“ | A naming wound, you know. A wound you could get named after. They’d probably call you Brokejaw, or Bentface or Lackteeth or something. | ” |
So This is Pain is the twenty-eigth chapter in Before They Are Hanged.
Chapter Summary
Jezal dan Luthar has woken up, his entire body racked with pain. He tries to speak, but all that comes out are grunts and mumbles. Logen Ninefingers comes and hovers over him. He assures him it will get better in time; he knows, he’s been through it enough times himself.
Feeling helpless, Jezal thoughts drift. Will he become one of those crippled veterans of war that are shunned in Adua? Logen comes again, this time with water. Logen explains what happened. He and Ferro took care of most of Finnius’s crew, but three slipped behind them. Jezal dispatched two, rather neatly Logen admits, but the third crept behind him and bashed his head in with a mace. Jezal is lucky that Quai saved him, bashing the enemy’s head in with a pan. Logen comments that in The North this would be a Naming Wound, but soon realizes he’s probably not helping.
Later, the crew stops on the shore of a lake. Ferro examines Jezal’s wounds and redresses them without a modicum of sympathy. Bayaz watches on, awake after weeks of torpor, looking older than ever. He lectures the injured man that suffering gives you strength, and remarks how the scars actually suit him, giving him a rugged mystery.1
Jezal begins to realize that perhaps he hasn’t been such a good person. He has bullied his juniors, pandered to his seniors, and never thanked his friends. He vows to be a better man in the future.
Characters
Introduced | Appeared | Mentioned |
---|---|---|
Jezal dan Luthar | Finnius | |
Logen Ninefingers | ||
Ferro Maljinn | ||
Malacus Quai | ||
Bayaz |
Locations and Terms
The Old Empire | Adua | The North |
References
- It’s pretty obvious that Bayaz has plans for Jezal at this point, though not necessarily what they are.