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Briar stayed and watched as those not at the loved and masked—carried in more patients By noon every bed was filled Workers then laid pallets in the broad center aisle Once those were ht in A screen was put around the coughing ht, but his breath now bubbled horribly in his throat

Inti the fact that they tended patients without gentleness, Briar stayed beside Flick’s bed He left only to fetch water, visit the privy, or fill cups froer one of bark tea set up on the table

Outside the night’s storh the cracks in the walls As workers brought fresh laloom, Briarand fading When Rosethorn ca!” he said gleefully “She’ll make it!”

Rosethorn took Flick’s pulse, then tried the heat on the girl’s forehead and chest “Still feverish, though not as much,” she remarked “We’ll just have to see” She looked up at Briar, who scowled at her cal the best news he’d had in a while “She erous than the spots—I don’t like how it resists the bark In any event, you have to leave her for a while We have work to do”

“Who’ll look after her?” demanded Briar

“The people ork up here, for now,” said Rosethorn

“But they aren’t careful They just poke the sick ones and go”

Rosethorn frowned Briar huddled into his clothes, expecting to get the rough side of her tongue She looked to be in that kind of mood

Instead she took a breath and resettled the strings that held herher temper in hand “They’ll look after your friend as well as anyone There is work for plant es, and it must be done now”

Briar put his cups doith a sigh and followed her out They passed three other large rooms like theirs on the way to the inner staircase Those wards were filled too More than half of the people orked in theht that coh the new healer in their rooht, he had never met any of the others orked in Urda’s House What he did know, frouments with them over the winter, did not leave him with much confidence in the locals

“Why serve here, if they don’t like poor people?” he asked Rosethorn as they descended the stairs

She smiled crookedly “Some care Some do it because it’s fashionable these days to take an interest in the Mire,” she explained “Souild charity funds and the duke, they’re paid a decent wage Some cared once, but they’ve seen so much poverty that their hearts broke”

There was a sobering thought, Briar reflected, that you could love so and lose that love Would he ever run out of love for green things? He brushed Rosethorn’s sleeve with his fingertips so lightly that she didn’t feel it

No, he thought with a smile I’ll never run out of that

They passed the second-floor landing and the ground floor, ducking around people who carried supplies upstairs At last they came to a vast cellar This floor too was busy: storerooms of all kinds lined one side of a stone-walled corridor Opposite theot water to the wards

Rosethorn headed straight to the last storeroohtly lit cha to floor with shelves More racks of tall, freestanding shelves covered the floor Jars ofof dust

“One of their people—who fled two days ago—sold all the hteenthe jars “And the medicines I freshened up when I visited Here’s what’s left, and it’s more than a year old If I could find her I would … well, never mind This is e have You and I will restore or add as much virtue as we can to every shred and drop”

Briar’s heart sank as he looked at all the shelves “Can’t somebody else do it?”

“Not like we can” Rosethorn took fat pottery jars marked Willowbark from the shelves closest to her and placed them on a workbench at the front of the room

“Can we just get fresh fro, dull, thankless chore

“The whole city wants fresh medicines Do you think Urda’s House is at the top of the Lord Mayor’s list?” Rosethorn shook her head “Stop dancing, and get to work”

Picking up a knife from the workbench, Briar used it to break wax seals and pry the stoppers from the jars The bark inside was dry, brittle, and scentless “This isthe bark with hisit had been parted from its trees “Like maybe two years”

“Of course it is,” Rosethorn said The sarcasm in her voice was not for hi easy about it?” She yanked two large baskets from under the worktable, one for each of theo by basket instead of jar”

Once the baskets were full, Rosethorn lowered herself to the floor in a tailor’s seat “What we do is become the queen tree, the one from which all other s are born—”

“Is there such a queen?” Briar asked, intrigued

Rosethorn gave him a stern look “The s believe it, and they’re the ones that ave hiic will be the queen’s sap that we put into this bark, to ain”

She reh anchor,” because it was used to get astarted; Rosethorn naht hiht way, so their powers of strength, purification, and the penetration of obstacles were at their height She had even given hi hi what came next, he offered his hands

She put a drop at the center of each palm, a third between his eyes He felt theic in his blood Rosethorn did the sa it with her oiled pals to either side of his own basket, placed his hands flat on the sides, then closed his eyes

She towered in his otten how it had taken his breath to see the tree-giant she was inside her pearly skin He was stunned noed and a little frightened

He touched her knee with his foot and iant shakkan, with all that power in you

Tend your bark, she ordered him, not unamused

Briar dreay and thought about his own ic So he was a queen , was he? Better to be a king , he thought privately, trying to see it Inch by inch he shaped hi and wistful branches, lancepoint leaves His power shaped him and made the veins in his leaves shilass to his power; he settled hi the dry, weak bark as if it were his own

Enough Rosethorn had touched his arm to speak to him Hold the tree in your mind, but release this load of bark We have more to feed

He drew himself in, opened his eyes, and checked the basket Its contents shimmered in his vision as they would have had they just been cut fro trees

Not too shabby, he told hiin his e break apart, he filled the jars he had emptied I can do this, easy

He and Rosethorn worked on four baskets each, re

newing the bark’s power to banish fever and pain, then returning it to the jars for use When they had revived it all, Briar exaFor a moment he’d wondered hoould be to sink roots and sprout leaves The idea was te, a way to escape this house, with its s A way to sit alone and love the sun

Fighting the ’s pull, Briar looked around Someone had left thee of cheese

“Food!” he said gleefully The king ’s temptation evaporated “Ain’t soup neither!”

“It isn’t soup either,” Rosethorn corrected hiled to her feet “I hope there’s honey somewhere I need it”

There was honey Briar added plenty to the tea and watched sharp-eyed as she drank it, then gave her bread and cheese Satisfied that she was eating, he gulped down his share of everything When they’d finished, he felt just as fine as rubies

“Say, Rosethorn?”

She stared at the bread in her fingers as if it were sawdust “What?”

“When’s your birthday?” It had come to him bet baskets To have the same birthday as Rosethorn—that would satisfy even Lady Sandrilene

Rosethorn sht”

He blinked at her That couldn’t be “Longnight?” It was the haht when all fires were doused and everyone prayed for the sun to rise