Shatterglass

Tris let Keth go. Without rushing she put on Chimes sling and packed a basket of the dragons dishes and foods, then beckoned for Chim e to hop into the sling. Once the dragon was settled, Tris went into the courtyard and put a leash on Little Bear. After leaving word with the cook about where she would be, she set out along the Street of Glass with her dog, letting him sniff and ornamen t whatever he wanted to. It was better to let Keth walk his temper off now. He would be in a quieter frame of mind when she reached Touchstone.

She knew what he was thinking. Over and over in these last four years she had seen it: adults always believed the y knew more than younger people. Normally this was true, but magecraft always turned the normal world on its head. The rules that governed accounting houses, craft shops, armies and trade were not the rules of magic, even craft magic. Keth s problem was not his skill. It was the crazed power that was a combination of air, water, heat and cold. Lightning never formed or struck the same way twice. Tris understood that, and managed it. It was something Keth would learn, if she could stop him from getting killed in the process.

wish Lark was here,she told Little Bear and Chime as they passed through Labrykas Square. can gentle anybody into doing anything. Hed even thank her for it.Tris sighed. m not good like Lark. I don t know how to gentle anybody. We dont have the time for me to step nicely around his being an adult stuck with a teacher whos a kid.When most people used that word, it meant goat, but to Briar, the street urchins of Summersea and Briars foster-sisters, would always mean someone who was not an adult.

Mila of the Grain, give me patience, Tris prayed as she walked around the side of Touchstone Glass. Yanna Healtouch, give me coolness to keep my temper down. Shurri Firesword, dont strike him with your lightning arrows.

Kethlun had stripped off his shirt, donned a leather apron, and begun to make something. Carefully he worked a lump of liquid glass at the end of his blowpipe. He wasn t blowing this piece. He used the pipe to hold the glass as he manipulated it with to ngs, pulling out long tendrils and flipping them inward at the end. Tris could see that he breathed in the slow, steady count of meditation. In her magical vision his skin flickered with lightning, but it was gentle, a shimmer rather than a blaze. Working glass calmed him. Perhaps she could use that in her teaching.

If he had seen her, he didnt show it. His big hands and blue eyes were steady as he pulled the glass, thrust the piece back into the furnace to heat, then worked it again. Tris and Chime staye d by the door to watch, silent. Little Bear retreated in boredom to the courtyard.

At last Keth finished. Hed made a pale green octopus, its tentacles neatly arranged to touch its head, as if it had thrown up its arms in shock. He gave it a final examinat ion, his eyes sharp as he inspected the piece, then set it in an annealing oven on the far side of the furnace. Tris knew about this step from her earlier questions to glassmakers. Without a final tempering in the oven, glass would be even more fragile th an it already was.

Keth scowled at Tris. took you for ever to get here. Why didnt you interrupt me?

Now that she wouldnt distract him, Tris came in and took the sling off her back, then set Chimes food and water dishes in an out-of-the-way corner. The dragon began to feed. Only after Chime was seen to did Tris look at Keth.

Didnt want to interrupt,she replied with a shrug. love to watch people work with glass. And you were using the meditation pattern to breathe. Did you feel anything different?

Keth busied himself cleaning the tools he had used. He was pouring sweat from the heat of furnace and oven, while Tris remained cool inside her cocoon of breezes. With a couple of flicks of her hands she expanded her breezes until they wound through the shop, freshening the air.

The breathing, it made me feel calmer,Keth admitted in his slow, careful speech. just did it for practice. Im all right with pulling and moulding glass. Its the blown stuff that gets away from me. Are we going to s tart? The lessons, for the magic? I want to try to blow a globe before the end of the day.

Tris bit her lip and counted to one hundred by fives to keep from snapping at him. He needs to learn to listen to me, she thought. When she was calm again, she told him, a comfortable way to sit. I m going to draw the circle for our meditation.

you only do a circle when theres a danger of magic getting away,argued Kethlun. was meditating while I worked - I didnt need any circle. We arent doing magic.

Am,retorted Tris, by drawing the circle. And if youre to grip your magic, youll have to let it out to work it. Youll do that inside a circle until Im convinced you know what youre doing.

Anybody told you youre bossy?demanded Keth.

The time,Tris replied.

Ll never catch a husband that way, you know,he pointed out. little sweetening would go a long way.

She had heard this before. She didnt like to hear it from him, but she would tell him so later. There was magic to be done now. I have to catch a man to get a husband, I don t want one,she retorted. sit.She pointed to a clear space at the centre of the floor. To Chime she said, put.

First she set her breezes free to roam the city, though not without regret. It would be stifling inside without them, but at best they might distract Keth. At worst, they might carry some of his uncontrolled power into the world to wreak a patch of havoc. It was better to sweat.

Outside Tris walked around the shop to make sure that she could enclose the whole thing in a circle. Once she had, she walked the circle again, laying a stripe of pure magic as she passed. When she reached the place where she had begun, she stepped inside the circle, then closed it. Her ey es shut, Tris summoned her barriers to meet above and below the workshop, enclosing it in a perfect bubble.