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. We were fortunate, then,
that it was cold, for the food did not spoil as readily, but
even the youngest eye could pass over the stores in the
larders and see there was less today, would be less
tomorrow. Soon it would be biscuit, parched corn. Then
horses, and some of the older footmen talked ironically of
rats, providing they are stupid enough to still be here when
the time comes down to them.
So you occupied your time upon other thoughts, in
other pursuits. The footmen wagered, exchanging coins
over the strange, many-sided dice from the east. None
wagered against Sturm's friend the kender, who eagerly
sought to join each game, standing on tiptoe to peer over the
shoulders of the crouching footmen, once climbing the back
of a rather tall archer for a closer look at the proceedings,
only to be shaken off like a dog shakes off water. On that
occasion I asked Breca if it would hurt to let the little fellow
play, and he told me that I had yet to learn the difference
between disdain and respect. Told me that compassion
toward a kender was the ruin of fortunes, or some such rural
proverb I scorned until later that night, when I had lost a
substantial amount of money to the little creature, trying to
guess under which of three walnut shells he had placed a
piece of dried corn
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