“Aha!Now it is a story!”I wasn’t sure who in the crowd said that, but quickly, I came to see that my fourth defender was Hallbjern.I’d spent little time with Hallbjern except for when we’d gone to shore with Jorn.That being said, I’d gathered that he was considered among the strongest in King Arik’s court.Everyone wrestled and fought so often that they were excellent judges of one another’s abilities.
Someone said, “Hallbjern, you surprise me.”
“Why?”He shrugged his thick shoulders.“She introduced me to Hyrold.The least I can do is batter a few fools who refused to explain rules to a foreign girl before trying to play party games with her.”
Fell jumped down from the rafters, and so ensued a bloody evening in the court.I stood to the side, feeling sick as people cheered and winced and shouted and laughed as if they were watching a game rather than a gruesome overreaction to me genuinely misunderstanding basic elements of Norsern life.Though now is perhaps a good time to comment on myself as a character in history.This evening illustrates a pattern in my life.I was someone who offended easily, but also someone who gained admirers easily.And often, without any say from me, those offended and those admiring came to clash with one another.
As the brawl continued, King Arik caught my attention, for he wasn’t watching the fight as everyone else was.He was watching me, and I could tell by the brightness of his eyes that his mind was racing.He seemed ready to laughginnaung, as if he’d wagered a stack of coin on the very outcome he was witnessing.
No one broke bones, but everyone tore skin.Hallbjern, true to the court’s opinion of him, performed particularly well, throwing one attacker into a table with so much force the man didn’t return to the fight but rather rolled over onto his stomach and spent several moments groaning before rising and limping over to the nearest mead goblet.Ivar—the man who’d flicked my knuckles back when I was learning to play Two Cups—was actually King Arik’s court healer.He approached the attacker and felt along the man’s ribs, looking for injury as the man grimaced.
After some time, the attackers grew tired and slowed, seemingly deciding a fair measurement of pain had been handed out.One man even admitted he couldn’t remember why he’d tied cloth to the Fell-doll, only that he’d been very angry when he’d done it.
The bedraggled group of my defenders walked gingerly to the nearest upright table and began eating and drinking as if they’d not just been violently assaulted.
Eydis, one of the courtiers who played games most often, pulled up a chair.She wasn’t particularly pretty, but she was clean and unbruised so compared to her company, she seemed to glow with freshness.She nodded in my direction.“Look at her, she cares not one bit the four of you are sore and broken.”
“She has no obligation to,” Fell said, taking a sip of mead and then—appallingly—he swished it around in his mouth and spit it back into the cup.“She did not choose to be here.”His eyes flicked to mine.Mirthful.Daring.
He is mad, I decided.He looked to be enjoying himself entirely, which made no sense at all because surely he was sore.
“I, for one, would prefer her cold heart to warm just a little for me,” Reedman said.
“My heart is not cold,” I said, hesitantly coming closer to the group.
“I have offered myself to you three times,” Reedman said.“I have counted.You have given no answer.”
Eydis snorted, spitting out some of her mead.“It has been so very sad to watch.”
“I keep thinking, ‘maybe she has not understood?’ and then here I am, battered, with not even a softening of your face to show for it.”
I hadn’t understood a single of Reedman’s offers.From my perspective, we’d played music together many times.That was it.But when I thought more on it, I could recall Dania telling me I needed to look at him less or more.I’d been drunk when she said that, and I asked after her meaning, but she’d refused to elaborate.
Fell’s eyes were on me and that I did understand.He was enjoying the tale he was hearing, and I was wishing he would look away because I needed to breathe.
“I am learning Norsern slowly,” I said, trying to politely avoid addressing Reedman’s woes.
“Ha!Cold, heartless woman.”
“That is not… uh…fair,” I said.“I feel… sick, or no… that is not the word—bothered!I feelbotheredby all your bruises.”
Hallbjern laughed.“Your face says you do not feel bothered in the least.”
“Quite honestly, the entire…” I knew the word forcourt.I knew it, but still, I couldn’t find it.“You all spend too much time discussing my face.”
“You make her nervous,” Ivar said to Fell as he walked around the table to examine Hallbjern’s bloody, swollen knuckles.“She speaks better when you are not around.”
I would rather have been mud than a person when he said that.
By good fortune, Eydis was still caught on an earlier part of the conversation, so the topic reverted.“What does he mean you did not choose to be here?I have heard nine tales of your arrival, but none about you being lost.”
“This man,” I pointed at Fell.“He mistook me for someone else.He was supposed to be rescuing someone.Instead he took me captive.”
Fell’s grin was a tidal wave.“It was a little more complicated than that.”And he began to tell our tale—the story of how we met, how I’d struck him with the vault’s sting, how lightning had come for both of us and, according to him, I’d saved him.
I interjected when I felt like his version was missing crucial information.Every time I spoke, he laughed at what I said, and I grew more confused.No one could be enjoying my company this much.He looked at me far too often, and I kept telling myself to stop drinking and then ignored myself and poured more mead.
At the end of the story, Hallbjern slapped his thigh.“Ha!You will be lucky if she does not infuriate everyone on purpose in retribution for your error.”
