Street Magic - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,52

The curtains were brocade, the cushions silk. As the bearers waited, their muscles straining, Master Jebilu Stoneslicer climbed out. The stone mage wore brown satin today, a long, high-collared tunic coat crusted on every hem with gold embroidery. White lawn shirt cuffs showed under the coat sleeves. He wore black satin trousers and pointed slippers studded with jewels. All of those colors combined to make him look more sallow than ever. The bearers, relieved of their burden, sank to the ground with the litter.

Jebilu glared at Briar. "Well?" he demanded. "Where is she?"

Evvy had ducked behind Briar. Feeling like a traitor, he stepped aside. "Evvy, this is Master – Pahan – Jebilu Stoneslicer. The only trained stone mage in all Chammur, it so happens." He challenged the older man with his eyes, daring him to admit he'd driven off the other stone mages.

Once more Briar locked his hands behind his back. He was very unhappy to realize he didn't want to give Evvy up to this man. Jebilu didn't know who Evvy was or where she'd come from. If he had a kinder side, Briar had yet to see it. While none of his or the girls' teachers had ever laid a hand on them – Rosethorn's threats to the contrary – Briar knew some teachers believed that beatings made lessons stick. Could he trust Jebilu not to hurt Evvy in body or spirit?

If he beats her, I'll kill him, Briar promised himself, trying not to remember that in all likelihood he would be gone. And a real stone mage has to be a better teacher for her than a kid green mage. Doesn't he?

Jebilu pressed the obsidian circle to Evvy's forehead. For a moment nothing happened: then the stone blazed white. Its glare was as intense as the light Briar had seen Evvy give off the day before.

Jebilu muttered something and the light faded. He tucked the circle into his belt-purse and drew out an egg-shaped clear crystal. "Bring light to this," he ordered, holding it out to Evvy.

She didn't say "Oh, that" – she simply touched it. A seed of light appeared in the crystal's depths, growing until the whole stone gave off a steady glow.

Jebilu closed his hand around the crystal. By the time he returned it to his belt-purse, it had gone dark again. He offered her a small brownish-gold globe stippled with black marks. "Bring heat to this," he ordered.

Evvy took it, then handed it back. "That isn't real stone," she objected. "It's hard, but it isn't stone."

Jebilu snorted. "Petrified wood," he grumbled.

"May I see?" Briar asked. Coal, he knew, was made of plants, but he hadn't realized that wood could be made stone.

Jebilu scowled at him. "This is a delicate magical tool, Pahan Moss," he snapped. "Not a toy for curiosity seekers."

Briar bit the inside of his cheek. He counted silently to fifty in Imperial, to keep from telling this man to put the globe someplace uncomfortable.

Jebilu put the petrified wood in his purse and pulled out a dirty white stone. "Use this. What is your name?"

"Evumeimei," the girl replied, taking the stone. "Evumeimei Dingzai, of Yanjing." She turned the stone over in her fingers. "There's cracks in this. I might break it."

"No one can break diamond stones, Evumeimei Dingzai of Yanjing." Jebilu made her name sound like an insult. "Heat it up. Pahan Moss told me you can do it."

Evvy sighed, arid closed her eyes. Briar saw the pale brilliance of her magic appear at the center of her forehead, dancing into the diamond stone in a tight stream. She had practiced last night, he realized. She went home and practiced, and got better. And she was still alive, so she had been able to keep her power under control. He felt an absurd sense of pride in her flower in his chest.

Her magic entered the stone. To Briar's eyes the heart of the stone shimmered with it. The light began to ricochet inside the rock, bouncing through an internal network of cracks and faces. Slowly real, visible white light began to pour from it. "It's not heating up," Evvy said. Sweat gathered at her temples.

"Try harder," ordered Jebilu crossly.

Scowling first at him, then at the stone in her hand, Evvy increased the flow of her power. Briar watched uneasily as her magic ricocheted faster through the stone's heart. "Evvy, maybe you should let this go – " he began.

Evvy flinched and lost control of her power. It flooded the stone. The crystal