Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,44

sun will hit my sparkly bits and I'll notice that. Or – "

"You remember the flagstones in Golden House?" Briar asked swiftly, before she could say any more. "The ones under the main aisle? Black, not shiny at all, heavy?" Evvy nodded. "Try that stone."

She began to breathe as Briar counted. He didn't try to enter the center of his own power, feeling it was up to him to keep her on track. As it was, he wasn't sure how long he'd been counting for her before he realized she was silent. Her power shone softly throughout her body. Her eyes were motionless under their lids; her face was still. Only the tiniest shift in her nostrils and the shallowest rise and fall in her chest said she was alive. Briar rested a hand on hers, and found her skin was cool, almost hard.

"Evvy," he called, his heart pounding. "Evvy, listen, come out of it. Evvy…"

She stayed unmoving.

Briar wiped a hand over his circle to break it and ran up to his workroom. He needed something powerfully scented.

Finding the right plant, he broke off a stem and carried it downstairs. The smell didn't bother him – most plant smells didn't – but from the complaints voiced by others he knew not everyone appreciated its strong odor. He held the stem under Evvy's nose.

Her nostrils twitched. After a moment they flared; her chest heaved; her eyes flew open. "Ugh!" she cried, leaning away from him, a hand cupped over her nose. "Heibei's luck, what's that?"

Briar smiled regretfully. "It's called asafetida," he told her. "Good for lung ailments and exorcisms."

"Who'd want to breathe around that?" Evvy demanded. "I take it back about the stuff you used before. This really smells like, like somebody died. Why'd you make me sniff it, anyway?"

Briar gently placed the stem on the floor. "I never said turn into a rock," he informed her, closing his circle again. "I just said clear your mind like one. If they don't think of anything, you don't think of anything! Especially don't think of being one!"

"I couldn't've turned myself into a stone," she scoffed. Then she met Briar's eyes. "Could I?"

"I don't know. You looked pretty close to it," he informed her. "Now. Let's try again. Clear your mind. Don't be a rock."

He began to count, Evvy to inhale, hold, exhale. For a little while nothing happened. Briar continued to count as first her fingers, then her nose twitched. Suddenly she relaxed, and brilliant white light flared all around her, half-blinding Briar.

"Stop!" he cried. "Stop it right there!"

"Now what?" she demanded, opening her eyes. "I almost had it!"

"You did have it," he reassured her, breaking his protective circle. "I just wasn't ready. Wait here."

"I want a drink of water," she complained.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"It helps me see," he replied absently. "Now, do the breathing. Try to go to that same place in your head."

Evvy closed her eyes obediently as Briar began to count. For a short while the only sounds came from outside as women talked, children shouted, and an unhappy donkey brayed somewhere in the distance. Briar watched Evvy.

First she hitched and scratched her hip. Then she sneezed. He could tell she was thinking as her eyes shuttled rapidly behind closed lids. Suddenly she went still. Her power blazed out to fill their protective bubble.

"I'm gonna touch your eyelids now. Don't yelp." Briar gently brushed her eyelids with a sight oil to help those who could not do so to see magic. "Open them. Try to keep your mind clear."

Evvy slowly opened one eye, then the other. The brilliance of the magic around them made her blink rapidly; her eyes began to tear. Slowly the blaze of her power faded as she lost the contact she had with it.

"What was that?" she wanted to know, rubbing her eyes with her fist.

"That was your magic," Briar informed her. "We're going to start you learning to grip all that close, so you don't leak it every whichway. And if you can't see it, you've got to find a way for you to know it's about, and what shape it's in, and what you can do with it. Did you feel anything before I made you open your eyes?"

Evvy yawned. "No," she said, rubbing her nose. "Am I supposed to?"

"There's something," Briar insisted. "Warmth, cold, a tingly feeling. The mage always knows. Now close your eyes and let's try it again."

"I don't want to," Evvy whined. "I'm bored." "Sometime I'll ask you