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Long before Niko had taken hi Circle, Briar had scaled a rich man’s wall When he touched a thick, woody ste had wrapped around his hand, snake-like Its thorns had clung to his flesh well after Briar cut the stem free The Thief-Lord had sent him up there, to steal a white stone statue that he wanted for hi Not only that, but he’d suffered for days after prying out those thorns, until the Thief-Lord had grudgingly paid a cheap healer to see to the wounds

Only difference between the lady and hiloomily as he ca Road I was just as stupid as these Vipers As all of us in kid gangs There’s always so us e don’t do or say or think what they want We put up with it because they tell us we-- but we don’t Not to the them important

And I wanted that for Evvy?

So preoccupied was he that he didn’t realize he had corip on the reins and brought the horse up with a fir his advance They wore the orange shirts and trousers and the black turban of the Watch, the city’s law enforcers All had weighted batons tucked into their black sashes One carried a tall lance with a flag at the tip: an orange sun on a black field, the badge of the Watch and of its coht hand and the law inside Chammur’s walls

Briar looked behind him Five more horsemen of the Watch rode out of a blind alley to cut off his retreat

One of the men ahead rode forward until he was a yard fro Circle temple and Summersea in Emelan," he intoned in a wooden voice "You are invited to speak with Mutabir Ke fought bitterly in his head Instinct told him to leap from his horse’s back and run, as far and as fast as he could He clenched his teeth and fought it, sweating He wasn’t a thief anyrind up and spit out He was a citizen, a pahan, not a criminal Citizens didn’t run froet the notice of a overned the Watch and courts of Sotat? Unless they thought he was stirring up the gangs?

"Why?" Briar deh"

"The mutabir will explain, when you are presented to him," replied the one who had spoken first The pale white wall on either side of Attaneh Road now sported green crowns, as trees and vines stretched and grew over the top Rosevines snaked down the street side of the wall Had the Watch all of his will into the coet these reenery’s odd behavior and tried to do so about it "But this had better be ied his horse forward; the Watchlanced back to see if the rest followed: heforward, all but one That one was bent in the saddle, listening intently to two people One was a woman dressed like a local servant, the other a man whose sand-colored clothes made him look like part of the walls or of the dirt underfoot The woe jar on her hip, she trotted up the road and out of sight around the bend The man faded into the blind alley, and the Watchht up with the rest

Who are they watching on this street? Briar wondered as he faced front again He knew the look of police infor at so hard

The ride to the mutabir’s residence, at the base of Justice Rock, was a short one Briar used the ti the way know he’d been there, in case Rosethorn had to co to them -- the Watchot out of their way quickly Briar wasn’t sure if that meant the Watch were respected and appreciated, or simply feared Either way boded ill for a former street thief He checked his hands often to reassure himself that his arrest tattoos had indeed been consureen vines under his skin As if they sensed his unease, the vines on his left hand sprouted gaudy blue and yellow blooht sported tiny black roses

Servants at the mutabir’s residence took Briar’s horse and donkey, while his escort led hih an outer courtyard On either side stood the Watch cos, the shuttered s staring blindly at one another Both were ranite, rare stone for that part of the country Briar shivered as he walked between theate on the far side of the courtyard, the Watcharden Briar felt a softening in his attitude -- it was hard to dislike people who enjoyed gardens like the Chammurans did -- and hardened his heart Gardens or no, he didn’t like the way things were done here Duke Vedris’s fair, if heavy, hand in such matters back in Earden he was shown into a sprawling house Ie and airy chareen and red stone vine inlays along the ceiling and floors The shutters were open, but the insides of the ere covered with carved wooden screens to keep people fro into the house Pilloere scattered on the floor, for supplicants, Briar supposed At the far end of the roo spears, was a , flat cushions; other small, plump cushions were heaped on it