“The emperor was an overwhelmingly gracious host,” Rosethorn explained.

“Well, then, we shall make accommodation.” Rajoni looked around. The Trader boys and girls who had taken charge of the pack animals stood a little straighter, knowing the ride leader’s eye was on them. When Rajoni nodded, the youngsters led the animals off to the stables. Only those who held the reins to the cats’ horses, the shakkans’ bearers, and the horses Rosethorn pointed to, the ones with the mage kits and their next day’s clothing, waited and followed as the ride leader showed them to their rooms in the caravansary. Once they had stowed everything they wanted to keep with them, Rajoni said, “Midday is being served now, if you wish to eat. There are tables by the fountain, or you may carry your food here.”

“I can bring the food here,” Briar said. “We’ll take supper with the rest of your company tonight.”

Evvy sighed. She wanted a nap, but she also wanted time to herself, to think about what Parahan had told her. She hadn’t had a moment alone with Briar and Rosethorn since they had ridden away from the palace. She had hoped to talk to them here, but what if there were listening spells on the walls? If they were Trader listening spells, that wasn’t so bad. But what if they were imperial ones?

Rosethorn said, “Rajoni, I saw a stream outside the walls. Is it safe for me to meditate there?”

“This area is very safe,” the ride leader assured them. “We only ask that you be inside our walls by dark, when we close and lock the gates for the night. We leave at dawn.”

Evvy and Rosethorn went inside to inspect their rooms. Using her guard stones, Evvy set the cats up in a corner of the main room by the entry. She filled a shallow basket with dirt in which they could relieve themselves, fed them from the sealed jar of cooked pork scraps the palace servants had left for her, and put down several dishes of water. Constant travel had made Evvy inventive when it came to providing for her companions. When she went to set up her own bedroll next to the cats’ place, she discovered that Briar had returned with food.

It had been a long time since the rice she’d had at dawn. Evvy did her best not to slop the bowl of chicken and lemon stew all over her face as she ate, but it was a near thing. She thought she might die happy when she saw the plate of spicy seminola cake that Briar had also brought.

“I love Trader food!” she cried.

“Do you know, when I don’t particularly want to eat, all I have to do is watch you devour whatever is before you and I feel hungry,” Rosethorn remarked.

Evvy and Briar carried the empty dishes back to the Trader washing tubs and did their share of washing up in thanks for the meal. By the time they returned to their chambers, Rosethorn had left in search of her meditation.

“I’ll be back,” Evvy told Briar and the cats in Chammuri when she saw the woman was gone. “Unless you want to come along. Actually you should.”

Briar, who had picked up one of his shakkans, looked at her with suspicion. “Go along where? I thought you would want a nap.”

At least he’s quick enough to speak Chammuri, Evvy thought. “I have to talk to Rosethorn.”

Briar’s lips went tight and his eyes went hard. “You have to do no such thing. You heard her. She said meditation. She needs quiet. She needs to relax. All of that imperial carrying-on was hard on her.”

Evvy crossed her arms on her chest. “I know that almost as well as you, Briar Moss. Maybe I’m not a brilliant, dung-nosed nanshur like some people, but I’m no paperwit, either. You might think that I have something important to say. Something she ought to know, even if I don’t have a cartwheel of metal hanging around my neck.” She marched out of the building, bound for the gate.

It wasn’t long before the tiny rocks on the path behind her let her know that he was following. She had found the stream and entered the wood before he said, “Evvy, stop. Look at me.” She did. “Don’t pout,” he ordered. “I just don’t think she needs to know we helped, you know.”

“That isn’t what I was going to say,” Evvy snapped. “What I am going to say? She’ll bite my head off if I wait too long to tell her.” She set off down the stream bank again. “You don’t believe I care about her almost as much as you do.”

“I know you care about her,” he retorted, trotting until he could walk beside her. “Or I would’ve just pushed you into the water.”

“Do you think you could talk any louder?” they heard Rosethorn call. “Because I am reasonably certain my meditations did not include the two of you squabbling like a nestful of birds.”

As they rounded a bend in the stream, they saw Rosethorn seated cross-legged on top of a large, flat boulder. “He started it,” Evvy replied. “I didn’t ask him to follow me. He invited himself.”

“I was trying to stop her,” Briar said.

“What part of alone did either of you not hear?” Rosethorn wanted to know.

“I’m sorry,” Evvy said, climbing up until she was close enough to Rosethorn to whisper. Briar came to stand beside her. “Bend down, please? Parahan told me something yesterday. This is the first time I think it’s safe to tell you.”

Rosethorn frowned and leaned toward them. The three were so close that strands of Rosethorn’s hair brushed Evvy’s head while her sleeve covered Briar’s face until he held it back. The woman braced herself gently on Briar’s shoulder.