Pierce, Tamora - The Circle Opens 01 - Magic Steps

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Tamora Pierce-BOOK ONE OF THE CIRCLE OPENS QUARTET: magic steps - Kurr
THE CIRCLE OPENS
Magic Steps
TAMORA PIERCE
BOOK ONE OF THE CIRCLE OPENS QUARTET
Lady Sandrilene fa Toren opened the door to her room and stepped into the dark
corridor. She was dressed for riding in broad-legged breeches, tunic, and blouse,
and in one hand she carried her riding boots. In the other she held a round blob of
crystal threaded with dark lines. It shone brightly and steadily against the gloom.
The hour was early enough that most of the servants were still abed, and the
torches set to burn in the halls the night before had guttered out.
Holding up her stone to light the way, Sandry padded down the corridor in
stockinged feet. It was because of the servants that she made so little noise. In six
weeks' residence at the castle, she had learned that most of them were light
sleepers. No amount of persuasion that she could look after herself quite nicely,
thank you, was enough to send them back to bed. They would rise at dawn
anyway—why cause them to lose as much as an hour of rest when they worked so
hard?
As she passed a high table, she noted that the candle sticks atop it stood on a
rumpled length of embroidered cloth. She reached out a hand. The cloth shifted
until it lay flat and neat on the wood. A silk rug knocked askew slid in her wake
until it lay straight again.
She plopped herself onto the top stair and tugged on her riding boots, then
frowned. A light showed under the door of a ground-floor room that opened onto
the entrance hall.
Uncle, she thought, vexed. And what odds that he hasn't been up since four? With
a sigh, she trotted downstairs and entered the room, a small library. There sat her
great-uncle in a wing-backed chair. He was reading a sheaf of papers by the light
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Tamora Pierce-BOOK ONE OF THE CIRCLE OPENS QUARTET: magic steps - Kurr
shed by a crystal globe. The globe was larger than Sandry's, perfectly round and
with out flaws, its light as steady as the suns.
Inspecting his stark white shirt, black tunic, and breeches, Sandry decided she
would have to do some thing about the duke's clothes. He liked to dress plainly,
but there was no law that said he had to wear blacks, browns, and dark blues
without any bright colors. A crimson tunic might warm his skin tone, and a touch
of gold embroidery at his collar would add sparkle to his eyes. Until he was fully
recovered from his recent heart attack, he would need such aids to keep his people
from thinking he might still die.
And it wont hurt to stitch in signs for health and strength, either, she thought,
fingers already itching to pick up needle and thread. "Uncle," she announced
crisply, "just because the healers say you may ride again does not mean you are
ready to take up your old work schedule as well."
Duke Vedris IV, ruler of Emelan, looked up at his favorite great-niece and smiled.
The smile warmed a face that was still haggard, though he looked better to
Sandry's critical eye than he had even a week ago. He needs to smile more, she
thought. Without affection or amusement to light his eyes, he was a rather
forbidding middle-aged man with fleshy features, deepset brown eyes, and an
eagle's nose. With some warm feeling in his face, he looked both serious and kind,
the sort of man it was easy to trust and depend on.
"This isn't work," the duke told her as he lifted the sheaf of parchments. "I'm just
reviewing what's been done on the repairs to the harbor wall."
Sandry walked over to him, kissed his forehead, and drew the papers from his
fingers. "The harbormaster is an expert on this sort of thing. You told me so
yourself. And you know what Dedicate Comfrey said—why pay these people if
you have to watch them all the time?"
"I'm not watching. I'm keeping myself up-to-date." The duke carefully got to his
feet. Sandry did not try to help. Too many people did that, and it upset him far
more than did the loss of his former strength. "You and Dedicate Comfrey should
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Tamora Pierce-BOOK ONE OF THE CIRCLE OPENS QUARTET: magic steps - Kurr
understand that sooner or later I must begin to oversee my realm once more."
"I can't wait until you do," she told him pertly. "You're getting awfully hard to
handle."
He laughed at that. I'm going to miss you when you return to Winding Circle," he
remarked, going to the door."You're the only one who is completely frank with
me.
As he left the: room, Sandry put the papers she had taken on, his desk. For a
moment she stayed there, star ing blindly at the curtained, windows. As much as
she wanted to return home, she worried about him.. Over and over she had, heard
tales of the way he lived, skipping meals and going without sleep to complete
some piece of work, His household was in awe of Duke Vedris, and feared, to balk
him. Without her there to keep an, eye on things, he would probably return to his;
old bad habits.
She didn't like that thought. Emelan's best healer-mages had warned her that while
they had. done all they could to strengthen his heart and veins, he was vulnera ble
to another attack, A second one might well kill him; a third definitely would.
He managed, without a meddling fourteen-year-old for years, one voice said in her
mind.
He was younger then, argued a second.
Sandry growled with impatience—she had been, listening to this internal argument
for weeks—and flung her hands wide. The heavy draperies on the windows flew
apart to bare expensive glass panes. The thick gold ropes that held the curtains
open wrapped around the lengths of cloth and tied themselves, then let their tas
seled ends dangle neatly.
Getting her worries under control, Sandry followed her uncle to the main door. It
was open already, offering a view of the stone courtyard, a score of burning
torches, and a squad of the Duke's Guardsmen and their horses.
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Tamora Pierce-BOOK ONE OF THE CIRCLE OPENS QUARTET: magic steps - Kurr
Duke Vedris waited for her to reach him and offered his arm. His dark eyes
searched her face intently. "Did I say anything to distress you, my dear?" he asked
quietly.
Sandry shook her head and made herself smile. "The only thing that distresses me
is the thought that you got up early this morning to read papers," she informed
him. "You're supposed to rest, Uncle!" As they walked down the stair to their
mounts, she thought, And what will Lark say if I stay with him?
* * *
"Pasco. Pasco, wake up."' He rolled over and moaned. A hand grabbed his
shoulder. "Pasco, you chuff, get ting up was your idea. Now do it—I want to go to
bed." Pasco Acalon sat up, blinking. His sister Halmaedy knelt by the bed, her
dark eyes amused. She was still dressed for the watch that had just ended, the
brown leather of her jerkin stark against her dark blue shirt and breeches.
Pasco rubbed his face, ordering his traitorous body to move. " 'S a disgusting hour
to be about," he grumbled.
"No arguments here. What's the deal, anyway?"
Pasco swung his legs out from under the blanket and leaned against his oldest
sister. Their long, amber- skinned faces labeled them as kin: the same winged
black brows over ebony-colored, eyes, noses a little too short, and. straight mouths
a little too wi de. At twelve Pasco was just starting to get his growth, his thin body
coltish as he wrestled with arms and legs that tended to go every which way.
"A friend, wants a favor," the boy mumbled as he pulled on his garments, tying the
string that held up his breeches as tight as he could manage. His shirt required no
buttoning, which was why he'd picked it out last night. The less; he had to do
before he was properly awake, the better.
"What: kind of favor?" Halmaedy demanded, suspi cious. "This isn't off the
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Tamora Pierce-BOOK ONE OF THE CIRCLE OPENS QUARTET: magic steps - Kurr
straight, is it? Because—,"
Pasco ruffled her hair—glossy black, cropped short on the sides and left to grow
long on top, just like his. "You're home now," he reminded her. "No need for
harrier work here." Harrier was; street slang for a Provost's Guard. "An Acalon off
the straight?" he went on, his voice strangled as he bent over to don his shoes.
"The very skies would cry at it. Go to bed, Halmy. Try to dream of something
beside arresting drunks and house breakers."
She punched at her brother halfheartedly; he ducked under her fist, blew a kiss at
her, and left his room. He didn't bother to sneak by the garret room where the
maids were—they had proved able to snore through hurricanes and his mothers
first shout for them to get out of bed—but was quieter going down the stairs. He
went noiselessly past his sisters' rooms and ghosted past the floor where his
parents slept. Mama was the one to step quietly for. Once his father fell asleep,
only his snor ing proved he was not dead. Mama had the fox-ears, asleep and,
awake.
Down to the ground floor, a quick nip into the kitchen for some bread, then a five-
minute jog to the docks. Osabo Netmender was in his boat at Godsluck Wharf.
Once Pasco was aboard, Osa put his back into the oars, hauling the boat clear of
the commercial docks and guiding it east, along Summersea's shoreline.
"I can't believe you're out of bed," Osa told his friend.
"Halmy woke me after her watch," said Pasco, yawn ing. "Look, this isn't some
joke, is it? Your dad really thinks I can bring luck to his ship?"
"It's no joke," replied Osa, rowing with practiced ease. "Not when he's promised to
pay you a silver crescent. Pa never jokes about money. And its the whole fleet, not
just our boat."
Pasco shook his head, A silver crescent was too much money for any kind of jest.
"I just don't understand," he muttered, stretching.
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"Look, you danced for luck on the entrance examinations, and the temple took me
to be a student there," Osa, said reasonably. "You danced luck for Adesina, and
her baby popped out slick as seaweed—"
"Stop it," ordered Pasco. "That baby would've come easy without anyone's help.
There was a temple midwife with her the whole time."
"And what was a temple birth-mage doing walking by the fishing village: at just
the right moment?" argued Osa.
“I'll bet you. a copper crescent my dancing for fish don't do a whisper of good, "
Pasco told his friend.
The other boy winced. "That's too much like ill- wishing," he said, "We need the
fish, Pasco. We need 'em. bad."
I'm not: ill-wishing," retorted Pasco, offering some of his bread. Osa took a piece.
"I just never heard of a dance: that brought fish into nets before."
"Gran says it's an old one," Osa, said doggedly. "She's gonna teach it to you.
There's a song to go with it and everything. You'll see."
Pasco shrugged, and ate his breakfast in silence.
* * *
Despite the early hour, there were people about as the duke's party rode east on
Harbor Street, past Summersea's famed wharves. How the word got ahead of them
Sandry couldn't guess, but some of those who started their day before dawn
gathered along the way to greet their duke. Sailors, washerwomen,
draymen—their ea ger looks and open smiles showed how glad they were to see
Duke Vedris up and about. Sandry had meant to turn back once they reached Long
Wharf but, looking ahead, she could see more of the locals emerging from ships
and warehouses to get a look at him.
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Cat dirt, she thought, vexed. She didn't want him to do too much today, after four
weeks in bed and two weeks confined to his palace. At the same time she knew his
people had been frightened by his illness. They wanted to reassure themselves that
he was all right. One of the things he'd mentioned so often in their talks since his
heart attack was the need to keep a realm stable. People who thought it might all
go to pieces at any minute tended to do foolish things, like pull their money from
the banks, which would make them collapse, or plot to set a new, stronger ruler on
the throne.
Sandry watched her uncle as he patted the hand of a stout woman who had been
coiling rope on one of the wharves. In this light—a combination of lanterns,
torches, and a pale sky—It was hard to tell if he was tired yet. He seemed more
energetic than he'd been at Duke's Citadel, but it could be an act.
She looked at the grizzled sergeant in charge of their troop of guards. Last night
she had made a point of find ing the man and having a long chat with him about
today's ride. Now he nudged his mount over until they were side by side,
"He takes strength from them, milady," the sergeant told her quietly. "Same as
they do from him. I say let 'im go on a bit."
Sandry thought over what he'd said. At last she replied, "I suppose there's no harm
in going on. If it looks like, he's tiring, though, we turn back."
The sergeant bowed and returned to his soldiers. The word was passed among
them in scant whispers,
Sandry looked at the duke to find his eyes were on her. He raised his eyebrows,
and Sandry began to giggle. Trust her uncle to guess what the conversation had
been about!
On they rode, past Jansar Wharf and Sharyn Wharf. The duke seemed to be
enjoying himself, until he looked, up and saw a fat, turbaned man emerged, from
the door way of a large, gray stone building. Over the lintel was the sign ROKAT
HOUSE: MYRRH AND FINE SPICES in large, gilded letters, People moved out
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of the man's way. Some of them, slower than their neighbors, were urged to do so
by one of the three bruisers who came with him, two men and a woman with arms
like a black smiths.
Sandry could feel the moment the Duke's Guards noticed the rough types. She
heard a creak of leather, a hushed clink of metal, and four of the squad urged their
horses up on either side of Vedris. Two more rode next to Sandry: they had been
assigned to her since her arrival at Duke's Citadel and had proved themselves to be
quiet, quick shadows.
The duke raised a hand, and all of his group halted. The fat man came forward
until he stood just ten feet away and bowed low, his palms pressed together before
his face. His guards also bowed, though not so low that they lost sight of the
duke's protectors.
"Good morning, Rokat," the duke said. His velvety voice had gone very cold.
"May the gods be praised, your grace!" said the fat man, straightening. "It is a
grand thing, to see you among your people once more." Now that he was closer,
Sandry could tell that he wore a jeweled pin in the neat green folds of his turban
and that his clothes were made of the finest silk that money could buy. His plump
hands glit tered with rings, all gold and most sporting a gem. After living with a
smith for four years, she could also tell the bodyguards' weapons were very good
and bore signs of earnest use.
"It was unnecessary for you to leave your counting- house to give me these
felicitations," the duke replied.
"But I had to express my joy," replied the man—Rokat, the duke had called
him—as he bowed again. "Seeing you is reassurance that the peace and law of
your realm will continue to be kept. Seeing you, those of us who shelter in this
safe harbor know we need fear no withdrawal of protection."
"Is there any reason I would consider such a withdrawal?" inquired the duke,
leaning on his saddle horn.
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"Never, your grace," said the fat man. "Never. I hope to see you again soon.
Congratulations on your restored health!"
He waddled back to Rokat House. One of his guards sprang forward to open the
door; the other two closed in swiftly behind him, guarding his back. Only when
the quartet had gone inside Rokat House did Sandry feel a relaxing among the
soldiers around her.
"Let us continue," Duke Vedris announced. The guards who had flanked her and
her uncle fell back into their normal formation, and they resumed their ride.
"Who was that?" Sandry wanted to know.
"Rokat," the sergeant growled behind them, and spat.
"Jamar Rokat," Vedris said, nodding to a maid who was opening a set of shutters
nearby. "Head of Rokat House here in Summersea. They hold the monopoly on
the myrrh trade and import other items. They behave within my borders, but
elsewhere they are little better than pirates. They know I will have none of the
killing and thievery they use as common coin, and they dare not lose permission to
enter our harbor."
"Is this Jamar as bad as the rest of his family?" Sandry wanted to know. There had
been something about the fat man's brown eyes, a nervousness, that made her
curious.
The duke rubbed his shaved head. "When Jamar Rokat was but twenty years old
and living in Janaal, he was courting a young girl of great beauty and fortune.
Somehow the word got out that the girls father was considering another man, one
who had offered more gold in the marriage settlement. Jamar entered his rival's
house and with a silk cord strangled the man, his father, and his grandfather. He
desired to make the point that competing with any Rokat was a fatal exercise."
Sandry shuddered.
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The duke leaned over to pat her knee. "Fortunately, my dear, you need have
nothing to do with any of Rokat's tribe. For that, I am thankful."
* * *
Pasco leaned forward as Osa rowed his boat around the low wharf that served the
fishing village. Ahead of them stretched a broad length of beach on which a few
boats had been careened for scraping and repairs. Lanterns glinted from the fishing
boats as their owners prepared to sail. More people had gathered on the strand.
Under a lantern dangling from a pole, a man sat cross-legged, testing the drum in
his lap. A woman stood behind him, playing scales on a wooden flute.
"Your dad got musicians?" Pasco asked, goosebumps crawling over his back and
arms. "For me?" He'll blame me when it doesn't work, Pasco thought, panicked.
He'll say I promised I could dance a catch for him, and want me to pay these
people!
"It's only my uncle and my cousin," Osa told him pa tiently. "Calm down. You
jump worse than a landed cod."
Pasco made a face at his friend. The closer they got to the beach, the more he
wished he'd said no when Osa first spoke: of doing this.
You wanted to be paid for dancing, Pasco thought woefully, his breakfast a lead
weight in his belly. Paid like a real dancer, like' the ones who dance at festivals
and for the duke, instead of just dancing at parties with your cousins and, friends.
.And now it'll go bad, because you. didn't' have: the backbone to refuse!
His mother had said it time after time, "You. never think of consequences, Pasco.
You just think about right now. One of these days the consequences will take you,
blind side: in an alley, and you'll, wonder how things got so bad. He pressed his;
face to his knees shivering.
Soon enough he felt the scrape of bottom under their keel. Strong hands grabbed
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TamoraPierce-BOOKONEOFTHECIRCLEOPENSQUARTET:magicsteps-KurrTHECIRCLEOPENSMagicStepsTAMORAPIERCEBOOKONEOFTHECIRCLEOPENSQUARTETLadySandrilenefaTorenopenedthedoortoherroomandsteppedintothedarkcorridor.Shewasdressedforridinginbroad-leggedbreeches,tunic,andblouse,andinonehandshecarriedherridingboots.In...

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