Page 14 (1/2)

Tris had used shawls tocalass corner poke her right eye She opened the left: the cause of her discoon was draped over an extra pillow, just as Little Bear sprawled over her feet Tris gruin herclean-up At least she didn t have to worry about feeding her starling, Shriek After four years of screa at her the moment she woke up, Shriek had joined a flock of Hataran starlings when she and Nik o passed through that country Tris, secretly a ro ht her birds eye She never let on to anyone that she missed the speckled bird s chatter anySandry, Daja, or Briar

Screams in the kitchen and Little Bear s deep-throated barks interrupted Tris as she made her bed She raced downstairs Thediscovered what she called monster- Chime - in the honeypot Little Bear h ad already decided Chion, barking a warning The cook scolded the girl for being upset while Tris ordered Little Bear outside Together Tris and the cook et Chion had begun to produce flalass

I keep solad to find a way to calm the servants, shared out the flaher roo after her own room and the workroom that Tris shared with Niko was all Juht breakfast, she , tucked Chi at her heels She would check on Kethlun as she had prolass shops

She had alht her eye Three priests, two in white tunics, one in a

kyten, all in white head-veils and complex red stoles thatGod, stood where an alley opened on to the Street of Glass One priest wielded a censer of s incense: cypress, Triss nose told her, with myrtle, cedar and clove cypress for death, myrtle for peace, clove for protection, cedar for purification A white candle burned between the priests on the ground The female priest carried a basket full of the hands and lips to sink into the ground under the candle

s going on? Tris asked the stocky older ainst the open door of Touchstone

ht, the Tharian replied He was pluht-skinned for a Tharian, with small, sharp, brown eyes and a chunky nose He wore a pale blue tunic His shopkeepers short, dark green stole lay over his shoulders, its ends han ging even with the hem of his tunic the

prathmun collect the remains and scrub the site, the priests must cleanse the area of all taint of, well, death No one hereas the ai r between the three priests turned ic-white you also cleanse for dead anied are a

shenos You re not used to our ways The death of hus to all that it touches It must be cleansed, or everyone who comes near will be polluted

The priests turned their backs on the space they had just cleansed As one they clapped their hands three times, then walked off It was neatly and precisely done, with the deftness of long practice

Thank heavens the