Free Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce Page B

plant eater," she told Zek quietly. The marmoset, who had climbed on
top of her head for a better look, agreed. Behind this one, she saw other
snake-necks, though none so large.
     
    Near
the snake-neck was another, frightening skeleton, for all he was only
two-thirds as long as his neighbor. His eye sockets faced forward, and his
heavy jaws bore a collection of sharp and jagged teeth, marks of a meat eater.
He had cousins, too, Daine saw.
     
    They
found a cluster of duck-billed skeletons and, behind them, dinosaurs who
sported odd, bony crests on their skulls. One reminded her of a basilisk, only
the skeleton had a long, freestanding head knob, like a large bone feather on
its owners head.

 
    "Now
there's a hat," she remarked. Zek sniffed with disdain.
     
    She had
viewed nearly ten crested skeletons when she found a second hall in the rear of
the collection. Curious, she ventured inside, Lindhall behind her. Here stood a
double row of elephants. The four closest ones were strange-looking, with hides
covered in shaggy fur and tusks curved up in an incomplete circle. The next
four elephants had four tusks; two sharp ones on top, two smaller ones on the
bottom.
     
    "Mammoths,"
Lindhall told her. "The world used to be much colder, as I'm sure Numair
has taught you. In those days, elephants needed fur."
     
    "I
don't understand. Were these alive once? How are they here, in their skins? Are
they in a magical sleep?"
     
    "They
were brought from ice fields in the distant south," explained the mage.
"They froze to death, and the ice preserved them until we could work the
spells to keep them as they are. I use \ue in a general sense, since they were
found a century to two centuries ago."
     
    Daine
stared at the great animals. "You have such wonders here. I almost wish I
could stay longer and see them all."
     
    "I
noticed you said almost. I can't say that I blame you, though I wish that were
not the case. I have a feeling we could learn as much from you as you might
learn from us."
     
    Daine
laughed at that. "I doubt it, Master Lindhall. I'm just a girl with wild
magic, when all s said and done. When I leave in six days, Carthak wont even
remember I was here."
     
    Lindhall
smiled. "But / will remember, and so will the emperor's birds,"
     
    "I
couldn't ask for more," she said with a grin.
     
    Nightfall
saw her in a lilac muslin dress and the long, sleeveless surcoat that had just
come into fashion in the north. Hers was gold silk, as frail as a butterfly's
wing, with a beaded hem to make it hang properly. The outfit made her nervous.
She was sure that at any moment she would step on the hem and rip it out.
     
    She and
the adults were in a reception room with floors tiled in squares of night-blue
lapis lazuli and white marble. The talks were over for the day. While the
guests sipped fruit juices and nibbled delicacies, Daine waited for Numair to
finish a conversation with the ambassador from Galla. At last that gentleman
bowed to him, and wandered off.
     
    Turning,
Numair smiled. "You're becoming a young lady." He brushed a curl from
her cheek. "If I'm not careful, you'll be grown and married to a deserving
fellow before I realize it."
     
    She
ignored this as being too silly for comment. "When can we talk?" she
demanded. "You've got to find a way, somehow. It may be fair
important."
     
    It may
be ?
     
    "I
don't know. I'm not sure." She thought for a moment and decided she had to
take a chance and give him some clue as to what she wanted. "I spoke to
the badger yesterday."
     
    That
startled him. "Where?"
     
    "Aboard
ship. In my cabin. He was"-—she groped for a phrase—"not himself?'
     
    Long
brows drew together. "Not—" The doors swung open. "Very
well—I'll try to develop some opportunity," he said quickly. "They've
scheduled these meetings so tightly we barely have time to scratch, let alone
talk,"
     
    The
group of people surged forward, taking them with it. In the banquet haU the
emperor waited beside a long,