Page 14 (1/1)

"What do you think it means?" I wanted to know "Earthquake?"

She shook her head "No earthquake I’ve ever been through was so regular in its warnings Nor did it send greetings by water like this" She took a breath and started to wash

When I joined Luvo at the , I saw that he wasn’t looking east, where the hills were gold around the sun’s rie of Lake Hobin, stood Mount Grace It was tall enough to have snow at the peak, even in summer Trees covered the lower slopes

"Luvo, do you think there’s an earthquake coh plenty Have you ever been in one?"

"Se ones? Only when my mountain--when I--was born, the earthquakes, and the volcano that created me I know of that because the older h some of what I feel now re into freezing air as the war into the air, above everything around me But I do not know if these are true ht"

"Then what is a truethe sill I had to sit on my bed, I was so startled Luvo never paces He’s not the pacing sort He’s the standing sort, or sitting He did the new pacing slowly, but still…I glanced back at Rosethorn She had stopped in thethe belt to her habit Like an onit froot hard and cold I felt crystals andwith it stillness Silence Indifference It came closer to my heart To this piece of me, that you think of as Luvo" His stone feet thumped on the wood "I had to make o solid and silent I could dream my days away So reat events I could also choose to fight I knew the battle would be hard and constant It is easier to be still and to dream, harder to reen things that were growing on my sides I wished to see the water as it shapeddifferent I needed to feel the air as it remade me I desired to meet the creatures that came, like the birds, and you Those were ht of my birth, for many spans of your time" He stopped, and looked at Mount Grace "I do not knohy this place makes me think of it Why it makesher face "Do you wish to return to the ship, or to Winding Circle? I’ll ements, if you aren’t comfortable here I can find someone ill take you…"

But Luvo was shaking his head He sat on his haunches "I want to knohy I feel these things here And I do not wish to leave Evuerous students are half-taught ones"

"Well, I like that!" I putsoftly

"With the earth in ht find yourself in a predicaravel told me "I must look after you and keep you out of trouble"

"That’s not funny," I cried

Rosethorn was still laughing at rin "Co day"

Azaze was up, too "I have everything ready for you," she told us as we finished breakfast "You’ve horses saddled and waiting, and a lunch packed Jayat waits outside Osill come to you later He’s work of his own to see to, first Your Dedicate Myrrhtide says he’ll be down as soon as he’s finished his breakfast"

Rosethorn pursed her lips "He had breakfast in his roorateful if she isn’t talking about me

"I was just as pleased" Azaze filled Rosethorn’s teacup a second ti at my maids Men like that are best left locked ahere they can’thonest work"

Rosethorn choked as Azaze walked off to see to soht her breath, she said, "I’d say our headwo had taken the edge off oes? You don’t need o higher on theJust think, Evvy You could be snug in your bed at Winding Circle right now, if you’d kept your teo "Would you have done it differently? Would you have let those boys bully my friends?"

"That’s different," Rosethorn told me "I’m a dedicate initiate When I pick on bullies, it’s called an object lesson And I knohen to stop You didn’t"

I hate it when she says things I can’t argue with I finished e kit I left mine in my rooic on horseback, for certain Myrrhtide chatters at me when I take out ic I have stored in theet out