Bone Magic Read Online Free PDF Page A

inconsequential little nowhere town,
but it was clearly the biggest place the boy had ever seen.
    She took the
street that led toward the river, expecting to find a bridge.
Instead, she found a low wooden tower on each bank with a couple of
thick ropes stretched between them. There was a ferry boat with a
short mast, and a system of pulleys on the mast that connected to
the rope. On the far side of the river she could see a shack near
the tower, and a road, but no other sign of human activity. It was
all unbroken forest.
    The ferry, a
flat-bottomed boat with low gunwales, was on the near side, and she
strolled down to the dock. A couple of men were loafing in the
sunshine, one man whittling, the other napping with his hat pulled
low over his eyes. The wood carver squinted up at her and smiled.
"Looking to cross the river, Miss?"
    "In a little
while," she said. "Will you be here long?"
    "I'm always
here," he said gloomily.
    Tira gave him
her best smile. "Then maybe you saw my cousins. Have you taken any
children across the river in the last few days?"
    "You mean
strangers? I haven't had any strangers in, oh, a long time."
    "I guess I got
here first," she said. "I'll just wait for them, and we'll all
cross together."
    He shrugged,
and she left him there, heading back into town.
     
    The fattest
woman Tira had ever seen was selling river fish from a cart in the
town square. Tira sauntered over, complimented her on the fish, but
declined to buy any. The woman was bored and happy to chat with her
regardless.
    Tira pointed to
the street leading east. "Where's that go?"
    "It just keeps
following the river," the woman said. "It's not a very good road.
They don't maintain it, on account of no one uses it really. You
keep going about fifty miles, there's a bridge, and they've got a
town there." She curled her lip in disdain. "Willan's Crossing,
they call it. It's not as big as this place."
    "Ah, I see."
Tira gestured at the street leading south. "How about that
way?"
    The woman
shrugged. "There's some farms out that way. The road sort of peters
out when the farms end." She peered at Tira. "How come you don't
know where anything is?"
    "I'm just
passing through," said Tira. "Actually, I'm here to meet my
cousins. Have you seen some men traveling with three children?"
    The woman
cackled. "You're the only strangers that have been through here in
quite some time." She seemed to think the question was hilarious,
and kept on laughing as Tira edged away.
    Early afternoon
found Tira and Tam behind the livery stable, squatting in a circle
with three local workingmen, rolling dice. A complete lack of money
made dice games a risky proposition, but Tira had a system that had
kept her from going hungry on several occasions in the past. It had
also sent her fleeing for her life once, and once gotten her beaten
and chucked into a river, but it worked more often than it failed.
In an isolated town like this, far from the grifters and sharps of
the world's great cities, she was almost certain that she couldn't
lose.
    "Okay, that's a
crown and a cup, which brings your points to three and my points to
five. Your turn to roll, so…"
    "Now, hold on,"
said the ostler, frowning. "You said two of a kind was better than
one and one."
    "Right, sorry,"
said Tira smoothly. "Your points are five and mine are three.
That's what I meant." She scooped up the dice and pressed them into
the ostler's hand, and he dumped them into the cup, giving her a
suspicious glance as he started to shake.
    Feet scraped
the ground behind Tira, and she hid a frown. This ridiculous town
was so boring that a dice game was drawing an audience. The more
people who watched, the more likely it was that someone would catch
her making up the rules as she went along. Then she caught an odor
of fish, and turned her head.
    The fat woman
from the town square stood watching, leaning one elbow on her
now-empty cart. "I thought you were going," she said.
    "What do you
mean?" Tira asked.
    The