The Will of the Empress - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,37

was going to be so treacherous, I owed myself something to remind me that there was some good in being empress." She smiled at him. "I have papyrus plants growing in the next pond," she said. "Would you like to see?"

Briar hurriedly got to his feet. "I'm your man, Imperial Majesty."

She looked at him. "Are you indeed?" she asked with an impish smile. "Then you may offer me your arm." Briar did so with his most elegant bow. She rested a white hand accented with rings on his forearm and pointed to one of the paths. "That way."

The courtiers parted before them as they climbed to the next path, then fell into place behind. Briar looked at his companion, still trying to puzzle out how he felt about the discovery that this powerful woman liked plants. "So do you oversee all these gardens, Imperial Majesty?" he inquired.

Berenene put her head back and laughed. Briar's eyes travelled along the line her lovely throat made. They should do statues of her as Mila of the Grain, he thought. Or the local earth goddess, Qunoc. I'm surprised all these lovesick puppy courtiers haven't put them up all over the country. He glanced back. The lovesick puppies glared at him.

"I would not have the time to oversee each and every garden here, let alone at my different homes," Berenene told Briar. "And so many of them are displays of imperial power. They're impersonal. But I do have spots that are all mine, with gardeners I trust if my duties keep me away, and I have my greenhouses. There's always time in the winter to get my hands dirty. Here we go."

They walked out of the shelter of the trees into bright sunlight, an open part of the grounds that would draw sun all day long. Here stretched the long pond bordered by tall papyruses. It was bordered by a wooden walkway. Berenene led Briar up onto it. "I hate to lose good shoes in the mud," she explained, "and we have to keep the edges boggy for the reeds. Do you know what those are?" She pointed through a break in the greenery at the pond's edge.

Briar whistled. "Pygmy water lilies," he said, recognizing the small white blossoms among the spreading leaves. "Nice."

"I tried to crossbreed them," the empress said, leaning her elbows on the rail that overlooked the pond. "I wanted a red variety. I've had no luck, so far. But you might."

"It would take longer than I plan to stay," Briar told her, watching a father duck patrol the water near a stand of reeds. I'll bet he's got a lady friend with eggs hidden there, he thought. To the likes of him this expensive little stretch of water is just a nesting-place.

"It's a pity," replied Berenene. "I think between us we would create gardens the whole world might envy. But if your mind is settled, I would not try to change it."

A glint of light on the far side of the long pond caught Briar's eye. "Imperial Majesty, I think you might change any fellow's mind, if you chose to," he said gallantly, but absently. "What's over there?"

"My greenhouses. Would you care to see them? Or would you think I was trying to tantalize you?" Berenene inquired wickedly.

Briar looked into her eyes and swallowed hard. If Rosethorn was here, she'd say this was way too much woman for me, he thought. And maybe she'd even be right.

Berenene gave him a long, slow smile. "Come." She took his arm once more as they set off down the wooden walkway. The hammer of many shoes on the planks made the empress turn and scowl. "You all have my leave to remain here," she said sharply. "We're going to the greenhouses, and you know I can't let any of you in." To Briar, she said, "The last time I went there with three — three, mind! — of my courtiers, one of them knocked over a palm and one broke a shelf of clay pots. They're all grace on the dance floor or battlefield, but not in a greenhouse."

Briar looked back, met the smouldering eyes of a number of young nobles, and grinned.

* * *

Chapter Six

Once the empress and Briar vanished into the long greenhouses, servants appeared with ground cloths to spread on the grass. The nobles occupied benches or cloths in the sun to await Berenene's return. Small groups wandered through a complex of flower gardens nearby, while Rizu invited Daja to sit