'I saw… In Sodden and in Transriver… Entire fields… They were lying there, being eaten by wolves and wild dogs. Birds were picking at them… I guess there were ghouls there too…'
'That's why you're learning about ghouls now, Ciri. When you know about something it stops being a nightmare. When you know how to fight something, it stops being so threatening. So how do you fight a ghoul, Ciri?'
'With a silver sword. The ghoul is sensitive to silver.'
'And to what else?'
'Bright light. And fire.'
'So you can fight it with light and fire?'
'You can, but it's dangerous. A witcher doesn't use light or fire because it makes it harder to see. Every light creates a shadow and shadows make it harder to get your bearings. One must always fight in darkness, by moon or starlight.'
'Quite right. You've remembered it well, clever girl. And now look here, at this engraving.'
' Eeeueeeuuueee-'
'Oh well, true enough, it is not a beautiful cu- creature. It's a
graveir. A graveir is a type of ghoul. It looks very much like a ghoul but is considerably larger. He can also be told apart, as you can see, by these three bony combs on his skull. The rest is the same as any other corpse- eater. Take note of the short, blunt claws, adapted for digging up graves, and churning the earth. Strong teeth for shattering bones and a long, narrow tongue used to lick the decaying marrow from them. Such stinking marrow is a delicacy for the graveir… What's the matter?'
'Nnnnothing.'
'You're completely pale. And green. You don't eat enough. Did you eat breakfast?'
'Yeeees. I diiiidddddd.'
'What was I… Aha. I almost forgot. Remember, because this is important. Graveirs, like ghouls and other monsters in this category, do not have their own ecological niche. They are relicts from the age of the interpenetration of spheres. Killing them does not upset the order and interconnections of nature which prevail in our present sphere. In this sphere these monsters are foreign and there is no place for them. Do you understand, Ciri?'
'I do, Uncle Vesemir. Geralt explained it to me. I know all that. An ecological niche is-'
'All right, that's fine. I know what it is. If Geralt has explained it to you, you don't have to recite it to me. Let us return to the graveir. Graveirs appear quite rarely, fortunately, because they're bloody dangerous sons-of-bitches. The smallest wound inflicted by a graveir will infect you with corpse venom. Which elixir is used to treat corpse venom poisoning, Ciri?'
''Golden Oriole'.'
'Correct. But it is better to avoid infection to begin with. That is why, when fighting a graveir, you must never get close to the bastard. You always fight from a distance and strike from a leap.'
'hmm… And where's it best to strike one?'
'We're just getting to that. Look…'
'()nce more, Ciri. We'll go through it slowly so that you can master each move. Now, I'm attacking you with tierce, taking the
position as if to thrust… Why are you retreating?'
'Because I know it's a feint! You can move into a wide sinistra or strike with upper quarte. And I'll retreat and parry with a counterfeint!'
'Is that so? And if I do this?'
'Auuu! It was supposed to be slow! What did I do wrong, Coen?'
'Nothing. I'm just taller and stronger than you are.'
'That's not fair!'
'There's no such thing as a fair fight. You have to make use of every advantage and every opportunity that you get. By retreating you gave me the opportunity to put more force into the strike. Instead of retreating you should have executed a half-pirouette to the left and tried to cut at me from below, with quarte dextra, under the chin, in the cheek or throat.'
'As if you'd let me! You'll do a reverse pirouette and get my neck from the left before I can parry! How am I meant to know what you're doing?'
'You have to know. And you do know.'
'Oh, sure!'
'Ciri, what we're doing is fighting. I'm your opponent. I want to and have to defeat you because my life is at stake. I'm taller and stronger than you so I'm going to watch for opportunities to strike in order to avoid or break your parry – as you've just seen. What do I need a pirouette for? I'm already in sinistra, see? What could be simpler than to strike with a seconde, under the arm, on the inside? If I slash your artery, you'll be dead in a couple of minutes. Defend yourself!'
'Haaaa!'
'Very good. A beautiful, quick parry. See how exercising your wrist has come in useful? And now pay attention – a lot of fencers make the mistake of executing a standing parry and freeze for a second, and that's just when you can catch them out, strike – like so!'
'Haa!'
'Beautiful! Now jump away, jump away immediately, pirouette! I could have a dagger in my left hand! Good! Very good! And now, Ciri? What am I going to do now?'
'How am I to know?'
'Watch my feet! How is my body weight distributed? What can I do from this position?'
'Anything!'
'So spin, spin, force me to open up! Defend yourself! Good! And again! Good! And again!'
'Owwww!'
'Not so good.'
'Uff… What did I do wrong?'
'Nothing. I'm just faster. Take your guards off. We'll sit for a moment, take a break. You must be tired, you've been running the Trail all morning.'
'I'm not tired. I'm hungry.'
'Bloody hell, so am I. And today's Lambert's turn and he can't cook anything other than noodles… If he could only cook those properly…'
'Coen?'
Aha?'
'I'm still not fast enough-'
'You're very fast.'
'Will I ever be as fast as you?'
'I doubt it.'
'Hmm… And are you-? Who's the best fencer in the world?'
'I've no idea.'
'You've never known one?'
'I've known many who believed themselves to be the best.'
'Oh! What were they? What were their names? What could they do?'
'Hold on, hold on, girl. I haven't got an answer to those questions. Is it all that important?'
'Of course it's important! I'd like to know who these fencers are. And where they are.'
'Where they are? I know that.'
'Ah! So where?'
'In cemeteries.'
'Pay attention, Ciri. We're going to attach a third pendulum now -you can manage two already. You use the
