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for Oras to protest the tithe.”
    â€œCursed be those who deny the light.”
    â€œBe they cursed.”
    â€œI live because I have to among the followers of the dark hag. I am tainted with their evil. Purge me, Soäreh. Be Father and family to me.”
    â€œFire burns clean, the Light cleanses all.”
    â€œBlessed be the light.”
    â€œFather, mother, sisters, brothers, all refuse the light. I sin because of them. I give in to anger. I doubt the right. They are the roots of my sin. I renounce them, Soäreh, my Father. I renounce them.” Her glowing eyes were fixed on the arc of flame above her head.
    â€œBlessed be the light that burns away the darkness.”
    â€œBlessed be the light.”
    â€œLet my soul be a transparent glory, let the light shine in me.” With this final outburst, Nilis lowered her hands and thrust her arms back in the fire, crying out after a moment, a wild hoarse wail of a pleasure too much for her slight body to hold.
    As Nilis swayed back to her place and another of the Followers stumbled to the fire, Tuli slapped at her brother’s leg, then wriggled away from the window. Without waiting for him, she clawed her way up the wall and dropped to the ground outside.
    Teras thudded down beside her. “How could she do that?” There was anguish in his voice. His usual control stripped away, he slammed a hand against the mud bricks. “Traitor!”
    Fighting with her own anger, Tuli caught his hand in hers, held it tight, his need the one thing that could cool her heat. “What are we going to do?”
    He tugged his hand free, rubbed it hard across his face. “Tell Da first, that’s one thing.” His voice was hoarse. “We have to, he has to know what she did.” He kicked at the wall, stared away from her, blinking tears he was ashamed of from his eyes. “I can’t believe she did it, Tuli. Why’d she do it? Why?”
    â€œShe’s Nilis, I s’pose that’s all.” Tuli touched his arm. “What can we do?”
    â€œI don’t know.” He struck the wall with the flat of his hand, then raced along it toward the street.
    Tuli ran after him, caught hold of his arm, stopping him. “The watcher,” she breathed.
    He pressed his back against the crumbling brick. Eyes closed, head back, he stood, breathing raggedly. In the light of Nijilic TheDom, directly overhead now, clear for that moment of clouds, he looked far older than his fourteen years. Tuli shivered, chilled by a sense of loss—then he opened his eyes, grinned at her and the world was right again. She grinned back, pointed down the street, started loping through the shadows of the overhanging storefronts, moving with the stealth of a prowling fayar. Several shops down she cut across the street then circled around behind the Maiden Shrine toward patient Labby slumping half-asleep against the post.
    They rode in silence, Tuli’s arms around her brother’s waist, her cheek pressed against his back. Neither spoke until the barns of Gradin-Tar loomed ahead and the great black bulk of the watchtower, then Teras brought Labby to a halt. He twisted around, his face grave. “You better get back up the wall ’fore I go in. Da ’ud skin you alive if he knew you were out.”
    â€œYah.” She relaxed her hold, shifted back until she was sitting on the macai’s rump. “Think he’ll believe you?” With a small grunt, she swung a leg up and over, slid off and stood looking up at him.
    â€œWhy shouldn’t he?” He clucked to Labby, started him walking again in a slow amble. “If he doesn’t, I’ll have to tell him you were with me and heard the same things.”
    Tuli grimaced, touched a buttock. “My backside will heal faster than what Nilis is doing to us. Teras.…”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œMake sure Da knows that if he still is going to go, he should leave