Chapter 6. The meaning of friendship; and more
problems.
Briar was lying on Discipline's roof, trying to stretch out the
aches in his back after a full day of working in the garden. He was
thinking about the things Sandry had said to him and wondering why
she was so upset. He heard a quiet, little cough and turned to face
his surprise companion. Seeing who it was Briar turned back to look
out over Winding Circle, trying to spot Dedicate Crane's glasshouse.
Sandry came to sit next to him, "I'm sorry Briar.for those things I
said to you. I didn't mean it. Forgive me?" she asked.
Briar rolled his eyes at her and said innocently, "Sorry? What was that you said?" Sandry chuckled and slapped him playfully on the knee, "You heard what I said! I know you just want to hear me apologise again!" Briar gazed at the horizon and said dreamily, "I'm just savouring this moment. The moment where a noble and the heir to the throne of Emelan apologises to me, and begs me for forgiveness!" He said, trying to keep a straight face. Sandry would've thrown a pillow at him if she had one. Instead she just settled for throwing her embroidery at him, with the needle conveniently sticking out of it. Briar yelped as the point of it pricked his cheek, then looked at Sandry in amazement. She saw his expression and asked what the matter was. "Well.you just threw some of your needlework. I've never known you to do that!" came the reply. Sandry shrugged and twirled a piece of hair round her finger, "I couldn't get it to work with me." She admitted.
"What is it of?" Briar asked curiously and turned over the base of it. "No!" yelped Sandry, but it was too late. Briar examined the beginnings of a picture of Daja, Tris, Sandry, Niko, Frostpine, Rosethorn, Lark and himself with interest. "That's quite good!" he said. "Only Lark and I came out right," Sandry mumbled, "It's just the thread I used likes us but he refused to do the rest of you guys properly." Briar was thoughtfully quiet for a moment then he said, "You could probably fix that you know." He mused, "Maybe if you could do Rosethorn and me in dyed flax. You know because flax comes from plants. Then Tris and Niko maybe get them to put some of their magic in it and it might work better. Then Daja and Frostpine-" "They could give me some of their magic with flexible gold or copper wires that I could thread." Sandry murmured, interrupting her friend. "You know, I think that's what I'll do!" she beamed. She leant over and gave Briar's shoulder a quick squeeze. Just the tiniest of hugs, then she got up and scrambled down the ladder and disappeared back into the attic leaving Briar alone with a great feel of contentedness.
****************** Pasco walked along the Temple road, a fierce glare on his face and every so often muttering angrily to himself. "Bag! She called me a MoneyBag! How could she? If she could catch a glimpse of how I've lived up until recently she'd change her mind fast enough. Hah! I'm high and mighty?! This coming from a girl who looks down her nose at me before I even say a word!" He saw a familiar figure ahead of him and ran to catch up with Briar. "Briar.whew!" he panted as he ran up to his teacher's friend. "Briar how do you put up with that student of yours? Honestly she's so annoying and so high and mighty! She called me a MoneyBag! And she's as common as they come, did you know she's a street rat? You're schooling a street rat! .." He went on about her as Briar became more and more angry. Plants all around him started moving and rustling angrily, trying to reach out and comfort him but Briar didn't let them.
Suddenly he decided he couldn't stand it anymore and turned to Pasco and shook him, hard. "Listen that's my student you're talking about. And yes I know she used to be a street rat, 'cause as a matter of fact I used to be one too! And you say you don't have a high and mighty attitude but let me tell you this, if you didn't have one then you wouldn't be saying what you're saying, you wouldn't turn up your nose when I mention street rats. For Mila of the Grain's sake! You don't know what she's been through! At least you always had a decent meal and a warm bed at night. Evvy had no bed at all and would sometimes go for about three days or more without being able to get any other food than left over potato peelings and maybe an apple, if she was lucky. She also had about a dozen cats to feed. If you had seen the slums where she was forced to live in.she slept on the cold stone floor with one small dirty rag over her. And you know what else? She was sold by her own mother! Sold as a slave by her own flesh and blood. Her mother just told the man to get as much for her as he could and went off! Evvy escaped but had no money and had to become a street rat. It wasn't as if she had a choice. So for the Gods' sakes just please shut up!" Briar gave him one more hard shake and thrust him to the ground, then stalked off.
********************* Niko sat at a table in the Hub with Lark, Rosethorn, Frostpine and Honoured Moonstream. All the adults had worried expressions on their faces and Niko and Moonstream had bags under their eyes from lack of sleep. Everyone had creases in their foreheads from having permanent, worried frowns on their faces. "Well it's official. Someone inside Winding Circle is working against us. Someone stole the safety spell keys and Winding Circle is defenceless in its walls without them. If someone tries to attack us then all we will have as protection is the magic of every person here. There could be more than one traitor or spy here for all we know, our job is to find out whoever it is and question them until we discover who is plotting against us. And in the meantime we will just have to try and make Winding Circle as safe as possible even without our protection spells." Moonstream said grimly. Lark shook her head gravely; Niko moaned softly and put his head in his hands and Frostpine looked sadly thoughtful. Rosethorn looked around at their distraught faces and pounded the table with a fist making all four other great mages jump. Rosethorn got up from the table and started pacing the floor, stamping hard with her fists clenched so tightly that they were white and her short nails were making deep marks in her ivory skin. Rosethorn didn't like being helpless.
Moonstream looked up and asked hesitantly, "I don't suppose that.your four students could help?" Rosethorn glared at her, "Of course they can't! How could they help? They're only fifteen years old!" Moonstream looked back at her squarely, "I know that but.well I suppose I'll admit that I'm quite desperate and I'll resort to anything if it keeps Winding Circle safe. And Rosethorn - you know that if it wasn't for those four students you wouldn't be here right now. May I remind you that they saved your life-no they brought you back from the dead! And that was when they were eleven years old! Eleven! We didn't tell them then that it was impossible because they were exhausted and too young to understand but you know as well as I do that nobody in the history of the world had ever been able to do that and nobody else ever will be able to!" Rosethorn glared at Moonstream first but then she relented and looked down at her feet sheepishly and worriedly. Niko rubbed his face with hands tiredly and said drearily, "We have to try and get the spells back and in the meantime we'll just have to put up as many new protection wards as we can. None will be even a millionth as powerful as the keys but it's the best we can do." The other dedicates agreed and split up to go about their own work.
**************** Tris was bored and moping. She wasn't even paying attention to the glorious rainstorm outside. She was just sitting by the window trying to read but failing to do so. As soon as she looked down at the page her mind wandered to thinking about what Capta was doing at that moment and if he was guilty or angry with himself or with her. Eventually she decided that she couldn't take it anymore and jumped up to find her friends. Sandry was in Lark's workroom, Daja was finishing up her chores and Briar was labelling bottles of medicines. Tris asked each of them if they wanted to do something fun and they all agreed but didn't know what to do. In the end they ended up playing a game of cards. They all sat down in the sitting room at a small table next to the fire and started playing. Halfway through the game Briar was beating them all by a long run. "I win that round as well!" he announced grandly. "No you don't!" Daja exclaimed, "My Sorceress of Darkness beats your Emperor of the Sea!" she added. "Yeah but my Enchantress of the Light beats your Sorceress of Darkness!" Briar argued. Daja looked at his cards, "Damn!" she muttered. Briar laughed. "How are you so good at cards?!" Sandry demanded to Briar. "When you live in the streets you soon learn that you can win a lot of money by gambling with over- confident, swaggering people who are sure they'll win. You have to be good at cards when you live like I did!" Briar answered.
"Did any of you ever get a Diviner to tell your future?" Sandry asked them, her friends all shook their heads. "I did a few times, and it actually worked most times" she mused. "I think I might be able to try it, you know, just kinda guess it! Anyone want their fortune told?!" she asked cheerfully. The other girls hesitated but Briar jumped forward, "O.k. Miss. Diviner am I in luck?" he said jokingly. Sandry started to deal cards out face down as Daja and Tris looked on with interest. Sandry got Briar to point to a card then she flipped that one over, "First you have the Enchanter of the Earth, which shows your green magic." Briar nodded and pointed to a different one and Sandry continued in a mysterious voice. "Next you have the King of Hard Work, which -in connection to your first card- shows that soon you will have to use your power and your magic for some great task." "The next card shows the Sorceress of the Rose, which indicates romance. Next is the Lady of Light which shows that the romance will work out and will hold." Her voice took on a dark, ominous tone as she turned over the next card. "But look, we have the Duke of Darkness, so evil in his way that he clouds the mind and lurks in the shadows, ready to spring on us when we least expect it. So even though you shall have lots of good in your life, you have many troubles and evil things to overcome before you can reach that happiness." Briar shuddered and Daja and Tris made the God's Circle on their chests, something in Sandry's voice was worrying, she looked as if she were in a trance. She took her time flipping over the last card, her movements slow and deliberate. When she spoke, relief was plain in her voice, "But here is the Empress of all Hope, which shows that you may have troubles and there may be evil, but they can be defeated and there is always hope."
Sandry jerked her head up suddenly and looked at her friends faces. She looked down at the cards that Briar had picked and said quizzically, "Did I make sense?" The others looked at her strangely, each wondering how it was that she didn't know what she had said. The moment of oddity passed almost instantaneously as Niko, Frostpine, Lark and Rosethorn came bursting through the door, sat down at the table and looked at their students seriously. "We need to talk." Niko said.
****************** I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to put this chapter up but I've had a really bad case of writers block! Hope you like this chapter and could you review it PLEASE! I'll try to put another chapter up soon! Bye!
Briar rolled his eyes at her and said innocently, "Sorry? What was that you said?" Sandry chuckled and slapped him playfully on the knee, "You heard what I said! I know you just want to hear me apologise again!" Briar gazed at the horizon and said dreamily, "I'm just savouring this moment. The moment where a noble and the heir to the throne of Emelan apologises to me, and begs me for forgiveness!" He said, trying to keep a straight face. Sandry would've thrown a pillow at him if she had one. Instead she just settled for throwing her embroidery at him, with the needle conveniently sticking out of it. Briar yelped as the point of it pricked his cheek, then looked at Sandry in amazement. She saw his expression and asked what the matter was. "Well.you just threw some of your needlework. I've never known you to do that!" came the reply. Sandry shrugged and twirled a piece of hair round her finger, "I couldn't get it to work with me." She admitted.
"What is it of?" Briar asked curiously and turned over the base of it. "No!" yelped Sandry, but it was too late. Briar examined the beginnings of a picture of Daja, Tris, Sandry, Niko, Frostpine, Rosethorn, Lark and himself with interest. "That's quite good!" he said. "Only Lark and I came out right," Sandry mumbled, "It's just the thread I used likes us but he refused to do the rest of you guys properly." Briar was thoughtfully quiet for a moment then he said, "You could probably fix that you know." He mused, "Maybe if you could do Rosethorn and me in dyed flax. You know because flax comes from plants. Then Tris and Niko maybe get them to put some of their magic in it and it might work better. Then Daja and Frostpine-" "They could give me some of their magic with flexible gold or copper wires that I could thread." Sandry murmured, interrupting her friend. "You know, I think that's what I'll do!" she beamed. She leant over and gave Briar's shoulder a quick squeeze. Just the tiniest of hugs, then she got up and scrambled down the ladder and disappeared back into the attic leaving Briar alone with a great feel of contentedness.
****************** Pasco walked along the Temple road, a fierce glare on his face and every so often muttering angrily to himself. "Bag! She called me a MoneyBag! How could she? If she could catch a glimpse of how I've lived up until recently she'd change her mind fast enough. Hah! I'm high and mighty?! This coming from a girl who looks down her nose at me before I even say a word!" He saw a familiar figure ahead of him and ran to catch up with Briar. "Briar.whew!" he panted as he ran up to his teacher's friend. "Briar how do you put up with that student of yours? Honestly she's so annoying and so high and mighty! She called me a MoneyBag! And she's as common as they come, did you know she's a street rat? You're schooling a street rat! .." He went on about her as Briar became more and more angry. Plants all around him started moving and rustling angrily, trying to reach out and comfort him but Briar didn't let them.
Suddenly he decided he couldn't stand it anymore and turned to Pasco and shook him, hard. "Listen that's my student you're talking about. And yes I know she used to be a street rat, 'cause as a matter of fact I used to be one too! And you say you don't have a high and mighty attitude but let me tell you this, if you didn't have one then you wouldn't be saying what you're saying, you wouldn't turn up your nose when I mention street rats. For Mila of the Grain's sake! You don't know what she's been through! At least you always had a decent meal and a warm bed at night. Evvy had no bed at all and would sometimes go for about three days or more without being able to get any other food than left over potato peelings and maybe an apple, if she was lucky. She also had about a dozen cats to feed. If you had seen the slums where she was forced to live in.she slept on the cold stone floor with one small dirty rag over her. And you know what else? She was sold by her own mother! Sold as a slave by her own flesh and blood. Her mother just told the man to get as much for her as he could and went off! Evvy escaped but had no money and had to become a street rat. It wasn't as if she had a choice. So for the Gods' sakes just please shut up!" Briar gave him one more hard shake and thrust him to the ground, then stalked off.
********************* Niko sat at a table in the Hub with Lark, Rosethorn, Frostpine and Honoured Moonstream. All the adults had worried expressions on their faces and Niko and Moonstream had bags under their eyes from lack of sleep. Everyone had creases in their foreheads from having permanent, worried frowns on their faces. "Well it's official. Someone inside Winding Circle is working against us. Someone stole the safety spell keys and Winding Circle is defenceless in its walls without them. If someone tries to attack us then all we will have as protection is the magic of every person here. There could be more than one traitor or spy here for all we know, our job is to find out whoever it is and question them until we discover who is plotting against us. And in the meantime we will just have to try and make Winding Circle as safe as possible even without our protection spells." Moonstream said grimly. Lark shook her head gravely; Niko moaned softly and put his head in his hands and Frostpine looked sadly thoughtful. Rosethorn looked around at their distraught faces and pounded the table with a fist making all four other great mages jump. Rosethorn got up from the table and started pacing the floor, stamping hard with her fists clenched so tightly that they were white and her short nails were making deep marks in her ivory skin. Rosethorn didn't like being helpless.
Moonstream looked up and asked hesitantly, "I don't suppose that.your four students could help?" Rosethorn glared at her, "Of course they can't! How could they help? They're only fifteen years old!" Moonstream looked back at her squarely, "I know that but.well I suppose I'll admit that I'm quite desperate and I'll resort to anything if it keeps Winding Circle safe. And Rosethorn - you know that if it wasn't for those four students you wouldn't be here right now. May I remind you that they saved your life-no they brought you back from the dead! And that was when they were eleven years old! Eleven! We didn't tell them then that it was impossible because they were exhausted and too young to understand but you know as well as I do that nobody in the history of the world had ever been able to do that and nobody else ever will be able to!" Rosethorn glared at Moonstream first but then she relented and looked down at her feet sheepishly and worriedly. Niko rubbed his face with hands tiredly and said drearily, "We have to try and get the spells back and in the meantime we'll just have to put up as many new protection wards as we can. None will be even a millionth as powerful as the keys but it's the best we can do." The other dedicates agreed and split up to go about their own work.
**************** Tris was bored and moping. She wasn't even paying attention to the glorious rainstorm outside. She was just sitting by the window trying to read but failing to do so. As soon as she looked down at the page her mind wandered to thinking about what Capta was doing at that moment and if he was guilty or angry with himself or with her. Eventually she decided that she couldn't take it anymore and jumped up to find her friends. Sandry was in Lark's workroom, Daja was finishing up her chores and Briar was labelling bottles of medicines. Tris asked each of them if they wanted to do something fun and they all agreed but didn't know what to do. In the end they ended up playing a game of cards. They all sat down in the sitting room at a small table next to the fire and started playing. Halfway through the game Briar was beating them all by a long run. "I win that round as well!" he announced grandly. "No you don't!" Daja exclaimed, "My Sorceress of Darkness beats your Emperor of the Sea!" she added. "Yeah but my Enchantress of the Light beats your Sorceress of Darkness!" Briar argued. Daja looked at his cards, "Damn!" she muttered. Briar laughed. "How are you so good at cards?!" Sandry demanded to Briar. "When you live in the streets you soon learn that you can win a lot of money by gambling with over- confident, swaggering people who are sure they'll win. You have to be good at cards when you live like I did!" Briar answered.
"Did any of you ever get a Diviner to tell your future?" Sandry asked them, her friends all shook their heads. "I did a few times, and it actually worked most times" she mused. "I think I might be able to try it, you know, just kinda guess it! Anyone want their fortune told?!" she asked cheerfully. The other girls hesitated but Briar jumped forward, "O.k. Miss. Diviner am I in luck?" he said jokingly. Sandry started to deal cards out face down as Daja and Tris looked on with interest. Sandry got Briar to point to a card then she flipped that one over, "First you have the Enchanter of the Earth, which shows your green magic." Briar nodded and pointed to a different one and Sandry continued in a mysterious voice. "Next you have the King of Hard Work, which -in connection to your first card- shows that soon you will have to use your power and your magic for some great task." "The next card shows the Sorceress of the Rose, which indicates romance. Next is the Lady of Light which shows that the romance will work out and will hold." Her voice took on a dark, ominous tone as she turned over the next card. "But look, we have the Duke of Darkness, so evil in his way that he clouds the mind and lurks in the shadows, ready to spring on us when we least expect it. So even though you shall have lots of good in your life, you have many troubles and evil things to overcome before you can reach that happiness." Briar shuddered and Daja and Tris made the God's Circle on their chests, something in Sandry's voice was worrying, she looked as if she were in a trance. She took her time flipping over the last card, her movements slow and deliberate. When she spoke, relief was plain in her voice, "But here is the Empress of all Hope, which shows that you may have troubles and there may be evil, but they can be defeated and there is always hope."
Sandry jerked her head up suddenly and looked at her friends faces. She looked down at the cards that Briar had picked and said quizzically, "Did I make sense?" The others looked at her strangely, each wondering how it was that she didn't know what she had said. The moment of oddity passed almost instantaneously as Niko, Frostpine, Lark and Rosethorn came bursting through the door, sat down at the table and looked at their students seriously. "We need to talk." Niko said.
****************** I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to put this chapter up but I've had a really bad case of writers block! Hope you like this chapter and could you review it PLEASE! I'll try to put another chapter up soon! Bye!