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 into overlapping 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,” Briar told 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 lollygagging from you, young man.”

“I don’t intend to lollygag. If we’re on the far side of the Realms of the Sun in Snow Moon, we stand a good chance of being home within a year. We can do it if we’re in Hanjian by the end of Goose Moon. That gives us plenty of time, if we find a caravan soon.” Briar smiled at Rosethorn as they strolled along. “I’ll move just as spritely as a rabbit. You’ll see.”

“Hmm.” Rosethorn looked up at a hanging willow branch. The edges of its leaves were brown. She did no more than look, but Briar felt it as her magic washed over the tree and dismissed the illness that was creeping into its limbs. “Boy, you flinched when Parahan talked about Inxia and Qayan. Don’t think for a moment that I missed it.”

Briar sighed and steered her onto the shady path. The day was getting hot, and Rosethorn wasn’t wearing a hat. “The God-King was hoping the emperor would spend the summer throwing his armies at those two countries and Yithung in the northeast, rather than at Gyongxe. He won’t like knowing that Weishu now owns Inxia and Qayan.”

“Well, with luck the emperor will turn to Yithung, not Gyongxe. There’s very little in Gyongxe to tempt him after all. And the God-King should know about Inxia and Qayan by now. Or at least he will know, long before you could get word to him.”

Briar knew she was right. There really was nothing more they could do.

For a moment, when they reached their pavilion, Briar thought Evvy was walking away from his bedchamber. Then he decided she’d simply been chasing her lively orange cat Apricot. None of the maids was present to scold if the cats climbed the lacquered cabinets, tables, and chairs. Rosethorn hoisted the cat called Raisin over one shoulder and said, “Start packing,” before she sat down at a table to write messages.

Briar rang the bell outside the pavilion to summon a messenger. The girl briefly whined when she learned she would have to ride to the caravansary where the Traders made camp outside Dohan, but was all smiles when Briar held up a silver coin. While they waited for word, they went into their rooms to nap, pack, or both. Before sunset, their messenger returned with word that a caravan would be leaving for the seaport of Hanjian in three days.

“Well, I mean to shift our things to the caravansary as soon as we’re packed,” Rosethorn said firmly. “That will give us the chance to get to know the people we’ll be traveling with.”

That night Parahan took them to a small pavilion set on a pond. There they were cool and comfortable listening to night birds and watching floating lamps on the water. By the next night almost all of their belongings had been carried away to be loaded onto horses for their dawn departure. Parahan had the palace staff bring them simple foods, and he rose to leave them as soon as they were finished.

“I know you will want plenty of sleep tonight,” he said as the servants withdrew. “And I am not one for long good-byes.”

Rosethorn took his hand in both of hers. “Mila and Green Man bless you,” she told him. “And may Shurri Flamesword see you home in victory one day.”

Parahan kissed her forehead. “You played the part of the agreeable traveler well, but wildflowers don’t last very long here. I am glad to see you escape.” He clasped Briar’s hand, then Evvy’s, in a jangling of chains. Crouching in front of Evvy, he tweaked her nose. “I wish you could have met my sister Souda,” he said with a smile. “You two are much alike.”