However, she was
well aware of the fact that high station was no proof of good
character. In fact, there was very little to call good in any of the
people she saw. They all seemed intent upon doing evil to their
neighbors, and were only sorry to be caught, not for doing wrong.
* * *
One day, Si'Wren was finally given her new ivory marking sticks. They
were beautiful, with different-shaped ends at the tips, for greater
writing versatility, and she felt as if she had been given a gift from
heaven.
Si'Wren was learning how to snatch up her marking sticks and write
swiftly when called upon, mimicking her mentor Ibi and copying the
flood of new words she heard by seeing what he wrote and duplicating it
exactly in clay with the white ivory marking sticks. They were
marvelous. The beautifully carved marking sticks did not grow soft from
her almost ceaseless jabbing of the moist clay when at court, and never
needed resharpening.
At the stables, where she went almost every day during her free time in
the afternoons, she was learning to ride, but not on the horse Mearch
had chosen for her. He refused even to tell her yet which one it was
that he had chosen to be her personal mount. Mearch had chosen instead
to pursue her training period on a gentle mare, to give her a chance to
develop a proper background in horsemanship.
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