The gate count had come before the light, as it did every morning. The bread was late that morning, and nobody complained. Ear had stood in the gateway with the sheet in one hand and a lamp in the other, and he had read the seven names one at a time.
Every name had answered. Ear had written the number at the foot of the page and held it up for the guard on the wall to see.
“The count is seven,” he had said. He had not looked at the place by the post where Calen stood, and Calen had not expected him to.
Hoff gave the morning count to a different student each week. This week it belonged to Dorran, and he took it to the kitchen table before the bread.
He held the gate book in both hands. He did not sit down. He stood at the end of the table with his back to the wall and the book open at the day’s page.
“Sorry,” he said. “Dray, Hesper.”
Hesper looked up from her bowl. “Here?”
“Here,” said Dorran. “Sorry. Dunne, Ysra.”
