Hissune shivered. "Ugly beast. It didn't look half so repulsive in the training manual pictures."

"Did you kill it?"

"Probably. I wonder if we're supposed to kill the trackers. Maybe they need them for next year's tests."

"That's their problem," said Alsimir. "If they're going to send us out here to face those things, they shouldn't be annoyed if we kill one occasionally. Ah, by the Lady, this hurts!"

"Come. We'll finish the trek together."

"We aren't supposed to do that, Hissune."

"What of it? You think I'm going to leave you alone like this? Come on. Let them flunk us, if they like. I kill their malorn, I rescue a wounded man—all right, so I fail the test. But I'll be alive tomorrow. And so will you."

Hissune helped Alsimir to his feet and they moved slowly toward the distant green trees. He found himself trembling again, suddenly, in a delayed reaction. That ghastly creature floating over his head, the ring of red staring eyes, the clacking jaws, the soft exposed underbelly—it would be a long time before he forgot any of that.

As they walked onward, a measure of calmness returned.

He tried to imagine Lord Valentine contending with malorns and zeils and zytoons in this forlorn valley, or Elidath, or Divvis, or Mirigant. Surely they all had had to go through the same testing in their knight-initiate days, and perhaps it was this same malorn that had hissed and clacked its jaws at the young Valentine twenty years ago. It all felt faintly absurd to Hissune: what did escaping from monsters have to do with learning the arts of government? No doubt he would see the connection sooner or later, he thought.

Meanwhile he had Alsimir to worry about, and also the zeil, the weyhant, the min-mollitor, the zytoon. With any luck he'd only have to contend with one or two more of the trackers: it went against probability that he'd run into all seven during the trek. But it was still a dozen miles to Ertsud Grand, and the road ahead looked barren and harsh. So this was the jolly life on Castle Mount? Eight hours a day studying the decrees of every Coronal and Pontifex from Dvorn to Tyeveras, interrupted by little trips out into the scrub country to contend with malorns and zytoons? What about the feasting and the gaming? What about the merry jaunts through the parklands and forest preserves? He was beginning to think that people of the lowlands held an unduly romantic view of life among the highborn of the Mount.

Hissune glanced toward Alsimir. "How are you doing?"

"I feel pretty weak. But the swelling seems to be going down some."

"We'll wash the wound out when we reach those trees. There's bound to be water there."

"I'd have died if you hadn't come along just then, Hissune."

Hissune shrugged. "If I hadn't come, someone else would. It's the logical path across that valley."

After a moment Alsimir said, "I don't understand why they're making you take this training."