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Constable for the time being.  Determine if the boy is, as you suspect, a Lataki.  If he is a Lataki, kill him and anyone who was involved in covering up his presence.  Once this is resolved, a permanent Constable will be assigned to Port Billen and you can return to Panna.”
    Kirkik nodded his acceptance of the task.
    “Unless,” said Dannap with a toothy grin, “you fall in love with a local fish maiden and resign from the Legion to become a fisherman.”
    Dannap threw a tasseled red pillow at his King’s laughing face.
    CHAPTER TEN
    After the first couple of days with Soama, Tanan decided that he’d better do the cooking.  He would be staying with Soama for a month, and he wasn’t sure if he could handle a month of Soama’s food.  Thanks to the time he had spent helping out in the kitchen of the Rusty Hook, Tanan was pretty good at cooking a few things and was soon doing all the cooking.  There was no fish, but fortunately, Soama was happy to eat vegetable stew and green salad for every meal.
    Tanan quickly settled into a routine. Each morning, Soama would wake him while it was still dark and the two would sit in the back garden and meditate as the sun came up. Soama told Tanan that being able to clear the mind of the normal clutter of thoughts would make it easier for him to perform magic.
    Meditation was followed by breakfast, and then the two would spend the morning in Soama’s garden pulling weeds.  Tanan didn’t enjoy being on his hands and knees in the dirt for hours at a time.
    After several days of weeding, Tanan finally asked, “Why do we spend so much time doing this?”
    Soama pulled weeds in silence for a few moments before responding. “Tell me about a person that you don’t like.”
    Tanan was irritated that Soama had ignored his question, but thought about Soama’s question while he carefully picked weeds out of a row of carrots.  “There’s a kid in Port Billen named Grapf.  Every time he sees me he punches me or trips me. I think that’s really the only person I don’t like.”
    “Think of your life as a garden. And think of all the things that happen in your life; they are either flowers, or vegetables, or weeds.  Grapf is a weed, Tanan.”
    The thought of Grapf as a weed made Tanan laugh.  He imagined pulling a tiny little Grapf out of the ground and throwing him into the basket next to him with the other weeds.
    Soama continued.  “Grapf is a weed in the garden of your life.  We are pulling weeds from this garden because they take nutrients from the soil that our vegetables need to grow to their full potential. People, and even our own thoughts, can be weeds too. If we let the weeds in our lives take root, they use up the energy that we need to reach our full potential.”
    “They steal our energy?” asked Tanan.
    “They don’t exactly steal it, Tanan. But people often waste energy on the things that don’t really matter. The best thing to do with a weed is to get rid of it.”  He yanked a particularly large weed and held it up for Tanan to see.
    “I don’t think I’m going to get rid of Grapf any time soon.”
    “Perhaps the best way to deal with this Grapf boy is to turn him from an enemy into a friend. Some weeds produce very nice flowers.”
    Tanan thought about this as they continued to pull weeds in silence. There were things in his life that he wasted energy on. A bully like Grapf was certainly a weed in his life.  But he had to admit that there were times in his life when he had been mean to other kids too. Not mean like Grapf was mean to him, but still mean. It was possible that using his energy to make fun of someone took away from better things he could do with his time.
    “What are some other kinds of things that are weeds in my garden, Soama?”
    “There are all kinds of things,” the Abbot replied.  “Just like in this garden that we work in every morning, no matter how many weeds we pull today there will always be new ones the next day. In