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I kept my silence

"Nice ear notch," he said "I hed aloud I hated him then with a hate that boiled my blood He knew it, and didn’t care He hunkered down as if I were no threat to him at all He scratched his shoulder, and then reached inside his loose robe He pulled out a packet and opened it, and shook out a stick My nose toldit up for rowled loudly at the smell of it He stuffed it into his ry, soldier’s boy?" He waved the packet of jerky at me

"Give me meat," I deretted them I was powerless to force him to obey ht of the food, and I sed it alh ht hi and defeated, I decided I began tomy pathetic weapon at the ready He ain I saw that gentling of his muscles as he relaxed into his body and readied it for ht I kept one eye on his swanneck as I moved toward him

I ithin ten feet of hiht I had not seen hileamed in his hand "You want the meat? Come and take it, soldier’s boy," he taunted me

I do not knohich of us was ed at him with my stick I tried to sweep his feet fro cracked off when it connected with his shin He roared, er than in pain, and a swipe of his swanneck chopped what remained of my stick into two useless pieces

I threw the two pieces of stick at his head,feebly that I could get inside the sweep of his swanneck and do sorip on his blade and rammed the short haft of it directly into my belly The force of the blow lifted me off my feet and threwthe packed earth hard enough to blast light into s Pain radiated froasped for air and black spots swae of htened to be hus He walked a few steps away frohtened his robes, and sheathed his swanneck All that he did with his back toof that; I was too feeble an enemy to be considered a threat When he turned back toward hed, as if we had shared some joke, and then pulled out a strip of the s to rise He tossed the jerky at me, and it landed in the dirt beside me "You learned the lesson Eat, soldier’s boy To for you"

It was severalthat had happened to me before had ever hurt as bad as this Coeant Duril’s rocks were a mother’s kisses I knew there would be blood in e insideunconcernedly about my pond He picked up a broken piece frohtfully, perhaps to disperse the gore frogs

I had never felt more defeated and humiliated in my life I hated him passionately and hated my own ineffectualness evenit desperately and sha food from my eneeant Duril telling erous situation, a th up and hisexcuses for my weakness I still feared a trick I sniffed the jerky, wondering if I’d be able to ser and I felt dizzy I heard Dewara chuckle Then he called across to me, "Better eat, soldier’s boy Or did you learn the lesson too strong?"

"I learned nothing froh to rip a bite free I had to chew it soft and then tear it off I sed it in half-chewed bites that scraped down the inside of aze froardof his teeth, and a moment later I heard the thuds of his mount’s hooves Dedem appeared at the lip of the hollow, and caan sucking noisily