"I think this is stupid," Tris informed them when Daja brought her to the spot they'd prepared. "I can only do it when I'm upset."
"It's magic, it's there all the time," Briar told her impatiently. "Stop it with the lady-like whining. 'Oh, I can't, I have to be scared.'"
Tris glared at him. "Why can't you let me alone?"
"Because I'm tired of living with a merchant sniffer!" he told her. "Rosethorn's out there putting healing in potions, and she's been doing it every day since the quake -"
Tris pointed at a swatch of cloth two feet away. Lightning stretched across the gap between her and the patch, but didn't touch it.
"You need me to go on carping?" Briar asked. "I've got plenty more to say -"
"You aren't always fun to live with, either, you know?" Tris snapped. She called the lightning back. For a moment she stood very still, eyes closed, breathing deep. She pointed again.
The bolt left a scorch mark on the cloth.
"Got to do better than that," said Daja, shaking her head.
"I'd like to see you try," muttered Tris. She wrapped her free hand around Aymery's earring, and pointed. The patch evaporated in a plume of smoke.
"I shouldn't have used silk," whispered Sandry. "It goes up so fast."
Tris pointed to the wall, five feet in front of her, where another patch was fastened to a chink in the mortar with a thorn. Lightning stretched across the distance, but only halfway.
"Something closer," said Daja. She tossed a cloth patch several inches beyond where the first had been.
An hour later there were scorch marks on the wall, and Tris had to feed her nestling. When she returned, she brought him with her, and gave his nest to Sandry to hold. "He's supposed to be kept quiet," she said. "I guess there's no chance of that now." The boom-stones had been exploding overhead off and on all afternoon.
Sandry peeked at the bird, and stopped Little Bear from trying the same thing. "He looks all right," she told Tris. "He's not shaking. I've been meaning to ask, what have you got in your pocket? You keep fiddling with something."
Grimly Tris held up Aymery's earring. "It helps me concentrate."
Sandry turned her head to order Little Bear to stop chewing on grass and halted. Light flickered at the corner of her eye, light that was not one of the other children. "That earring is magicked," she said, shocked. "And what's that thread coming out of it?"
Tris looked sidelong at it. "You're right about the magic. Aymery told me the pirate mage created it, as a bond to enslave him. I don't see a thread, though."
"It's there, heading off" - Sandry pointed due south -"that way."
Daja squinted at the earring. "I see a ghost of a wire," she admitted. "But I never noticed it before. Just that blasted flickering."
"Blame Niko," protested Tris. "I never thought that seeing-spell would cross between us like it does."
"I bet the thread is the magic bond. It goes to that mage - Enahar? Stupid name," said Briar. "Too bad we couldn't send him a little lightning, by way of it."
"It would have to go through buildings and the wall," Daja pointed out. "I don't believe it would get there."
"Let's try something more fun," Briar said, holding up a reed circle. "Tris, get one of these while they're in the air."
"You've got to be joking." Tris planted her feet wide apart, for the best possible stance. As she gripped Aymery's earring, sparks began to glimmer in her tumbling curls. "All right, Briar, but I still don't think I can do it."
Briar tossed the reed circle into the air. Tris pointed, but the lightning on her fingertip tangled, and writhed around her hand like knotted string. Briar threw again, lower. This time the lightning missed by a hair. He threw a third time, and Little Bear jumped, grabbing the circle in his teeth. Tris burned a streak on the wall keeping the lightning away from the pup.
"I can't do this!" she cried, out of patience. "It's like playing with poison! It -"
Daja gasped, pointing at the sky. High overhead, a small, round shape had begun to fall towards them.
A blazing strip of white heat roared past them. It struck the boom-stone, blowing it to pieces two hundred feet overhead. The children hid their faces as soot and pottery fragments rained down on them.
Tris wobbled. Her knees gave, and she sat down hard. Little Bear came to lick her cheek. The other three children turned to stare at her.
"I guess we just need to make it worth your while," remarked Daja.
Chapter Twelve
Taking supper from the cart sent up from the Hub and putting it on the table, they were wondering if they would have to eat alone when their teachers returned. They obviously washed in the Water temple baths before coming on to Discipline: all wore undyed robes, and carried their own clothes in string bags. The bags were left beside the back door. Sandry, looking at the garments, wondered if they could even be used for rags, as sooty, torn and scorched as they were. The smell that rose from them was vile, and made her queasy.
The adults spoke little, and ate less. There seemed to be no way to mention controlled lightning after the first few 'not nows' the four got. Instead of following the chore schedule, they were sent to the Earth temple baths, while the adults cleaned up. When the children came back, they went quietly to their rooms, to read or think.