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temple bleat-brain."
    I grinned. She learned "bleat-brain" from Briar.
    I put the dead stuff in her workbasket while she mounted up again. Then I got on my own horse. "I'm sorry about all this getting on and off," I told the horse. "It seems to be that kind of day."
    "You are always hopping about, Evumeimei." Luvo was still in his sling, hung from my horse's saddle horn. "I was telling Jayatin and Oswin about our travels in the East."
    I wrinkled my nose as we rode on. "Not the nasty parts, I hope. Nobody needs to remember those."
    "Only that there was fighting, and that we were caught in it."
    "He was describing the temple of the Great Green Man," Jayat explained. "I can't even imagine a solid jade statue over a hundred feet tall."
    "It was
wonderful"
I said. "The jade was the color of that grass over there. It sang to my magic. Alabaster the color of the moon. Some rubies, though they weren't very good. It was hung with ropes of pearls, too. They're well enough in their way. Briar really liked the blue and pink pearls, the ones as big as his thumb. He said you could get very good prices for those in the markets in Sotat and Emelan."
    "But you weren't impressed." Jayat sounded like he was laughing at me.
    "Well, they're pearls. They're just fake stones, you know. Cheats. They're dirt an oyster puts around grit to keep it from itching. You'd think there'd be a law against trying to cheat people with fake stones like that. Now, jade—the Green Man statue had it carved all kinds of ways, so it sang back to you in different tones."
    We talked about my travels as we rode onto the shores of Lake Hobin. We'd finally reached Moharrin, just as dark was setting in. Torches were lit on the road along the lake, to guide us past farms and orchards to the village.
    "Jayat, go let Azaze know we're here." As Jayat rode ahead, Oswin told Rosethorn and Myrrhtide, "I know you're too tired for a big reception, but Azaze—our headwoman—also owns the inn. People tend to gather there as a matter of course. There will be some of them to greet you."
    "As long as there is a decent meal, they may greet me as they choose." Myrrhtide snapped his horse's reins and moved ahead of us.
    "I don't think you have to worry." Oswin sounded very innocent in the dark. "Azaze gives a decent meal to almost everyone."
    I saw Rosethorn slap Oswin lightly. "Naughty."
    I don't
think
Myrrhtide could hear. Or if he did, he pretended he didn't.

4
The Inn at Moharrin
    I hung back as the grown-ups rode on. People rushed out of the houses as we reached the outskirts of the village. They surrounded Rosethorn and Myrrhtide, giving me the shivers. "Evumeimei, you are unhappy," Luvo remarked.
    "Are you so weary from your journey?"
    Luvo sees in the dark. I
think
he sees, anyway.
    "People," I grumbled. "Look at them. They swarm around Rosethorn and Myrrhtide like ants at a feast. They do everything but wag their tails—"
    "Ants do not have tails, Evumeimei."
    He couldn't distract me so easily, not when I was cranky at seeing the old game begin again. "Don't play logic games, please. Just listen to them for me, will you?" I asked. Luvo could hear at great distances. It was very useful.
    "They say it is an honor for their village and their island, that two dedicate initiates of Winding Circle temple are here. They say they could not have hoped for such blessings. They are happy, Evumeimei."
    "They're happy
now
, Luvo. People always
start
out being grateful," I reminded him. "But under the gratitude? They're already telling themselves that Rosethorn owes—"
    "Not Myrrhtide?"
    Luvo was learning too many human tricks, including trying to distract me. It wasn't at all becoming for a rock to be so sly. I ignored him. "Fusspot, too, if you
insist
. That our people
owe
them work and magic. That they should half-kill themselves in the service of this, this beetle-spit village next to its chicken-piddle lake on its donkey-dung island. You watch. Fast enough their requests will turn