A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,153

Mynstad had speed and agility far beyond mine, as well as youth and strength, and she employed it all, robbing me of breath with body blows and then knocking me down with a couple of fists to the face that rearranged my features but thankfully left all my teeth in my mouth. My head spun, my ears rang, and I wheezed in the dust, coughing up blood.

“How’s that?” she asked, standing over me, her taped knuckles bloody while mine were pristine. “Your ass been satisfactorily kicked?”

“Perfect,” I said, blood and drool spraying from my lips with each syllable. “You’re a good friend.”

She shook her head in disgust and muttered, “Men don’t make a damn bit of sense.”

I started to laugh but then stopped because it hurt. “No, thank you. I feel so much better now.”

“Whatever. I’ll fetch a hygienist.” Her boots crunched away in the dust, and I didn’t even try to move. Other boots moved closer, but the Mynstad barked at whoever it was and told them to keep away from me. And so I was given some time before the hygienist arrived to lie still in the sun and feel it all, and the tears flowed out of me along with the blood and the spit as I missed my wife and mourned her yet again.

The mourning of a loved one never ends at the funeral. It comes back every so often like a stage performer eager for a curtain call and expects you to be loud about it. I gave it all the lung capacity I had.

—

I truly did feel better after I’d gotten that out of my system and the military hygienist patched me up. “What did you do?” he whispered to me after first making sure the Mynstad wasn’t in earshot. “Did you ask her out to dinner?”

“What? No. She was doing me a favor.”

He blinked. “That’s a new one.”

“I’ve heard some new ones today myself. It’s that kind of morning.”

I thanked him and returned home briefly to get my writing materials and then met Fintan at a Fornish greenery. Every bit of food there was imported from the Canopy, from salad leaves to root vegetables to beers. It even boasted a Fornish staff, short smiling pale people in woven clothes, all claiming to be from the Golden Tiger Clan.

“Oh, no. The Nentians got you last night?” Fintan asked upon seeing my face.

“No, I’ve been soundly beaten for unrelated reasons. I’ll be fine.” I waved a hand, dismissing it. “Looks like you were kept safe.”

He nodded. “Slept well, in fact.”

“Good. Wanted to ask you something that’s been bothering me in going over the story so far.”

“What’s that?”

“How’d you get all that sewage on Melishev Lohmet? I mean, I know you met him and you were in or around the Tower of Kalaad in Hashan Khek, but I can’t believe he’d share all of that voluntarily.”

“You’re right; he didn’t volunteer it.” He grinned at me. “Someone in the palace is getting nervous, aren’t they?”

“The palace?”

“Yeah. Where your buddy Rölly lives.”

“Unless the pelenaut has personally invited you to call him that, I’ll thank you not to use his nickname.”

“I beg your pardon, then. But seriously, Dervan. You’re asking because the pelenaut’s worried I’m a spy.”

“No, I’m asking because I’m curious. I can’t be the only one who’s asked you.”

“That’s true. But let me assure you—and whoever you may wish to share this with—that I didn’t infiltrate the viceroy’s sanctum in Hashan Khek and sift through his sensitive documents. My opportunity came later, and in a week or so it will be part of the story and therefore part of the record. Can you wait for your answer until then?”

I shrugged. “Sure.” There was no use pressing him. My personal curiosity should be satisfied with that. To pursue it would mean it wasn’t my curiosity after all but Master Butternuts’.

Despite not losing any teeth, my jaw still hurt from the Mynstad’s fists, so I ordered soup and pudding for lunch as we got to work.

—

The bard’s hair blew in a breeze coming from the ocean, and he smiled as he strummed his harp. “Today is a good day, I think, for a windchime from Kauria!” he announced. “If you’re unfamiliar with them, they are three verses of three with the end words of each line rotated. This is an easy one to remember. Do alter the gender to suit yourself.”

My emotions are tossed like the ocean wind

For my love is foremost in my thoughts

And she is a rare