ales. Two healers wrapped her arm in wet green leaves w

t. Iola was packing a bag behind me, folding things and unfolding

the Que

ather

Sit, and shout sitting do

both of us. "You said I'm going to the land. You

ngerous than f

n asking for twenty years and I've had the same three a

ee answers

ere not

had ever seen her. "Then here is a fourth. Your mother is not dead, as far as I know. She is a woman of the land, and she gave you part

gone dry. "

ot lie and tell yo

my fa

I will say tonight. Names are dangerous. The woman who threw your egg into the sea, and the man wh

can't take ca

n a practice current." Her tone was gentle, which made it worse. "Now list

ed on her

s the most dangerous. Each time you use it, it takes something from your mind. Yo

ence, and she takes your hearing for an hour. Cinder gives you heat, and he steals your sleep. Teal gives you c

is g

gin to dim, and what they hold inside you will start to leak out." She glanced at my chest. "Six gifts in one body is a miracle. It is

up being told I was a strange, lucky girl.

s not carry them well. Your ice will not weaken at

of dry socks, a small knife, and a leather purse of seed pearls. At the very bottom la

rd Pell. It will also tell you if the Stars grow weake

y n

ing I have ever made that

I decided not to thi

k in the rock guarded by two old women with spears. Iola cried the whole way

offers you something free. And if you find your mot

wil

d my arms. "Whatever you forgo

probably

ng," Iola said, a

Sable had followed me from the Hall, tiny and quiet, and settled against my collar like fireflies

it simply stopped. I crawled out of the last of it on my hands and kn

i

s, stretched a gray sky that went on forever. I lay on a beach of black pebbles

my ear. It was Orin, barely louder tha

ha

r what

"What do

he pebbles, a ring of white frost had spread across the beach. It crawled out, wi

e shore, a

e a wave. And somewhere deep inside me, in a place I had never known was there,