hug.
‘By the gods, if you hadn’t spoken, I wouldn’t have recognised you without your beard!’ Olaf returned the embrace. The broad smile on his face dispelled any trace of suspicion towards the arriving guests. ‘How on earth did you end up in the Imperial Fleet?’
‘After eighteen years, the first thing you ask is how I ended up in XuinDo?’ The captain raised an eyebrow and sighed. ‘And I was just about to think you’d changed.’
‘Yh, yh…’ cleared his throat the second sailor, who had come down from the deck with the captain. He was also wearing a uniform, but without epaulettes. He was shorter than the Xuindonians and had darker skin.
‘Ah, yes.’ The officer coughed and tried to strike a serious note. ‘This is my first officer, Cargah Hex.’ Unlike the legionnaires, the man bowed. ‘And now that we’ve got all that out of the way, perhaps you’d like to invite us round?’ Captain Svenson took another look at the Anson sons and, with a twinkle in his eye, patted the jarl on the shoulder.
‘Yes, let’s go, let’s go.’ Olaf made a sweeping gesture to invite the guests to follow him, then put his arm round his wife and set off first. The brothers quickly stepped aside to let the imperial officers pass. Of all those present, Einar was most fascinated by the knights, so he could hardly take his eyes off them. He was surprised that both of them moved just as nimbly in their heavy armour as if they were wearing only light clothing.
Einar found himself almost at the very back of this small procession alongside Surt, so he couldn’t hear what his father was discussing with the captain and the legate. However, he could hear quite clearly what the four legionaries and two sailors who had accompanied them were whispering about. And it certainly didn’t look as though the afternoon would be just another bit of fun. At least twice he heard the soldiers chuckling to themselves about Stairon being nothing more than a backwater full of savages. The boy let
