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"Well enough," Zahra said with approval "But look at the weapon just long enough to tell its direction Your main attention should have been on my chest

My body’s movement there would have warned you of rinned evilly at her "Perhaps not" She swept their sroup with her eyes "The point of all this is to make sure you come home from your watch alive To do that you have to pay attention Live the s around you, be they sht—,"

Her baton flashed up and to the side This tis, out lined by her breeches, shift He blocked her with his baton and grabbed her wrist with his free hand Twisting it, he dragged her down and across his body Once she was facedown on the ground, he shoved the ar, he pressed one knee into his ht the takedown, boy," she said, her voice muffled by the bricks of the courtyard

Pasco released her "I know, Maled to rise, he offered her a hand She took it and in a heartbeat he went flying

Tucking hi to a halt before he se of the court yard Rising on tiptoe, he gave her his fools bow, the one that was , he rose to the very top of his toes, stumbled forward as if he were out of control, then flipped in the air and calared at hi?" she wanted to know

Pasco bowed his head "I live to be drubbed," he said"Get your baton All of you, line up We’ll do the patterned strike-and-block combinations until time for midday"

Pasco shook his black hair out of his eyes and took the baton Reha held out to hies that dance, and the dancing is a spell"

"Ridiculous," Zahra said flatly "Take your place in line, now"

Pasco did as ordered As his mother called off the movements of the combinations, he concentrated on that, at least until thepeople washed up before eating, Pasco’s cousin Haidaycie elbowed hiic, Pasco, of all things! What’s next? Dancing a fortune into our pockets?"

"Coet the fairls," jeered one of his olderfor his supper"

"The sooner you face facts, the happier you’ll be," Reha informed Pasco with all the wisdo is your life"

"There’s plenty of Acalons and Qaises who aren’t har riers!" argued Pasco

They all looked at him as if to say, Don’t waste our tio for har rier," Haiday inforht," said Reha "Besides, you’re Macarin’s and Zahra’s only son You have to harry" She followed Haiday inside

"Tippy-feet," jeered Vani He flicked his drying-cloth at Pasco hard, lashing the younger boy’s cheek

Pasco yelped Holding the weal left by the cloth, he glared at Vani as the older boy ambled into the house Someday, Pasco told hi

The duke e better, and joined Sandry and Baron Erdogun for lunch After that, they all applied themselves to the affairs of Duke’s Citadel and the realm In the weeks after the duke’s heart attack, when he had rested all afternoon, Erdogun and Sandry fell into the habit ofin a nearby study to deal with the work that built up In the quiet afternoon hours, Sandry took the household accounts over fro useful to do and gave hih for Healer Coree that a little business would not tax hiun for an hour, then two, then three When it was judged that he was strong enough to leave the second floor and go downstairs, they set up a workroom there The baron labored over heaps of docu ments while the duke read reports and Sandry attended to the running of a large castle Often the duke and Erdogun discussedEmelan and met with various officials Many ti the views of a e or another noble, but Sandry wondered if the duke wanted to see how her ht want her ideas on the proper scale of punishments for theft, but she respected as well as loved him and answered him as seriously as she could

The afternoon that followed Jamar Rokat’s murder sped by All too soon it was tie Oama and Kwaben awaited her with herthrough the city in mid-afternoon was a slower ot around, stray animals, and all kinds of people The talk on every corner seemed to be about the merchant’s very messy death

She had meant to be early for the fishers’ return, but to her surprisetheir contents Each crew had brought in as e had turned out to help load baskets of fish into carts that would take them to the city for sale