Melting Stones - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,15

at most. Jayat lifted, and almost fell over.

"You'd better let me carry him," I warned. "Me being a stone mage, it's a lot easier."

"No, I can do it. Excuse me," Jayat told Luvo.

I looked at Oswin. He stood just outside, a finger on his lips, watching Jayat try to pick Luvo up. His eyes were interested, but distant, like Briar's when he was thinking. I wondered if that was the look Oswin had when he was deciding how to fix something.

It was a good thing for Jayat that Luvo is the patient sort. When he likes someone, he only weighs about forty pounds. Once, he adjusted himself when someone he didn't like was lifting him. It didn't go well for that man's back. I hadn't liked the fellow, either.

"Can your Briar carry him?" Jayat staggered as he carried Luvo to the stairs.

"Briar knows to leave stone things to me," I said. Oswin and I followed them. "Actually, that's what I liked about him, once I got to know him. He was the first person I knew who ever treated me like I had a mind of my own. See, he was a street rat, once. He knew how bad people could be. So he knew what would help me understand things."

"He… sounds… like a… paragon." Jayat was puffing when we walked into the main room of the inn.

Paragon—I knew that word!

Jayat set Luvo down on the table closest to the door and collapsed onto the bench.

"I'll get the food." Oswin patted Jayat on the shoulder. "I think you've done enough for today."

I giggled at both of them as Oswin walked off. "Briar's no paragon, Jayat. He likes pretty girls and picking locks and making jokes and playing with knives. And he's a realist. We both are." I looked across the room. "And we both look out for Rosethorn."

She and Fusspot sat with Azaze and a few people who seemed to think they were important. They had a table near a big stone hearth. There was a fire burning there, even though it was the middle of the summer. The room needed the heat. The air up here was even colder than it had been when I'd gotten Rosethorn's coat on her. There were more grown-ups at other tables around the room, eating, drinking, and eyeing the main table.

"You watch Azaze." Jayat had caught his breath. "She won't let people impose on your Rosethorn."

It was true: Two men approached the table, only to leave when Azaze glared at them. I was impressed, but how long could it last? There had to be people about who weren't afraid of Azaze, headwoman or no. And I'd seen plenty of headwomen and headmen who would do what they were told, if enough rich people told them to do it.

At least they were feeding Rosethorn. Girls in aprons were putting bowls and plates before Rosethorn and Myrrhtide. They already had bread, hummus, and olives in front of them. Fusspot smiled and nodded to everyone, as if he was king of the Battle Islands. Rosethorn listened to Azaze and ate with a serious appetite. That was good. She wasn't too tired to pick at her food.

Oswin gave us bowls of chicken stew and pulled spoons wrapped in napkins from his sash. The stew smelled of ginger and cinnamon. My belly growled. Behind Oswin, a maid brought us a tray of plates: hot bread, olives, chickpea and yogurt dips, lentils cooked with noodles, and pastries stuffed with eggplant. I swallowed my saliva and dug into my stew. It was delicious.

"Is the death of your plants and trees so unusual, Oswin?" Luvo had settled on the table where he could watch the room. He never got tired of looking at things, human or natural.

"I haven't seen anything like this, Master Luvo." Oswin scooped up hummus and olives with his bread. "Trees, strong, healthy ones, gone dead overnight—actually overnight. And I've never seen something that killed plants and animals in the same spot. It's happened all around Mount Grace. The same thing with water sources. A pond that was good one day is acid the next, the fish, the plants all dead. It's like the place has been cursed, but it's a random curse. It doesn't strike any one family or village. I'll tell you, it's the saddest thing in the world, to go to a place that was living a month ago, and find it… dead." His mouth made a hard line. "If it's a person who's doing