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At the dockside I was pleasantly surprised to find the North wasn’t all hairy men in animal skins There were also hairy women in animal skins And, to be fair, also some townsfolk in cloaks woven from wool, with tweed or linen jackets, trews cross-bound froh as is the fashion in the Thurtans
We dise solid and un beneath my feet I could have kissed it, but didn’t Instead I followed on, burdened by ear, more to be added soon Snorri knew the port well and led us up towards a tavern that he held a good opinion of
Trond, unlikethe coast and fjords, wasn’t the fiefdom of some jarl, dominated by his mead-hall and with every arrival noted, taxed, and subject to his approval Trade ruled in Trond The port’s external security balanced upon a number of well-financed alliances, and its internal security depended on a militia paid in Eoverned the place As such it presented an ideal landing spot and place to resupply Snorri planned to travel overland to the Uulisk, a journey of two days or so across mountainous terrain To limp up the fjord on a badly underes a sility, speed, and surprise It sounded a sensible plan given that ere determined foolishly to head into trouble, and Snorri even creditedh I had no memory of it
As we’d pulled into harbour I’d es to the north, lightning deep inside them as if Thor himself were present Somewhere out there beyond those peaks, Sven Broke-Oar waited for us in the Black Fort, and beyond him the Bitter Ice with its frozen dead, necromancers, and the unborn My chances to escape had all but slipped away, and our long journey was at last closing on ould likely prove to be a short sharp end
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The tavern of Snorri’s choosing bore three rusting axes, stapled to the wall high above the doorway The Norse to be roasted and brought out along with copious ale,that both were excellent cures for a man in weakened health
The rest of the clientele were a rough lot, but none of the for trouble You develop an instinct for such things if you frequent as many low dives as I have Additionally, the fact that I had eight Undoreth warriors in one unnoticed
“We’ll htfall” Snorri sniffed the air with a certain longing The s dominated over all the usual tavern stink of sh he led his u armed with my pox recipe I assumed that Jarl Torsteff’s men must have escaped with at least so on the Drowned Isles because for once Snorri hadn’t asked ear and provisions for nine not the least of it I patted for my locket, just to be sure
A lean southerner walked in as the last of e, and with aan arm for beer Another ht better of it, then left Not athe place too packed So about him struck me as familiar, but my meal arrived and my stomach demanded my full attention
“There you go, irl set down ravy, and a tankard of ale “Enjoy” I watched her leave and started to feel twenty-two again rather than ninety-two Good food, ale, and a floor beneath me that had the manners to stay where it was putthe world had started looking up All I needed was a plausible excuse for staying in Trond until the nastiness up north had been dealt with and I could look upon this whole sorry affair as a vacation gone tragically astray
I noticed a blond wo and really quite striking once you looked past the ho, white-blond and pale, slanted glances my way from beside an older man None of the for the suhter to the tavernin Trond Another woh the street door, this one solid and dour, and pushed a path to the bar to order black ale I chewed over that one with s appeared to run very differently in the North Still, I had no objections I randhtful chain of succession, but in general I found the women with the most freedom to act were by far the most fun to be around After all, it’s hard for the old Jalan charet to work if there’s a chaperone or inconvenient brother like Alain DeVeer in the way