Desperate hunger filled my belly. It clawed on my inside like a untamed beast, gnawed at the corners of my mind and was dragging my attention away from the scribing tasks my master had given me. Being able to read, write and understand five languages, these were useful skills for a peacetime merchant’s apprentice. Yet they were near useless in a town under siege, with no trade to be had and no food left to buy. But what was a young girl to do? I had to get by in some way after all. And working kept my mind off my beloved up there on the high walls, kept my mind off the fact that he might get an arrow through his neck at any time. And then our fragile story of love, of skulking in the shadows, sweet kisses in the narrow alleys, become but a memory. A saga so sweet and tender that it had to be cut brief by the brutality of reality. . I set aside my quill and rubbed my eyes, dusk was invading the workshop and making work harder, as we had very little lamp oil left, only to keep one lamp