“With your permission, of course.” Relos Var rubbed his nose with a knuckle. “I should warn you she’s rarely on her best behavior.”

“The good ones never are.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the pain to distract me from saying something rash. I hadn’t been prepared to be treated like I wasn’t even in the room, someone who could be talked around rather than talked to. Someone who would stay politely silent while the adults discussed important matters.

I didn’t have a hard time understanding why Relos Var had insisted on removing my strength. I’d have torn out every heart in the hall otherwise.

“Please, let’s eat. I don’t know about you, but I could eat a horse,” Duke Kaen said, still laughing. He gave me a quick glance, just to make sure I’d appreciated the joke.

I started to pull out an empty seat when I felt Senera’s hand on my shoulder. “Not that one.”

“Please,” said the blue-eyed man. “Sit with me. I’d be delighted to look at you during dinner.”

As soon as he made the offer, I recognized his voice. He had been the one who’d said he wanted me “with dinner”—not Duke Kaen’s son.

“Darzin—” Senera warned.

“Yes, ‘Lady Var’? I just want to heal the young lady’s injury. Is that a problem?” He blinked at Senera, daring her to object.

I studied his blue clothing. I only knew that color’s significance because of Brother Qown’s license fees. House D’Mon, the royal family who controlled the Blue Houses and the Physickers Guild.

“Truly, your house is renowned for your healing skills,” I said, smiling as sweetly as I could manage around the pain. “So any succor you might give me, I beg you instead direct to the duke’s son. He did, after all, take the blow that belonged to you.”

Darzin laughed and confirmed who’d really grabbed me.

Senera’s hand pulled on my elbow, and we sat down opposite Darzin and Oreth, in between Relos Var and the two black-clad royals. Duke Kaen sat next to Var, and the seat I had tried to take next to his remained empty. Duke Kaen’s son, Exidhar, left his table for long enough to find the old woman by the fire; she healed his nose, not Darzin. All the while, she cast venom in my direction.

I wondered if she was Exidhar’s grandmother, but she dressed in little better than rags. Not the costume I expected for a duke’s mother. A bundle twitched in a fur-lined basket next to her, revealing itself to be—not snow hyena cubs—a mewling white bear cub.

“Let me see your hand,” Senera whispered as the servants came around with the first course.