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"And acades to Rosethorn She had no interest in that life, having never lived it, and she worried when he ventured too close to his old ways "They do spells with rocks?"

Rosethorn tapped her slate with her chalk "Like the spells I taught you for use with jade and malachite Stones are the best objects to hold and store power Are you wondering about soic over a stone, or use what’s in the stone?"

Briar shrugged and wrestled his boots off Once he’d peeled away both footgear and stockings, he told her about the girl Evvy and what he’d seen

Rosethorn put her slate aside "You’d better hope there is an ae in Chammur," she remarked when he was done "I know one lives in the amir’s palace Well, they’d have to have at least one, wouldn’t they?"

Briar frowned "I don’t understand"

"Over half the city lives in those cliffs" Rosethorn waved a hand toward the orange stone heights of Oldtown "Most of their walls are on stone as well asinto stone If you don’t keep a stone e around to tell you when a stack of apart for trouble"

Briar sat cross-legged, griht muscles stretched "But howcoe here? It’s no skin off my neb"

"Why, not howcome, and off my nose," she corrected absently "We never explained the rules to you four, did we? About newto sound too hed "If there is no ic is on the sae -- that’s your friend Evvy --"

"I don’t even know her," objected Briar

Rosethorn continued, ignoring hie of her craft available to instruct her, then it is the obligation of the e who discovers her to teach her the basics The sooner the better If her ic hasn’t broken away from her before, just the fact that you saw itoutside whatever unconscious control she’s had until now Sooner or later it will really break out If she’s a stone , right here"

"I’h to marry, let alone teach!"

Rosethorn shook her head "Doesn’t e and you found her If there isn’t a local who understands her ic, and some of the most basic spells Academics, too She’ll need to learn different kinds of rocks and their , mathematics --"

"Not fro to walk on a leash, remember? You need soain You either teach her or hand her over to another stone e" Rosethorn reached over and held Briar’s wrist "Trustan untaught onna work those penalties ontheir supper to do it They’ll be working a while"

Rosethorn let hi Circle’s Initiate Council or the Magecouncil of the University at Lightsbridge They set and enforce the laws for es from the Endless Ocean in the west to the Heaven Mountains in Yanjing"

"Then I’ll go They can come find me," Briar snapped "I ain’t their errand boy"

"The nearest member of both of those councils is me"

Horrified, Briar met Rosethorn’s eyes The affection she always had for hiled with iron purpose He didn’t ask if she were exaggerating to make a point He knew her She would land on him with both feet if he didn’t listen And she could Four people in the world had the ability to make him sorry he had crossed them She was at the top of that short list -- his foster-sisters were the others, and they were inside his ether Rosethorn didn’t have to be He’d known for three years that she hat their world called a greatthat, he’d felt the breadth and depth of her power He also knew there were times he could tease her, and ti that he understood her very well, Rosethorn picked up her slate again "You’d better track down the ae," she said mildly "Sooner, rather than later When do we eat?"

Briar sighed and padded downstairs to start supper Afterward, while Rosethorn cleaned up, he’d go over to the Earth temple One of their dedicates would know if there were stone es who lived closer to the Street of Hares than the one in the airl Evvy She was a wary street rat, just as he’d been She’d go back to Nahim Zineer’s -- she’d never walk away from the few coppers he paid

She’ll think since I saw her in the afternoon, I’ll come back in the afternoon, he reasoned as he set out food So she’ll go there in the et there before she does I’ll have to hide, or she’ll run off as soon as she sees me