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.”