While the other man advances, coming around the table, Kellyn picks up the chair he just vacated and crashes it onto the man’s head.

That gets the attention of the rest of the tavern. People turn in their seats to get a better look. Cheers go up as drunken men and women encourage the fighters.

Kellyn doesn’t touch his weapon as the other man starts slashing at him like mad. He dodges and punches. Then, in a swift move, he disarms the other man, grabs him by the back of his shirt, and rams his head into the table, rendering him unconscious.

As the crowd cheers, Kellyn reaches over to his enemy’s mug, raises it into the air in a salute to the room, and downs it in one go.

“Now,” Temra says.

“Now what?”

“Now is the time to talk to him.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere near him!”

“What choice do we have?”

None. We have none.

Resigning myself to my fate, I follow Temra toward the big brute. She’s careful to put herself directly in his line of sight.

“It’s Kellyn, isn’t it?” she asks, putting on a bright smile. She uses the tone I recognize as her “flirty voice.”

“It is,” he says, hailing down a serving girl for another glass of mead.

“I’m Temra,” she says, sitting in the chair right beside him.

I panic for a moment. Should I stay back as Temra’s shadow? No, I can’t let her do this alone. Steeling my courage, I take the seat vacated by Kellyn’s opponent, the one right across from him.

Kellyn’s eyes fix on me, and I try desperately not to squirm in my seat.

“Don’t I know you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I swear I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

My chin-length hair combined with Kellyn’s drunkenness is the only thing sparing me from utter mortification right now.

“This is Ziva,” my sister says.

“The magically gifted smithy!” Kellyn exclaims. “I came to this city to seek you out.” He laughs as though that were funny before taking a drink. “Can I order you both a round?”

I have to turn my head to the side to hide my disgust. He thinks we’re propositioning him!

“We’re sisters,” I hastily bite out.

“Even better,” he says.

Temra laughs like he just told a joke. “I’m afraid you have us all wrong. We’re interested in your fighting talents. Are you for hire?”

Kellyn takes a hefty swig from the new draft placed before him. “What’s the job?”

“We’re looking for safe passage to Thersa. We can pay a hundred ockles a day.”

“If she makes me a magicked longsword, I’ll take you anywhere you’d like to go in Ghadra.”

“That’s wonderful!” Temra says. “How soon can you be ready to go?”

Kellyn burps loudly into his cup, which only heightens the sound.

I find myself struggling to remember why I ever thought this man was attractive.

But then he turns those beautiful brown eyes on me. His lips raise into an openmouthed smile that makes my stomach do a flip. “As soon as I sober up!” He downs the rest of his cup’s contents, sloshing more over himself.