Calen came down to the yard at first light, and the twenty-seven were already waiting by the wall.
Nobody had told them to stand there. They had come out of the dormitory in the dark and found the spot where the sun would reach them first.
Now they stood in a loose line with their hands at their sides. Nobody talked.
Every child in the yard knew the list. It had been read aloud in the hall the night before. The Board’s clerk had written one small word beside each of the twenty-seven names, and the word was not a name.
Counted.
Calen stopped by the trough and looked along the line. Three children stood apart near the kitchen door. Hetta, Joss and Anni, the three he had named in the Board’s file.
The rest wore the same grey smocks, with the same careful faces. They looked like children waiting for someone to tell them the rule.
He had given himself one week to learn their names.
