Speranzi Jadara could feel the woman at her back, it was a strange thing she’d learned how to do over the years. To have a sense that surrounded her on all sides and alerted to the feelings of those present. And the peasant at her back, Skana?

She was struggling. On the one hand trying to walk with shoulders squared and back straight and stride forward as if she belonged where she was. But on the other? The cruel stares of wealthy patrons were matched even by common servants whose clean, formal clothing spoke of their status. She didn’t have to be a genius of great stature to know that those who served the nobility in this inn were the illegitimate children born between nobles and servants.

Her own history told her that. ‘How many half siblings, half uncles, half aunts, were tending to the estate of my father?’ She asked herself that and had no clear answer.

But almost all of them looked very much like her father or her grandfather and Speranzi recalled her mother politely pretending she noticed nothing when father went ‘hunting’ and chose to take a maid to attend to him.

Knowing as they did that they had at least half noble blood, and with some care from her father’s wishes, they usually received some training and were the backbone of the administrative class on her estate, some cities she’d seen, and places like this one.

And for that reason, even a servant to the powerful could look down their nose at anyone who appeared to be a mere peasant. They could. And they did.

Speranzi could feel the tension at her back, and a rare moment of pity moved her. ‘It’s not like she doesn’t know what she is. But it can’t be easy, having everyone else think it without even knowing her.’ She thought to herself, having lived with that judgment her whole life, whether it was true or not was less relevant to the warrior woman than whether it was just.

And it was not. Inviting Skana to walk beside her would solve the problem, and the thought occurred to her, but with the other nobles and potential future clients in the midst? Appearing to disrespect the nobility or the barrier of their differing worlds was akin to burning a bridge while standing on it.

So Speranzi instead turned her head, not over her shoulder toward Skana who followed with sweat on her brow and tongue bitten hard to keep her focused, but instead to look at the servants themselves. Speranzi’s ice blue eyes and sharp features, all but carved out of a demon’s face with the intention of inducing maximum terror without any effort at all, forced one after another to look away.

Skana pointedly stared straight ahead, refusing to see anyone but her commanding officer. She kept her hands folded behind her back, right fist clasped in her left palm and tried to take steady, even steps that kept her only a few paces from Speranzi.

But as she walked and she sensed the burden of common contempt lifting, she raised her eyes to see the shifting gaze of her Lady, and followed it to see the confused and contemptuous servants turning their heads away, unable to bear the weapon of fury etched onto the face of the hero of Prioche.

Gratitude welled in her heart, even for that small gesture of a warning glance.

As the double doors opened that would lead to a private seating area, all interest that remained, faded and finally vanished. A merchant, a woman in armor, and a peasant entering a private space had all manner of meanings that it was healthier not to know much about.

Corwin caught glimpses of what was going on behind him, thanks in large part to the reflective surfaces and mirrors abound. There to show the wealth of the establishment and for the practical use of patrons, that they have no spec of dust or lint to mar their noble perfection, it served Corwin to let him see the discomfort of the former brigand.

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Had he not known what she was before, it would have been sympathy that stirred in his breast, but as it was, he had none to give her. Only curiosity tempered his contempt, and that, only a little.

When the doors shut on the expansive dining hall, Corwin did not wait to ask, “Alright, what’s the meaning of all this? Why is that here?” He demanded and restrained from spitting in disgust only because it was uncouth to do so into the fire that crackled against the wall or on the red carpet which lined the path to the head of the table.

“I said I’d tell you over breakfast, Corwin, and I don’t see any food.” Speranzi said it almost mockingly, as if she intended to draw the discomfort out. Skana stood beside Speranzi as if preparing to serve the head of the mercenary company, but before she could even take the patient pose of a servant, the warrior woman said, “Skana, sit beside me.”

Skana and Corwin alike both stared at her.

“Is there something on my face?” Speranzi asked and brushed her hair aside to touch her forehead. “I said it was fine for her to sit.”

“It’s not fine for me. Bad enough you let her live, and join you, now you want me to break bread with the would-be butcher of myself and my boys? You’re pushing your luck, Speranzi.” Corwin glowered at her in the way she only ever tolerated out of him, but this time, she glared back.

“You will not object for long.” Speranzi proclaimed just as a servant entered, her graceful steps almost skipped when she saw the woman dressed in little better than common peasant garb seated beside the armored woman at the same table as the silk clad Corwin.

He clearly didn’t believe her, his hatred was so thick and rich that Skana felt it could be drizzled on hot cakes like the syrup her family sometimes made from the tree sap in summer.

Worse, she couldn’t blame him. Skana folded her hands into her lap and hung her head. “Porridge, sausage, eggs, bacon, kandian tea, a side of whatever today’s freshest kill is, and the oiled fish… and whatever juice is also freshest.” Corwin held up two fingers, “Two servings.”

“Three.” Speranzi added.

Corwin blanched, staring at her in disbelief, but Speranzi only stared back at him until he realized she was anything but kidding, and looked away.

“Three.” He added in a begrudging grumble while Skana wrung her hands beneath the table.

The servant, a slender young girl with a fresh young face and dark hair tied in a bun, hesitated for a moment, until Corwin’s grumbled acknowledgement jumpstarted her into motion.

“At once, sirrah, I’ll have it at once!” She answered and began to back away.

“Take your time. We’ll be here for quite some time.” Speranzi said without looking at the girl, who could only nod dumbly as she slowly withdrew without showing her back. Her tiny backward steps slowed her withdrawal and dragged out the tension in the room until the very moment the door clicked shut.

A lesser man might have immediately raged at Speranzi, a more foolish lesser man might have threatened her. A petty man would have insulted her. But Corwin did none of that. Instead he cleared his throat, pretended that Skana wasn’t there, and doing his best to meet Speranzi’s permanently murderous expression, he waited.

And Speranzi began to speak, she relayed the events of the previous day, from her devotional time at the temple to the moment they left the little room beneath the other inn. Corwin listened in silence, no words formed on his tongue, though his mouth opened a little in dismay.

‘Had he been a country priest, she would have killed him out of hand, I’m sure of it.’ He shivered through her recollection of the lash, his hair stood on end as she described waking up to find Skana was with her.

“And you… Skana.” Corwin said, speaking her name out loud, “How did you find yourself inside the city?”

“Good timing and martial magic, remember… my Lord, I can use two of those skills, at least well enough to get one person past a guard. They’re a lazy lot in peacetime, so nobody looks twice ‘inside’ the walls when they hear a noise.” Skana answered, a prideful little smile formed on her face in spite of herself.

Corwin accepted that with polite silence when the door opened and the cart bearing their meals was wheeled in. The freckle-faced young servant in her flowing black and white dress went straight to the head of the table, only for her to stop in mid-reach before she could take up a single silver platter.

“No. Serve Skana first.” He said and stretching out his arm, he leveled a thick finger toward Skana. “She’s done me a service, and I will repay it.”

The pale girl’s mouth dropped open in dismay, but seemingly robbed of her ability to speak, all she could do was obey, wheeling the cart back, and serving the peasant with nothing, before the man of wealth.

As the servant obeyed, Speranzi bowed her head toward Corwin. “You see. I told you.”

Skana could only stare at the table as the richest meal of her life was laid out, like something out of a dream, but come true.