Chapter 2
The Halloween decorations had made the transition from Runde meeting hall to Villmark mead hall. I wasn't sure they would. Nothing else did, after all. The rickety tables were now solid wood, the battered chairs long benches, the stained ceiling tiles nowhere in sight. But orange and black streamers twisted from rafter to rafter, and the pillars spaced down the length of the room were festooned with bundles of dried wheat and corn tied with colored ribbons. Even the cut-outs of witches and Jack-o'-lanterns were there, hanging on threads from the underside of the thatched roof lost in the shadows above.
It was more than a little incongruous. The Villmarkers were aware of Halloween as a Runde holiday, but they had no version of it themselves. They had harvest festivals, but none
