and thought I remembered the dance at least, but I felt sure my technique was rusty, not to mention my speed. My knee injury would prevent me executing the necessary footwork for some moves.
After a long time staring into darkness from my bed, I must have caught a bare hour or so of sleep before waking up to the same impenetrable gloom and mincing gingerly across the floor to light a candle by touch alone. I dropped the box of matches and gave them a good cursing. Once I finally got some light going, I practiced again until dawn. A light breakfast of fish and rice and then a limping march to the armory for me, determined to make a decent second impression since the first had been so awful.
I nodded at Mynstad du Möcher when I arrived, keeping my mouth closed. She waited for me to say something, and when I failed to say or do anything damning, she returned the nod.
“Welcome, Master du Alöbar. Please follow me to the courtyard in back.”
I remembered the courtyard from my early days of service. On the other side of it was the training barracks for new recruits, which meant it was nearly always hosting exercises of one kind or another during daylight hours, and one could count on always having an audience of judging eyes.
“Did you ever serve in the military?” the Mynstad asked once we emerged into sunlight on cobbled stones.
“I did. Under Pelenaut Hönig.”
“I see. Did you earn that limp in his service?”
I winced. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that. But yes.”
She faced me and for the first time looked interested in my existence. “Mind telling me how if it’s not painful to recall?”
“Not at all. Time has weathered away the sharp edge of the pain. I was stationed in Grynek, manning the wall during a night watch. There was a trading wagon approaching the gate on the eastern side—carpet merchants. A pretty safe trade: nobody gets really excited about robbing them because they’re bloody awkward to haul around without the wagon and bandits don’t like wagons; carpets just aren’t products you can turn into easy money.”
She gestured with her hand to indicate that I should speed forward. I was babbling.
“Right. Well, it was a family, you see. Young children with adults. But they were happy at seeing the lights on the walls and were singing quite loudly about the good times they’d have in town. It drew the attention of a hungry gravemaw on the other side of the river.”
“No,” the Mynstad said, already horrified.
I nodded. “It crossed the river, mostly in a single massive leap across the deep channel, and then it walked out the rest of the way. I called for help, and everyone within hearing rushed down and out the gate to defend the family, pikes in hand. We shouted at them to run, leave the wagon behind, but the distance was too great and the gravemaw too fast. Bryn save me, the teeth—it was…well. It ate them. The kids first. The parents followed. And that’s when we got there with our pikes—only five of us.”
“It had to be hard to see.”
“Yes, but it was a full moon that night and cloudless. Torches from the wagon might have helped. The gravemaw was thinking about maybe eating one of the horses and was not truly worried about us. It was attracted to their fear and their neighing while we were simply running toward it. But it was taking its time, snaking that massive tongue across them, tasting them, I suppose. The huge mouth was open, in other words. I was first, and I had a shot at a killing blow—right through the upper palate and into the brain, past all that natural armor, and it wouldn’t be hunting along our riverbanks again. I was focused, I was ready, I envisioned what I wanted, and none of it mattered because one of the horses knocked me over in its fear just as I was about to strike. I tumbled, rolled with the hit, ready to regain my feet and try again, except that the gravemaw had spotted me, a nice delicious human, easier to eat in one go than a horse, and its tongue whipped out and wrapped around my right leg at the knee. It yanked me into the air that way, above its head, where I could fall into its mouth, and I felt the tissues around my knee tear right then. They never