Captain Hoff nailed the notice to the Yard gate himself.
He did it with the flat of a hammer and three hard blows, the way he did everything. He did not look at the paper while he drove the nails.
He did not look at the men on the wall walk who had come down to watch. When he was done he stepped back, wiped his hands on his coat, and said to nobody in particular, “There. Let them read it in daylight.”
The notice was the same as the Board’s. Calen had read the Board’s copy twice at the gate the night before. This one was the public copy, with the Ministry’s seal at the top and a plain line of print at the bottom.
Re-sit of Dorran Ives, of Hask Keep. One bout, at dawn, Day 130, in the Keep yard. Opponent, Teodor Lens, Ministry guard. Pass line, fifty-five.
Dorran came across the yard from the water trough. He had seen Hoff at the gate from the other end of the flags, and he had walked the whole way without hurrying. He knew what the paper would say.
He stopped in front of the notice. He read it through. Then he read it again, and his lips moved on the numbers.
