Having heard the stories, the brothers decided that Einar was not to go anywhere on his own until the evening, so Toinen spent the time remaining until dinner in the company of Surt, who was supervising the storage of the spoils brought back two days earlier. As it turned out, neither father nor brothers had exaggerated their tales when it came to the spoils. And everything had to be recorded and put in its proper place. As Einar hadn’t had a chance to exercise that morning, he was a bit restless and couldn’t sit still. Surt quickly found an outlet for his younger brother’s boundless energy and dragged him off to carry heavy crates. The work was physically demanding, so it was perfect for the boy. By the time they’d finished, he had to admit he was even a little tired. Before dinner, he tidied himself up and changed his clothes.
Toinen met up with his brothers again in the twins’ room. This time, Bragi was there too, grumbling about the number of tasks their father had told him to take care of. Kari and Leif didn’t pay much attention to his complaints, as they searched for clean clothes in their trunks. Einar rolled his eyes, noticing the many old and fresh scratches on his brothers’ backs, which were certainly not the marks of past battles. Surt appeared straight after Toinen and seemed to be the only one who was completely calm, or perhaps even slightly pleased.
‘Why are you lot so down in the dumps?’ asked Surt, closing the door.
‘What’s there to be happy about?’ Bragi blurted out straight away. ‘Things have been going pear-shaped every few minutes since this morning. No offence,’ he added, glancing quickly at Einar. ‘First those idiots attacked Einar, then it turned out that some imperial soldiers had gone missing, and there could be a brawl in the harbour the moment anyone so much as gives another a dirty look! Father wants me to make sure things stay calm. The last thing we need now is for someone to attack us.’
