Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,9

mage," she said mildly. "Sooner, rather than later. When do we eat?"

Briar sighed and padded downstairs to start supper. Afterward, while Rosethorn cleaned up, he'd go over to the Earth temple. One of their dedicates would know if there were stone mages who lived closer to the Street of Hares than the one in the amir's palace. He'd also have to find a way to talk to the girl Evvy. She was a wary street rat, just as he'd been. She'd go back to Nahim Zineer's – she'd never walk away from the few coppers he paid.

She'll think since I saw her in the afternoon, I'll come back in the afternoon, he reasoned as he set out food. So she'll go there in the morning. Which means if I'm to talk to her, I'd best get there before she does. I'll have to hide, or she'll run off as soon as she sees me.

And he'd wait to approach until after the stone-merchant paid her, this time. He didn't want to cost a fellow street rat any more meals.

Evvy rose with the dawn, not because she wanted to, but because Mystery was perched on her collarbone, kneading busily, her thin, needlelike claws hooking into Evvy's skin. Once Mystery had been petted, the other six cats wanted affection, too. At least they were not hungry this morning. Evvy had been digging in the garbage heap of one of the Ibex Walk inns just as a cookmaid tossed out a bowl full of meat scraps. Heibei the Lucky smiled on Evvy twice, because no one else was scrounging there at the same time. She'd gotten it all, plus some half-rotted vegetables. The meat went to her seven companions. She'd picked the rot from the vegetables and added a three-day-old round of bread for a feast of her own.

Since she was awake, Evvy decided to visit Golden House as soon as it opened. If that crazy boy thought to find her there, he'd probably come in the afternoon. She could work her way through Nahim's baskets and be gone by then, if Nahim let her. She couldn't think why he wouldn't, but no one had ever accused her of magic before.

If Nahim remembered that, he said nothing when Evvy arrived. Instead he produced the polishing cloths and returned to working on his accounts. She sighed inwardly in relief and picked up the first stone to catch her eye, one in a basket of turquoises. She couldn't have said why this stone called to her and not another, only that it would like polishing. Once she finished it, she placed it in the bowl Nahim gave her for the stones she'd handled, and searched through the turquoise basket for more such pieces.

She was tired by the time the Golden House clock struck twelve. Sadly she put down a basket of peach-colored moonstones. It was time to stop: anything she handled once her bones started to ache would turn gray and lifeless in her hands, its value and beauty gone. She folded her cloths and draped them over the bowl of finished stones, looking sidelong at Nahim.

He was picking through the contents of his belt-purse. He stopped and frowned, then smiled at Evvy. She blinked. Should she run? He'd never smiled that way before, as if his teeth hurt. Still, she'd promised the cats dried fish two days ago, and she hated to disappoint them. Gingerly she held out one hand, ready to bolt if he did anything odd.

He dropped not one copper dav or two, but – three, four, five copper davs into her palm! Evvy closed her fingers on the money, in case he changed his mind.

"You earn it, girl," Nahim said, his eyes still squinched up, as if something important ached ferociously. "I don't know what you do, but those stones you polish are the ones I sell first."

"He means if you become a mage he doesn't want you thinking he cheated you," his neighbor called from across the aisle. As long as Evvy had been coming here, almost a year now, the two men had needled each other constantly. "He wants to keep you working for him."

Evvy shook her head and slid the coins into a small pocket on the inside of her ragged tunic. Usually she just took the money and left, but five whole davs seemed to call for some kind of response. She gave Nahim a smile only a hair less odd than his own, then left before he