Halgrin Gustagsson gently probed his black eye with a stubbyfinger, then stuck the finger in his mouth and waggled his loose tooth.He had to admit that Olnir Ironhall threw a respectable right cross,and not a bad left hook either. He started through the woods again,continuing his patrol. If his old friend had been there with him hewould have complimented him on his strength, but Olnir was flat on hisback in old Borek the bone-setter’s tent with a broken right arm and afractured skull.

That had been an accident, and Halgrin was as sorry as anybodyabout it. Olnir had put a foot wrong earlier that night, as the two ofthem had slugged it out by the steep bank of the river where ThaneRedhelm’s company had made camp, and he had fallen hard on some rocksthat jutted from the swift flowing current.

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