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"Delightful! What a lovely girl, Esladas!"
Father h haste that I realize hohenever we are in public he does his best to prevent us fro their places, ready for the trials to start Every part of the floor of the court except the central victory tower is covered with canvas, concealing the layout of today’s obstacles The covers will only be pulled back when the first trial starts I want to be out there so badly that I can taste the kick of the sawdust and the grit of chalk I have to check in before the gate to the undercourt closes or I’ll forfeit
My h I know I shouldn’t I’ll be obedient forever after this I will
As Father settles Mother into a chair I lag behind, patting rimace in pain Amaya points me out to him and he walks back to me
"Jessae I hope you are not afraid of appearing in public"
"Of course not, Father The noise and dust have given me a headache If I can closedisturbed, I aht away and I will co tent that stretches along the back of Lord Ottonor’s box Curtains divide the interior into s at the far end of the tent She quickly slips a servant’s blank leathero into the tiny retiring room where she has stowed our satchels
"Give me your servant’s token," I say
She hands over a cord strung with a servant’s ivory pass "As you co for oes out I pull s, and shoes sewn out of a leather so supple that they fit e quickly and pull an ankle-length green tunic over everything My mother e fancy, the kind of linen sheath gown a Coauzy shawl conceals my hair, and one of the plain leather et on my belly and peek out froed down A servants’ aisle runs between the back of the tent and the tall stone back wall of the Court In a le out
Every ti a covered tray of food for the Patrons or carrying out a covered bucket of waste to dump in the sewer, I expect them to shout and exposeto be a servant isn’t hard at all Ae it because they look too much like Father, but no one takes a second look at uards while they are ad in under a palace banner, people so highborn they use only lowborn Patrons as servants, not letting any Commoners at all into their household I hurry down the outer stairs and down a raround level
It is customary for competitors to arrive at the trials and descend into the undercourt with their ame tunics already on In a shadowy alcove that s off my tunic and stuff it and the shawl into the satchel Quickly I bind back ht net A nondescript player’s mask of silk, thread-wrapped wire, and fine leather cord conceals ht masks and colorful tunics, meant to draw the eye My mask and tunic are an ordinary brown, like ate into the undercourt, where the Fives players, called adversaries, asseh when I show the down the stairs to the attiring hall, where we’ll be assigned our starting round and belts Just as I reach the bottoate slams shut above me No one who arrives late will be ad ahead of tiurations of the Fives will be unveiled when the canvas is pulled back
I hurry past locked doors behind which lie the mechanisms and structures used to build and manipulate each new Fives course The people ork there belong to a guild sworn to protect the sanctity of the Fives It is said thatthe secrets of the undercourt
But all that has nothing to do with a girl like me
Still hidden behindhall There are benches, open spaces for warawk as I look around I’ve never been in a real attiring hall I’ve worked hborhood courts where a girl likePatronwhat coh coin can purchase a token to enter the Novice-level City Court official weekly trials that I can finally walk here