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"What is your usual work, Thomas?" Kira asked "Mine's the robe, of course But what have they set you to do?"

"The Singer's staff It's very old, and his hands -- and the hands of other Singers in the past, I suppose -- have worn the carvings down so it must all be recarved It's difficult work But is of the staff to find his place, to ree place at the top that has never been carved Eventually I'll be doing that, carving it for the first tihed "Not my own, really They'll tell me what to put there

"Here" Shyly, Thoift He hadlid, its top and sides intricately carved in the pattern of the plants she was beginning to learn and to know She exanized the tall spikes of yarrow and its dense clustered blosso stems of coreopsis, above a carved base of that plant's mounded dark and feathery leaves

She knew instantly what she wanted to place in the exquisite box The small scrap of decorated cloth that she had carried in her pocket on the day of the trial and that co, was hidden away in one of the drawers that contained supplies She no longer carried it with her because she feared losing it during her long walks through the woods and her long days hard at ith the dyer

Noith Tho, she fetched the scrap and laid it in the box

"It's a lovely thing," he said, seeing the small cloth

Kira stroked it before she closed the lid "It speaks to me somehow," she told him "It seems almost to have life" She s and that he would not understand and could perhaps find her foolish

But Thomas nodded "Yes," he said to her surprise "I have a piece of wood that does the sao, when I was just a tyke

"And soe that I had then"

He turned to leave

That you had then? No e doesn't stay? Kira was dis to her friend

Though there was still so much information she needed to acquire fro tiin to work on the Singer's robe and she needed the daylight She was glad now of the tiled bathroom that had caused her such confusion at first The ater and soap helped to rid her hands of stains, and it was vital that her hands be clean when she touched the robe

She still had her small frame, the one that Matt had saved fro the supplies provided for her was a fine new fras so that it was not necessary to hold it in her lap She placed the frame by theso she could sit in a chair beside it while she worked

She spread out the robe on the large table to exain her work Now, for the first tier created his song The entire history of the people, cul story of the Ruin, was portrayed with immense complexity on the volureen sea, and in its depths fish of all kinds, soether Then the sea blended i areas of land populated only by the figures of ani on tall tan grasses All of this was only one s, she saw that out of the pale sea, near the grazing land, rose other land, and on this land appeared ures of hunters with spears and weaponry, and she saw that little knots of red (madder for red Just the roots) had been used to color blood on the figures of fallen ht of her father But this scene was long ago, long before her father, long before any of their people The lifeless men dotted with the red knots of blood were still an infinitesiotten now except for the once-a-year Song, the tier re at the robe, and shed and realized that she did not have time for such study There was important work to be done, and she had noticed Jaain he ca certain that she was attentive to her job and would bea place on one sleeve that badly needed repair, Kira moved that section of the robe into the fra the delicate cutting tools she had been given, Kira snipped away the frayed threads There was a small stain across an intricately threaded flower in shades of gold, part of a landscape that portrayed rows of tall sunflowers near a pale green streao -- someone skilled in the art -- hadlines that gave a sense of foaifted the earlier threader had been! But those stained threads would need to be replaced

The as painstakingly slow Her ical knowledge that Kira's had, would have been more experienced, old threads to theand exaht ones for the repair

When the late afternoon light began to dim, Kira stopped work She looked at the few inches in the fra what she had acco well Her mother would have been pleased Jamison would be pleased She hoped that when the tier would be satisfied as well

But her fingers ached Kira rubbed thehed This was not at all the sahout her childhood It was certainly not like the special one that had begun to move of its own volition in her hand beside her mother's deathbed, to twist and mix the threads in ways she had never learned, to form patterns she had never seen Her hands had never tired then

Thinking of that special scrap, Kira went to the carved box, unfolded the bit of cloth, and put it in her pocket It felt familiar and welcome there, as if a friend had co ht Kira covered the spread-out robe with a plain cloth to protect it Then she went along the corridor and knocked on Tho carver was also just finishing his work When he called "Co the blades of his tools and putting the staff lay across his worktable, held in a claun to eat their evening ht