36

"I've experience throwing eggs at their walls and lifting pies from their windows, if that's what you mean."

She blinks at you several times. "A false japester or a true miscreant…" she murmurs, assessing. It's hard to tell which one she seems to hate more.

"Consider this, sirrah," she says, leaning back. "There are a thousand thousand wretches in Brenton who would do anything for a new life under these gracious stones." She waves her hand towards the ceiling in an elegant gesture.

"From all of them…why should His Grace the Duke bother to lift you from the stumbling herds?"

You think about Vatch and the path you want to forge for yourself.