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“So, you can’t ride, then?”

“Never tried,” he said

“You’ve never even sat on a horse?” It seemed hard to credit

“I’ve eaten plenty,” he said

“That doesn’t help”

“How difficult can it be?” he asked,no move to find out

“Less difficult than juain, I suspect Luckily I’reat teacher” I pointed at the stirrup “Put your foot in there Not the foot you first thought of—the other one Step up, and don’t fall off”

Lessons continued slowly and to his credit Snagason did not fall off I did worry that he s of his, but in the end Snorri and the horse reached an uneasy truce where they both adopted a fixed grin and got on withforwards

By the time the sun had passed its zenith I could tell the Norse

“How’s the hand?”

“Less painful than the thighs,” he grunted

“Perhaps if you loosened your grip a little and let the poor horse breathe”

“Tell me about Rhone,” he said

I shrugged We wouldn’t reach the border until the next evening and the lasthile about the place, but it seemed he needed distraction from his aches and pains

“Not so much to tell Awful place The food’s bad, the norant, the women cross-eyed And they’re thieves to a ers afterward”