Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,38

worked to a student. The medallion had silenced them. Briar suspected they said more than just that the bearer was qualified as an adult mage, but Rosethorn refused to answer his questions.

Whatever the message of the medallion was, it did not impress Jebilu. He wrinkled his nose, as if he'd smelled something bad. "The standards for credentials are lower than they were when I was a student," he remarked. "What have you done to your hands?"

Briar turned scarlet. "I tried to tattoo myself using vegetable dyes." He put his medallion back on, tucked it into his shirt, and stuffed his vine-patterned hands into the pockets of his overrobe. "Actually, I didn't come to talk about me."

"Indeed?" Jebilu lowered himself onto a couch by the low table, and motioned for Briar to take a chair. The man spread a napkin on his lap, then took a pastry and a cup of tea. "Surely a stone mage can do very little for a green mage." He broke a tiny piece from his pastry and nibbled it carefully, allowing not a crumb to drop onto his gold satin tunic.

"Lucky for me that I'm here about a stone mage, then, isn't it?" Briar sipped his cup of tea, battling to get a grip on his dislike for this man. That wouldn't help Evvy or him. "I found this girl polishing stones in Golden House. She has magic with them. I could see it lighting up in the stones she handled, and they kept the power even after she put the stone down. Since I told her, she's been able to get rocks to hold light and heat."

Jebilu broke another fragment from his pastry and ate that busily. A crumb dropped onto his chest: he removed it carefully and inspected the cloth where it had fallen, turning it this way and that to see if the crumb had left a spot. Only when he was satisfied that his garments were still clean did he ask, "This concerns me how, Pahan Moss?"

"She has to be taught, Pahan Stoneslicer," Briar replied. "As far as I can find out, you're the only stone mage in town. The others are gone."

Jebilu broke off another bit of pastry, inspected it – for teetering crumbs? Briar wondered – then popped it into his mouth. Once he had chewed it thoroughly and swallowed it, he delicately sipped his tea. He blotted his lips dry, then said, "It was necessary for me to limit magical influences. The stone of the heights is vulnerable. Too many magics would create a disaster. My lord amir places his entire confidence in me."

You mean you didn't want competition, Briar thought. He regarded his cup of tea. For a moment he wanted to give it a good, loud slurp, to annoy Jebilu. He got that urge under control along with his temper and gently sipped his tea. Sandry had taught him elegant manners, though he seldom used them. He supposed he was trying to show Jebilu he was both educated and mature, if not for his own sake, then for Evvy's. When he was calm again Briar said, "That's very well, but Evvy needs a teacher right now. It'll be a while before she knows enough magic that her workings might conflict with yours."

"Send her to Winding Circle," Jebilu replied. "They seem prepared to indulge the young." He smiled at Briar.

"She'll get into trouble without a teacher," Briar said flatly. "She's run into it already. If she's scared she'll defend herself, and end up doing more harm than good."

"My dear boy, I am a very busy man," Jebilu insisted. He gave his tea another tiny sip. "My lord the amir keeps me busy inspecting the bridges, walls, fortresses, and dams around our fair city. With stone so ancient, problems arise. I would say, bring her here, but I am so rarely at home."

"She won't come here. She's afraid to. You can teach her while you inspect whatever you must." Briar put his cup down hard enough that the porcelain rattled.

"Impossible. I must not be distracted." Jebilu looked at his pastry, then broke off a new piece, chewed, and swallowed it. "You should try these," he said once he'd finished.

Briar got to his feet. "By the laws of Lightsbridge and Winding Circle you have to teach new mages in your discipline," he insisted.

Jebilu smiled. "Winding Circle and Lightsbridge are far from here. If you think they will bestir themselves for a girl of no family, you are as deluded