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First straighten out the mess, Rosethorn’s voice said in his mind You won’t be able to find your ankles with both hands and a lamp otherwise

"Here’s hoe start," he called loudly All conversations stopped Even those ere ht, they are actually listening! He didn’t try to savor the moment, but rattled off instructions He’d already found with Evvy that if he didn’t give her tie to use with the Ca some to move the pallets into rows and others to clear away the s, crates, and barrels that littered the floor

"Why are the doors and s covered?" he asked one of the Caot tired of local kids peeking at us all the time"

"But it’s not that this is a secret place?" Briar wanted to know The Caut shook his head "Then uncover theht and air in here"

The Cas that covered the s and doors and secured theroup of three was sent with jars and handfuls of sand to fountains, where they had orders to scour the jars with sand, fill the them back The fire was built up and trash taken outside Even with the s uncovered, the den was still shadoo Cah torches and thrust the members cleaned up, Briar inspected each victim Those whose bruises and cuts didn’t look serious were ordered to clean up or sit on a bench against the wall Dealing with the less seriously hurt was easy for Briar -- growing up in the slums of Hajra, he’d learned about all kinds of injuries and wounds, including the ones that ht eventually kill someone In Suroups of the sick, treating the worst off first He found those now, and got to work

Briar could do little for the boy whose forehead was visibly dented, except make him comfortable Sometimes people recovered from such injuries; so as he tried to see the extent of his injuries The nearest torch burned poorly, du It was hard to tell if he was looking at a mammoth bruise or dirt on his patient’s shin His hands told him it was a bruise, but it would have been nice to see the difference

That gave hiirl crouched beside him, careful not to jar the contents of the basket she carried

"Put that down" She obeyed as Briar grubbed in his breeches pocket He found his worry stone, a sht he was about to say or do anything stupid Its coolness seeer from his veins whenever he re of the stone instead of the thing that upset hi tery now, and he could always come by another worry stone "See this?" He held it up

"Ooh" She reached for it with eager fingers "It’s happy"

Briar rolled his eyes Why did girls get honey-sweet over things that weren’t even alive? Sandry would coo like that over a spool of silk thread, Daja over a piece of orked brass Even Tris, as sensible for a skirt, turned silly over a bit of ball lightning, giving the thing a na as it lasted "I don’t care if it’s the Queen of the Solstice," he informed Evvy tartly "But look, it’s a clear stone, you’re a stone uide her to do her first planned ic spell "I bet if you really, really concentrated, just, oh, poured your whole ht up like a lamp A real lamp, one everybody can see"

"Oh, that," Evvy said scornfully "That’s not work" She gripped the crystal Suddenly light blazed through her fingers She opened her hand The stone gave off a bright, steady glow

Briar sed Of his foster-sisters, Daja and Tris had learned to make crystals into laic, Tris because lightning was part of hers They had done it once by accident, ht for Sandry After that it took each of theet the knack of it so they could do it as they needed No one he’d known could ht it would be possible, given Evvy’s et stones to hold light or fire, but it was one thing to think it possible and another to see the results of "Oh, that"

"Is it hot?" he asked

"Nope" Evvy put the stone beside the boy they were supposed to be treating

Re bruise shrank under his bruise ointment, but Briar could feel a bone chip that remained under the boy’s skin Cutbane, spread neatly over the splits in his left eyebrow and cheek, drove off infection and worked to close the wounds Next Briar put an uninjured Cath for splints As he straightened the aric before yesterday"

"I didn’t," Evvy said, watching hiave theht, if you never did ic before?" Briar asked as he splinted the broken forearm