A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,40

profanities and exclamations came to mind, and I almost wrote one of them down when I realized that this piece of paper might become part of history. I would not want to be remembered as the man who wrote “great lakes of longarm shit!” to the mistral’s chamberlain, so I confined myself to adding a few surplus exclamation points—and ended with “Learning more.”

Folding it and handing it to one of the guards to deliver immediately into the hands of Teela Parr, I then began to write down my recollection of these events while they were still fresh in my mind, for I sensed that a full accounting of my labors would be demanded sooner rather than later, and being thorough might allow other eyes to notice something of significance that I, in my haste, might have missed.

I sent the other guard to fetch a set of children’s primary language cards, the kind with pictures and words underneath them in large letters, and another ink pot and quill for the prisoner to use when he had need. I will learn the language of this strange, bony giant from across the sea, and maybe Kauria will be the first nation to secure access to the Seventh Kenning, whatever and wherever it was.

I looked up to check on Saviič and found him staring at me with curiosity. I smiled back at him. “This is good,” I said. “How do you say good, Saviič? Dobar?”

He wasn’t sure what I meant, so he tilted his head and ventured a guess. “Dobro?”

I grinned and nodded. “Dobro. Deh. This is dobro.” Maybe we could let him out of there once we could speak well enough to let him know we just wanted to talk and read his fascinating book.

He smiled back, and I almost wished he hadn’t. His teeth were rotten, and he laughed unpleasantly as he said, “To če biti dobro kad smo osvojiti svih sedam zanata.” I think I have that right; I asked him to repeat it so I could translate it later. Anything said with that much menace deserved a closer look.

—

When the bard dismissed the seeming of Gondel Vedd, there was quite a bit of noise but only distracted applause; everyone was eager to discuss, or rather shout about, the revelations of the tale—that the Bone Giants were not illiterate savages but religious zealots, and they knew of a Seventh Kenning. A Seventh Kenning. I think many people might have missed the last few paragraphs of that particular story because they couldn’t contain their surprise once they heard about it. Unlike Gondel Vedd, I will write down a couple of exclamations I heard on the wall because that’s history, too:

“Fuck me with a kraken cock! A Seventh Kenning!”

“I couldn’t shit harder if you fed me week-old shellfish!”

It’s hard to imagine what that kenning might be, however, since the Bone Giants displayed no magical talents in their invasion. Foremost in my mind was the question why we hadn’t learned of this captive earlier: the Kaurians had done us a disservice by keeping it to themselves. Fintan picked up on such sentiments, especially the angry epithets spewed by one reactionary mariner nearby who thought that the Kaurians had allowed us to be attacked and hadn’t behaved like allies at all, and addressed it.

“Some of you may be thinking right now, with the benefit of hindsight, that the Kaurians should have told us immediately of their discovery. But remember that they had no idea of what was to come. They had a single strange man in captivity and the same language barrier that we faced. Except that they had a way to solve it. We will check back with Gondel Vedd later to see what he learns, but you already know the most important bit: not only is there a Sixth Kenning, there’s a Seventh! Or at least the Bone Giants think there is. They didn’t use one when they attacked—they just had surprise and overwhelming numbers—but maybe they’re looking for it. Maybe the source of the Seventh Kenning is hidden somewhere on this continent, along with the Sixth, and that’s why they have come: they want it for themselves. It is food for thought, yes? We’ll continue tomorrow!”

Fintan and I parted for the evening, and I smiled on the way home, savoring the idea of a Kaurian fleet transporting our armies across the ocean to strike back. And since the bard had mentioned that Gondel would at some point join us—he’d no doubt go