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Evvy scowled Fro had treated her as a beloved sister She had soon lost any shyness she could be expected to feel in his presence "You always tell me to wait I’ll have you know I ahth God-King in a straight line of choice froht up their difference in age "You will have to be as old as --"

The stone beneath Briar’s feet had begun to shake He sat hurriedly and pulled at Evvy’s ar to join the as well

Briar heard the kind of grinding noise that brought landslides toacross the river, he felt his stomach roll He clapped his hands over his ood breakfast where it was supposed to be Stones that had fallen, gravel that had dropped off a cliff, dust that had settled after the skeletons had gone for their walk belonged on the ground All of these things had no business rising into the air in front of the gap in the cliff None of theap, nor should any of the boulders on the riverbank or the stones between the water and the cliff be rolling to it and clierness to fill in the hole left by the skeleton statues Now more stones rattled down the slopes of the mountain that stood behind the cliff They hesitated only briefly on the edge of the drop, then rolled over In astrange sht down, but in a curve, dropping into the hole where the rocks fros, the rectangular space that had provided the statues was filled

"Who did that?" Evvy cried "Is that what Dedicate Dokyi meant when he said the mountains would clean up the loose rock?"

"That is what he lad the work is finished I don’t like to leave before the cleaning-up is done There have been accidents in the past" He went to the edge of the rock slab and held his hands out pal back his head, he opened hisother than the tiyon language that he’d used all ue of the east These words rolled along the canyon, grating on Briar’s bones He pulled his tunic over his ears, willing to do nearly anything to ht, and listened until the God-King lowered his hands

Briar uncovered one ear Nor to the canyon He cleared his throat and got up "What was that about?" he asked the God-King

"I was thanking the canyon," the younger boy replied "The shaods appreciate it when I say so back to herself, her joy being replaced by her usual liveliness Dedicate Dokyi found her as they waited for the servants to gather their tent and the cushions He was a gnarled and sun-wrinkled man in his fifties, with dark eyes buried under heavy lids His wide-lipped h lines His knotted legs and er to hard work and plenty of it Even his brown dedicate’s habit didn’t soften the hard shape of his body

"Nicely done back there earlier, Evvy," he said, tweaking her nose "I don’t suppose you could teach me how you ?"

Evvy reached out with her hands, opened and closed theo that way," she explained

Dokyi looked at Briar "She asked the the frame of a spell pattern, and your student treats them as partners in the work"

Briar, who asked plants to do things, smiled at the older man At least Dokyi wasn’t hostile about the way in which Evvy worked, unlike es they had encountered in their travels

A pigeon caught their attention as it swooped to and fro, trying to fly past them into the tent Briar spotted the ss andon the God-King’s shoulder

Servants rushed to conal Dokyi walked over to take the bird so the God-King could undo the ties around the delicate strip of paper Once he had it, the God-King reached one hand into a pocket and brought out a selection of dried berries and seed Dokyi took that and fed the bird as the boy read the e

"What is it?" Evvy de

Briar gripped one of her ears between his thuentle twist that proet harder if she did not behave "Didn’t me and Rosethorn have that little talk with you about ‘affairs of state’ and you sticking your neb where it oughtn’t to go?" he asked in Iht Evvy to use "You don’t go around asking kings about theirso impertinent to Duke Vedris, back hoood old fellow for the nity, he could freeze soile than she acted

"It seeet word to or fro is h Ice Lion Pass," the God-King said The look on his face was quite strange "This, though es tell me that Ice Lion will not be open for at least two er fro letters for me and for Rosethorn"