‘You travelled by night.’
Alfric kept his face blank. This was no time to show impatience, but Alfric liked to do business in an efficient manner; and not for nothing was the king known as He Who Talks In Circles.
‘Night is a strange time to travel,’ continued King Dimple-Dumpling. ‘Particularly when night is Her chosen time.’
‘My duty bids me to rule the night,’ said Alfric. ‘I cannot permit Her forays to keep me from the dark. I am a Yudonic Knight.’
‘Who fears nothing,’ said the king.
When one hears dry irony from the lips of an ogre, it is hard to credit one’s ears. But Alfric, who knew ogres better than most of his kind, did not underestimate them.
On occasion, Alfric Danbrog, a banker by profession, found it hard to live up to his Yudonic heritage. Yet he was called upon to face not only ogres, dragons, assassins and She Who Walks by Night but – worst of all – more senior bankers.