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She was pressed—jammed, really—into a corner forh on one side So into her calf on the other There were four of theround The first part of an earthquake was just fading, and the rest about to roll over the the harbor walls

Sweat poured down her cheeks and back Half turning, she thrust her hands pal to the power inside her, she sent herher way, ser ones behind Their force heated dirt and stones, spreading everywhere Her bones felt like huge rocks, pressed together so hard that soside one another with a crash, forcing buildings and streets and whole cities into new shapes

And the heat, the earth’s heat was cooking her and the friends whose bodies pressed against hers The hot waves roared through the ground, gaining strength as they traveled When they hit, she could choose between being roasted or crushed: the earth around her small holloould clench like a fist—

Trisana Chandler lunged out of bed, throwing off the thin sheet that had been her only covering, juasped in the open night air She was aboveground, in her attic roo Circle Teone, and she and her friends had lived to talk about it

But the heat! No wonder she dreamed of it still, with the air dead around her Every door andin the attic was open, but not a breath of air stirred under the thatch It was scarcely cooler outside

Voices reached her ears on the tiny puffs of air that did touch her Once she’d thought the voicescrazy Now she knew they were only pieces of real conversations that took place somewhere, carried to her by the wind It still h they spoke s

“Aymery Glassfire, I am impressed” The prissy and dry-voiced speaker was a man unknown to Tris The name “Aymery” pricked her—she had a cousin Aymery, but his name was Chandler, not Glassfire, and he was hundreds of e Aymery was a coive you praise indeed I could no more refuse to allow you the use of our library than I could fly”

Tris shook her head, trying to get that voice out of her ears To be hot and bored was just plain too much!

The si it close “Novice Jaen, how could you allow our stores of bandages to fall so low?”

“But—Dedicate Willoater—I didn’t knoas to check the other storage rooes were needed after the earthquake—”

“Oh, don’t cry, girl We’ll have to contrive so, quickly”

“The foretellers don’t expect more trouble, do they?”

“When we’re out of bandages, who needs to read the future to know more trouble will come?”

Tris growled Magic was supposed to be grand and powerful, not a question of the contents of linen closets! Sticking her fingers in her ears, she rubbed fiercely When she stopped, the voices were gone and she was hotter than ever

Somewhere in the hazy, dark blur in front of her weak eyes was the twenty-foot-high wall that enclosed Winding Circle Froht catch a real breeze

Tris stripped off her nightgown and yanked her lightest cotton dress over her head Once it was on, without regard for her dress or the floor, she grabbed her water pitcher and dumped its contents on her head For a few blessed moments she was cooler

Groping under her bed, she found her leather slippers and ja red curls, she tied a scarf around her head, so at least her hair would be off her neck Last of all, she groped on her dresser top for her brass-ri nose, she headed for the door and yelped with surprise One of her house on the frairl was alht on top of her

“It’s the strangest thing,” the newcomer commented softly “You’re bat-blind without those spectacles, but you knohere everything is, so you don’t even need a candle to get dressed”

“You could have rumbled Tris

Her house to decide to joke with you andwhile you sleep Then where will you be?”

“Better ask where he’ll be if I catch hi it to him, either Why are you still up?”

Daja Kisubo raised her hands and stretched her solid body as high as she could If she stood tiptoe, her fingers aler than Tris by alth taller than the redhead’s four feet and seven inches “He doesn’t needvoice dry “He’s got too et dressed?”

“It’ll be cooler on top of the wall Maybe Lark will let o there for a while”

“How do you knoill be cooler?” Daja inquired

“Am I the weather-witch around here or not?” Tris demanded irritably, hands on hips “I know”

“Wait, then” Daja turned and entered her own room, just across the attic

Tris gruainst her open door Daja’s rooht of a sort froed to breeches and a shirt and shook out her various short braids Slipping her feet into sandals, she blew out the altar light, then followed Tris downstairs

It wasn’t all that late One of the wo a letter She wore only an undyed cotton shift as she worked—her Earth-Tereen summer habit was tossed carelessly over the table Like Daja, she was dark-eyed and dark-skinned, though her skin was a lighter shade of brown She wore her glossy curls cropped short; they fanned out to frame an almost catlike face with broad cheekbones and a pointed chin As late as it was, as hot as she was, she still gave the two girls a smile, which they returned Even Tris, with her moods and her temper, liked Dedicate Lark

“Just for an hour,” Lark told the in a habit pocket She produced a round iron token that showed the bearer was outdoors with permission and handed it to Tris “If it’s still this hot when you come back, we’ll set up pallets for you on this floor”

Soot up, st

artling Daja It was a boy, dressed only in light breeches His skin was even olden brown than Lark’s, his alreen He wore his black hair coarse-cropped no more than an inch or so froht, his htly down-turned at the corners “Lark—” he began

“Yes, Briar, you may,” Lark replied, tired but amused “Put some shoes on”

Gru, the boy entered his room

A head with sun-streaked brown hair dressed in two braids poked out of the rooht, cornflower blue peered at the, all ivory curls, elbows, and tail scra frantically and whining

“Sandry, we’re going up on the wall to cool off,” Daja said “You want to come?”

The light brown head nodded; its owner vanished inside her roo a blouse, skirt, and slippers, pinning up her braids under a scarf

By the ti as he tried to yank a sandal over one foot The other was already shod “You girls better not take forever to get ready—” he began, then realized that they aiting for hi “You better not keep , Little Bear”

Sandry, laughing, shoved the boy out the front door ahead of her The pup yelped and followed theht up the rear

The last one out the door, Tris stopped and looked back “Lark?”

“Yes, dear?”

“W-would you like to come? With us, I mean?” A part of Tris was diso, she never could have made such an offer to anyone, particularly not an adult

Two e Now she had days when she wasn’t sure who she was, but she knew that she liked the change

Lark sht services Some other time, perhaps?”

Blushing hotly at her lapse into affection, Tris nodded, and ran to catch up with her housemates

Panting as they reached the top of the wall, each found an open stone notch to sit in Instantly they realized that Tris had been right; it was cooler up here, and they had a fine view of the cove below Winding Circle’s south gate Their dog flopped onto the ay behind theh

“How ht her breath

“It’s just the second week of Mead,” replied Sandry Yanking off her scarf, she undid the ties at the ends of her braids and coers “Two more weeks after this in Mead, then all of Wort Moon”

“Maybe even most of Barley, too,” Briar chipped in “Rosethorn says all the o summer, and a short autumn” His teacher, Rosethorn, was the other woman atched over Discipline

“What are you doing up here?” A pair of guards trotted down the ay from one of the towers that punctuated the wall Dressed in the red habits of those dedicated to serve the gods of fire, they carried long staffs capped with broad, two-foot-long blades as weapons

The friends got to their feet andthe stone with his tail Digging in her pocket, Tris found the iron token and passed it to Sandry Things went better when their noble did the talking for the four

“We have peruards One side of it was e; the other showed an engraved bird and a thorny branch for Lark and Rosethorn

“But this should be only for one child,” argued the woman “There’s—”

The man was far taller than his partner The four watched, ah he kept his voice soft, they still heard hies They often run together”

Briar puffed out his chest He liked being called a e, as if he were a man