She materialized out of nowhere, holding a bowl of soup that she must have been preparing at the back of the room. She set it down in front of him with exaggerated care, then stepped back and crossed her arms and looked at the other women with the expression of someone who had won something.
"I made the soup," she announced.
"You knocked over the soup pot twice," Nara said.
"I made the soup," Rika repeated, louder.
From the wall near the doorway came a sound.
A person clearing their throat.
Raven looked. Rika's fake husband — the petite woman in the man's tunic — was standing against the wall with her arms crossed, her jaw red, rubbing her face with one hand. She was doing her best to look like someone who was not in the room.
Edda stood nearby, watching the fake husband with the steady attention of a warrior monitoring a threat.
"Lord," Edda said. Her voice was carefully neutral. "What do you want us to do with the traitor?"
