They all slept badly. When Tris cried, the other three knew it. When Briar dreamed of starving and watching the bread he'd just snatched melt through his fingers, they knew it. When dawn came, they were roused not by the Hub clock, but by the first boom-stone explosion of the day.

Everyone was up after that. Like the night before, no one spoke much. Tris fed her nestling, and barely smiled when Rosethorn pointed out that nearly all of his pin-feathers had come in. He might be ready to fly in another two weeks.

"Into a boom-stone," Briar growled.

"Enough of that," cautioned Niko.

Breakfast was over when Moonstream and Skyfire arrived, looking as if they had spent as good a night as the four had. "We need to talk," Moonstream said after she kissed Niko's cheek. She looked meaningfully at the children.

"Upstairs," Rosethorn ordered.

They started to argue; Niko said sharply, "Now."

"Just like Mother in her Captain mood," Daja remarked mournfully. Gathering up dog and starling, they climbed the steep ladder-stair.

"They're treating us like children," Sandry commented rebelliously as the four sat on the floor around the topmost step.

"We are kids," Briar reminded her.

"But if we're mages, are we kids?" demanded Tris.

Frostpine appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "We would appreciate it if you would go into one of the rooms, and not eavesdrop." His dark eyes were bloodshot and level, with no hint of his usual laughter in them. "Scat."

Grumbling, they obeyed. Tris hung back, shooing the others into her room. Making sure Frostpine had left the steps, she reached through the opening in the floor to grab a fistful of air from the room below. Carefully she backed into her room, letting it out of her fingers a breath at a time. Once inside, she drew the breeze over to her window, and sent it out that way. Now she had a steady draught coming from downstairs.

"What -" Briar started to ask.

Tris put a finger to her lips, and cupped a hand around her ear.

"... used battle fire on the thorns late yesterday," Skyfire was saying. "They've been pounding the spell-net in the east with the black powder balls. Those things make a deep hole when they strike the ground - they're blowing the spell-net apart, working their way in. Two more days, and they'll be at the East Gate. And even though we've found out how their black powder works, there's no guarantee some boom-stones won't get past our mages. They'll throw as many as they can over our walls, to soften us up. Some are bound to hit."

"Have the war-mages been able to get through the protective barrier around the pirate fleet?" Rosethorn wanted to know.

"They've thrown all they have at that cursed thing - nothing gets through," Skyfire replied bitterly. "Water-mages say it goes to the floor of the sea."

"He's got the barrier salted with mage-traps." That was Niko. "He really likes to use other mages' power in his work, this Enahar."

The four looked at each other, and moved closer together, for comfort.

"What of the navy?" Lark wanted to know.

"No word, the Duke says," Moonstream told them. "They may come, they may not. You need to evacuate the children. We can take them to Summersea through the hidden ways. A load of the worst sick and injured are going at noon."

"No!" snapped Sandry, eyes blazing. "Absolutely not."

Tris and Daja shushed her. From below Niko called, "What's going on up there?"

Briar went to the door. "We're just frisking like little captive lambkins."

There was a crack of laughter downstairs: Skyfire, perhaps.

"Frisk quietly," Rosethorn ordered.

Briar stepped back into the room.

"They are not sending me to my uncle!" Sandry thrust her chin out as far as it would go. "I won't leave!"

"Is that what 'evacuating' means?" the boy enquired.

"That's what it means," Daja replied.

Tris's face was dead white. Small lightnings crackled all over her hair and dress. Winds stirred in every corner of the room. "They can't send me away again. They can't."

Another boom-stone exploded in mid-air. Tris flinched.

"It'll get you away from that," pointed out Daja.

"And what'll be here when we come back?" Briar wanted to know.

None of them could answer.

"They killed my favourite cousin. Now they're going to drive me from the only place I ever felt welcome," Tris said very softly. "I'm done with being pushed around by the likes of them!" Going to the window, she sat on the ledge, and swung her legs outside. She would go up on the wall, she decided, and throw lightning at them until it killed her.

Sandry lunged, and grabbed her. The lightnings prickled, but didn't hurt.

"Let me go," snarled Tris, fighting. Daja came over to help.

"Listen to me - listen!" Sandry talked low and fast, trying to hold Tris's attention. "You want to fight back, and that makes perfect sense, but you can't do it by yourself. Haven't we all been hurt by this? He wasn't our cousin, but we liked him, and we're in danger, too." Tris was still trying to wriggle out of their hold. "You need our help. Listen to me, are you listening?"

The roar of a boom-stone shook the rafters.

"Let me go," panted Tris.

"She's right," Daja insisted, dragging her inside. "Listen to her."