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"Do you have to choose?" Briar asked
"Of course," she replied "Moreover, I’o will prefer we use our abilities as battle es This ares," Souda reenerals order when they call for battle s explode, and we can’t send a hundred catapult stones flying through the air at once"
"Hey!" Briar said, offended "We can do better things than that!"
"Oh, he’s aher eyes Riverdancer laughed once her translator relayed what the princess had said
"We can," Briar argued, grinning "We can put acres of thorn vines down ale the soldiers’ feet and the feet of the horses We can make their wood useless to thereed "And I have a few other ideas Most of the tees and shamans are healers, and they can use our medicines We’ll help in the tents e can, but when it coot to her feet and wandered off into the darkness
Briar returned to their tent to make sure his armor was in order and he had plenty of seed balls ready for the next day, then went over Rosethorn’s things as well When he began to yawn, he went to use the privy for the last time
On his way back to bed, Briar saw Rosethorn and Parahan talking in the shadows near one of the supply tents They stood close together -- very close He squinted, trying to get a better look without going over to the in their postures said they would not welcome an interruption Then Parahan rested a hand on Rosethorn’s hip
Briar turned away and briskly walked to his tent He knew that Rosethorn sometimes slept with people other than Lark He knew that Lark knew that Rosethorn sometimes slept with other people than her Rosethorn had done so twice since they had left Winding Circle Briar simply was never certain how he felt about it This was the first ti happened
Why am I surprised? he wondered as he pulled off his boots They’ve been circling around each other since we met up near the border And it’s Parahan If I was daive Parahan the eye myself
Am I worried she’ll decide to stay here? Because she won’t She doesn’t love the plants here like the ones back hoh trees, and I don’t think she’d ever let go of Lark
He was still trying to decide what his feelings hen he fell asleep
By the time she left Parahan’s tent at dawn, Rosethorn felt more normal than she had in some time Evvy’s loss remained an ache deep in her heart, but overall Rosethorn felt as if her body was her own once more, not a puppet that moved at the directions of the Treasures and the priests of the Sealed Eye For the first time, with Parahan, she had not heard the faint whispers that had been in her e of the Treasures
He’d been every bit the lover she had hoped, too, hu her His queen, whoever he chose one day, would be a lucky woman She sent a prayer up to Mila of the Fields and Grain that he would find someone who could appreciate hiht Now Rosethorn’s awareness of it returned as she greeted her friends in the ca the tents and loading supply anione to breakfast, she decided when she walked into their tent His gear was ready Only his ars, of course, had not been touched since she had put theroans of thawing ice and snow in theSorumbled deep in his chest She frowned It seemed too far away to be one of their own horses Had they sent out scouts, or were these enemy spies? She cursed the day she’d touched the Treasures The lingering effectsNamka of the Sealed Eye said they would wear off in time The problem was that his idea of tigling with her ar sht, she cocked an eyebrow, daring hiive her sauce about it Only once had he questioned her right to choose sleeping partners as she wished They’d had a nice talk about choices being between someone and that someone’s lover, and there had been no htly slap the back of his head for foolishness once
Apparently Briar remembered their talk, because all he said was, "Did you have breakfast?"
"Spicy eggs and rice with that puffy white flatbread," she said "I thinkfrom the chilies" She shook her head Hera little "It wakes h You could have joined us Parahan and Souda asked where you were"
Briar shrugged "We had mushroom pancakes over at Riverdancer’s fire -- very nice" He saw her struggle with the side lacings of her cuirass "Here, I’ll e that, and you tie htened the woven silk cords he inhaled and murmured, "I smell sandalwood"