“But surely Aventus could stay with me,” Eshkigal had protested. “I’ve been his governess since before Naalia took ill!”

Jorleif had shaken his head, though his eyes were not without sympathy. “I know you feel for the boy. But it’s better he be cared for by his own people.”

“In an orphanage ?”

“You’ll be given your last month’s pay from the sale of what’s left of the furnishings,” Jorleif had muttered. “And then you best go. There’s too many of your kind in the city as it is.”

Eshkigal had glared through the sudden tears blurring her eyes.

But she would not cry now, with the walls of Windhelm at her back and the shores of Solstheim waiting across the sea.