A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,39

the table and toppled onto it, beyond the reach of his long arms. I made an undignified noise and eventually landed on the floor, where additional noises and my continued flirtation with a broken hip brought the guards to the cell with spears pointed toward the prisoner. “It’s all right, I’m fine, just help me up,” I said. “The chamberlain wasn’t kidding. He really wants that book back.”

One of the guards hooked a hand under my arm and hoisted me to my feet. I thanked him and seated myself at the table a safe distance from the bars. I straightened the paper and righted the ink pot that had tumbled on its side during my fall—luckily the cork had been in place. Placing the book in plain view on the table but well out of his reach, I smiled at Saviič to reassure him that I was not annoyed and pointed at the title. “Zanata Sedam. What is zanata?” I circled the word with my finger and then pointed at it, repeating my question so that Saviič would know I wanted to know that word. I saw that he was paying more attention to the guards than to me, so I asked them to retreat while I spoke with him.

“I won’t be falling down again,” I told them. “Thank you.”

With the menace of the spears removed, Saviič focused his gaze on the book and on my question. He sniffed and rubbed at his bare chin, refolding his arms and thinking about the problem for a few seconds before answering. Then a half smile formed on his face as he met my eyes. He held up a finger. “Zanata jed: Vatra.” Fire.

A second finger appeared. “Zanata duv: Vjetar.” Wind.

The third finger went up, and he said, “Zanata tri: Tilo.” That was the earth. He was naming the elements, so zanata must mean “elements.” As expected, for the fourth finger he said, “Zanata čet: Water,” that was water. But if the title was Zanata Sedam and he had named the four elements we all knew, what were the other three?

With all five fingers extended he continued: “Zanata pet: Bilje.”

“Bilje?” I repeated, frowning.

He nodded. “Deh. Bilje.” That couldn’t be right. Bilje was a catchall term for plants, and they weren’t an element. Unless he wasn’t referring to elements after all. Still with a half grin on his face, he raised a finger on his other hand and said, “Zanata šest: Zivotinje.” Animals.

“Reinei give me breath,” I said. “Are you talking about kennings?” Of course he didn’t understand my Kaurian. He shook his head and continued, holding up seven fingers.

“Zanata sedam: Vječnast.”

I didn’t recognize that word. But I couldn’t give up now.

Uncorking the ink pot and snatching up the quill, I quickly scribbled out childish illustrations of fire, water, earth, and wind and then wrote the old words next to them and showed them to Saviič, confirming what each one was supposed to be. “Deh, deh,” he said, nodding each time. I drew a flower for a plant and then pointed at the osprey for the animal, and he confirmed those as well. I then wrote the word vječnos and rose from the table, coming around to hand him paper, quill, and ink pot, asking him to draw what that word meant. With all the examples he already had and a large blank space to fill in, he knew precisely what I wanted. But he waved me off and spewed a river of words at me, only a few of which I might have recognized but couldn’t place into any meaningful context. His body language proved to be much better. He tapped his skull and shrugged, communicating that he knew of no way to draw the meaning of the word. It must be an abstract concept rather than a common noun.

That was all right. I knew the title of the book and already suspected that it would give the fops in the Calm plenty to talk about. Reinei blow me down, it would give the whole world plenty to talk about! Returning to the chair side of the table, I sat and penned a quick message to the mistral’s chamberlain: “Reinei’s wind has brought us something remarkable indeed. I know not yet whether it is for good or ill, but the title of the book is Seven Kennings. Not six—seven! Same order as we count them. Sixth is for animals. Seventh is unknown as yet.”

I didn’t quite know what to add after that. Several