Dont be ridiculous, he told himself as the sergeant straightened. If youre being arrested, why is there just one of them?

glass ball cleared around dawn,the sergeant said. did do that, am I correct?

Keth swore silently as he felt a blush creep over his face. His blushes always made him feel like an idiot. he muttered. He met the sergeants eyes. killer. . .?he asked, but she was shaking her head.

yaskedasu, in the temple of Ngohi. Not long dead, from what Dhaskoi Nomasdina could tell. He asked me to let you know you wont see him today, the sergeant continued. An odd expression crossed her face. She rubbed her nose and explained, s, ah, hes been granted the chance to cleanse himself and to rededicat e himself to the purity of the city.

Keth blinked at her. does that mean, exactly?

priesthood of the All-Seeing took him in charge, to pray and fast for a day and a night,the sergeant explained. got a little careless about taking death pollution out into the city proper. Hes been warned before.

know, youd catch criminals a lot faster if you just accepted death as part of life,Keth pointed out.

what of our souls?enquired the sergeant. for one dont want to come back to another life as one of the Fifth Class, or worse, a prathmun. Belonging to the Fourth Class is hard enough. She nodded to Keth. day to you, Koris Warder.She walked out of the courtyard.

When Tris arrived an hour later, Keth was catching up on work hed promised Antonou. Seeing he wasn t ready to do magic, the girl produced a large-toothed comb from her sash and began to groom Litde Bear. As she struggled with a particularly stubborn knot, Keth told her about the dead yaskedasu, and about Dema.

Tris gaped at him. people,she said at last. wont understand them if I live for a century. He should be trying to find the one who killed that poor girl, not holed up in some temple.

Tharians see it differently,Keth answered, and sighed. them its the pollution that matters.

I have to wonder if theyd be so concerned about Demas wallowing in death if the victims belonged to their precious Assembly.He was putting a crucible of sand and chemicals into the furnace to melt when he realized he d forgotten to use gloves or tongs. He felt nothing except a gentle warmth against his skin. The crucible placed, he held up his hands and looked at them. The only change was a bit of ash on his knuckles. He blew it off, and noticed that Tris was loo king at him. didnt know,he commented, then grimaced at the stupid remark.

Are good things about whats happened to you,she pointed out. can admit it, if you like. I promise not to say I told you so.

no,retorted Keth. d just think it really loudly.He looked at Chime, whod perched on top of the furnace. t you afraid youll melt? he asked the dragon.

For answer, Chime curled up, tucked her muzzle under one paw, and appeared to go to sleep.

Dont know how much work on globes youll do today,Tris remarked after Keth had worked in silence for a time. Once Little Bear was combed, she had taken out a book and begun to read. ve been watching. While your power s come back, its not what you started with yesterday.

Doesnt seem a rush, since he kills every other day or so, but I still want to try,Keth said, twirling his blowpipe in one hand as he pressed a bowl mould to the molten glass to shape it.

Ll meditate in a while, then,said Tris, try for a globe after midday.She went to the doorway and sniffed the air. will be rain tonight.

need it,Keth said absently as he set his bowl in the annealing oven.

Other chores caught him up. Tris stayed out of his way, though once she startled him when she sang the words to a song he didnt even know he was humming. that one made it all the way to the Pebbled Sea,he remarked.

I thought it made it all the way to Namorn,she retorted.

They didnt get to meditate until after midday. Tris enclosed the workshop within her magical protection Keth s mage relatives would have ground their teeth to see how easy it was for this girl-child to wrap an entire building with her power and explained that days exercise to Keth. He thought it was ludi crous. Whoever heard of stuffing all of ones own magic into a small object?

But she insisted, and he agreed to try. First he selected a crucible for the job. Next he imagined himself pouring all of the light of his power into it, as if magic were sand he meant to heat.

What vexed him was that the exercise turned out to be hard. His power fought his grip, sending out darts and flares like those thrown off by his lightning globes. For each spike that Keth grabbed and stuffed back into the crucible, two more seemed to sprout. By the time Tris called a halt, he was hot, sweaty, irritated and out of patience. The weather didn t help. The air was stuffy, unmoving and sticky. When he begged Tris to lower her barrier, convinced it made the workshops air stale, she refused.

Keth sighed and prepared a gather of molten glass, though he doubted he could get a globe from it now. His neck was stiff, his hands sore, and no matter how much water he drank, he was soon thirsty again. Around mid-afternoon he threw off his shi rt and leather apron. The apron only protected his clothes from embers. His body ignored small burns now. He rolled his breeches up above his knees. Tris, as aggravating as ever, had arrived wrapped around with breezes that ruffled through her pale grey c otton gown and white petticoats, leaving her with just a slight dew at her temples and the base of her neck.

Thing I miss about home,Keth remarked, wiping his dripping forehead on his arm as he prepared to take his gather from the furnace, cooled off at night. Of course, the winters are a curse from the gods. I suppose no place is perfect.

s much like this,Tris remarked, inspecting one of Keths glass bowls. s Capchen. But we get the sea breezes at night, even in summer. My friends and I go down to the beach during the midday rest period, sometimes, and swim. Sometimes we dont mean to get wet, but then Little Bear shakes off on us and were wet anyway.