Chapter 14: First Light

"Dress," Theron said. "Now. Say the rhyme."

Linnea was already pulling her shirt over her head.

"One for the river," she began.

"Under your breath. Think it, and nothing else."

"Two for the oar."

"Don't think about my hands."

"I'm not."

"You are."

She was.

She shut her eyes and said the rhyme again.

Each line pushed one image out of her head, until the room was empty and only the counting was left.

"Good," he said, and his voice had gone rough. "Stay in it. Whatever they say."

They walked down into the yard together, ten minutes before the bell.

They stood at the end of the recruits' line.

Edda was three places down, and her eyes widened at the state of Linnea's hair.

Linnea kept counting.

Five listeners came through the gate in grey cloaks, four men and one woman.

Every recruit in the yard straightened.

The listeners walked down the line a pace apart.

Each one stopped before each recruit for a long moment.

A boy at the far end broke into a stammer.

"It's only a small lie about the bread, lad," the nearest listener said, and moved on.

The woman at the head of them was past fifty, with iron-coloured hair and a plain grey glove on each hand.

She stopped in front of Edda.

"You lost someone to the river," she said quietly.

Edda's mouth shook. "My father."

"I'm sorry for it."

She stepped to the next recruit.

She stopped in front of Linnea.

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