“Oswin fixes things.” I said it again just to be sure I had it straight.

Jayat nodded. “Now, he might see what your Rosethorn does for plants. Next time he’ll remember what medicines she used besides her magic. If we use the medicines first, before the plants are dying, maybe we won’t need the magic.”

“Now, then! Is this how you show folk Moharrin hospitality?” a woman asked from the doorway. Oswin and Jayat leaped to their feet, as if they were boys who’d been caught raiding the pantry. The woman looked them over with snapping black eyes. She was queenly tall. She looked even taller with her henna-red hair pinned in a knot on top of her head. Her dress was plain brown cotton with yellow and orange embroideries, under a sleeveless yellow robe. Still, the emperor didn’t look so regal in all his silk. When she frowned, her thin black eyebrows snapped together over an eagle-beak nose. “This child has been riding all day. Now I find you’ve kept her here, gabbling like a goose, when doubtless she’s starving. In my house!” She looked at me. “Your Dedicate Rosethorn tells me that you are Evvy. I am Azaze Yopali, headwoman of Moharrin. My apologies for these two scapegraces.”

“We didn’t mean—” Jayat hurried to say.

“We were just explaining a few things.” Oswin was sweating a little. I stuffed my sleeve in my mouth so, if I giggled, no one would hear.

“Forgive us, Azaze Yopali.” Luvo reared back on his bottom end. He stretched up as high as he could, though that wasn’t very far. “I am unable to reply to questions speedily. I fear the delay was mine, and the blame is mine.”

For a moment the lady could only blink. Then she said, “I wasn’t told of a talking rock.”

“I prefer to be known as Luvo, though it is not my complete name. ‘Talking rock’ is unflattering at best.”

Again Azaze was briefly silent. “Are there more of you about?”

“They prefer to keep to their mountains. I am an unusual sample of my kind.”

“I don’t know what to feed you,” Azaze said.

“You need not concern yourself, but accept my thanks,” Luvo told her politely. “I dine on the power within the earth, and take it as I need it. As to my housing, I remain with Evumeimei. We have traveled together for some time and are accustomed to one another.”

Azaze smoothed her hair. “Well.” She looked at me sharply. “There’s more to you than meets the eye, that’s plain. Come down and be fed. And—Master Luvo is welcome for his company, if he likes.” She turned and walked downstairs, muttering to herself.

“We should have taken you to supper.” Oswin still looked sheepish. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to get to know Luvo better. Come on, Evvy. Azaze’s as prickly as a thornberry bush, but her girls know how to serve a meal.”

“Do they ever!” Jayat said eagerly. “Master Luvo, may I take you down to the common room?”

“Do you want to walk, Luvo?” I asked. “I know you don’t like steps.”

“Thank you, Evumeimei. I would prefer to be carried on the stairs.”

Before I could warn Jayat to let me do it, Jayat put his hands around Luvo. Luvo’s size being what it was, I knew Jayat had expected Luvo to weigh four or five pounds at most. Jayat lifted, and almost fell over.

“You’d better let me carry him,” I warned. “Me being a stone mage, it’s a lot easier.”

“No, I can do it. Excuse me,” Jayat told Luvo.

I looked at Oswin. He stood just outside, a finger on his lips, watching Jayat try to pick Luvo up. His eyes were interested, but distant, like Briar’s when he was thinking. I wondered if that was the look Oswin had when he was deciding how to fix something.

It was a good thing for Jayat that Luvo is the patient sort. When he likes someone, he only weighs about forty pounds. Once, he adjusted himself when someone he didn’t like was lifting him. It didn’t go well for that man’s back. I hadn’t liked the fellow, either.

“Can your Briar carry him?” Jayat staggered as he carried Luvo to the stairs.

“Briar knows to leave stone things to me,” I said. Oswin and I followed them. “Actually, that’s what I liked about him, once I got to know him. He was the first person I knew who ever treated me like I had a mind of my own. See, he was a street rat, once. He knew how bad people could be. So he knew what would help me understand things.”

“He…sounds…like a…paragon.” Jayat was puffing when we walked into the main room of the inn.

Paragon—I knew that word!

Jayat set Luvo down on the table closest to the door and collapsed onto the bench.

“I’ll get the food.” Oswin patted Jayat on the shoulder. “I think you’ve done enough for today.”

I giggled at both of them as Oswin walked off. “Briar’s no paragon, Jayat. He likes pretty girls and picking locks and making jokes and playing with knives. And he’s a realist. We both are.” I looked across the room. “And we both look out for Rosethorn.”

She and Fusspot sat with Azaze and a few people who seemed to think they were important. They had a table near a big stone hearth. There was a fire burning there, even though it was the middle of the summer. The room needed the heat. The air up here was even colder than it had been when I’d gotten Rosethorn’s coat on her. There were more grown-ups at other tables around the room, eating, drinking, and eyeing the main table.