Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta Page B

body.
    "You fight well. Like the Yuts."
    "We lived in the grasslands for a year when I was fourteen."
    "And you needed to fight?"
    "They mocked my accent. And of course you can't have
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    hair my color and not learn how to fight in any kingdom."
    "Your mother had that hair. Would take my breath away every time I saw her."
    Finnikin was surprised to hear Trevanion speak of a memory so painful. He wondered about a man having lost not just one but two women in his life. Both having died giving birth to his children.
    "You'd be best to tie a kerchief around your head and keep your hair hidden. It draws attention."
    Finnikin's hair had not been cut for months and was beginning to snag and knot in wild tangles around his shoulders.
    Later, as they lay in the dark, he could feel his father's eyes on him and he wondered if he was just as much a stranger to his father as Trevanion was to him.
    "So are your new friends all in?" Trevanion asked dryly.
    "They seem to be. But I can't promise they won't snap our necks the moment they're free."
    "Tell them this. You will pick a fight with me to bring the guards as close as possible. If we are lucky, there will be five, like most days. Then I go for the guard with the keys, and at the same time you take on the second guard. The first few moments are crucial, so we need to be quick. Two swords, five seconds. The Yut at the end uses his hand chains--grabs hold of his guard's sword and makes himself useful. Do not trust the Charynite or the Sarnak with the keys or a sword. If worse comes to worst, use them as a shield."
    "The Charynite and the Sarnak? Human shields?"
    "They would do the same to us in the blink of an eye."
    "But you never use your own side as human shields."
    "This won't be a war, Finnikin," his father said coldly. "It will be an execution."
    ***
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    Sir Topher woke with a start. A muffled sound came from the corner of the loft. He listened for a moment, and when he was satisfied it was only Evanjalin tossing restlessly in her sleep, he closed his eyes with the same heaviness of heart he had felt these past four nights. Until he heard a scream, hoarse, as if the girl was fighting for air. He twisted out of his bedroll, and in the half dark he saw the thief from Sarnak astride the novice as she struggled under his weight. Stumbling toward them, he heard the sickening sound of a blow, but before a second could land, he had the thief by the neck and hurled him across the loft.
    "Sweet goddess," he muttered when he saw the girl's face.
    Clutching what was left of her shift, she gasped for breath as he placed a blanket around her shoulders. When he made an attempt to hold her, she crawled away, shuddering against the timber beams of their shelter.
    He heard a noise behind him and turned to where the thief was, on his feet, pulling up his trousers, a look of hatred in his eyes.
    "What are you?"
    "I just wanted a poke," the thief spat.
    Sir Topher pushed the thief hard, and the boy staggered again. It had been his decision to have the thief untied these past two nights, and for that he would not forgive himself.
    He grabbed the thief and tied him tightly with the ropes attached to the beams, catching a blow to his temple that almost sent him reeling. When he returned to the girl, he crouched at her feet and slowly reached over to lift her chin, startling her. She pressed herself farther into the wall, covering her head with shaking hands. He looked from one corner of the loft to the other. The thief was hurling abuse, spitting with fury and tugging madly at his ropes. Here was Lumatere's future, Sir Topher thought despairingly. Two wild animals with nothing but rage and hate.
    "Did he...He could not bring himself to say the words,
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    and after a moment she shook her head and looked up, her face stained with tears.
    "My shift is torn," she whispered. "I cannot wear it."
    Across her cheek was a purple bruise where the thief's fist had connected, and her lips were swollen and