Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce Page A

artisans’ workshops, and his rock gardens. Everyone would gather together for a late breakfast or early midday meal.
    After a noon rest, so necessary in a part of the country that was already warming up for summer, Jia Jui would fetch Evvy to show her how the Yanjingyi children studied magic, or Evvy would show Jia Jui what she could do. Briar and Rosethorn retreated to the greenhouse where they and the gardeners would work on the rose they had promised Weishu. There they produced a red-and-yellow-streaked bloom unlike any other in thegardens. The Weishu Rose was resistant to every plant ailment Rosethorn and Briar could think of, including all the molds and funguses known by the local peasant farmers. The blossoms would poison any insects that thought to dine on them, and they would reproduce only from seeds, not cuttings.
    They presented the emperor with his rose, and a bush which showed a handful of buds, on their fifth morning, at breakfast. They could tell from his face that he was deeply conflicted.
    “Forgive us, that we cannot rejoice more,” he said as a eunuch carried the potted plant away and Weishu turned the single cut bloom that Rosethorn had given him around in his fingers. (Briar had been careful to remove the thorns first.) “Even the scent is perfection. Our heart yearns to learn more of our Weishu Rose, but our duty forces us to leave it behind. We depart the Winter Palace in the morning. Our household will continue to look after you as if we were here, but imperial business calls us away. You will find we have left the three of you certain gifts, in thanks for your learning and company, together with the pack animals you will need to continue your journey. We are given to understand you mean to take ship from Hanjian at the end of the month you call Goose Moon?”
    Rosethorn bowed. “That is our intention, yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”
    “You will have plenty of time,” Weishu said. “We will ask our priests to pray for your safe journeys by land and sea.”
    He rose from his table and they bowed to him for the final time. The next morning, the three mages went to the Gate of Blessed Departures to say good-bye, but the emperor had nothing else to say to them. He did wear his Weishu Rose tucked intooverlapping pieces of his armor. They watched him ride off with his mages and guards, each feeling a tremendous amount of relief they dared not express.
    Parahan joined them as a brigade of imperial troops and another of archers followed their master through the gate. “Things will be more relaxed with the big dogs gone,” he remarked. “You can sleep as long as you like.”
    “What happens to you?” Evvy asked.
    Parahan shrugged. “I wait here until he sends for me. If he’d gone to Inxia, like he’d meant to this winter, I’d have traveled with him, but he changed his mind. Where he’s going, he won’t be settled. He doesn’t like taking me places unless he’s certain I won’t be able to escape.”
    “Inxia?” Briar asked sharply. “I thought he was fighting with Inxia and its neighbors.”
    Parahan shook his head. “Inxia and Qayan surrendered over the course of the winter. I suppose they couldn’t face another summer’s hammering. I can’t say that I blame them.”
    “Their gods have mercy on them,” Rosethorn said. “Parahan, will you excuse us? I have some messages to send if we are to leave soon.”
    “Of course,” he said. “Shall I bring supper to you, or shall I take you to supper?”
    “Supper someplace we haven’t seen,” Rosethorn suggested.
    Parahan bowed and sauntered off.
    “Race you!” Evvy challenged her teachers. She ran down the forested paths that led back to their pavilion.
    “If she thinks I am going to run, she may think again,” Briartold Rosethorn. “I am going to walk with my most wonderful teacher.”
    “You won’t say that by the time we’re done packing,” she warned, taking his arm. “I don’t want to waste any time, and no