"You lied even then, didn't you? About my father being ill?"
"I didn't want you here for this. But you were mule-headed, and I never got another chance to talk you around. Just stick close to me, and I'll speak for you to Enahar. He's their chief mage."
"Why are you working for them? They're thieves, and murderers -"
Aymery sighed. "I owe them money, Tris, more than you could imagine. It was gambling, and - and other things. Enahar gave me a loan, but there was a price. That's how the world is." Going to the gate, he wrapped his hands around one of the locking bars and started to lift.
Briar cursed. This was cutting things much too fine. Daja! Sandry! he cried. We need help and we need it fast!
Tris ignored the boy's call. "This is a temple community" she reminded Aymery. "What kind of loot do you expect to find?"
He stopped pushing on the heavy bar to stare at her. "Don't you know anything!" he asked "There are spell-books here, centuries old, which teach things like making diamonds from coal and rubies from blood. Bespelled weapons, devices - they have a mirror that will let even a non-mage spy on anyone at all. And mages are the highest priced slaves anywhere - there's all kinds of ways to keep a mage that won't hurt his ability to do magic."
"I see they worked on you" she said flatly.
Aymery sighed. "Yes, they do. See this?" He tugged at his earring. "It was made with my blood and with Enahar's. It binds me to him. If he thinks I'm about to betray him, he can use it to kill me. And don't tell me to get rid of it. I can't, not so long as I'm alive." His smile was crooked. "I tried."
The winds rose as Tris swallowed hard. "Can't you turn it on him?"
Aymery shook his head. "I'll just bear with it - he'll free me when my debt's paid. This raid should do it, with plenty left over." One locking bar was up. One remained. Someone outside pounded on the gate.
Tris grabbed Aymery, dragging him back. The growing winds made her skirts whip. "You can't do it!"
Unsheathing his knife, Briar hurled the blade straight at Aymery. A puff of angry air knocked it away.
Tris whirled, her hair flaring out like a halo. "Stop it!" she yelled, furious.
Briar searched two snoring guards, and found their knives. "He's not listening!" he shouted. "And that isn't the Fire temple guard waiting outside, is it, Aymery?"
For answer the young mage punched Tris, knocking her back several feet. She hit the ground and lay there, stunned.
The gate exploded. Aymery went flying, landing not too far from Briar.
The boy didn't waste time thinking. The tree that had concealed him had low branches - he jumped for a limb, pulled himself up, and climbed until he was ten feet up. Looking at the gate, he saw that the smoke that filled the hole in it began to thin. Armed men and women rushed through the gap, holding kerchiefs over their noses and mouths. Their leader, a bandy-legged man in a breastplate and leather breeches, stopped to survey the scene before him. Briar looked frantically for Tris: she lay without moving a few yards from the pirate leader, her eyes closed.
Aymery sat up, groaning. His face was dappled with blood, and he had a nosebleed, but Briar thought he didn't seem badly hurt. The chief pirate walked over to him, sword in hand.
"Aymery Glassfire?" he demanded, stuffing his kerchief into a pocket.
"You didn't need the black powder," Aymery muttered. "I was -"
The pirate stabbed him through the chest, his rumpled face showing no feeling. "The boss says your deal's off," he told Aymery's body. Bracing himself with a foot on the dead youth, he dragged his blade free.
Briar held very, very still. If the leader glanced up, he was dead.
Instead the little man looked at the people who followed him. "Start killing," he ordered. "We don't want 'em at our backs later."
Briar gulped, and closed his eyes as first one sword bit, then another. He'd seen cold customers in his time, but to murder people in a drugged sleep -
Hail dropped like an avalanche, pummelling and bruising. Briar screamed with his own pain and that of every green thing under that hard fall. It ripped leaves to shreds, stripped twigs from branches, and left bruises on every inch he couldn't protect.
It stopped as suddenly as it began. Below, the pirates huddled on the ground, cloaked in white, like everything else he could see. Rising, they shed hailstones like diamonds. They staggered when they tried to move, dizzy from the pounding.
"Where did that come from?" demanded the leader. "Get some torches out o' the temple, now!"
The sleepers began to stir; the hail must have roused them. Tris lurched to her feet, coughing and retching, half bent over from Aymery's blow and her fall. The leader advanced on her, sword at the ready.
Silver flickered in the air, tracing a rope-like line that coiled around the pirate's neck. He jerked back, fighting to breathe. The temple warriors staggered to their feet and attacked the still-numb pirates. Briar climbed down as Daja and Sandry ran around the corner of the temple. Sandry flicked her magical rope, throwing the pirate into the air. She didn't wait to see where he came down. She and Daja came to help Tris instead, reaching her at the same time as Briar. The four hung on to each other as fighting raged all around them. Taking deep breaths, they surrounded themselves with a wall of sheer power, made like a net with their interwoven magics.
"Warn someone..." croaked Tris, swaying. "Where's Aymery?"