Maybe because I’ve put my trust in you so many times and you’ve always protected me and mine so well. Maybe you just feel older than you are. But when you say something like that, I can’t help but remember the truth.”

“What truth is that, old man?” Speranzi asked, offering the slight dig at the middle aged merchant, half out of annoyance with the statement about her youth, half just hoping to snap him out of his sudden funk.

“That you’re still just a young girl, and as much as you’ve traveled, you’ve still never even left the bosom of your homeland. Yes, it’s true. I learned the same lessons, but I’ve seen enough things to make me doubt what the priests said.” He pointed toward the bag hanging off the wagon that held the head of the bandit leader.

“Do you really think he was blessed by the gods?” Corwin asked, “Part of their elect, their chosen peoples?”

Speranzi pursed her lips while she gathered her words, “He was an exception, he fell away from the truth of the gods favor. He was no different than the demihumans I was hunting at fourteen after I left home. Just a creature, a beast-”

“A man. A human man. No different than me.” Corwin argued back, cutting her off, “Sure we made different choices, but either humans are the chosen race or we’re not. And I say we’re not. You fought the Demon God invasion, didn’t you?”

“I did. I was just a squire then, though.” She pointed out, “I was lucky to survive, and probably wouldn’t have if we hadn’t gotten help when we did.”

“When the demihuman servants of the Demon God were rampaging, where were the gods?” Corwin demanded. “When they used the altars of our gods as tables where they would consume the children of humanity, where were the ones who ‘chose’ us?” He asked, “Nowhere.” He hadn’t waited for an answer. “If the gods exist, they don’t give a shit about us.”

“The Demon God existed.” Speranzi pointed out. “Why shouldn’t our gods?”

Corwin shrugged and watched his draft horse trudge forward, indifferent to the conversation of driver and guardian. “Maybe they did once, but they’re gone now or they’ve abandoned us. And we’ll see if you still believe we’re all that special by the end of all this.”

Speranzi tried to crack his sullen, sad expression, “I’ll wager you a beer.”

“I sell beer.” He pointed out.

“I buy it, but you get to drink it, and I have to watch.” She suggested.

“Deal.” He said, and perked up, her attempt at a smile made her naturally fearsome face even more monstrous, but in her clumsy way she was trying to make him feel better, which just by the effort, accomplished the goal.

The remaining conversation was jovial right up to the moment they reached the first gate of the border fort.