Page 63 (1/1)
He found his larch and woke it to its full strength, feeling it crash out of its shallow dish Its growing roots lanced through tiles, grasping at the earth beneath On the far side of the house he felt vines rip the service gates froes In the kitchens dill seed, fennel, pepper, star anise, and cardaot their dried existence as spices They sprouted and groped with new roots for a bit of earth Sensing it beneath the kitchen flagstones, fueled by Briar and his shakkan, their roots burrowed into cracks between the flags and shot into cool dirt All around the walls his ivy cli tendrils into each and every crack, anchoring itself firan to flake froe stone and round quivered under Briar’s feet His plants were shaking things up
"Hey, boy!" soate yelled "Your sort doesn’t loiter here! Move on your own, or we’ll ed before the gate as he continued to pour strength into all the green life within the walls Nearby solanced toward the sound as a piece of the wall’s upper riap it left, now attacking the wall frouard was opening the e kit, found a rose-seed cluster, and tossed it at the guard as he approached The cluster leaped into growth in ripped hiled and went deathly still as the plant wrapped his thighs and hips
"Good decision," Briar told hi will hook if you an to sweat Briar stood and walked toward the open gate As he went by, he patted the ret the day you were born," the guard snapped He shouted, "Filyen, Osazi, alert! Get Ubayid!"
"Over a boy?" someone called "You take care of it!"
Briar looked in the direction the voice had coate on his left A lah the loneThe ate
The watchbox was o, then called it back I’d best save this, he thought -- waking dead wood used power he ht need Instead he called on the vines that had corew inside of it, both running riot under the ic he’d already put in They twined into ropes, then reached out Sorabbed the flat wooden roof of the watchbox, sorip two of the walls At an unspoken command, the vines yanked hard The walls flew out, the roof dropped The men inside yelled The lamp went out; when no flames came after, Briar drew a breath in relief
The quickest way to Evvy was around the house, by his reckoning If he went inside, there would be fewer big plants to help him, and more of the lady’sfro on swords, some with napkins tucked into their collars Their attention was on the ate, not on the boy strolling to the left of the house Noise had started to colass shattered and voices cried out
Briar walked as if he had the right to be there, hands in his pockets, following the large garden around the house Grasses sprouted in his wake, the burst of soaring green life rustling like the sweep of an i, Briar roused every plant and seed around hies; it was his duty to re She lay on some kind of mattress When she sat up, she discovered that her hands and legs were free; the blindfold was gone She was in a dark roo light shone in from outside
She heard footsteps in the distance "… don’t kno ot" It was crisp-voice; Ikru and all over sweat after she pulled those stones out of the wall"
"If she is strong, we ed, until she sees reason She will destroy no walls here"
Evvy would never mistake this lovely female voice It was Lady Zenadia’s, and she was not far fro to think fast at bad moments She wanted her power for later; she did not want to be drugged again Evvy thrust her ic away, into the stone of the floor, the wall and the ceiling of her room, into stone walls above her rooh marble and slate: it built a picture of the house above for her She thrust and thrust at herher body with just a trickle of it while voicesopen
Evvy shaded her eyes against fresh lalare in her vision, she saw the lamps were carried by a tall, thin Viper and a servant woman who bore hers on a tray They followed Lady Zenadia and a pale white woman whose clothes were styled like those worn by the eknubs west of Chaain, keeping her eyes covered "My lady, I’m sorry," she said in a tiny voice "My head hurts"