The Will of the Empress - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,45

stay out of trouble. Besides, if she makes one of them her favourite, like some in the court, they can make their fortunes on offices like that of Chancellor of the Imperial Purse and Governor of the Imperial Granaries."

"Would she marry any of them?" Daja inquired, awed.

"Hardly!" Rizu said, amused. "Give a husband governance over her? No one but Her Imperial Majesty even knows who fathered her three daughters." She tugged at an eardrop, smiling wistfully. "Being a woman with power in Namorn is nearly impossible. She's managed it by never letting us take her for granted. She can ride all day, dance all night, and then wants to know why your work isn't done the next morning — hers is. She has spies and mages by the barge load, and she pays close attention to them. Men have tried to get control over her, and failed. Nowadays, they don't even try. But that's her." Rizu shook her head. "She's one of a kind."

*

Tris was absorbed in a history of the Namornese empire when she realized it was stuffy in the small library she had settled in. Putting her book aside, she got to her feet and went to open a shuttered window. Leaning out, she smelled lightning mixed with water. In the distance she could feel a rapidly climbing build of wind. A storm! she thought, excited. And with so much water-smell to it, I bet it's on the lake. I wonder if I can get a look — it's worth the image-headache, to see a storm on the legendary Syth.

Her student Keth had described the lake's storms to her so eloquently that Tris would even forego reading to watch one. She placed her book where she had found it, closed the shutters, and went in search of a view. Turning a hall corner, she nearly ran into the chief mage, Ishabal Ladyhammer.

"I'm sorry, Viymese,"Tris said. "I wasn't looking."

Ishabal smiled. "In any case, I was looking for you, Viymese Chandler. Her Imperial Majesty and the court are sitting down to afternoon refreshments, and would like you to join them."

"Must I?" Tris asked, pleading in spite of herself. "I think you've got a nasty storm brewing in that oversized pond of yours, and I'd love to take a look at it. I've heard so much about them."

Ishabal chuckled. "Our weather mages predict no storms for today."

Tris straightened. It had been a long time since anyone had doubted her word on the weather. "Are they always right?" she asked coolly.

Ishabal raised black brows that made an odd contrast with her silver hair. "No weather mage is always right," she replied in a tone that said this was a fact of nature.

"With normal weather, that's untampered with?" Tris shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll come to these refreshments of yours once I've had a look at the Syth, if you'll direct me to the outer wall."

Ishabal covered a smile with one well-groomed hand. "I shall do better. I shall take you there myself." She stopped a passing footman with a snap of the fingers and murmured something to him. As he hastened back the way she had come, Ishabal pointed to another hallway. "This way." She led Tris down through the axis of the palace, into a wide room. It held an enclosed staircase that led onto the inner wall that surrounded the palace. From there they took an enclosed bridge to the outer wall that followed High Street on one side of the palace, and the cliffs on the other three sides.

"Don't you like walking in the open air?" Tris asked on the bridge to the outer wall. "Why enclose your stairs and bridges?" She wasn't exactly complaining. She could no longer simply let the open air pour over her at will, though sometimes she risked headaches and bewilderment in the open wind just because she missed it so much.

Ishabal smiled ruefully. "Why? The god Sythuthan will turn your breath into a frozen diamond necklace at winter's height," she replied. "We dare not walk outside up here at that season — these stairs and bridges are the closest we get. Fortunately, at that time the god himself, and the lake, are defence enough. No one has to die on guard on this open part of the wall." They stepped through the doors on the far side of the bridge. Here was a walkway broad enough that three people could ride abreast on it easily. The whole of the Syth stretched out four hundred