Speranzi crushed her thoughts down into a tiny ball, and when her fingers closed into a fist, she felt as if she’d annihilated them in her palm. “Do you know where we’re going?” Skana asked from just behind Speranzi’s back, breaking the silence between them.

“Not exactly, but it won’t be hard to find. Corwin is predictable. Honestly if he didn’t have a cautious streak about keeping guards around his home, I’m sure he would have been kidnapped for ransom a long time ago.” Speranzi answered and pointed down a road.

“Follow the money and we’ll find him, and the rich inns are always deeper within the city, usually close to the big temples. All we have to do is look for the one with rich people going in and out, look for carriages, and there he’ll be, probably waiting over his third helping of breakfast for me to join him. That is if he hasn’t found himself company for the night.” She said with a casual dismissal, and Skana kept her thoughts to herself on the matter, though it seemed unlikely that they would find him so easily.

Speranzi, however, proved her words true. Her voice perked up as the atmosphere improved and the life of the city’s bustle and noise surrounded them. She kept a hand on the hilt of her blade and her stride long. It was several minutes into this before Skana noticed something.

Laylan was a crowded place, with squads of guards walking the street, coaches moving forward and groups bumping into one another.

But nobody came within a pace of bumping into Speranzi, not so much as to brush against her shoulder, there was easily enough room for Skana to walk at the woman’s side as they made their way past ever wealthier establishments, including the clothing shop she’d so recently visited.

Outside the shop she saw the elf slave sweeping the step, her eyes down toward the stone steps, Skana waved at her, catching the woman’s eyes, she looked up as the pair passed by, and gave her a fragile, grateful smile, a delicate slender hand came up and made the beginnings of a wave.

“Speranzi.” Skana said as her leader strode on, following some instinct for cities that Skana lacked herself.

“Yes?” Speranzi asked, looking over her shoulder, and Skana pointed toward the shop entrance, intending to draw her eye to the elf with the mutilated ears. But in that moment the slave went back inside as a voice yelled for her to hurry in.

“Never mind.” Skana said, and Speranzi shrugged it off.

“There.” Speranzi said minutes later, oblivious to the fact that Skana kept looking behind them until the shop was well out of view. It caught her subordinate’s ears and she saw the mercenary leader pointing to a large establishment easily four times the size of those around it which sat on a corner where two roads of clean pavement met.

“You’ve never been here?” Skana asked, dumbfounded.

“No. I just have a nose for cities, and both North and South Qadish share common traditions, so it makes sense that I’d find it laid out the same way. If it hadn’t been here, it would have been close. After all, the great temple of the city is close by.” Speranzi explained, and Skana blinked several times.

Her leader wasn’t wrong, the temple spire atop its dome was clearly not far away. “How-?”

Speranzi looked both ways before crossing the street and then as she walked across it she answered, “That’s easy, if the temple is built first, the monied people will build close to it. If there are monied people settling somewhere, a temple will spring up close by.” When she reached the other side of the street, she closed her eyes and sighed.

“Before last night I saw that relationship very differently.” Speranzi said it quietly and turned on her heel to face the former brigand, she put a hand out on Skana’s shoulder. “You really helped me. I’m grateful.” She said and bowed her head.

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Skana’s face flushed crimson at the gratitude of her hero, “No-no-no-no.” She stammered. “I just did what anyone would have done.”

“Not anyone else would have done it. Nobody else did. They all left me there. Maybe those two guards were going to help me, but they didn’t even stop me from getting robbed while I lay bleeding on the ground.” Speranzi tapped her lighter coin purse. She sighed, “I was-” She paused and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, not now at least. Come on, forget what I was about to say and follow me. I guarantee Corwin will be here.”

“How can you be so sure?” Skana asked, while the building was large and looked quite beautiful, with a pair of white polished pillars outside holding up an overhang in front of large double doors where a pair of servants in black and white clothing opened doors for people… it was not the only place of luxury in view.

But Speranzi tapped her nose. “The smell of meat is coming from there. Corwin would never pass it by.”

“You can’t be serious?” Skana asked, though she unconsciously put her hand on her belly when she said it.

“Very. You’ve seen him. The man loves to eat.” Speranzi replied with a low chuckle, “I don’t blame him. Hunger is unpleasant at best.”

“Will they really let someone like me in?” Skana asked and picked at her cheap clothing, it was in far from the best shape and she was frankly sure she wasn’t smelling the best either. “Maybe I should wait here…” She said as she poked a finger at a hole in the front of the cheap cloth just over her bellybutton.

Speranzi’s eyes of ice seemed to pulse like the surface of a beating drum as she stared at the reluctant woman. “Follow me.” She said in a voice of iron.

Skana had one foot in front of the other before she knew what she was doing.

She couldn’t keep from holding her breath when she crossed the threshold of the doorway, and couldn’t keep her head held high when she felt the eyes of others on her as she followed Speranzi to a nearby counter.

“Corwin Amber. Send for him. Tell him I’m here.” Speranzi gave the order, the clerk, a young human male with a neatly trimmed brown beard, stepped noticeably back two paces when Speranzi placed her hands on the surface of the counter between them.

“W-With respect, ma’am, who shall I say is here?” He asked, looking past Speranzi and toward the thoroughly out of place Skana.

“Tell him I am. He will know. He is expecting me.” Speranzi said in the same clipped command voice she used with her warriors, the young man scurried away without even a proper acknowledgment, and Skana followed him with her eyes.

“Does he know where he’s even going?” Skana asked, and Speranzi nodded.

“I’m sure he does. You don’t seem to understand, Skana.” Speranzi explained and drummed her fingers impatiently on the counter. “Corwin Amber runs the largest trading enterprise in either North or South Qadish, this wagon train seems small because it is. He doesn’t like going south for the same reason he doesn’t like going to the Divine Kingdom. Honestly he barely travels anywhere himself anymore. But you won’t find a guild or inn that doesn’t know him or his wagons. I’d guess even your boss knew those wagons. It’s a shame he didn’t know who was watching over them.” Speranzi said it and let slip a vicious little laugh.

Skana felt the ice run through her veins and shivered against her will. Silence would have been too heavy to bear after that so she quickly muttered, “He didn’t. He just assumed it was ‘the usual rabble’ out of work soldiers one step from being bandits themselves… it was the armor that fooled him.”

“The armor?” Speranzi asked and looked down at herself. She ran her hand over the small black painted metal scales.

“There’s no insignia. And it’s painted black, like poor soldiers do. He assumed you were just a bunch of runaways from the royal army…” Skana explained and cracked a fragile smile. “Obviously, he was wrong.”

“Very. Black paint is just cheap, hides blood well, and protects against rust. I just don’t care much about appearances. What’s the point?” Speranzi asked, “I’m a professional, not a performer.”

“If you looked like your reputation, Bodger might have left you alone.” Skana pointed out. “What might have happened if you hadn’t caught on that we were there and his ambush was pulled off?” Skana asked the rhetorical question and watched as Speranzi turned around to face her, for a moment Skana almost flinched. But certain she was right, she met the steady stare and watched the way Speranzi’s face changed as the borderline rebuke sank in.

“You may be right. A fight avoided is sometimes better than one you win. Maybe… maybe I should give some thought to more overt displays… just a little.” Speranzi acknowledged just as a big, booming voice reached them both.

“Speranzi! You made it, I reserved a private room for breakfast, join m-” Corwin’s words were cut off and his jaw shut with the finality of an iron portcullis.

“What is that doing here, let alone in the city?” He demanded to know as he glared at Skana until her head bowed in shame.

“I’m sorry.” She mumbled again, but got no further before Speranzi got between them.

“I’ll tell you in private, over breakfast.” She said, and then said in the same steel finality with which she commanded Skana to follow her in, “Lead the way.”