A carriage laden with fine wine and food rolled through the dark, crumbling Streets, trailing wind and snow.
Armed guards watched the poor and the Scavengers along the route. The jolt as a wheel passed over a frozen corpse put them on edge, but flesh was no match for steel, and these starving, freezing people had no intention of attacking the Carriage.
Around a corner, the sight of the bright, sprawling Manor in the distance let the guards relax. The carriage passed through Streets watched by the Guards, crossed a garden where servants wandered, and pulled into the kitchen to unload. Wine from the Phelan Highlands and fresh fruit and vegetables brought from the south landed on silver platters. Servants carried them past the line outside the great hall and into a brightly lit banquet that never seemed to end.
Annan gazed enviously at the fruit being carried into the banquet. He had never eaten anything like it, even in Star-Moon Bay. It had to be expensive.
He looked away and edged closer to the broad back in front of him to shelter from the cold wind. Stamping his feet to ease the stiffness in his body, he glanced back at the line stretching dozens of yards behind him. Plenty of people had come to try their luck, including the wealthy and the Noble.
Take the young man behind Annan. He was wrapped in a Carpet and still shivering in the bitter night air.
"My name is Albert Howey," he told Annan when Annan turned around.
"Young Miss Olmedo. No surname."
Once the young man realized Annan was no Noble, he lost all interest in talking to him.
The line crept forward. With eight or nine Contestants still ahead of Annan, the captain of the Guard emerged from the great