Ilse-Lorenz aul Janse-Lomberg, second son of the Earl of Lightreach and fourteenth in line to the throne, just stood there.

“I thought, when we met after all this time, when we’ve both changed, that perhaps it might be different. But perhaps you were right all along,” he managed, pulling something small and silver from his coat and placing on the table next to her.

Looking back, Hawkeye would notice in his mind’s eye the barest hint of hesitation before she moved. Call the sixth sense, intuition or just luck, but it saved him.

She was fast, opening with a sidelong cut that nearly finished it there and then. He backpedalled frantically, dodging the follow-up thrust that brought death close enough to touch. A moment later and he had his own knife out to parry a third attack and deflect a fourth.

Desperation caused him to throw a feinted attack and lunge to her flank, but she met him easily and then there was a second knife, almost gutting him with a sly counter-thrust.

I think I did it wrong.