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“He’s got the barrier salted with es’ power in his work, this Enahar”
The four looked at each other and ether, for comfort
“What of the navy?” Lark wanted to know
“No word, the duke says,” Moonstream told them “They may come, they may not You need to evacuate the children We can take theh the hidden ways A load of the worst sick and injured are going at noon”
“No!” cried Sandry, eyes blazing “Absolutely not!”
Tris and Daja shushed her Fro on up there?”
Briar went to the door “We’re just frisking like little captive lambkins”
There was a crack of laughter from downstairs: Skyfire, perhaps
“Frisk quietly,” Rosethorn ordered
Briar stepped back into the room
“They are not sending me to o “I won’t leave!”
“Is that what ‘evacuating’ means?” the boy inquired
“That’s what it means,” Daja replied
Tris’s face was dead white Ss crackled all over her hair and dress Winds stirred in every corner of the rooain They can’t”
Another boom-stone exploded in midair Tris flinched
“It’ll get you away from that,” pointed out Daja
“And what’ll be here e come back?” Briar wanted to know
None of them could answer
“Pirates killedto drive me from the only place I ever felt welco pushed around by the likes of the her legs outside She would go up on the wall, she decided, and throw lightning at them until it killed her
Sandry lunged and grabbed her The lightnings prickled, but didn’t hurt
“LetDaja came over to help
“Listen toto hold Tris’s attention “You want to fight back, and that makes perfect sense, but you can’t do it by yourself Haven’t we all been hurt? This is our ho to wriggle out of their hold “You need our help Listen to ?”
The roar of a boom-stone shook the rafters
“Let o,” panted Tris
“She’s right,” Daja insisted, dragging her inside “Listen to her”
All three girls tumbled onto the floor with a thud Sandry’s and Daja’s hair fought to rise out of their braids
Briar listened at the door The adults seemed to be too deep into their talk to pay attention to them “We won’t be allowed on the wall,” he pointed out
“We don’t need their per with Tris and was now sitting on the redhead’s stoht? Hoe protected ourselves at the north gate? I can do that I can keep anyone froo! If the pirates took this place—if they hurt Lark—”
She looked away, blinking eyes that stung The lightnings had slowed down, but now they climbed on her and Daja just as they did on Tris
Must be irls And isn’t that just as well? Or Tris’d cook anyone who came near her
“I don’t think I could bear it, if Winding Circle fell,” murmured Daja “I can be a bellows and blow people away fro over in her mind
“Let me up,” said Tris “I won’t climb out the ”
“Promise?” asked Sandry
“Promise”
Sandry and Daja rose to their feet Little Bear got in a few licks before Tris could stand and take her face away froue
Briar eyed Tris suspiciously He didn’t like the stubborn set of her s seemed thicker; so did her hair “You look like a bush,” he informed her
Tris gru scarf, she wrapped it around her head and tied it tightly Past the cloth her curls still rose to fan out, but at least she didn’t look so odd
“What about theiron the bed “You heard Skyfire”
“We can ra us how , though”
“You sure we need it?” Briar inquired “We did all right at north gate Maybe we just thought we had to touch it”
“I have to use the privy,” Tris announced “I had too much juice”
“If they’ll let you down there,” Briar said
Tris so I’ll be right back Don’t et these—jishen” She brushed past him and trotted downstairs
“If Sandry protects us, and if I get near the ships, well …” Daja mused
“Tell us,” Sandry urged
“When Frostpine and I did the harbor chain, he made the chain rise in the air I’s burned into her icked the chain so hard and so fast “I think I can get metal to pull out of whatever it’s attached to, in a ss”
“I’ll find so seaweed to foul their oars And if Coppercurls can use her lightning, we ht be able to make these turd-eaters back off”
They discussed their plans for a few more minutes Briar was the first to realize that, for so a very long time
“Wait here,” he told the other two He swung out of the , letting himself drop to the pillows on the roof of Rosethorn’s shop, where Tris had planned to fall He landed with little more than a bump, just as another booround They waited nervously as he trotted around to the privy Withinfuriously
She’s gone! he mouthed
“Helpher skirts between her knees She sat on the sill and swung her legs outside Daja lowered her as htly to the workshop roof On her juround, Briar was there to catch her
Daja wasn’t about to risk the thu into the attic, she got a coil of rope With a few quick twists, she secured one end to Tris’s bed Clinging to the rope, she lowered herself to the ground
“Where would she go?” Briar asked when Daja arrived They trotted away frorassy strip on the inside of the wall “There’s sentries all over the wall”