Jezal blinked over at the apprentice. What did he have to do with anything? But Ninefingers was already answering his question.

'Came up and knocked him on the head with a pan. Well, I say knocked. Smashed his skull to mush, didn't you?' He grinned over at the apprentice, who sat staring out across the plain. 'He hits hard for a thin man, our boy, eh? Shame about that pan, though.'

Quai shrugged as though he stove a man's head in most mornings. Jezal supposed he should be thanking the sickly fool for saving his life, but he didn't feel so very saved. Instead he tried to form the sounds as clearly as he could without hurting himself, making little more than a whisper. 'Ow bad ith it?'

'I've had worse.' Small comfort indeed. 'You'll get through alright. You're young. Arm and leg'll mend quick.' Meaning, Jezal inferred, that his face would not. 'Always tough taking a wound, and never tougher than the first. I cried like a baby at every one of these,' and Ninefingers waved a hand at his battered face. 'Most everyone cries, and that's a fact. If it's any help.'

It was not. 'Ow bad?'

Ninefingers scratched at the thick stubble on the side of his face. 'Your jaw's broke, you lost some teeth, you got your mouth ripped, but we stitched you up pretty good.' Jezal swallowed, hardly able to think. His worst fears seemed to be confirmed. 'It's a hard wound you got there, and a nasty place to get it. In your mouth so you can't eat, can't drink, can't hardly talk without pain. Can't kiss either of course, though that shouldn't be a problem out here, eh?' The Northman grinned but Jezal was in no mood to join him. 'A bad wound, alright. A naming wound they'd call it, where I come from.'

'A wha?' muttered Jezal, immediately regretting it as pain licked at his jaw.

'A naming wound, you know,' and Ninefingers waggled the stump of his finger. 'A wound you could get named after. They'd probably call you Brokejaw, or Bentface or Lackteeth or something.' He smiled again, but Jezal had left his sense of humour on the hill among the stones, along with his broken teeth. He could feel tears stinging at his eyes. He wanted to cry, but that made his mouth stretch, the stitches tug at his bloated lips under the bandages.