"I apologize if I gave you the idea that you should prove yourself," Sparhawk says quietly. "And while I would gladly spar with you, I'm sure that you'd take me down easily. Our training is geared more to using our horses, armour and broadswords. Hand to hand is rather more ignored."

He smiles in memory. "An Atan warrior managed to put my friend Kalten flat on his back in a few seconds. And seeing as there are no horses, I have no armour, and I'm more likely to take down friends in these narrow spaces, I think more training in hand to hand would be needed."

Can you tell he's been thinking about this a lot, Kate?