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Kid’s got pluck, Briar thought, re any kind of shoe at first Not one complaint out of her, and I bet they rubbed her feet

He went up to the roof "She left," Rosethorn said absently as she tri the jasmine to make sure she’d cut all she needed to, the wootten"

When she didn’t continue, Briar nudged, "Forgotten what?"

"Hm?" Rosethorn asked, startled out of her reverie "Oh, I’d forgotten what stone in to describe them I should have warned you"

Briar sht," he told her "I found out myself already"

Rosethorn snorted "I suppose you did"

Evvy trotted along the rooftop roads, bound for hoeness of it all It had been such a treat to sit in hot water at the haolden peach color, feeling her hair really clean If she had just used coone home after that … But she’d had to see what the jade-eyed --

Briar, whispered a part of herself He has a na else is silly

Of course she knew people with nae of ho gangs cah But names seemed more important with -- Briar, and Rosethorn As if the words could change her life

I don’t want ht rebelliously as she crossed a bridge over the Street of Wrens For a eway that led to the Caut den She would have liked to kno they did, if they had gone ahead and joined the Vipers She had the feeling that Pahan Briar had disliked their choice, but she applauded their common sense You didn’t survive in Chammur’s slue that a plant wizard wouldn’t know that But that was plants, tricky, rock-cracking parasites that would break apart any stone they got their roots into They never see as you were alive, fresh chances to fight would couts or Vipers, Evvy hts rising ahead, lit a flaht of those towering stone reefs calmed her,fro walls and ceilings in warrens that had been inhabited for a thousand years Inside those rock halls and corridors Evvy was safe

But now she knehy she’d always been safe, and the knowing shook her She really had ic, and could learn how to make stone like her even more That couldn’t be bad Stone, unlike people, was constant It was everywhere, in all its varieties Who knehat she ic?

The only problem was that to learn more about stone, she would have to deal with more people on a steady basis than she had in years Pahan Briar see to teach her A stranger, one who lived in the palace, would teach her Evvy wasn’t sure that she liked that What if a real stone e scorned her for what she didn’t know? Pahan Briar just told her what to do, and if she didn’t kno, he showed her He assumed she would keep up And hadn’t she done just that all day? Even when keeping up hadstones, new clothes, and food She wasn’t sure that she liked the sandals, which had blistered the tops of her feet, but the clean cloth had felt so good against her skin, and the food in her belly felt even better

She pulled her rolled-up headcloth from the front of her tunic, and checked its contents -- an entire , and halves of others She hadn’t been able to finish all the food he’d bought With the salt fish and the leftovers froht

Would this stranger e feed her as Pahan Briar did? Pahan Briar had been a thukdak He understood about ry and eating scraps until a whole duh the Market of the Lost Her thoughts absorbed her soher, keeping well back in case she chanced to turn and look around

7

Briar gathered his horse’s reins "You’ll be careful how you talk to her, if she coet back?" he asked Rosethorn, worried "You know you scare people"

"I won’t scare her," Rosethorn told him "I’ll be as kind as her own mother"

"Don’t do that," Briar said "Her mother sold her" He clucked to the horse and set it forward, up the Street of Hares Perhaps he shouldn’t worry if Evvy would arrive before he returned, but whether she would come at all If she didn’t, he would have to root her out of those stone tunnels, a chore he didn’t even want to think about He would just hope that she would coh the Market of the Lost Only a few stalls were open so early, but the signs of illegal business were everywhere Lookouts whistled alarlances and even oods, and the few customers included the well-to-do in addition to the poor He’d have loved to look around, but coood ht get ood if the whole neighborhood decided to pluck him