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Salma chuckled dryly to herself as she pocketed the coins. She’d been one of a few among the servants who had put her marks at the beginning of the year that Keladry of Mindelan would be allowed to return. She’d known from the first interactions with the girl that if Lord Wyldon was a fair man, and in all her interactions with him as the head servant to the pages he had been, that Kel would be more than good enough to make it through whatever tests the training master put her through.
More importantly than that, Salma knew that Keladry would choose to stay from the start. She had a quality shared with the best knights that Salma had seen go through the Page’s Wing. She treated servants like people, was kind to animals, and tried her best to do the right thing.
Salma was fairly certain that very few of the young nobles who walked through the Page’s Wing on their way to knighthood realized how much the servants who worked with them saw. How frequently they knew already who the rare cases who would not make it through the Chamber of Ordeal would be. And also, how frequently they knew who would make good commanders and great knights. Kel had those traits, clear as day, of a great commander and hero, one who would keep all their people safe if it was at all within their power.
When Kel had stepped out into her room that Salma was cleaning after it had been defaced by the boys unwilling to see her there, wearing a dress, and they had bantered over the ways in which women would protect their homes, Salma had thought that Kel had a very clear view of the world, and that was when she’d placed her bet with the other servants. Only very early betters among those paying attention to this newest development at the palace had placed their bets for her to leave early, but very few, even the latest among the betters had thought that she would stay.
Salma would do what she could to help Kel get there, as she had from the start with the keys that kept people from messing with the girl’s room and making sure that Kel got the best care possible taken of her. She was very curious to see what girls would eventually follow in Kel’s footsteps because she was sure that they would come in time. Salma hoped that when they came, she would have to give less attention to boys who didn’t want those girls to be there among their ranks. She hoped that the girls who followed Kel would be even half as ready to make their mark on Tortall though.
For now, Salma contemplated what to do with the coins that she’d earned from her bet.
