44. A Bone in the Throat

Kinch dreams he is home at a crowded family meal, recalling small domestic details—his mother’s unruly curls, his father’s bluster, his sister Shavoen’s chatter, and the orphan Geals. A warning about the hen being “boned particular” turns ominous when a sharp tickle in Kinch’s throat becomes blood and pain.

The imagined chicken bone becomes a knife pushing out through Kinch’s neck. A mouth forms at the wound: the Assassin-Adept inside him, demanding to be freed and threatening to kill Kinch’s family if refused. When Kinch resists, she escalates, forcing him to choose between his family and “the witchlet,” then cuts him open from throat to navel, stepping out with brutal relish.

The agony jerks Kinch awake, sputtering what he first thinks is blood but realizes is bile from Yorbez’s pear liquor. Malk, annoyed, kicks him for disturbing the sleep. Kinch escapes the tent to the night air, steadies himself under the stars between Middlesea and Molrova, and regains composure after the terror of the dream and the assassin bound within him.

As the night wanes, Kinch notes the plan: at first light, they will mount their donkeys and ride hard west toward the “land of pretty lies,” continuing their perilous mission despite the internal threat that nearly tore him apart in his sleep.