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“My child is called To

Majo clicked her tongue twice and produced a yellow pouch frohtly in her hand “Give her to ive you this—keep it always next to your skin and it will produce one gold piece every time the cock crows”

The wo fat sal theirl-child in the face of all that gold?

My mother’s eyes flickered furtively froreed and snatched the yellow char back to the inner rooms with the rest of the women, full of this neonder She kissed ht warned me to be careful In a moment, Majo and I stood in the courtyard, alone, save for the marvelous cart

She said nothing to reat copper pot froe I could scarcely believe she had concealed it in the folds of her skirt When the ripples died down to nothing and thein soup, she indicated that I should look into it

Of course, I saw there my true face,curiously in the night wind I suppose I should have been frightened; ht But truly, I was relieved—this was the thingbehind my eyes I was not wicked, simply a monster

“There you have it, Toratulatory way

“How did you know?” I asked

“We know our oe can sar dissolved in tea”

She leaned over my shoulder and her face floated beside y wrinkled face with her one eye slashed out, her lower lip scarred and her jowls heavy as saddlebags We grinned together, and our reflections bared their teeth, hers yellow and blunt, mine white and sharp

“You belong to ht have spirited you away at birth and found a den for you in the mountains Now, it is more complicated You are much too old to join your cousins there But it does not really matter so much—if you learn well, you may be able to find a place in the world, as I have But be alary of water—it reveals us”

She poured out the pot onto the pebbles and packed it away into her cart, pulling wide leather straps over her shoulders and hoisting the s snapped up under its floor and Majo sniffed the wind

“A fox must be always alert and wakeful,” she said sternly “Now that you know that you are one, you have no excuse for this laziness I have enough to carry without your thrice-das off your feet”

Happily I ripped the at the thick knots with side Majo with a heart so full and bright it threatened to burn through my robes

“Where are we going?” I asked