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The old priestess chuckled "Doubtless he wants you back to make another This Rosethorn is separated from you?"

"Just for now," Briar replied "She had an errand"

The woman looked at hiical one Then she said to Parahan and Soudamini, "And you two troublemakers?"

"We are not slaves," Parahan said quietly, his hands white-knuckled in his lap "My uncle sold me to the emperor, but I escaped"

"It does not matter," the old priestess said "Emperor Weishu believes threats will make us crumble like dried mud Last year, he sent me a beautiful box, carved all over with snakes It was a very splendid gift" She shook her head "It is thanks to my friend that I lived after I opened it" The old woman stroked the cub’s back He butted her shoulder with his big head She balanced with the ease of long practice "He ate the small viper the eht with his belly ache, but now he knows not to eat vipers"

"But why?" Souda asked She looked at the cub with longing "Why did the eht that ratitude e to the God-Kings for allowing our teht that if he killed the cranky old woxe Instead he still has a cranky old woainst him We sent my would-be successor to him in a box of our own" She stood and went to the wall The cub stood beside her, his forepaws planted on the ledge "Messenger! Your imperial master knoho I ah she spoke in nor in the air It startled not just the er’s horse but those of the mounted soldiers behind hiry cats before I surrender anyone Gyongxe has many surprises for you people Get out while you can!" She stepped back from the wall and beckoned to the commander "Are you ready?" she asked quietly Her voice only reached those near theot to his feet Souda and Parahan were already up

"If you are," the Gyongxin soldier replied

Briar looked out Theback to his own people The archers s earlier, because their weapons were raised and ready to shoot

One Yanjingyi soldier, a burly fellow in gold-painted armor, raised a crimson banner Several men shouted orders as the archers aimed over the temple wall The soldiers trotted their horses forward

Then the priestess -- the head of the tean to chant

The iate shook itself and roared at the charging horse into the air finished its ju in the middle of the attackers

The horses wentas they threw their e paws, sending horses and h the air

Parahan’s and Souda’s warriors froze at the sight before them, but not the temple archers They aimed and shot As their bolts flew, Briar looked at Ji his crossbow Briar turned back to the tigers and saw their weakness They were anchored near the gate somehow Once at their limit, which seemed to be about three hundred yards, they could keep the eneyi soldiers also figured it out They fores to have a turn These worthies had kept far back all along Though Briar couldn’t see theuessed they had taken their beads in hand and were chanting the words that would wake the spells in thexin and Koh in the air For soes and even the soldiers The archers on the wall tried a second ties came forith small pots and boxes Novices folloith s, and fists full of incense They set their belongings on the wall and began to mix substances for the priests to burn and chant over Briar felt their power press against his skin The next time the archers on the wall shot, their arrows hit the ene and sat cross-legged on the wall

"Don’t let anyone trip over h the roots under the teht of rock that had to be one of the stone tigers On he went until he sensed the sood-luck charms carried by soldiers

Overhead now he felt bead-shaped ith rain: exactly what he wanted to find Weishu had not warned his es to remove their wooden beads There were other wooden beads, but for now theones would serve his purpose

Briar surrounded those beads with his own ht them the memory of their life as trees, before soic onto theic healed and united It was power that bent before it broke Instead of flowing strea and destruction into the wood, the kind of spells that burned and thrust

Willows didn’t understand thatthe what they were, the bits ofshook off the foreign power They took up the green rew Briar guided their power to veins of water underground Here they found the fierce strength of the Snow Serpent and Toic to his, sank both deep into the water, and let go