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into demands and orders. That's what people are like. If you do things for them? You turn from friend, or even helpful stranger, into a slave."
    I hadn't noticed that Jayat had returned on foot. He'd come through the trees on my right. That was why I hadn't noticed him getting close to me. He'd heard some of what I told Luvo. "Evvy, how can you say that? Surely you don't believe people are so cruel."
    I slumped in my saddle. I
hated
having this argument with others, even more so when they seemed like they might be sensible. I squinted so I could see Jayat's face better in the shadows. "I
know
they are that cruel. See here. My mother sold me as a slave when I was six. It was because I was one mouth too many, and only a girl. I understood that. The part I minded was
where
they sold me. They brought me all the way from Yanjing to Chammur. Why didn't they just sell me in Yanjing? At least I was born there, and I knew the language."
    "You would have
liked
it if they sold you before they left?" Jayat sounded shocked.
    "It would have made more sense," I answered. "In Chammur I was a stupid slave who could barely talk. I had to run away, my master beat me so much. Then I lived on the street. You
really
see the good side of people that way. They chase you from their garbage heaps with brooms and rakes. They dump chamber pots on your head. They scream 'thief!' when you walk by, they steal what little you have, they kick you when they pass… For every person who did me a kindness, I knew twenty who left bruises on me."
    Jayat took my horse's reins. "I'm sorry, Evvy I must have sounded like an idiot." He looked up at me. "But people are different here. We won't take advantage of either of your dedicates. You have to trust me on that. She'll see, won't she, Master Luvo?"
    Luvo was as silent as clay.
    Jayat glared at him. "Master Luvo?"
    Luvo clicked and said, "My knowledge of humanity is most incomplete, Jayatin. The samples of it that I have encountered until today have been of a mixed kind."
    Luvo always could say something bad so politely that it almost sounded good.
    "We were in a war," I told Jayat. "It sours you, kind of."
    We had reached the circle of light in front of the inn. Rosethorn, Oswin, and Myrrhtide had already given their horses to stable hands for care. I slid off mine and hit the ground with a wince. My knees and thighs moaned. I hadn't done so much riding in months. My bum felt like crumbling sandstone. I hung Luvo's sling over one shoulder, and my stone mage kit over the other. A stable boy took my reins.
    Jayat got my saddlebags, lifting them down with a grunt. "What have you got in here, rocks?"
    I grinned at him.
    "So what happened?" He showed me inside and up a set of stairs. "How did you come to be traveling with Dedicate Rosethorn, if you were a street kid… where?"
    He opened a door and ushered me into a room with two beds. I saw that Rosethorn's gear was already there. I also saw a basin of warm water, soap, and cloths to dry with.
    "Luvo, would you tell him while I clean up? I feel like I have a mask of dust on my face."
    "I do know the story. Evumeimei was nine human years of age when she heard the song of stones out of harmony with themselves. She was in the city of Chammur." I had put Luvo and his sling on my bed. I peeked over. Jayat sat beside him, watching Luvo as if Luvo was the village storyteller. I giggled and began to scrub off the dust.
    "She followed the disharmony to a merchant who sold stones," Luvo went on. "She offered to clean them for coins, and in cleaning them, she restored their harmony. A year later, young Briar, Rosethorn's student, saw Evumeimei's magic in the stones. Briar pursued Evumeimei for days, to inform her that she had magic."
    "He sounds very determined," Jayat said as I dried off.
    "He would have to be." Oswin stood in the open doorway. "From what I hear, the mages of Lightsbridge and the Living Circle have strict rules. Regarding new mages, if a graduate of those schools