Chapter 22: The Night Before

I did not answer her.

The healer set my leg that afternoon in the narrow house, with a splint of ash wood and a poultice that smelled of vinegar.

I slept for six hours.

When I woke, there was shouting in the yard.

I hopped to the window on my good leg.

Jorund and Caelan stood in the packed dirt behind the house, stripped to their trousers, circling each other.

Eira sat on the wall above them with a bag of dried apples.

"What are they doing?" I asked.

"Fighting about you," she said, through an apple.

"No.

"Well, yes.

"They're fighting about which of them gets to step aside."

"What?"

"Jorund said he would stand down, so you could bond Caelan.

"Caelan said he would stand down, so you could bond Jorund.

"They both said no, and then they both said it louder."

Below us, Caelan swung.

His fist caught Jorund on the cheekbone, and Jorund's head snapped round.

He swung back and caught Caelan under the ribs, and Caelan folded and came up grinning, bloody-lipped.

"You stubborn lump," Caelan said.

"You are the only man I know who could lose a fight by being too noble."

"I'm not losing," Jorund said.

"I'm not letting her choose a man who is only second best."

"You're not second best!"

"You are."

"You're an idiot!"

They went at each other again, with no skill and a great deal of heart.

It was the ugliest fight I had ever seen, and it was nearly the best.

After a minute, they both ran out of breath at the same time.

They stood bent over in the dirt, bleeding, wheezing, a pace apart.

"I can't do it," Caelan said.

"Do what?"

"Hold her and tell myself it's because he's out of the room."

"I want him in the room."

Jorund wiped his mouth.

"So do I," he said.

"I didn't know I could."

They looked at each other.

Then they both began to laugh, helplessly.

"Neither of us steps aside," Jorund said.

"Neither," said Caelan.

"I won't be the one to ask her to choose."

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