Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, though I may wish I did (ooooh, the evil things I could do to them) they are Tamora Peirce's, but the plot is aaaaall miine muahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

A/N: just in case you hadn't noticed already, I am mad, so be afraid, be very afraid

South of the Pebbled Sea:

'Alive. I'm alive,' the boy on the raft whispered. Uneni looked around him. There was no way to escape the pain, the emptiness, the stink of death. Everyone he had ever loved was dead, drowned in a late winter storm. He glanced down at the sea, his gaze drawn to the water. He sat there, seeing, feeling the life teeming under him. The fish hypnotised him, their scales like mini mirrors.

Suddenly Uneni jerked back to reality. H had heard stories of men who the sea had dazzled and taken for her own pleasure. He did not plan to be among them. He had to remember who he was. 'I am Uneni Kisobu, of the Third Ship Kisobu. I am the last of my family left alive. And I can see land.'

~*~

Hajrat, capital of Sotat:

Magpie waited outside the thief lord's den, her heart going like a bat out of hell. She hadn't got any loot for him from her last " expedition". He hated failure. Even one was enough to get you thrown out of your gang, maybe maimed, disabled for life, or even killed.

He might not want to get rid of me. I've been one of his best thieves ever since I was five, and that was ten years ago.

Ha, yeah right, you believe that? Said an annoying corner of her mind. Lakik, you're deluded. He doesn't need you. He has thousands of other thieves, and at least half of them he says have a "special talent". Magpie kicked the thought away. She couldn't decide what the thief lord said. Shame. Oh well, there was nothing she could do but wait

'Magpie,' a voice called. 'Enter'. She pushed aside the waterproof drape and entered.

~*~

'Uneni Kisobu, please step forward', a voice commanded. Uneni, sending a quick prayer up to Trader Koma, stepped forward. He looked at the yellow-shrouded mimander. He saw the staff she was holding. He saw the plain cap. 'You are the sole survivor of the third ship Kisobu. The mimander has read the stones. We declare you trangshi.'

Uneni bit his lip, hard enough to make it bleed. He wouldn't cry. Head held high, he came forward and took the staff. Then he was escorted out of the building, and left on the street.

Magpie watch with interest as a boy was frog-marched out of the Trader Council building, clutching a staff. He looked like he was trying not to cry. Wonder what he did, she thought. Just as she was coming up with a suitably morbid response to that question, the boy was left in the middle of the street. Just in front of a horse, the rider of which had not seen him. 'Stupid bleater,' she muttered. Darting out from her hiding place she aimed straight at the boy, crashing into him.

'Wha…?' mumbled Uneni, completely baffled. He'd just been left in the middle of the street, trying to think, when this girl had just collided with him. 'Why'd you run into to me?' he asked, in gently lilting common.

'Talk about ungrateful,' huffed the girl. 'I just saved you from almost certain death.'

'You did?'

'I did! You were about to crushed under the hooves of that horse you were standing in front of!'

'Oh. Thanks,' Uneni added, almost as an after thought. 'Who are you anyway?'

'Magpie.'

'Magpie?' He raised an eyebrow

'Magpie,' she repeated scowling. Who did this boy think he was anyway, laughing at her name? He wouldn't laugh if he knew why she'd been called Magpie. She'd already spotted his earring,

Silver, inlaid with Amethyst. Looked real.

'Why are you staring at my ear?' the boy asked.

'Am I? Oh, sorry. Born in February then?'

'I'm sorry, what?' This girl was really starting to confuse him.

'Your earring. Amethyst? You know, stone of February?

'Oh.'

Magpie stood on tiptoe, reaching out and touching his ear. ' Real too. Nice quality. Looks like it's worth a bit.

'Why would you care?

'Oh, no reason. See you around sometime.' Magpie darted off in to a side street. Easiest job ever. Seriously, some people were so gullible.

More importantly, she had bounty. The Thief Lord had told her to get some nick, or she'd be punished. And she had, within 20 minutes. He would be pleased.

~*~

So, that was the first chapter of my first ever fic. Hmm. Please tell me what you think, so that I can see whether I'm right and it is really crap, or whether my sister's right and it isn't.

Also, I know they don't have February, but I needed the stone to be for February (don't ask why, it's probably dangerous).