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In the city of Chammur, on the eastern border of Sotat:

For centuries it had been called "fabled Chahty Chammur" For twelve hundred years the city on as now the easternmost border of Sotat had straddled the trade routes frouarded on the west by the Qarwan River In the north and east were riddled mazes of the flame-colored stone that provided the oldest part of the city with a sanctuary from bandits and warlords alike

For Dedicate Rosethorn of Winding Circle temple in Emelan and her fourteen-year-old student Briar Moss, Cha Briar had only ever heard the nah, had been fascinated since she’d first read of it, and she was able to tell hie came from books: this trip with Briar was her first chance to actually see the place that she had studied for so inal town, Rosethorn said, had been built first on, then in, the spur of stone called Heartbeat Heights Then it spread to the cliffs on either side The shepherds, goatherds, and inally settled the area had kept to the rocky mazes that stretched out for miles It was easy to hide from any force that tried to prey on thehts and canyons

As trade prospered between east and west, the value of Chammur’s site and its nearness to the river drew e of the security of the stone apartreded, the wealthiest and round between the heights and the river, where they could surround theardens They also promoted themselves to the nobility: the cousins of the present aed to Sotat on anyin Hajra in the west, the truth was that the Cha but name, and had been so for centuries

Rosethorn and Briar’s journey was a kind of working study program for Briar No reen es, skilled with plants and medicines Chammur was no different Within days of their arrival, before they had cootten so ical aid that Rosethorn knew they had to stay for a while She uest quarters and into a house next door on the Street of Hares Once settled, she began to ith Chammur’s farmers, Briar with the local Water temple and its stores of medicines and herbs

Six weeks after their arrival, Briar at least had finished his work The Water teredients that would hold them for a year, two if they were careful After weeks of intense ical labor, Briar decided he owed hiiant, enclosed arcades that held the souks, or markets, of Golden House and the Grand Bazaar with his hands in his pockets, whistling He looked like y trousers olden brown skin was vivid against the cream-colored linen He wore no turban or hat as the Chammuri men and boys did, but left his black, coarse-cut hair uncovered His thin-bladed nose ray-green eyes could have co led here every bit as freely as they did in Briar’s former homes of Hajra and Summersea

His destination was Golden House He’d been in and out of the Grand Bazaar for weeks, buying oils, dried is and jars, all for his work at the Water teiven hi and lesser specialty e for a day and a booth from which to sell his miniature trees that he learned of Golden House That was the place for him, the men who sold booth spaces had explained In Golden House buyers found ical supplies, precious metals, rare woods like ebony and sandalwood, jewelry, and precious and semiprecious stones Briar’s miniature trees, which were not only works of art but were also shaped to draw particular ed in Golden House

By the tiements for a stall there, he’d had to rush to be hoood look at Chammur’s wealthiest uards at the door, he smiled impishly at them They stirred, wary He knew he looked like a student, perhaps, or even a merchant’s son, in clothes that were very wellboots The guards had no real reason to bar hiht shout that he had the air of a thief

"Hands," one of them said when Briar would have strolled by

He held theuard who had spoken looked for jailhouse tattoos, and saw a riot of leafy vines that went frouard blinked, looked into Briar’s eyes, looked at his hands again, and nudged his partner The other man looked at Briar’s hands, blinked, ain

Briar was used to it At one time he had indeed had prison tattoos, a black ink X etched into the web of skin between the thuer of each hand In most countries, they marked two arrests and convictions for theft When Briar turned thirteen, he’d gotten tired of being turned away fro Rosethorn, he’d brewed soetable dyes and borrowed his friend Sandry’s best needles His plan had been to create a flowering vine tattoo to blot out the telltale Xs He had not realized that vegetable dyes, exposed to his green ht not stay under his control The final, colorful result blotted out the jailhouse tattoos as surely as if those crude black Xs had never existed The new designs also ardens that were far more conspicuous than his old tattoos