propped her hands on her hips. "Meryem has bad dreams about soldiers killing her family some nights. She had the dreams last night. When she has the dreams, she has accidents. I cleaned her up as best as I could, but unless you want to carry her on your horse, you'll give her a bath."
I didn't want to carry a girl who'd wet herself with me. I guess that meant I'd have to wash her.
Nory frowned at Luvo. "I haven't the foggiest idea about what use you might be. You can't pack."
He said, "I can watch those boys and guide them in their choices of items to take. They obviously require supervision."
Nory smiled crookedly. "That they do. Suit yourself. Watch them all you like. If you actually watch things. I have a hundred questions, I suppose, but the other girls are probably fussing and there's Oswin's things to pack." She trotted up the stairs to the garret. I put Luvo on the floor and watched him go back to the room with the boys. Then I went into the bathroom with Meryem. She stood next to the large tub, scowling at me.
I scowled back. "Don't think you can out-stubborn me. My magic comes from rocks. I might as well be one myself as far as stubborn goes. Dirty clothes off and into the tub."
She broke to my left. I stepped back, close to the door, and grabbed her by her shift. Since she was dirty anyway, I dumped her into the tub, clothes and all. She thrashed and wailed as I pulled the shift off. Now both of us were soaked. I grabbed a handful of gloppy, homemade soap, and tried to put it in her hair. Meryem got in a lucky head butt. She jammed my hand up into my face.
By the time I had rinsed the soap from my burning eyes, she was gone. I cursed in every language I knew, then grabbed some towels. I promised myself I'd tie her up if I had to.
I followed Meryem's wet footprints down the stairs and out of the house. They were still clear in the dirt of the path to the dead pond. I ran, then. I was scared she might fall into the water. The acid water would burn her.
The sight of dead animals in the pond stopped her on its shore. When she saw me, she ran to the far side of the water and stuck her tongue out. I was thinking of a plan of attack when bubbles rose to the surface of the water. They popped with the stink of rotten eggs. Slowly I approached Meryem. As I did, other bubbles burst. They smelled less like rotten eggs and more like other kinds of bad air.
Bad air.
"I'm not coming!" cried Meryem. "You're not my family! I'm not leaving! People always make me leave!"
"Maybe they're trying to save your life!" I didn't want to argue. I wanted to think. What might bubbles of bad air mean? If they were coming up, what was coming after them? "Go back to the house. Go back and wait! Go!" Bad air went hand in glove with Flare and Carnelian. How close to the surface were they? What if they were right behind these bubbles?
"OOOMMMM." The sound made the air quiver. "OOOUUUUUUUMMMMM."
Meryem shrieked. "What was that?"
That was Luvo, getting serious. The boys must have tried to play some trick on him. The sound would be even worse to them, trapped in the same house with Luvo.
A large bubble popped with a stink that made my throat close. I moved away from it. I couldn't let myself be distracted. "That sound is a warning that you'd better get back to the house no!"
She didn't make me repeat myself. She ran to Oswin's as fast as she could.
"Finish your bath and get dressed!" I yelled after her. Then I lay on a dry patch of ground, away from the mud. I put my hands flat on the earth and drew from the rocks all around me. Even though I had built myself up again with my stone alphabet, I wasn't as strong magically as I was before I had come to Moharrin. I needed whatever power I could gather. I could find magic in ordinary stones—they were the heart of my power. They wouldn't hold as much as ones I had fiddled with, but they could still help.
Today I was lucky. To my left was a pocket of feldspars, forged in that