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He left the Vipers and Gate Lords as they were, trapped by his plants If they were not cut loose first, the plants would free theround until it found yards, courtyards, and other open spaces to grow

Briar followed his connection to Evvy into the afternoon light and up onto a roof Keeping to the upper road, he began to trot, laying his plans as he followed her captors

Only once did he change course, when he spotted a team of Watchmen in the street below He cliet their attention "I have a e for your mutabir," he called when they looked up "Tell him Pahan Briar Moss says if he still wants a look inside the house of Lady Zenadia doa Attaneh, he’ll be able to see anything he wants in a couple of hours Tell him she’s kidnapped my student, and say I asked, ‘Noill you act?’"

"Mind your manners!" banked a Watchman

"We’re supposed to believe you’re a pahan?" asked one of them, a woman in the short, sheer, yellow face-veil worn by some nomad tribes to the south

Briar was done with otten hi da -- rather than seeing -- it drop onto the street before the squad "Believe what you like," he said Two cobbles went flying in advance of a stout, woody-trunked grapevine that leaped froround

Briar cliry to care if they were so vexed that they tried to shoot him full of arrows They didn’t He looked down froathered around the vine, caressing its trunk in wonder and ao others raced up the street toward Justice Rock

Before he thened the vine he’d just planted, stopping its absurd growth in time for it to fit in with the cycle of winter rains to come If the city didn’t cut it down, it would remind people he’d been there

The trip to the Jeweled Crescent and Attaneh Road took a long two hours afoot As he h the city, the sun dropped lower in the west, casting long shadows along the roofs It was autumn; the days were shorter Luckily for hiht to do what he asked of them

His connection to Evvy stretched, then firer in the bond, which reassured hihtened Did she knoas on her trail? He hoped she did

Finally he reached Crescent Rie of the Jeweled Crescent Beyond this point there were no rooftop roads The houses of the Crescent lay suardian spells, protected from the likes of cos changed here They offered custoile cloth the rival of anything sold in the Grand Bazaar Dropping into the street, Briar noted discreet signs that advertised es and upper servants for hire, pawnbrokers, shoemakers, and healers He felt watched, but no one tried to stop hie to find Attaneh Road, since he hadn’t gone there from this part of Chammur His tie to Evvy was of little help -- it sio around At last he reached fas, and made the turn into House Attaneh’s personal street The shadoere deepening, granting him cover as he followed the road’s turns At last he reached Lady Zenadia’s home

An alley circled the lady’s house outside the ten-foot wall Sray packet from an external pocket in his kit With the opened packet in one hand and his water bottle in the other, Briar walked the circuit of the wall, first laying a thin line of seeds at its base, then wetting the, placing a steady line across the one-ardeners when they carried out trash, across the tradesate he’d used on his last visit, and across the bay that ended in the wrought-ironpoint As the short autuan to end, he could see spells in the walls, from the dimmest hint of the oldest ones to the deep silver sheen of the newest They looked beautiful as they shifted under the wall’s creaic Of course, they would be useless now They kept away thieves and baffled spy or curse ics in the ere not ic as a threat

This seed mixture was different from that used in the Vipers’ lair Its plants were those kinds of green life that grew into cracks in stone and looked for a place to cling They were destructive if left to grow for too long, weakening walls and loosening thened -- what they did naturally

Briar rubbed his hands together and woke the seeds up As vines popped out of the ground, he felt through his er than any of the others It went straight to his shakkan, his storehouse of extra power The tree was elated to be called on: it often coic in its trunk, roots, branches, and needles was not comfortable The best word to describe the tree when it had not been tapped for a while was "itchy"

"Let’s scratch your itch," he said He drew on that pent-up rasses inside the wall The sheer strength of his power, added to the inability of protective ic as a threat, meant that the spells on the wall didn’t slow him