Page 41 of My Fair Viking

"She looks different somehow," Alinor mused, tilting her head one way, then another as she studied Tyra.

"Yea, she does," Tykir agreed, a grin twitching his lips.

Aaarrgh! It is starting already, the jesting at my expense.

"Methinks it is her tousled hair and her—oh, my God'—her lips." Alinor exchanged a look with her husband.

"You are right, wife. As usual. If I did not know better, I would think the lady soldier had been kissed good and well. In fact, her lips look rather, well, kiss-swollen."

Tykir and Ahnor turned their attention to Adam.

"Just like yours," Ahnor hooted with glee.

Once again, Alinor and Tykir tossed their heads back and laughed uproariously.

"Kiss-swollen lips, did you say?" It was Rashid who came up to join them. He looked pointedly at Tyra, then directly at Adam's mouth, and nodded his head with satisfaction. " 'Tis well past time, too. Two years of chastity is more than enough for any one man, I tell you. Allah says—"

"Two years?" Mirth was replaced in Alinor's voice by shock and something else… probably concern.

"Chastity? You?" Tykir was staring at Adam, his mouth agape with incredulity. He, too, looked a bit concerned.

"Methinks this calls for a saga," Adam heard a booming voice announce behind him.

"Oh, nay, oh please, God, not this," Adam prayed even before he turned around and saw the giant Viking with the one eye-patch. "Dear Lord, please, please, please, spare me."

'Twas Bolthor, the world's worst skald.

"This is the saga of Adam the Lesser," Bolthor began.

Alinor and Tykir smiled their encouragement. Adam just groaned.

But then Adam said, "What is this 'Lesser' business? You always say, 'This is the saga of Tykir the Great,' or 'This is the saga of Runk the Greater.' Why is it I get no 'Great' after my name?"

"Well, Tykir was much chagrined when he found out that I named Runk the Greater, and—"

"I was not," Tykir protested.

"Yea, you were," Alinor disagreed.

"… and he ordered me henceforth to name no one greater than he."

"Are you really that vain?" Adam asked Tykir.

"He's lying," a red-faced Tykir lied.

"Yea, he is that vain," Alinor said.

"As I was saying, this is the saga of Adam the Lesser."

"Once was a Saxon healer,

All the maids his beauty did stir.

Some said he was overly cocky,

But, till then, his life had ne'er been rocky.

Along came a Viking princess,