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"Those are the ideographs our nanshurs learn," Weishu replied "Another bead, if you will"
Evvy chose a cylindrical bead, blue on white "Porcelain," she said scornfully Of another, more intricately detailed blue-on-white bead, she also said, "Porcelain" Two lass hite rubbed over the raised eneral spat on the plate in front of hi aloud "You don’t es that make your beads for you But you can use the spells that are put into all this writing?"
"Yes," Jia Jui said "That is how our ic?"
"Our acadees write spells on paper, or in books It’s the speaking of them, sometimes with scents, herbs, inks, and other aids, that helps the," Rosethorn explained quietly
Evvy wasn’t listening She was passing the string of beads through her fingers "Wood Briar, ood is this?"
Briar reached over her shoulder and sent out a tendril of his oer "Willow"
Evvy wrinkled her nose "Wood’s no fun for eneral She seery Briar knew that she was sunk into her power, letting her own stone ers sped overone, but Briar did not call her attention to it Either it was the detested porcelain, or Evvy would return to it
"Maybe you asked the wrong student for this test -- oh!" Evvy stopped "Wait a les ofetched with circles centered on holes, past bone cylinders dense with ancient Yanjingyi letters, and past three brown glass cylinders When her hand found a round grayish-white bead studded with small red spots, she stopped
"Interesting," she said, turning the bead over "There’s spells in each of the red beads stuck in this lass I can tell because the ic soaks into the stone" She looked up at the eic That’s how I can tell what’s in the glass beads"
"Nonsense" One of the other ht walked up to stand before the table near Hengkai It was the older one, the man with silver hair and ic and protects it"
Evvy ignored him "Whatever’s in these beads is nasty, and each one is different There’s illness -- smallpox in one and cholera in another Fire in three, one very hot, two old rings around each red bead keep the eneral knows he carries these He’s got …" Evvy hauled up the loops of the necklace, her black eyes scanning it for the pale orbs She looked at the eeneral "And you wear another necklace and bracelets like this wrapped around your aric"
"You dare lecture eneral, pushing forward against the halberds He glared up at the guards who fenced him in
"Perhaps Evumeimei only means that the spells in the stone beads are corrupted," Jia Jui suggested "As a student she would understand that far better than war eneral" She bowed to the emperor as Weishu turned to look at her "In s to find which beads had gone stale It is one of the earliest senses a young ht many battles recently Is it not possible that his most personal tools are worn-out?"
Evvy, really interested in her test now, had returned to her scrutiny of the beads "I never said I was anything but a student stone lass Carnelian! Briar, it’s carnelian!" She held a large reddish-brown stone up to him
"I can see it’s carnelian," he replied, a at his student’s enthusiasm Briar knew carnelian was one of Evvy’s favorite stones because it had been so hard for her to get her hands on any when she lived in Chammur Even here in the east, where it was more common, she had yet to tire of it Now she turned the bead around, eyeing it closely Slowly, so slowly at first that Briar thought he iether By the time she turned the bead on one end to look at it in a different way, everyone could see that she was frowning
"Evuth and fear spells in this?" she demanded hotly "This is carnelian It’s for protection and thinking!"
"Perhaps it is so in your benighted teachings, student" The oldas he looked at the ee, will you hues? She knows nothing of our ancient sy that has been passed down over centuries --"
He fell silent when the e, I remind you that this western student knew exactly the nature of the spells on the snake-hole bead," Weishu said calnizes the spells on this carnelian bead, do you not, child?"