[ He nods. Distracted, still, by what she's said, but he unsticks from it to answer, ]

I faked a limp.

[ A poor target for press gangs. ]

And it worked out for me. I got out of the Game just before it started, and it was—a kind of cover, I suppose. Everything was in chaos. My friends assumed that was what had happened to me, the war or the riots. No one was looking for me anymore when I came back to Val Royeaux. I passed some of them in the street and their eyes went right through me.

Of course, [ dropping his voice, because it's a secret, ] I am very good.