Speranzi looked up when she heard the hand at the door outside, ‘If it’s trouble…’ She rose to her feet, threw her quiver over her shoulder, took up her bow, and nocked an arrow.
“It’s just me.” Skana’s voice came through before opening the door fully, and Speranzi relaxed, replacing the arrow and setting her bow aside before she sat down.
“Good.” Speranzi gave her eyes a vigorous wipe, tears of frustration and anger were nothing for even the hardest of hard bitten warriors to be ashamed of, but in front of her subordinate? ‘Unacceptable.’ She thought at once and her face resumed its severe look.
“Here you go, My-” Skana cleared her throat, “Speranzi.” Skana corrected herself and blushed a little in her cheeks before handing over the shirt.
Speranzi put it on and began to lace it up the center, and noticed the gambeson clutched in Skana’s other arm along with the basket of potions. “Was that really necessary?”
“Yes… and no.” Skana said and set the padded garment aside. “If I hadn’t bought it, I’d have made trouble for the slave who was working at the shop… I’ve seen that look on somebody’s face before, I’ve worn that face before. I didn’t want to make life harder for her.”
Speranzi gave the shirt a little tug, it was too large, hanging down past her waist. “It’s strange hearing that from someone who used to raid villages and caravans and the gods know what else.” Speranzi remarked, if it was a criticism, or an observation, Skana wasn’t sure,
“I just wanted to survive, that’s all. When you’ve got nothing, a peasant with his own house might as well be a king.” Skana retorted and set the gambeson aside. “There’s no home for the homeless that’s any good out there, you know.” She frowned deeply, “Those brigands you killed… yeah… yeah, a lot of them were just bad. They were rapers and reavers and I was right to hide myself the way I did. But a lot of them too… second and third sons who came from villages just like the ones we attacked. No land of their own and no way to get it. Some of them were soldiers who were forced to fight and then lost their homes when they were defeated and turned to that to survive.”
“They could have become guards, or mercenaries, or gone to another village, or a town and looked for honest work.” Speranzi pointed out.
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Skana felt her heart boil, “What do you know about it, Baroness? How many spots do you think there are for guards? And you should know that most mercenaries are just fodder, used up and thrown away unless they get a spot with a strong established company. And go to another village? You should know that villages are insular places… they don’t like strangers and they won’t want to give up a parcel of land even if they have it to give. Even if they do, it takes a full season just to grow a crop and what’s a stranger to live on till then?!” Skana’s frustration boiled over and she flung up her hands in anger while she ranted.
“And tradesmen? Please! Hasn’t Corwin ever told you the ages he took his apprentices on? Nobody is taking in grown men to teach them a trade just to let them go be a rival in the same business! Everything has a guild and you can’t get into those unless you’re let in by somebody who is already there. There’s no homes, no honest work, and no place for any of us! None of them are like you, who had at least some wealth to get started! Anyone who wants to live and isn’t born into something… they got no other choice but to get lucky or go bad.”
Speranzi thought that over, “The temples provide alms, don’t they?”
“Not enough but to starve slower, and even then? I tried getting some once, barely enough watery stew to keep from gnawing my own arm for some meat to go with it. Then you’ve got all the others, the guards who harass the poor and then the thugs who try to exploit them or draw us in… if you encounter a prostitute anywhere in a peaceful city, if she’s not a high class courtesan then she’s probably only a prostitute because being with the brigands is worse.” Skana shook her head, “The temples are a sham. From dirty priests with dirty hands, the lot of the ones you kill are no different than the peasants you try to protect. Every one of those is one burned village away from being the brigand in front of your arrow!”
Speranzi clamped her mouth shut, and Skana started breathing hard as her rant came to a close, she bowed her head, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t speak to you that way after you spared my life and took me in… it’s just… I knew a lot of those men, not all of them were bad. Just desperate, just desperate and hungry, angry and with no future open to them… not that different from me. Cloth trade, prostitution, a bride for some bumpkin or a mistress to someone rich… you know how it goes for us.”
Speranzi gave a slow nod of understanding, the status of women in the Kingdoms around her was hardly a secret, and she knew herself to be an exception carved out of flesh and blood. ‘A lot of my men could have gone down that path too… maybe… maybe I am too brutal sometimes…’ After having been lashed by order of a corrupt priest, there was no real question left that even in cities, corruption could fester.
Corwin himself remarked on the likely unhappy ends of those who left his service without a merchant certification and a place in the guild. But out loud she said only, “I see. Well as far as it goes with the extra purchase, it was probably that one’s job to act that way, to elicit sympathy and get you to buy more. A devout person of the gods would know that we’re supposed to be stewards, just, and why buy someone just to mistreat them? That’s just working against their own best interests to act that way. Still, an extra gambeson is always handy, we’ll keep it. And extra potions aren’t a bad thing to have either. It’s fine, let’s get going and meet Corwin.”
“I don’t think he’ll want to see me.” Skana remarked.
“When I tell him what you did for me, he’ll change his tune.” Speranzi promised and began to put her armor on.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Skana answered, deciding to ignore Speranzi’s doubts about the elf’s behavior, as she saw no probability of changing the bullheaded woman’s mind unless she saw or experienced something for herself.
And when Speranzi was ready and tightened her sword belt one more time for good measure, they were off.