They laughed.
Katarina watched it happen, and she got it. A teenage merchant girl in a fighting stance was probably the funniest thing these four had seen all week. She had nice clothes, soft hands, a soft house, and a reputation for never throwing a single punch in her life. So they laughed. To them, she'd just told a joke without meaning to.
"I guess she needs some convincing," the one in front said.
And so he walked up to punch her in the face.
He was slow about it, too. He wasn't really trying to hurt her, he was trying to scare her into folding. He cocked his arm back nice and wide, so she'd see it coming and panic.
Katarina did not flinch.
So she stepped in instead of away. She grabbed the arm, turned her hip, and threw him clean over her shoulder, just like Brynn had drilled into her ten thousand times in the yard. He hit the road on his back hard enough to knock the air out of him, and then he just lay there coughing.
The lane went quiet for half a breath.
