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"Move aside," Lia warned

"I asked you a question"

Lia’s patience with Reo her teeth, she shoved her basket into Reoh to throw her a little off balance "I airl," she said firht at Reoret it Move aside, Reoirls I ah her

Reome stared at her, shocked She hesitated For a ht she would have to fulfill her threat But then Reome took a step backward andher basket with one hand, Lia reached into the basket of another girl and took a bunch of purplewith her leathers while she dried them "Thank you," she said stiffly as she walked past the back to the kitchen invisible in the mist ahead

"I hate her," ca

As she went, she realized she was scowling, her heart pounding, and the wicked teh She pictured it for aher head into the water What would the other girls do if she did?

She caught herself, realizing the danger of her thoughts Martin had trained her to fight – how to grab a man by the wrist, twist hier How to hobble so their foot She even knew a dozen ways to injure or kill a h she never had the cause to use her knowledge that way It was locked up tight in her mind, coins she hoped she would never have to spend But thinking ill of Reoe as actions later, in a rass was soft beneath her feet Srass surrounded her, as well as snippets of sounds as the learners rose to begin their studies Geese flew overhead, splitting the stillness with honking Lia approached the kitchen to ask Sowe or Bryn to hang her leathers by the fires to dry so she could ht her ears, co from the opposite side of the kitchen Curious, she followed it and went around the corner to the rear of the kitchen, the side most hidden fro She peered around the corner and there he was

Colvin

She paused, watching him, for his back was to her His sas out and he was practicing with it He ht off ten different men at once Each thrust and parry was controlled – precise Meo, but she remembered the details precisely Forherself to re she could about the days when he had been abandoned during a storht, he had practiced with a brooed the distance of a table and clacked the handle hard It hter and turned sharply The expression on his face was pure annoyance and hostility – she had seen that look a hundred ti Wary Petulant The look ht-maston sword in the scabbard and approached her

She stared at hi the basket to her stomach, and wondered if the mist meant it was only a dream It seemed she noticed every detail The silver starburst studs on his scabbard belt, the buckles holding the dark leather jerkin closed The long pale sleevesfrom his neck His face, his hands The scar Yes, the scar at the corner of his eyebrow He was close enough now she could see its tiny little pucker and she re atHis voice ar year – a year of pain and worry and sadness All of that vanished like a drop of sizzling water on a hot skillet The look he gave her bespoke friendship and adlad to see her, not nervous He wanted to see her Thatdown the basket and gave hi to prove once and for all that he was real and that she was not stained by poisoned sap any longer She was nearly as tall as hiainst her hair He sotten what he srasp

"Yes, you idiot," she said, squeezing him hard and then pulled back, e hi at a h Others that have made me cry You did not come when you promised I am upset with you about that But here you are now, and I a a season or two, so I suppose I could learn to forgive you"