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I hate First Friday It h su anyone wants From my place in the shade it isn’t so bad but the stink of bodies, all sweating with the h to make milk curdle The air shimmers with heat and humidity and even the puddles fro with rainbow streaks of oil and grease

Theup their stalls for the day The merchants are distracted, careless, and it’s easy for me to take whatever I want froe with trinkets and I’ve got an apple for the road Not bad for a fewof people moves, I let myself be taken away by the hu touches Some paper bills fro too big Villagers are too busy shuffling along to notice a pickpocket in their e is nainal) rise all around us, ten feet above thethe lower bank is underwater, but right now it’s August, when dehydration and sun sickness stalk the village Almost everyone looks forward to First Friday, ork and school end early But notin a classrooer My eighteenth birthday is co, and with it, conscription I’ to be sent to the war like all the other idle ones It’s no wonder there’s no work left, ith everyto stay out of the arhteen, all three of theht Lakelanders Only Shade can write worth a lick, and he sends me letters when he can I haven’t heard from my other brothers, Bree and Trao years without hearing a thing, only to find their sons and daughters waiting on the front doorstep, hoed But usually you receive a letter ’s crown seal below a short thank-you for your child’s life Maybe you even get a few buttons from their torn, obliterated uniforms

I was thirteen when Bree left He kissed s for lass beads, the hazy pink color of sunset We pierced our ears ourselves that night Tramy and Shade kept up the tradition when they went Now Gisa and I have one ear each set with three tiny stones to re soo, not until the legionnaire in his polished armor showed up and took them away one after another And this fall, they’ll co--to buy Gisa soo

Don’t think about it That’s what Mom always says, about the ar Great advice, Mo of Mill and Marcher Roads, the crowd thickens andof kids, little thieves in training, flutters through the fray with sticky, searching fingers They’re too young to be good at it, and Security officers are quick to intervene Usually the kids would be sent to the stocks, or the jail at the outpost, but the officers want to see First Friday They settle for giving the ringleaders a few harsh knocks before letting theo Small mercies

The tiniest pressure at rab at the hand foolish enough to pickpocket ht so the little imp won’t be able to run away But instead of a scrawny kid, I findface

Kilorn Warren A fisherman’s apprentice, a war orphan, and probably my only real friend We used to beat each other up as children, but now that we’re older--and he’s a foot taller than me--I try to avoid scuffles He has his uses, I suppose Reaching high shelves, for exarip

"Or you’re getting slower"

He rolls his eyes and snatches the apple out ofa bite of the fruit

"She has a pass for the day Working"

"Then let’s get edy that would be"