“Thanks,” came Gwen’s sarcastic muttering.
“She’ll just thrash you that much worse on the practice field the next day,” Auris continued, catching Gwen’s startled jerk out of the corner of her eye. She ignored it, because she didn’t care about Gwen. “But don’t you ever so much as think that my cousin makes you look bad. Don’t you ever imply that my aunt Cliodi—who outranks you in every way, who ranks as one of the best hunters in the city, and who trained most of you herself—shouldn’t criticize you. Because you are beneath the dirt on her boots.”
Mentioning Cliodi was the fastest way to win, of course. With Saig, no one would challenge her status directly, but that didn’t mean they respected her. But Cliodi was different. She’d been born an outsider, unbeholden to the responsibities of C
