“First, I want to ensure you are indeed…competent…warriors.” He grinned a bit.

“Are you suggesting a spar?” First Tyr, now a dwarven king. “Everyone wants to see me fight lately.”

He laughed. “Yes, although not against me. I think my daughters might be a good test for you.”

“One each, or two on two?”

He paused. “Two on two, unless they disagree.”

“I can agree to that. What are the rules?”

“To yield or call. Try not to break each other two much.”

I grinned. “That’s fine by me.” Call, I assume, meant we’d have a referee.

“I’ll have a healer standing by.”

Somebody was going to end up needing one, I figured. “Weapons?”

“Whatever you prefer.”

I wondered if he’d end up selling tickets, as it were. And I suspected this was part a test to see if we could fight and part a way to see our style. “Alright.”

“I will arrange for food.”

A moment later, Loki came into the room, right after the dwarf king left. He had no handprints on him. “So…”

“He wants to see us fight.”

Loki nodded. “Standard dwarven sparring rules, I suppose.”

“Yield or call, he said.”

“That’s standard.”

“And a two on two with his daughters.”

Loki laughed. “You’re going to get your butt kicked.”

“I don’t mind that if we learn something.”

“Might be limited. Dwarves generally fight with axes or hammers. They’ll make swords for others, but don’t like them themselves. Quite a different style.”

I nodded. “Eh, maybe I’ll be in a position where an axe or a hammer is what I have available.”

“Point.”

But he was right…axe and hammer techniques wouldn’t translate well to sword fighting. “More importantly, I do need to be able to do better against hammers.”

You never knew what you might be up against, after all. Kanesha grinned. “I don’t even know where to start there.”

“Better,” Loki noted. “He might decide he won’t sell to you if you don’t show you have some skill.”

“And you will haggle.” I grinned at him.

“When I’m not selling tickets.”

I’d thought of the king selling tickets. I hadn’t thought of my dad doing it, but now he mentioned it…it was much more likely.

Tricksters.