Shatterglass

Inside, Kethlun sat cross-legged on the floor. your eyes and start to meditate,she ordered. your mind of all thought. Ignore me, just meditate.

wish I could ignore you, grumbled Keth, but he obeyed. Whoever had taught him to meditate had trained him well, Tris observed. His eyelids did not even flutter. His magic cast an uneven, shimmering glow in her sight, flaring and retreating, more active now than it had been while he had focused on making his octopus.

Quietly she assembled several articles. When she had lined them up behind Keth, she set Chime next to them, motioning for the dragon to stay where she was. She had learned this a pproach from Daja, who had described her teachers way to show her how to get her power to tell her about metals she couldnt see.

Finished, Tris knelt behind the row of things she had set up at Kethluns back. If she remembered her own lessons properly, the idea was to keep her voice soft and her movements quiet, until the teacher s voice seemed almost like part of the students thoughts. As he inhaled she whispered, feel for the power that moves in you. Find it in you, find where it runs. Gather it strand by strand to you. Slowly, slowly.

She repeated it over and over, watching as the silver tracework of magic in his body drew in. Multitudes of glittering pale threads that ran through his muscles came together, their tracks thickening as they merged . Once she judged that he had gripped as much as he could manage, she said, that power flow out behind you. Let it spread there. Let it cover everything behind you. Let it run towards me, let it flow. . .

His breath hitched in his throat as his mind fumbled with this new trick. The heavier strands of magic began to pull apart. Tris went silent, waiting. At last Keth found his breathing rhythm and tried again.

Three tries later, the power hed gathered flowed out to cover Tris and the things that she had set there. It was cool on her skin, as if she were coated in fluid, cold glass. Tris savoured the relief from the heat, then drew her thumb and forefinger down a thin braid to coax a grain of lightning from her hair. The spark glimmered on her fingertip as Tris touched it to the first thing she had set at Keth s back.

As you are,she began softly. me what Im touching back here.She had meant to say that she used lightning to point, then changed her mind. His magic would know the difference between lightning and glass. Find me with your power and tell me what Im touching.That should be easy. They had lightning and fire in common, if precious little else.

Kethluns lips barely moved, he was so deep within himself. glass, green, stylized birds impressed around the sides by tongs.

you know this because you recognize the piece, or because you feel it with your power?Tris wanted to know.

its there,he said, his voice agonizingly slow. the glass. In its shape. It knows it knows what it is.

Tris raised her eyebrows, impressed. Perhaps his glassmakers training made it easier for him to know so much about the bowl. She lifted her finger away, still with the spark of lightning on it, and touched the next piece. He identified an undecorated blue glass bottle, a clear vase blown on to a mould of a many-petalled rose, and an over-heated piece of cloudy glass that Tris had taken from the cullet, or junk glass, barrel.

The last item at Keths back was Chime. She had curled into a cat-style ball to nap.

Tris restored her spark to its braid. do I touch now?she asked. Keth shouldnt need her to lead him to Chime, not when the dragon was infused with lightning. s one more item behind you.

Keth fidgeted. He twitched his shoulders, then yelped and tried to scramble away, not remembering that his legs were crossed and that he d been sitting in that position for quite a while. He pitched forward on to his face, his ankles tangled behind him. After a moment he said grumpily, his nose mashed flat on the beaten earth of the floor, That stings!

s quite a bit of lightning in her, even though shes so small,admitted Tris, speaking in her normal volume. did really well. I hope you know that.

Are we done?

Tris scowled. She had done the right thing, praising him. He should appreciate it; she didnt give compliments easily. A more patient part of her whispered that he didnt know that. She took her own deep breath, counting until her temper settled. Only then did she say, Now youll try blowing glass.

Chime squeaked and scrambled under a bench. Keth rolled over to untangle himself. time. He could be killing a yaskedasu right now.

The meditation breathing as you start your gather,Tris instructed as he prepared to work.

know what a gather is?he asked, shaking out his shoulders.

Like to watch glassblowers, and often they let me ask questions,replied Tris.

he asked, checking the crucible to make sure the glass in it was still fit to be worked. doesnt have anything to do with your magic.

Tris sighed. things dont have anything to do with my magic,she said, trying to be patient. just like to know about them. I almost never have anything to s how for what I do. To me glassmaking, weaving, medicines, metal-smithing, now thats magical. You make some thing and it lasts. It isnt gone in the blink of an eye. And youll be able to earn a good living with it.

He raised his eyebrows. wont?

Like a craft mage can. Not if you dont want to kill people with lightning. Not if you can only bring rain or winds when youre sure youre not stealing them from others who need them. If you don t want to work that way, its hard to make a living as a weather mage,she explained. She could see he didnt believe her. Time to get to work, she told herself, and said aloud, Keth - don t try to blow a globe this time. Lets just see what happens.

He rolled his eyes and sighed, a combination that always made her want to box the ears of the person who did it. ve blown globes since I was an apprentice, Tris,he told her. The fishermen of the Syth always need them as floats for their nets.