Rosethorn and Briar walked up behind her as the other occupants of the caravansary took deep breaths and talked a little too loudly in their relief. “Did they try to get into our mage stuff?” Briar asked.
Evvy shook her head. “Not even enough to get hurt by the protecting spells,” she said, “not like those yujinons yesterday, looking into our bags like we’d bundled a big man into one.”
“Charmed by the cats again?” Rosethorn asked. Evvy nodded. “How many times have we used checking on those creatures to keep an eye on soldiers inspecting our things?”
Briar put an arm around Evvy’s shoulders. “They earn their keep, those cats.”
Rosethorn gently tweaked Evvy’s ear. “They do indeed.”
When Evvy turned to protest an unearned ear tweak, Rosethorn tweaked her own ear, then laid her forefinger beside her nose. That was a sign Briar had taught them both, a bit of thief sign from his youth that meant uncanny doings, or mage work. The tweak of her own ear was notice to both of her younger companions that Rosethorn suspected the soldiers had planted spy spells in the caravansary.
Evvy growled.
“You’re getting hungry,” Briar said wisely. He didn’t resent being spied on the way Rosethorn and Evvy did; he expected it. He did sigh when Rosethorn shook her finger, telling him silently he wasn’t to try to find and dismantle the spy spells. Evvy giggled despite her resentment. “Let’s finish working on that soup.”
After the soldiers’ departure the Traders retreated to their house carts. Evvy didn’t blame them. Too often, when nations were in upheaval and looking for someone to blame, they singled out Traders. In return, the Traders had strict rules in their dealings with outsiders. If Briar’s sister Daja, and in fact Briar and all three of his sisters, had not done some notable services for Traders now and then, these eastern Traders would not be so willing to help them now.
The company of travelers was subdued as they gathered for supper. Everyone had something to contribute: bread they had made on flat stones, different kinds of tea, pickled vegetables, cooked eggs, and fried fish. The other diners were loud enough in their complaints about people who broke the peaceful traditions of a caravansary that the silence of Rosethorn and her companions went unnoticed.
“I’ll tell you this for nothing,” said a merchant from Namorn who was also bound for the Pebbled Sea. Rosethorn had cared for a cut on his arm and he felt kindly toward her. “You won’t see anyone from a Living Circle temple between here and Hanjian. The emperor’s Magistrates of the Vigilant Eyes announced back in Seed Moon that they had uncovered a fearful plot against the Living Circle faith. For the protection of the temples and those who serve in them, they put them under guard, by soldiers. None of the dedicates or their novices, or even any of those that worship, are being allowed in or out.”
Rosethorn stared at him. “But I heard none of this where we were!”
“Yanjingyi people don’t talk about the doings of the Vigilant Eyes,” the merchant replied. “It’s bad luck.”
“It isn’t only the Living Circle,” another diner said. She was one of the drovers who handled the Namornese merchant’s mules. “Many of the foreign temples are either closed or under guard. Only ones for the Yanjingyi gods and goddesses are open to all, and too bad for us that worship other gods. We can only hope they hear us so far from home.”
“A pity you couldn’t go to Gyongxe,” a woman from one of the other groups of travelers said. “They say that even if your god has no temple, you still have a chance of reaching his ear with your prayer.”
“Oh?” the Namornese man asked. “How is that?”
“It’s Gyongxe,” the woman said, as if that made the answer plain. When the people from the Namornese group stared at her, she chuckled and shrugged. “That’s why so many build their temples there, even when their faiths have homes elsewhere. That’s why the rivers that spring from there are sacred. Gyongxe is the closest you can get to the gods without dying. Everyone knows that. The Drimbakangs, all three ranges of them, they are the pillars that hold the heavens aloft.”
“Ha!” Evvy said, poking Briar. “I told you the mountains were important! And now I’ll never get to see them up close!”
“Ow,” Briar protested, glaring at her. “Haven’t you seen enough mountains?”
The girl who handled mules drew Briar closer to her side. “I’ll protect you from the skinny girl who likes mountains,” she assured him.
“I think it’s time to clean up and go to bed,” Rosethorn announced, getting to her feet. “I am sorry to hear your news,” she told the Namornese man. “We were in Gyongxe before we came here, and they had no word of this.”
“Perhaps he will return the foreign religions to favor as quickly as he took it from them,” the merchant replied. “We can all pray on that.”
Yawning, Evvy set about gathering their bowls and utensils, but Briar stopped her. “We’ll do it,” he said, taking them. “You go to bed.” From the look he gave the mule drover, Evvy wasn’t sure how much washing up would actually get done, but it was no skin off her neb, to steal one of Briar’s sayings. She hurried inside, changed the arrangement of gate stones so the cats could sleep with their favorite people, then prepared for bed. Before she closed her eyes, she sent another prayer to Heibei for Parahan.
She slept, to dreams that Parahan was running ahead of her. She was racing as fast as she could, but she couldn’t catch up, no matter how hard she tried.
Long after she could hear Briar and Evvy breathing in sleep, Rosethorn lay wide-awake, absently stroking the lanky Apricot, who lay inside the curve of her arm. She envied the cat. The day’s events and discoveries kept her thinking. Duty and wish were tearing at her heart.
Mila of the Grain, what shall I do? she wondered, desperate. I just wanted to go to the places Lark was always telling me about before I was too old to do it. I wanted to see plants and trees and flowers whose names I didn’t know in my bones, and I have. I’m bringing home seed and magicked clippings that will keep me busy for years, if I can get them there!
If I can get them there. When Evvy told me about the invasion, I confess to cowardice. I thought that the local temples would have sent word to Gyongxe somehow. Someone among them must be a far-speaker of some kind. But if they’ve been locked up for months, under guard, I can’t be sure if they know the emperor secretly made peace with Inxia, giving him a broad road to Gyongxe. I can’t be sure if the temples north of Dohan saw the armies gathering and heard gossip that their new target was Gyongxe. And if I am not sure …
Mila, my goddess, I want to go home. I want to see my lover again. I want my own food, and air I can breathe without fighting. I want to see Crane, and Niko, and the girls. I want my own garden.
But there is my duty. Somehow I have to leave the caravan and make certain that Gyongxe knows. That our First Circle Temple is prepared. They’ll need me when war comes, too. I’ll send the children on with the caravan. Briar will go if I tell him he has to look after Evvy. I think.
She lay like that for a long time, staring into the dark.
When the caravan workers came to rouse them in the gray hour before dawn, they found Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy already awake, dressed, and packed. Most of their things, including Briar’s shakkans and Evvy’s cats, were already on a wagon whose use they had paid for. The rest they loaded swiftly, with the ease of long practice, onto packhorses. Then they saddled their riding horses. Briar elected to drive the wagon for the morning, neither Rosethorn nor Evvy being awake enough to do so. The caravansary workers brought everyone hot tea and steamed buns stuffed with pork or vegetable filling as the travelers finished their preparations.
The sun was just clear of the horizon as Rajoni, the ride leader, raised her staff. Her voice swelled in the trilling cry that was the signal to move out. More and more Trader voices rose from their own wagons and from the guards on horseback, as the caravan passed through the open gates.
THE ROAD SOUTH, DOHAN TO KUSHI
br /> So relieved was Rosethorn to be out in the countryside, able to leave the caravan now and then to investigate a new plant, that two days of travel and three inspections by imperial soldiers passed before she realized that her two youngsters were behaving oddly. She also had to wait and stay with the caravan to be sure that her instincts were correct. Most of the time Evvy and Briar behaved as they always did when traveling. They rambled up and down the caravan, making friends with Traders and merchants alike. They helped with the horses, the meals, and cleanup. Briar spent idle moments in the back of the wagon putting together seed bombs. These were mixes of lethally long-spined thorny plants that he and Rosethorn had created to grow very fast when the cloth that held them struck the ground. Evvy had her own magical weapons to work on and she did so, knapping sharp edges onto disks of flint. All of that was perfectly normal.
In the second search by imperial soldiers who looked for Parahan, Rosethorn thought both of her youngsters looked uncommonly pale. As the soldiers questioned other travelers, Briar put his arm around Evvy, when neither she nor he encouraged gestures of affection before strangers. They were cheerful enough when they answered the soldiers’ questions, but something was odd. Then Rosethorn spotted a Yanjingyi variant of an herb she used to cleanse wounds and she left the road to get some. By the time she returned, the soldiers were waiting only to question her.
No, she would say, far more politely than she would have done had she been in a friendly country. I have seen no escaped slaves or captives. I have all I can manage keeping up with those two children there. She would point out Evvy and Briar, who watched from their seat on the wagon. Usually the big cat Monster watched, too, blinking sleepily in the sun. No, I have received no messages from anyone who wanted me to hide them on my wagon, Rosethorn would answer. I know better than to break the law in a foreign country. Besides, the Traders discourage it. Are we finished? I need to get these plants in damp wrappings before they wither.
It wasn’t true — her magic would preserve the plants as long as she wanted to — but the questions tired her.
The soldiers would let her go.
On the third night, after two more such searches, Rosethorn made arrangements for them to take supper at their own fire in the shelter of their wagon. Briar and Evvy collected their servings of the evening meal while she tied their horses in a picket line near their wagon. If anyone thought they could snoop on the trio’s conversation, the horses would give warning.
Once the meal and cleanup were done and they had settled by the fire with a bit of work before bedtime, Rosethorn took a sip of her tea and said in Chammuri, “Do you know what I miss?”
Briar looked up from his night’s collection of seed bombs, mildly puzzled. Evvy, who was rubbing Mystery’s ears, shook her head.
Rosethorn went on. “The entire time we were in the palace, I don’t think I went half a day without ‘Parahan said this’ or ‘Parahan told me that.’” Evvy’s head jerked up. Rosethorn said, as if she hadn’t noticed, “I heard this mostly from Evvy, but you had some interesting talks with him, too, Briar.”
“We miss him, that’s all,” Briar said, but his eyes were too steady as he looked at her. She was very familiar with that gaze. He was waiting to see how much she knew. It could be a matter of stolen grapes or a missing prince; but her boy was in it up to his elbows.
“When we left Gyongxe, you both talked about Dokyi and the God-King until I thought you wanted me to adopt them. Now we’ve been away from the palace four days. Your good friend — our good friend — actually managed to escape. It’s clear he hasn’t been found. Yet you two haven’t uttered a word. Aren’t you worried? Aren’t you wondering how he managed to slip his chains and his cage?” Evvy glanced at Briar, who remained absolutely still. With increasing wrath, because suddenly a few things made very good sense, Rosethorn whispered, “That is the wonderful thing, isn’t it? You would think that only magic would help him to escape, but if that were the case, the soldiers wouldn’t be looking for him still. The mages would have found him. So it wasn’t magic that helped him to slip his shackles.”
“Please don’t be angry,” Evvy blurted. “I stole the picks, and I took them to Parahan, and I moved the blocks so he could get out. And I opened the locks.”
Rosethorn looked at Evvy. “You, Evumeimei Dingzai, stole Briar’s lock picks and unlocked Parahan’s shackles and cage.”
“She knows I did it, Evvy,” Briar said. “Even if you stole my picks, those were fancy locks. You’re not ready for them yet.”
“I really did move the stones,” Evvy muttered. “We put them back. None of our magic is there anymore, so they won’t know we used it.”
Rosethorn drew her legs up and rested her face on her knees. Finally she looked at her companions. “Go to bed,” she ordered them. “No, wait. Did he tell you his plans?”
They shook their heads.
“Excellent. Go to bed, both of you.”
She wished they had gone to their bedrolls under the wagon in utter fear of her wrath. Instead, as she was putting out the fire, she heard Evvy murmur to Briar, “That went better than I thought.”
Rosethorn held her hands palm up and looked at the sky. Gracious Mila, help me explain how close they came to the most horrible kind of death, she begged her goddess. Give them knowledge of the world before the world kills them. Give me patience, before I buy two barrels and ship them home that way. I beg you, my goddess, guide me before I do something dreadful and box their ears.
Rosethorn knew very well that these weren’t the reasons she hadn’t given them a long list of punishments and a royal scold. She had shown mercy because in two days she would have to tell them that she was sending them on to Hanjian without her.
With dawn came the promise of rain. While Evvy fetched tea and steamed dumplings, Briar and Rosethorn set the ribs on the wagon and rolled the heavy cover over them to protect the most delicate of their belongings. They had scarcely gone two miles down the road when the skies delivered on their promise. The cats, who liked to go for a run first thing after breakfast, returned yowling in complaint and took up positions under the cover. Soon after Evvy had made certain all of them were accounted for, the traffic on the road south came to a halt. There were soldiers ahead, searching and questioning the travelers. Briar tied his riding horse’s reins to the wagon and climbed up on the seat with Rosethorn. Gently he took the team’s reins from her hands.
Rosethorn decided that now was as good a time as any. She half turned so that both of her companions could see her face under her wide-brimmed straw hat. “Tomorrow we’ll be reaching a big market town called Kushi. You might remember it from the map I showed you. We’re going to have a small change in our plans after that. The caravan turns southeast from there, going on to Hanjian. You two will take our things and stay with the caravan, understand me? Briar, you’re to get Evvy, the cats, your shakkans —”
“No.” Briar held the reins tightly, so much so that his knuckles had gone white, but he wasn’t pulling too hard on the horses’ mouths. She made sure of that.
“Don’t argue with me, boy,” she warned.
“No,” Evvy said. She knuckled an eye before a tear could escape. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t leave him in the cage. Please don’t send me away.” She crawled to the back with the cats. “I won’t leave, you can’t make me.”
Rosethorn turned to Briar. “You have to take her back to Emelan,” she said, trying to hold his eyes with her own. He would not look at her, keeping his gaze on the team that pulled the wagon. “Briar, you heard what they said, Weishu has kept the religious people in the local temples prisoner. Unless there was a miracle of some kind, no one has been able to smuggle word to Gyongxe. I don’t know if I’ll beat the imperial army there, but I have to try.”
“It’s a horrible long way,” Evvy argued. “It’ll be dangerous, with bandits and rock slides and border guards. You’ll need us.”
“Be sensible,” Briar said. “Even with
people being locked up and all, you’re going the long way around. They probably will know by then. What will you do, turn and walk back out?”
Rosethorn stared at the horse’s ears. “I have to help. You won’t understand. If the First Circle Temple falls … It’s sacred to everyone of the Living Circle. This is my faith, and my devotion. My vows.”
“Now we come to it,” Briar said bleakly.
Rosethorn glared at him. “My vows. But I won’t risk your lives because I swore to defend my faith and those who take shelter in it. Neither of you is a believer. I am not dragging either of you into a war, and that is my last word on the subject!”
Rosethorn looked around the inside of the gilav’s wagon with admiration. The home of the head of the caravan and his family was ornate and as organized as the caravan itself. Each inch of space was put to use, with no clutter allowed on any surface. Rosethorn always took away ideas for her small workshop at home.
She exchanged her greetings with Rajoni and her mother, Nisha — the gilav himself took over as ride leader while Nisha and his daughter had their midday with Rosethorn and talked business. The women invited Rosethorn to take a seat on a foldout bench as she surveyed the food set on the table between the three of them.
Since this clan of Traders had its roots in the Realms of the Sun, Rosethorn was braced for the spicy vegetable stew with fish and green chilies and the pickles flavored with mustard seeds. Silently she thanked Mila of the Grain for the rice that took some of the bite off the chilies and mustard. She even managed believable thanks to her hosts for the excellence of the meal.
She always thought of Lark when she ate food like this. Lark could eat spicy food by the bucket, the hotter the better. She’d acquired a taste for it as a traveling player on the roads between the Pebbled Sea and the Storm Dragons Ocean. It was thanks to Lark that Rosethorn had at least a little preparation for some of the deadlier dishes of the southern and eastern countries.