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Bayern closed his mouth at Ketal’s question and let silence pool between them. Several long minutes passed while he stared at the table and steadied his breath. When he finally spoke, his voice held the slight tremor of a man who had set a memory aside for years and had now picked it up with bare hands.
“Give me a moment to put my thoughts in order,” Bayern said. “I would appreciate a little time to settle myself. Let us speak of something else for a moment.”
“If that is what you want, then we can do that,” Ketal replied.
“Thank you. We can talk about the duel we just had. Why did you choose to lose to me on purpose?”
At the very end, Ketal had loosened his grip on the axe. He had let the recoil carry him back and had framed the scene so that it looked as though he had been driven off.
“Why did you do that?” Bayern asked him again.
“I did it because I have no intention of becoming the new king,” Ketal said in a level tone.
He had discarded that burden once already and had left it where it fell. He had no desire to bend his back under it again.
Bayern frowned as if the answer did not line up with the shape of the day. “Then why fight me at all?”
“Because the mood in my column had already fixed itself to that end,” Ketal said. “After they saw what I could do, the barbarians convinced themselves I was going to challenge you....
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