honest pilgrims will bring you safe to distant shores.'
Stunned, Thasha lowered her eyes. She had expected curses, humiliation. In the school hymnal, the canticles for dropouts read like death sentences. To invoke the Angel of Rin…
'Do you see that box on the workbench? Bring it here. I have two gifts ere you depart.'
Thasha fetched the box, about the size of a hatbox. At the old woman's command she untied the string and lifted the lid. Inside was a buckled leather pouch, and within the pouch, a book. Thasha turned it in her hands. The book was old and very thick: four inches thick, but not heavy in the least. Its smooth black leather bore no words at all.
Thasha was struck first by the paper, which was so thin she could see her hand through a page if she lifted it alone, but sharp and white when laid against the rest.
'Dragonfly-wing leaf,' said the old woman. 'The thinnest paper in the world.' Taking the book from Thasha, she opened it to the first page and held it up:
The Merchant's Polylex: 5,400 Pages of Wisdom
13th Edition
'You will remember the number thirteen,' said the Mother Prohibitor. Then she ripped out the page. Greatly confused, Thasha watched her tear it into many pieces and drop them into the bucket with the dying catfish. 'Have you seen a Polylex before?' the woman asked.
'Lots of them,' said Thasha. 'My father has-'
'The newest edition. Of course he does. Every sailing man of means owns a Polylex, if he owns any book at all. It is a traveler's companion-an encyclopedia, dictionary and history of the world, written and rewritten over centuries and published anew every twenty years. What are you thinking?'
Thasha blushed. 'I'm sorry, Your Grace. My father says the Merchant's Polylex is full of rubbish and rot.'
The Mother Prohibitor frowned, so that her eyebrows met like crossed knives. 'This particular copy is rare. Some would call it priceless. Keep it near you-and read it now and again, girl. Decide for yourself what is rubbish, and what is gold. Now put it away, and show me that hand of yours.'
Thasha knew which hand she meant. The old woman turned it palm-up and traced the old wound with her fingers. Thasha's mind was a-whirl. Why would the Mother Prohibitor make her such a gift when she had barely dodged disgrace? Why were they talking at all?
'Somewhere in the Polylex,' said the Mother Prohibitor, 'you will find a legend from the old kingdom of Nohirin about another girl with a wounded hand. She was called Erithusmй, and she was born without fear. She laughed at earthquakes, crawled under elephants' feet, ran into burning fields to admire the flames. But on her sixteenth birthday the king of Nohirin came with his warriors and took her away to the north of that land, a place of ice- sheathed mountains, and ordered her to enter a high cave and fetch out what she found there.
'The king knew well what she would find: a magical weapon called the Nilstone, one of the great horrors of history. None knew whence it came. Out of the gullet of a dragon, said some. Fallen from the moon or a wander- star, others claimed. But all agreed that it was evil. The king's own great-grandfather had hurled it into the cave, and for a century no one who ventured within had returned alive. But fearless as ever, Erithusmй went in, braving pits and ice-weirds and darkness, and at last she found the Nilstone.
'It lay surrounded by frozen corpses-all the men the king had sent before her, slain the instant their fingers touched the cursed device. But when the girl lifted it she felt only a tiny pinprick on her hand. And when she took it from the cave she was possessed of powers beyond any mage in Alifros. With a word she scattered the king's army; with a snap of her fingers she called up a gryphon to bear her away. For three years Erithusmй flew from land to land, working magic such as none had ever seen. Here she quelled a plague; there she made springs flow where sandstorms had raged the day before.
'But all did not go well. She stoppered a volcano, and three others exploded nearby. She drove the old king of Nohirin from power, and nine evil princes fought for his throne, begging her aid to slay one another. And she found that the stone had begun to burn her palm where she held it. Confused, Erithusmй flew to the sacred isle of Rappopolni, and entered the Dawn Temple there, and knelt before the high priestess.
'Extending her hand, she said, 'I can work miracles; why can I not heal this little burn?' The priestess replied: 'Because even you, my daughter, are not entirely free of fear. No man or woman can be. Through fear the Nilstone is poisoning you, and turning your good deeds to ruin. Your choices are but two: cast it away and become yourself again, or keep it and die.''
The Mother Prohibitor still held Thasha's hand. Thasha waited, barely breathing.
'A legend,' the old woman said at last. 'And a warning, for some. You may look up the ending in your spare time. Now then, my other gift is a reminder. A Lorg Daughter is never alone. On the path you are doomed to tread, one of us at least will be near you. Remember, Thasha: in dire need you may call upon her; she cannot refuse. Now I must work. Is there anything you would ask me?'
Thasha blinked. To her amazement, she felt like crying. 'My P-Promissory Tree, Your Grace. Must I kill it, with my own hand?'
Every girl entering the Lorg planted a cherry tree in the Promissory Orchard, which filled half the compound and was now in radiant bloom. Dropouts had to uproot their saplings and chop them to bits.
The Mother Prohibitor looked at her for a silent time. Then she raised her hand and made the sign of the Tree over Thasha's head.
'It has taken root, child,' she said at last. 'I think we must let it grow.'
She turned her back without another word. Thasha left the hatchery, nearly blubbering. She loved them! Which was madness! She couldn't wait to be gone. Was it possible the old woman realized that kindness would hurt longer than cruelty as a parting gift? Or was she, Thasha, so plainly ugly inside that she saw even peace gestures as attacks?
Did they know her better than she knew herself?
Almost running, she made her way through the Great Hall. Earlier that day she had sent her belongings by coach, and made her goodbyes, which were bitter. The few friends she had told Thasha she was abandoning them. Could she deny it?
At the gatehouse the ward-sister let her into a small changing room. Alone, Thasha dried her eyes and untied her bundle of clothes. She laughed: there were the man's shirt and breeches, and even the longshoreman's cap. She had worn all these to the gate two years ago, in protest at her banishment. They were a little snug now.
When she had changed, she stepped out of the room and surrendered her school cloak.
'I'll keep it safe for you,' said the ward-sister.
This was taking ceremony too far, Thasha thought. But she bowed her thanks, and the woman unlocked a small door in the fanged gate, and Thasha stepped out, free, into an exquisite summer evening and a breeze off the Ool.
She took three happy steps-and froze. A thought struck her like a boot to the shins.
She walked back to the gate. 'Ward-sister!' she called. 'You say you'll keep my cloak safe? What for?'
The woman looked over her shoulder. 'Don't be obtuse, child. For wearing.'
Thasha drew a deep breath. 'Yes, Sister, for wearing. I apologize for my imprecision.'
'Quite so. Good night.'
'Sister, please, I meant to ask, who are you keeping-'
'Whom!'
'Whom, whom, yes,' said Thasha, squeezing her eyes shut. 'Whom are you keeping it for?'
'For whom is preferable, of course. Whatever is the matter, child-are you ill? We shall keep it for you.'
'But I'm not coming back.'
The Sister clucked impatiently. 'The letter from your father's, your father's… from the Lady Syrarys announces quite plainly his request for your temporary removal from-'
'Temporary!' shouted Thasha.
'With the aim of improving your manners, no doubt!' snapped the ward-sister. 'Three feet beyond the gate and she starts interrupting! May the Angel forgive you! A charwoman's girl would know better, but not the ambassador's daughter, no, she-'
'Ambassador!'
'Miss Thasha, you are screeching my words back at me like a circus macaw! For the last time I bid you good
