Among the Upper Class
an excerpt

Daniel tried to find the good in his sticky situation. At least he would be back in Corus, the capital of Tortall. Perhaps he could sneak out of the palace and go see his friends in the lower city. They probably thought he was dead. Why wouldn’t they? He had disappeared nine months ago and hadn’t come back. So that was good thing number one. Good thing number two would be that he would be away from his father, stepmother and half-siblings. This seemed to be the end of good things about being forced to go train as a knight, so Daniel starting making a list of bad things. Bad thing number one would be that he would have to learn to fight. Fighting had never been high on Daniel’s interest list. Bad thing number two would be dealing with taunts about his heritage from the other boys who were training. Being a bastard meant that taunts followed you wherever you go in the upper classes. He probably could have made the bad things list much longer, but hunger clouded his mind. He would have to go brave the kitchens in search of some food.