Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,78
laired was close to the temple. Better still, the turning onto the Vipers' street, Oleander Way, was clearly marked. He had not gone far down that twisted road when he saw that other visitors had come to call. Ten Gate Lords clustered around a blank doorway over which a snake was painted. The gang members were armed with clubs and daggers.
Briar looked at the Gate Lords coldly. If they attacked the den, Evvy might get hurt. That was unacceptable. He had to deal with the Gate Lords first.
As soon as he had made the seed balls he and Rosethorn used for protection on the road, Briar had stowed his share in his mage kit. Reaching into an outer pocket, he slid out two wrapped in yellow cloth. He sprinkled them with a few drops from the kit's water bottle.
A Gate Lord looking around noticed he was there. He pointed a club a Briar. "Stop gawping and take off, if you know what's good for you!"
Briar glanced at the club: it sprouted leafy twigs and sent roots searching for the ground. As the Gate Lord yelped and dropped it, Briar hurled a ball into the midst of the gang. It opened when it hit, scattering seeds. Briar followed it with a surge of power. The seeds he had so carefully prepared exploded in frantic growth.
Vines shot from the ground in all directions, as if they meant to do twenty years' worth of growing in an afternoon. They were a mixture of grape and five-finger plants, tough, flexible and strong, spelled to twine rope-like around the target Briar chose. He directed them to the Gate Lords. The vines obeyed, whipping around gang members, trapping arms, legs, and weapons. Three went sprawling, to be bound where they lay. The remaining seven were dragged back by their green captors, away from the Vipers' door. Some vines shot across the street. They wrapped long stems around door handles and window gratings, tying four Gate Lords to it. Some plants reached out to one another, yanking the remaining three captives into one green bundle.
Once the Gate Lords were secure and yelling curses in voices that shook with terror, Briar plucked weapons from helpless fingers, placing them in a heap out of harm's way. "Be good, children," he told his captives. "I won't be but a minute."
Just before he passed through the open frame, he threw his second damp packet into the room beyond. With it he sent another surge of magic.
Vipers charged as he walked out of the bright street and into the lamplit shadows of the den. They'd been preparing for the Gate Lords' attack. They had their own weapons in hand, including lead-weighted blackjacks. The contents of Briar's seed packet dug into the bare dirt floor unnoticed as the Vipers closed on him.
Mind the lamps, he ordered silently as his seeds began to grow. They burn.
Vines wriggled around and past the lamps like green snakes, reaching with eager tendrils to snare human beings. Briar ducked a swinging punch from the nearest Viper and called three vines to trap the youth's arms: it wasn't that he couldn't or didn't want to punch back, but that Evvy came first. The smoky, garbage-scented air of the cellar changed as more vines sprouted and threw out leaves. Briar took a deep breath of cleaner air and faced the boy who had tried to punch him. It was Yoru, the short black Viper. He was now bound in a web of green ropes, gasping for breath. A bloodstained rag was wrapped around his forehead.
Briar pulled away the stem that clutched Yoru's throat, letting him breathe. "Sorry to interrupt that war you started with the Gate Lords," he said with false good manners. "Tell me where Evvy is and I'll let you get back to it."
The other boy spat in his face. Briar grimaced, wiped the spittle on his sleeve, and ordered the vines to hang the Viper upside down. They grew, anchoring themselves on the posts that supported the building above, taking Yoru with them. Briar went to the next Viper, and the next. Those who didn't spit on him cursed him. By the time he'd reached the far door, the vines had borne fruit: a crop of dangling, trapped Vipers.
Briar stepped across the doorsill into the next cellar. It looked to be the room where they slept: mattresses and sacking beds lay on the floor. The front room vines were already here, snaring the feet of any Vipers