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“She’d have questions anyway,” Daja said comfortably Before Sandry hadCircle with Daja and their other foster-brother and foster-sister, Briar and Tris “She always has questions Well, she’s going to have to come to Discipline for answers I won’t spend forever et back inout for a week”

Frostpine reined his horse up “Discipline?”

Daja halted her own mount and turned to se?” she asked, gently re hiing me everywhere between the Syth and the Pebbled Sea?”

Frostpine ran a big hand through his flyaway hair “Daja, how old are you?”

She rolled her eyes “Sixteen,” she said even more patiently “On the thirtieth of Seed Moon, the same day I mark for my birth every year”

“I should have thought of it sooner,” he said ets to think…Daja, Winding Circle has rules”

She waited, running a finger over the bright piece of brass that wrapped the palm and back of one hand Theskin, a reics, and Daja’s ill-fated second Trader staff

Frostpine said, “You probably know the rule already, at least forstudents At sixteen, theyand classes, or leave And only those who have not attended te adults”

“Of course,” Daja said “There’s a cereive the residents of the dor Circle But that’s not for Sandry or Briar or Tris or me We aren’t temple students We study with some temple dedicates, but not all of our teachers are temple We live with Lark and Rosethorn at Discipline, not in the dores We’re—we’re different”

Frostpine was shaking his head “My dear, if you four still needed a firht be able to make a case, at least until you earned a es do,” he said quietly “But the fact is that you have your s are es when you received the to live on your own then But now? Unless you are prepared to give your vows to the gods of the Living Circle, you will not be permitted to stay at Discipline”

Daja put her hand on the front of her tunic Under it, hanging on a cord around her neck, was the gold e, certified by Winding Circle to practice reed not to show it until they were eighteen unless they had to prove they were accredited es It was almost unheard-of for one thirteen-year-old to receive it, let alone four Their teachers had been careful to let theotten it not only because they were as powerful and controlled as adults Possession of a overning e “A leash,” Briar had described it, “to prove to the laon’t run loose and pee on their bushes” Their teacher Niko had replied that his description was “crude, but accurate” Given that warning, and the fuss people made when they learned she had the medallion, Daja showed it as little as possible

Frostpine bit his lip, then went on “I can put you up over e for a week or two, but after that they’ll make a fuss You should be able to stay with Lark for a couple of nights, but she does have at least one new student living with her Perhaps you could go to Sandry’s?”

Daja was a smith, with intense bonds to fire, but for all that, she was nor in what he had said lit the tiniest of sparks I don’t know if he realizes it sounds like he wantsin her cheeks Or like I can throw myself on my foster-sister’s charity Of course he didn’t mean it to sound as if he wantsin each other’s pockets for longer than we’d first expected to We didn’t intend to stay so long in Olart, or Capchen, or Anderran We didn’t plan to spend a whole extra year and a half away after Namorn

“Daja?” Frostpine asked hesitantly

I can’t look at hiht I don’t want to cry I feel all…lost Funny

“We should gether horse into ray Her eagerness to go back had faded

“Daja, please talk to me,” Frostpine said “You can stay with me or with Sandry Frankly, I had expected you would want a house, perhaps even a forge, of your own, since you’re of age Certainly you can afford it You haven’t taken vows of poverty”

He’s sht I should smile back, not worry him But I feel empty Lost, like when the Traders declared me outcast because I was the only survivor of that shipwreck Why didn’t Sandry warn ? She babbled of the duke’s health and so or other Lark wove or she e able to return to Discipline Of course not She has family The duke, and her cousins in Na Circle, what do I have?

Briar and Tris will be in the same basket when they come home, Daja realized They’ll be outcasts, too

I suppose ht we’d be happy to live as poor relatives She doesn’t knohat it’s like, always being on the edge of hoain, only living on her money, until she ain

Daja shook her head It was all a mess, one she didn’t want to discuss

She forced herself to sht?” she asked “Let’s worry about the other business e’re closer to Suht?”

The 26th day of Blood Moon

The year 1041 K F

Summersea, Emelan

The first visitor to the house and forge at Number 6 Cheeseh the h Daja’s

heart had been in such turmoil that she had refused to open that connection to speak to her foster-sister Now, feeling both apprehensive and angry, she waited for the housemaid to show Sandry into her study

Sandry thanked the maid and waited for her to leave before she turned on Daja “I have to learn from your teacher that not only have you been in Eht a house of your own?”

Daja scowled at the shorter girl “Spare me the ballads,” she replied “You knew very well I was close I could hardly sleep for you bothering me to open my mind”

“Why didn’t you let ?” cried Sandry

Daja had bottled up her feelings since Frostpine had said that the ho the ride to Winding Circle and her reunion with her foster-mother Lark and her te face She had quietly found a Sue already attached, then picked out furnishings so she could move in as soon as possible To everyone—ht, her new servants—she had pretended that setting up her own household was just what she had in mind

She was tired of pretending “Tell you that I was being cast out of Winding Circle because I no longer fit?” she asked quietly “Tell you so you ht offeruntil that charity ran out, and I was left on ain, Sandry? First I loseCircle I need my own place A home no one can take from me”

Sandry’s lips trembled “So you cast me out You said I was your saati” A saati was a true friend of the heart, soht the friendship of saatis lasted forever”

“But first I need to heal I can’t have you picking and prying and worrying inside my mind,” Daja said, her face and voice still under control “I need to tend to htly “You didn’t even warn me You’ve been to Discipline Did anyone ever say, well, you’re sixteen, you can’t move back here even if you wish?”