"Who dares send thugs to assault fair ladies such as ourselves?" Gabs retorted angrily, staring past the brawlers to Balenof. "Why shouldn't we use everything we have against those who threaten violence when none was offered, no doubt wishing to take advantage of us and relieve us of our virtue? If you wish us to leave, have you no courage to face us yourself, or is courtesy a lost art in these lands?"

She might have grown up in the streets, but she had a good pair of ears, a small talent for verse, and a vocabulary that would put the old madams of bawdy houses to shame.