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"Suck on that!" Johan pivoted to Derek "You’re next!"

Ascanio shot fros swarmed Someone screamed A chair flew above us and crashed into the wall Grendel bounced in place, barking his head off

Ragnvald heaved an exasperated sigh "Which way are you leaning, Kate? Veterans or Mark?"

"Are you going to tell uess I don’t knohich way I’nvald looked at Curran "Seriously?"

Curran shrugged his broad shoulders "It’s her show"

A tankard hurtled through the rooed to his feet roaring "All right you fuckers, who threw that?"

The second tankard took hied into the full-out brawl raging in the rowled, and above it all, Ghastek’s va pissed off Johan by his ankle

I sighed, ju in the face

My butt hurt, because so woman kicked me from behind while I was busy and theme any favors The red spot on my shoulder promised to blooot away scot-free Derek sported a cut across his chest and Ascanio, whose shirt soot mysteriously ripped to shreds in the heat of the battle, was black and blue from the neck down It wouldn’t lastthe lot of the a sore shoulder

The wind brought a whiff of hops fros had tried to drown it in the barrel of beer and reen sunblock had co hie to a minimum The mud had dried to a nasty crust and the va that would come out of Grendel’s tail end

Grendel had spentrandom people and was now smeared with someone’s vomit

Curran escaped unscathed, mostly because when people tried to assault hiet up He walked now next tos you took the lead on that one," he said "It could’ve gone badly and degenerated into a huge brawl"

"Screw you"

"Oh I hope you do, baby"

In your drea the neo-Vikings," Ghastek said, his voice dry "They’re an uncivilized, idiotic lot and nothing good ever comes from it"

"They started it," Ascanio said

"Of course they started it," I growled "They’re Vikings That’s what they do"

Ghastek cleared his throat "I can’t help but point out that now Dagfinn knoe’re looking for hi If he isn’t involved in thisto knohat’s going on If he is involved, he’ll show up onto crush skulls Works either way"

"So ait?"

It et a hold of Dagfinn today Roderick was running out of tio home and wait"

Chapter Six

We parted ith Ghastek and the four of us, Curran, Derek, Ascanio, and I, made our way back to the Keep Jim waited for us on the stone steps as we rode into the courtyard

"What happened to you?"

"We went to see the Vikings," I told hi," Curran said "You should’ve seen what happened to the vaave The Dude’s reigns to a shapeshifter kid from the stables

"Some people are here to see you," Jih "Fine How’s the boy?"

"Doolittle says he’s the sauests are in the conference room, second floor, third door on the left"

I marched to the second floor Grendel decided to accompany me Five people waited in the suarded by a female shapeshfiter One of them was Mark, the other four were Bob Carver, Ivera Nielsen, Ken and Juke, collectively known as the Four Horsemen Most mercs were loners Sometimes, when the job deroups of more than tere rare The Four Horsemen were the exception to the rule They h jobs and finished them efficiently and mostly above board, and they were respected by the rest of theenough to conte

"What the hell is that?" Bob asked

"It’s ree to co her head with spiked black hair "We were here first He just showed up"