Free Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce Page B

straight into a third storm.
    When at last she opened her body’s eyes, she found that the sky showed barely pink through a small break in the eastern clouds. A fine drizzle fell on Winding Circle.
    Her body had gone stiff in her absence. She lurched and saw there was but an inch between her feet and the edge of the wall. She’d forgotten she stood in a notch, with nothing to keep her from walking into thin air.
    A wiry arm circled her waist and yanked her back. Tris and Niko both tumbled to the walkway in an undignified pile.
    When she rolled off him, Niko sat up, gasping for air. “Don’t
ever
do that by yourself!” he scolded when he caught his breath. “You might have been killed!”
    “I noticed,” replied Tris, shuddering.
    Niko rumbled at his belt, producing a flask. He opened it and put it to her lips. Tris drank obediently, trying not to let the sweet tea leak between her chattering teeth. It was a mixture she didn’t recognize, flavored with dates, citron, and plums.
    “That isn’t one of Rosethorn’s,” she gasped when she was done. She didn’t need to see the magic that infused the tea; she felt it in her veins. Her head cleared, and her chilled body warmed quickly.
    “Moonstream fixed it,” replied Niko, returning the flask to his belt. “I assume you were gone so long for a reason – have you good news for me?”
    Tris lurched to her feet, wringing her very wet skirts. Niko remained on the walkway, staring up at her, eyes bright under his broad-brimmed hat.
    Taking a deep breath, Tris said, “I can move this storm, but it won’t mean anything. There are storms behind it for hundreds of miles. They’re dumping rain over the whole east half of the Pebbled Sea. Whatever I send off will be replaced in a day, even less.”
    Niko’s heavy brows snapped together in a frown. “Why now, O Gods?” he demanded. “Why give us all this rain now? We don’t need – ”
    “Hoy!” someone yelled from below, inside Winding Circle. “I was told Niklaren Goldeye is up there!”
    “How could anyone know that?” asked Tris as Niko got up.
    “While you were – busy,” he said drily, “I had several chats with the guards. They must have told him.” He leaned over the edge of the walkway. “One moment,” he called. Walking briskly to the stair, Tris behind him, he descended.
    Their summoner looked happy to wait: he was bracing himself on spread knees as he fought to catch his breath. Tris was interested to see he wore the uniform not of the Duke’s Guard – which looked after the Mire and everything else outside Summersea’s wall – but of the Provost’s Guard, which patrolled inside it.
    “They said you was to know right off,” the man wheezed when they reached him. “Someone told our cap’n, and she ordered us to search the house, and we found three of ‘em. And then she ordered us, do the flanking houses, and we got three more in one and five in t’other. Cap’n’s turning out all Cobbler’s Lane now. You’re wanted in town.”
    Niko held up a hand, his expression bleak. “Three, three, and five what?” he asked, his light voice slightly husky.
    The guard took a deep breath, and straightened. “It’s the blue pox, Master Goldeye,” he said, his eyes haunted. “Inside the city wall.”

Chapter VI

    A fter a long night in which more time was spent caring for the sick than sleeping, Briar, Rosethorn, Henna, and the new healer were treated to gruel, tea, and the prospect of a busy day. No sooner had they finished breakfast than the women were called to a meeting of all the healers in Urda’s House. “Stay put,” Rosethorn murmured to Briar. “There will be a lot of quarreling before anything useful is discussed. Your time is better spent here.”
    Briar stayed and watched as those not at the meeting – House workers and members of the Duke’s Guard, all gloved and masked – carried in more patients. By noon every bed was filled. Workers then laid pallets in the broad