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The aps Evvy fu on to it, keeping it not in herabove where she could see it The pain hite-hot in her feet and head Her throat burned fro of the ," she heard Jia Jui say "I don’t care to wearywas not truly her friend

He struck her for some time He would stop Jia Jui would ask questions, and Evvy would insult her After three stops when Evvy said nothing, not even curses or insults, Jia Jui sighed "Let her think while I fetch e beads And you two, have someone take you to her rooest one, that she calls Monster, and the suards followed her out of the room

Evvy tried to breathe It was hard Her nose was filled with snot and the air hurt her throat The cats They would hurt the cats in front of her She rekai’s beads, the ones for killing and destruction Jia Jui had a necklace and bracelets of beads like that She would use them on Monster and any of the others,down these walls with her power, but she could not do it Her legs throbbed and burned Would she ever walk again? She couldn’t stop crying, though she bit her already sore lip to keep any noise fro out

Think! she ordered herself What can you do if you can’t wreck this room and you can’t stop the pain in your feet? How can you escape? How can you stop her froe If she couldn’t turn herself into stone, what if she took herself, her spirit, and put that into one? There would be no one in her body to hurt or to answer questions

If I was cold and stiff, they would think I was dead, she thought Not cold like stone They’d know that was ht I died … There wouldn’t be any reason to hurt ht I was dead

Small pebbles lay in the corners of the rooan to concentrate Her leg twitched; the wave of pain that resulted ainst her will she sed,her throat burn even worse Once more she tried A noise outsideback? Were the ? The noise faded

Now, she told herself fiercely, now, or you’ll fail and the cats will die!

Her poas a needle, darting across the rooic followed With it went her thinking, , most of her heartbeat Her body stilled and cooled as she found roorain of rock in her particular sanctuary She settled into it and rested

So, but it boo place Her spirit and power flowed toward the singing, shivering to the deep hu, she entered a space that was hers

Slowly she began to fill it, though it hurt She knew, and the song knew, that her last hiding place was only temporary This was her proper shape, pain and all

Briefly it war the inside h she had no idea why she shouldn’t The warined it, because once more she was cold

She lay facedown on a lus called to her It took tiers, ars Any attempt to move hurt beyond words to describe it, but she knew that now she had to roped around her She felt cloth, icy in spots There were other, painless feet, stiff feet, stiff arms, stiff heads, all of them as cold as stone She lay on a heap of corpses

That hen she cried

The ed The deepest song spoke of safe caverns no bad soldiers could reach, where no killers went, where no pain could be found It sang of safety and stones that healed, of water that was so cold it nu It steeled her to do as needed, and soon, before the sun rose Using the sliver of theclothes off the dead bodies around her There were scarves for her to bind in layers around her poor feet She found jackets and breeches and an to war the bodies of so many adults -- she couldn’t count how many -- she also found the bodies of children, infants, and aninized all seven of her cats a into Monster’s fur She was at Fort Sayi beasts had killed everyone They were going to kill her if they saw her again Maybe she ought to let theo perers knehat she was thinking, thewas loudest of all It de her song to the stone heights, to the dwellers inside They would take her in, their sister of theher home

She rolled down the rest of the cold heap rather than look at any more of it The soldiers had duate Evvy reached the little river, where she found a long stick under the trees It became her staff After a drink of water, she was able to turn her soles to stone It was all that she could do for them The rest of her feet throbbed Even the scarves she had wrapped around the with every step