CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Endi slipped away from the feast’s top table early, somewhere between Hans’s second story about fighting raiders on the borders and Rika starting to talk about the nuances of harp technique. The newcomers were more interesting, because at least Endi hadn’t heard their stories a hundred times, but even so, there were more useful things he could do than sit and listen to his siblings and newfound cousins.
He could listen to the rest of the family, and their retainers, for a start. There was an art to it, moving through the room the way a fish slipped through grabbing hands, never letting himself be caught in one place for too long, even though he smiled and laughed, spent a moment listening to Old Sjekar’s idea of a joke, asked a distant cousin about a fishing trip.
“Harg
