Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,18

other. "It's cold," she complained.

"No, it's an aromatic, or some of it is," he retorted. "It just feels cold. Stop fussing and open your eyes."

Evvy obeyed. "The spots are gone!"

"Told you I knew what I was doing." Briar wiped the extra salve into the jar and closed it, then did up his kit again. "So who did you throw magicked stones at?"

Evvy shrugged. "Vipers. Three of them. They were trying to grab me!" she cried, misreading his frown. "I had to protect myself!"

"Of course you did," Briar replied absently. "Two boys and a girl, right? But this isn't Viper ground, is it?"

"Market of the Lost is open ground, same as any other souk. Anybody can come here," explained his captive. "But they followed me through Camelgut and Snake Sniffer territory." She frowned, trying to remember her route from the Street of Hares. "Rockhead, too. That's bat-dung crazy, that is. Rockhead's are too stupid to know they're killed, so they never lay down."

"I don't know anyone like that," Briar said drily. "Now, what do I do with you?" It wasn't really a question. He already knew her well enough to expect that anything she suggested would not help him.

"You said you'd let me go," Evvy pointed out.

Briar looked at her, checked the angle of the sun, and eyed her again. Had they enough time to go to the amir's palace together?

"I can't pay for lessons, you know," she added after a moment. "I haven't two davs to my name. And I want to go home. My cats are hungry."

Briar raised his eyebrows. "Cats, is it? Why am I not surprised? One, you don't pay your magic teacher except with chores. That's to help you learn the tools and some discipline. Two, I won't be your teacher. You need a stone mage. I'm a plant mage." They would never reach the amir's palace before dark. Even if they could, the guards wouldn't admit a ragamuffin like Evvy. "If I let you go, you have to swear on your honor and your soul you'll come to my house by the time the clocks ring the third hour after dawn," he told her sternly.

"Thukdaks have no honor, everybody knows that," she retorted.

"What a thukdak?”

"Me. I'm a thukdak. Those beggars over there, they're thukdaks. Don't you know anything?" Evvy shook her head at Briar's ignorance.

"Ah," he said, enlightened. "Back home we're called 'street rats'." He gave the name first in Imperial, then translated it awkwardly into Chammuri.

"Belburis good eating," Evvy said, using the Chammuri word for rat. "Nobody wastes a belbun meal on thukdaks"

Briar opened his mouth to ask if she always thought and talked of food, then closed it. How could he have forgotten what it was like, to always have an empty belly? What else had he ever thought of, besides just staying alive, until his arrival at Winding Circle?

"Do you think you have no honor?" he asked Evvy. "You'd better find something to swear by, because I won't let you go till you do."

Evvy rolled her eyes. "I swear by my cats and by Kanzan the Merciful, Lady of Healing, goddess of Yanjing," she told him, face and voice overly patient. "I'd spit on it, too, but it would just go all over my face.

Briar looked at her for a moment, trying to see if she meant to trick him. It occurred to him, suddenly, how nearly impossible it was to tell if someone lied or not by looking into the person's eyes. He would have to trust his instincts after all.

He released his hold on the reeds and madder plants. The reeds unwound from the madder stems, then wove themselves into their basket frames, the leaves and stems they had grown dropping away. Most were grateful to return to their former, unliving state. They had forgotten how much effort sprouting things and sinking roots took. The madder plants, firmly rooted and determined to stay that way, drew away from Evvy.

She sat up, rubbing circulation back into her arms and legs. "Third hour after dawn," she told Briar wearily, and spat on the ground next to her to seal the promise. The madders instantly drew her wet spittle into their roots, buying more green time above the ground, even in the market shadows.

"Here." Grubbing in his pocket, Briar found a silver dav coin, worth three of the copper ones. "Find a hammam and clean up," he ordered, holding the coin out. Evvy grabbed it, but Briar didn't let go. "Hair, ears, neck,