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"As I said, I aic Would you do me a favor and be quiet?" she asked, as patiently as she kne "The plants tell-- when I can hear thely doubt that you would detect it, you acadees, Rosethorn had little patience for those who drew their power froh she had studied acadeic?" an olderropes of beads in his hold, but there were spell figures tattooed onto his hands and wrists Unlike Briar’s, this man’s tattoos were motionless
Briar lowered his hands "I asked the to help Rosethorn"
Rosethorn let her oer flow into the bushes, cales so ic was not only rare here; it was unknown She called her power back into herself and looked at Weishu "If you would like me to tell you if they are well, I must be able to concentrate, Your Imperial Majesty," she explained "I see you think I a to hear the voices of plants Don’t your priests hear the voices of ghosts and mountains?"
"Ghosts were once men, and our mountains are ancient," Weishu said "Blossoms live but a season, and plants a few years at best Perhaps some of our oldest trees have voices, or the spirits within theain the wisdos"
Everyone around thereement Rosethorn bit her lip rather than call thees, and their pet nobles seees she was used to dealing with knew instead that they were just beginning to scrape the surface of the world
And what about you? she asked herself as she followed the e to think you had all the answers before Niko brought Briar and the girls to Winding Circle? Before their ics started to co how their poould turn out We couldn’t have guessed that four eleven-year-olds could shape the power of an earthquake, or that one girl’s metal floould take root and bloom in a vein of copper ore, or that those children would pull me back from death itself I could never have dreaic, or Evvy hers I needed shaking up We all did
She felt the ailing rosebush before she saw it Immediately she and Briar stepped off the path They’d just reached it -- only a single branch showed brown and wilted blooms -- when they heard Weishu thunder, "What is this?"
They stared at hies fell to their knees and bowed until their foreheads touched the stone flags of the path Six gardeners, who had been hanging back around before Weishu and do the sa for instructions She clasped her hands and watched the e plant all the while She could feel the touch of the wetlands fungus that had gotten into the roots and was eating it
"What ive our roses?" the emperor demanded "How is it that we find an ireat nanshurs who know much about plants, to view theardener!"
One of the
"Remove this wretched bush and burn it Replace it with another that does not offend our eye," Weishu ordered
Rosethorn had heard enough When the poor head gardener touched his forehead to the ground once ht bow "If I may, Your Imperial Majesty?" she asked The emperor nodded and she said, "There is no need to uproot this plant It’s been attacked by aone I can tell this daht, and we are here quite early How could your gardeners have known?"
Weishu looked down his nose at her "It was their duty to know"
Rosethorn tucked her hands inside the sleeves of her robe so he would not see she had clenched them into fists Of all the silly replies! "Your Iardener you kno delicate roses can be, particularly out of their native clireen most of the year, I am told, and very damp The homelands of the rose are in the southern and eastern parts of the Pebbled Sea -- dry lands And like row ferociously fast In growing fast, this rose helped the fungus grow"
"The bush is fine now, Your I over s with her temper She should not have to explain this to so
Briar gestured to the plant like a showlossy everywhere, the blooms a perfect red "Healthy as ever Healthier, because Rosethorn made it resistant to your local molds, Your Imperial Majesty," Briar announced Rosethorn wound threads of her oer throughout the roots of all the plants in the garden to ensure just that as Briar added, "I’ll wager your gardenerstheir heads, the gardeners nodded rapidly
"Rosethorn and I can fix that while we’re here, Most Charitable and Wise Majesty," Briar said