Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,74
plant thing I did, the first thing I thought might be magic, was trim my shakkan. That hurt. It's hard to think magic is fun when clipping bits off a tree hurts." He smiled as they walked into the dining room. "But the gardening. I liked the gardening, even if it was mostly pulling weeds. Any garden that Rosethorn works in is happy. Well, except for the weeds. We try to make it quick for them." He pointed to the chair. Evvy sat, undoing the ties to the cloth roll with eager fingers. Briar got his sheet of notes and the book, pushing the slate and chalk over so Evvy could reach it. "Hematite," he read, and drew the large and small h on the slate. "Healing. It helps you concentrate on the real world," he began.
They had gone as far as lapis lazuli, and Briar was planning lunch, when a flurry of knocks sounded at their door. It was Ayasha, the dimpled girl who'd been a Camelgut. She was flushed, tousled, and gasping for air, clutching her chest as she tried to slow her breathing. Briar hesitated, not sure he wanted anything more to do with the city's gangs. She grabbed his arm, her brown eyes huge with fright. Her thick lashes fluttered like butterflies as she sagged against him. He could feel her trembling. Against his better judgment Briar let her into the dining room to sit, then fetched her a cup of water.
"We got caught by Gate Lords, Mai and me and some of the others," she told Briar when she could speak clearly. "The Lords beat Mai bad, worse than the boys with us, because of their tesku talking with her. The boys went to tell Ikrum, but I stuck with Mai. She's really hurt, and she doesn't trust anyone but you now." Ayasha grabbed Briar's hand and kissed it. "Neither do I," she whispered, looking at him with pleading in her face.
Briar ran upstairs to fetch his mage kit. "There's meat and bread and cheese in the pantry," he told Evvy when he returned. "I'll put a warding on the windows and door so nobody comes in. That means stay put, understand?" He was fairly sure Lady Zenadia and the Vipers had given up on chasing Evvy, but there was no harm in taking precautions. Quickly he drew a protective line around the doors and windows. When he returned to the dining room he told Evvy, "Have the cats do their business in the back hall – they can't go out. We'll scrub it before Rosethorn comes home."
Evvy nodded, eyes wide.
Briar tugged her nose gently. "Stay out of trouble," he ordered. To Ayasha he said, "Let's go." Walking out with her, he stopped to put a final ward on the front door.
Ayasha took Briar's hand and led him through the streets and up along roofs, into the middle- and lower-class neighborhoods south of the Street of Hares and east of the Hajra Gate. Briar was well and truly lost after the first three or four turnings. "No wonder you were breathless," he told Ayasha as they climbed down to the street once again.
She glanced at him. "I needed to put her someplace safe," she explained. "I know the lads had to tell Ikrum, so they could get back at the Gate Lords, but I wish they'd stayed until I fetched you. I couldn't manage her alone. Here." She walked through a narrow passageway that pierced yet another blank stucco wall. It led into a dead end courtyard between five houses. There a rickety wooden lean-to stood against the wall on one side of the entrance. Ayasha struggled with the door, finally getting it open.
"In here," she whispered. Mai lay in the dark inside, on a pile of sacking.
When he got a clear look at Mai, for a moment Briar was speechless with rage. She'd been beaten hard, her nose broken, her arms and legs dappled with bruises.
He knelt beside her and gently felt her arms and legs. Her left leg was broken near the foot. Next he checked her ribs and collarbone. "You need a healer," he told Mai softly. She shook her head, grunting. Did they break her jaw? He felt it, and the rest of her skull. As far as he could tell, they were whole. "Did you lose teeth?" he asked, gently prying her swollen lips open. Her teeth were coated with blood – he saw cuts in the flesh of her