“Fuck, she’s good.” Ivren rested his ankle over his knee. “We’ve fought together before, but I’ve never had time to study her. Gomndreally allows her to conceal her movements.”
A crash sounded, and Oscri looked as shocked as the rest of us when Rakkel got him onto his back, her arms locked around his neck with his head resting in her lap. He flipped his entire body, his legs kicking high into the air, but he couldn’t reach her.
“Yield,” she ordered.
Oscri shook his head. “N-never,” he hissed.
“Yield!” Rakkel squeezed her arms harder and his face tinted blue, but he still refused. She laughed quietly. “Suit yourself.” The heir released him for a single moment, but as he turned, Rakkel slammed her elbow down, hitting him right in the temple.
Oscri’s eyes rolled back into his head, his body going limp. Pushing him off, Rakkel jumped to her feet, bowing to the screaming karls.
It took two men—one who looked like his brother—to drag him away.
“Worried?” Ottoh leaned over, his breath smelling of wine, as three servants cleaned up the worst of the blood on the ground. “You should be able to take several of them at the same time, shouldn’t you?”
His question came right as the karls quieted, and eyes shot our way. Bile burned in my throat when they held their breaths, the karls closest to us waiting for my response. I swiped a cup from the nearest servant and made myself sip it slowly to buy time.
I did not wish to be forced up there.
“Well?” Ottoh demanded, throwing a cruel quirk of his mouth toward the karls. “Are you scared, Sweengard?”
The king turned our way, the expression on his face unreadable as conversations died out. Viljan inched closer when a different type of hunger settled over the crowd, the atmosphere shifting into an impatient violence that jabbed against my skin. After Rakkel’s performance, the karls were out for blood, and they were wondering if I was worth hunting.
I needed to play this carefully, because I could not stand in that ring. Covering the pulse pounding at the bottom of my neck with my hand, I used the other to take another swig of wine.
“I’m bored,” I rasped after I swallowed, clenching my fingers around my goblet so they wouldn’t shake. “Our fights at Oenskan are far more impressive.”
Rakkel arched a brow my way as she threw herself onto her chair.
“You should go up there, then,” she said. “Perhaps you couldteachus something.”
“Yes, Sweengard,” Ottoh added. “Please show us your ways.”
“That sounds even less entertaining,” I replied before rounding my mouth in a fake yawn, doing my best to appear the spoiled heir those whispers following me up from the harbor had accused me of being. “I see no honorable rivals here, and I have no desire to foul myself by killing an unworthy opponent.”
The gazes that had been curious—seeking—turned hostile.
Ivren and Adrion ended their conversation, looking over at me, the former with horror shadowing his features. Rakkel shook her head, and even Ottoh scoffed as murmurs rose over the initiates.
“Who does she think she is, refusing to fight us?”
“She would benothingwithout her father’s rune.”
“It’s not even her own. She hasn’t earned hers yet.”
“I’ll show her an honorable fight.”
“She should watch her back.”
Ottoh’s chuckle layered around my neck like a noose. “That’s one way to end your bloodline. Questioning all the karls’ honor?” He shook his head. “You better sleep with that sword.”
Plastering a superior smirk across my face, I rose from my chair. “I’m tired from my travels.” I turned to the king, my heart fighting to escape my rib cage as I gambled with my next words. “Do you wish me to show how to best kill four men at once, or may I be excused?”
As more outraged cries came behind me, calls for me to stand by my words, a nervous shudder ran up my spine, but I hid it by playing my fingers over the sword hilt sticking up behind my back.
“You can go.” The king’s focus was thankfully on the full plate of fish that was being brought in. “Anyone else who wishes to leave?”
Ottoh jumped to his feet. “Not me. I’ll fight the next one.” His brows bounced as he stared from me to the karls pressing in,their furious faces turned my way. “I’m not afraid to see if you can avoid getting hit by my precise punches.”
