She’d managed to avoid those questions that night and had thought he’d given up on asking them.

Humor crinkled the corners of his eyes. “The Ritali sisters. Ah, yes. I remember. Though maybe they’re best forgotten. We’d had a long string of poor performers and then you came from nowhere to grace us with your presence.”

“Not nowhere. Erys is my home.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “Where on Erys are you from exactly? You never said.”

His tone was one of idle curiosity, but she was not deceived. He hadn’t given up on asking his questions after all.

“Gesran,” she said, taking a small sip of wine and setting her goblet aside. “You’ve probably never heard of it. It’s a small village to the north, a ways inland.”

That much was the truth. She’d been born in Gesran while her mother was visiting family there. They’d returned home to Callon weeks later. They’d fled to Gesran when Ghadrian troops descended on Callon years later to burn it to the ground. She never lied to Janek unless she had to. It was always best to start with a firm foundation of truth. Deception was all in the details.

The burning of Callon had been a turning point in the invasion. The name of her poor village was now a rallying call for the rebellion. She wouldn’t mention it in Janek’s presence.

Janek leaned forward to snag a crust of bread from the edge of her plate and dip it into his wine. “And how did you come to be a dancer?”

“I joined a troupe when I was fifteen and travelled for several years until the invasion. I can’t call my village home anymore.” Everyone she knew from Callon was dead or scattered across the island. “My family…my mother, father and younger sister were all taken by fever years ago.”

“What of the rest of your clan? Are they not family too?”

“Not blood kin, no. My clan is Foran, traced through my mother’s line. It ends with me. My mother wed into the Ceri clan and they offered me shelter because of my father, the only child of an only child. They say we’re all related on the island in one way or another, but I have no close family. Not since the fever took mine.”

Devlin was all she had left, if he was still alive, which was as yet uncertain. He might be breathing his last breath at this very moment in the dungeon beneath their feet.

She must have frowned, thinking about poor Dev, because Janek’s eyes darkened with sympathy. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

She nodded, accepting that. “It was a long time ago.”

She dipped her fingers into the bowl of water between them and then dried her hands on the cloth.