Clary swore and then immediately clapped her hand over her mouth. She waited a moment, eyes wide, certain that she would be struck down for swearing in the Goddess's temple. She was relieved to see that the other person was a girl her own age and that she was stifling laughter, and the corner of Clary's mouth turned up a little as she took her hand away.
"I'm sorry," Clary said. "I didn't see you."
"I did see you, but only too late. It's just as well I weren't some cranky old mot or a hedgewitch or rusher or sommat." She looked at the mess between the two of them. "Is that catnip?"
Clary blushed as she knelt down again to clean it up. "My cat – well, he was sort of mine and sort of my friend's, but he died so I brought some catnip here for him."
"Oh." The other girl helped her clear the last of it away. "I'm sorry."
"Me too. He was only five." Clary blinked hard to hold off the tears.
"Forgive me for asking, but…I could've sworn I heard you say 'Thank you' right before you stood up and crashed into me."
A priestess shushed them, and they quickly headed outside the temple.
"I'm not happy that Boots is dead, if that's what you're asking. I was thanking the Goddess for putting some sense in my friend's thick nob. He finally broke things off with his sweetheart."
"Do you want him for yourself?"
"No!" said Clary hurriedly. "But she was a cracknobbed midden hen. It wasn't until she didn't even care that poor Boots was dead and she was nagging Tomlan to spend time with her that he realised she was a dozy trull and broke things off."
"It sounds like you do want him for yourself."
"I don't!" Clary insisted. "Tom's old, he's nineteen. Anyway, I'm going to be a Dog."
"Really?"
She didn't look much like a Dog, but the other girl's face lit up, so Clary asked "Are you going to be a Dog too?"
"Gods, no. I'm a kitchen maid at Provost's House."
"Really? Have you met the Lord Provost?"
"I've seen him a few times. He don't exactly mix with the likes of us."
"But you've still seen him, and you've been in his house!"
The other girl giggled at Clary's enthusiasm. "I can show you some parts of Provost's House, if you want to. It's my day off," she explained, "and I'm not really supposed to take people inside, but you don't look like an assassin or anything."
"I'm not," Clary reassured her.
"You did a good job of attacking me with that catnip," said the other girl, and laughed.
Clary couldn't help but giggle too. "That was the first and last time, I promise," she said. "My name's Clary."
The other girl linked her arm through Clary's and they started walking towards the Palace Way. "I'm Mya."