Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(50)

"Okay, well, obviously this is the gate." Mikki ignored both of them and marched over to stand not far from the Guardian. From the corner of her eye she noticed that Gii followed her but was careful not to get too close to the man-creature. Mikki moved nearer the gate, observing that the roses that made up the wall looked only marginally healthier than the sickly plants in the gardens. The leaves of the multiflora roses were still mostly green, but there was a disturbing amount of yellowed foliage mixed in with healthy growth. There were a few half-hearted light pink buds, but none of the blooms had opened. She touched leaves, turning them over and looking in amidst the mass of plant that made up the body of the hedge, checking automatically for black spots and insects.

"I don't see anything specifically wrong with them - no obvious disease or insect infestation." She sighed and chewed her lip. "Like the rest of the roses in the gardens, they just look sick."

The Guardian moved closer to her. He, too, was studying the rose wall. "Can you make them well?"

"Of course," Mikki said with much more confidence than she felt. "I've never met a rose that didn't like me." Of course she'd also never met a wall of multiflora roses that listened to the commands of an ancient goddess, either, but she thought it'd be counterproductive to mention that. "We'll just start at the beginning and work our way forward from there. Step one - make sure the roses are well fertilized. It doesn't get much more basic than that."

At that moment a little breeze carried to them the sound of chattering women. The Guardian cocked his head and drew a deep breath. Then he looked down at Mikki and raised his eyebrows.

"You must smell our approaching fertilizer. What is it, fish heads or pig manure?" Mikki said.

"Pig waste."

This time it didn't matter that his face was like no other living creature; Mikki easily recognized the glint of humor in his eyes.

"Good!" she said brightly.

"You are, indeed, an unusual Empousa if pig waste causes you happiness."

She grinned. "I am and it does. Now it's time we get to work."

He flashed a smile that showed very white, very sharp teeth. Then he bowed to her. "I am yours to command, Priestess."

Ignoring Gii's sudden surprised intake of breath, Mikki tilted her head in what she liked to think was a goddess's acknowledgment of his goodwill before turning to begin giving directions to the approaching women.

They weren't doing a half bad job for women who had never worked with roses. Mikki stood and stretched, carefully circling her shoulders to try and relieve the tension that always found a way to rest between her shoulder blades. She wiped her hands on the outside of one of the tucked-up edges of her chiton and surveyed her surroundings.

The women were spread out along the rose wall for as far as she could see. Those she had stationed at the wall had three jobs - one group dug shallow trenches up and down the area near the roots of the roses. Another group covered the fertilizer with the freshly dug dirt after yet another group of women dumped the baskets of organic matter into the trenches. A steady stream of women carried baskets back and forth from wherever the pig poo and fish guts came from to the hedge.

There was also a chain of women who passed baskets filled with the loam of the forest floor from outside the rose gate back through to the women waiting to mound it snuggly around the base of the living wall.

Mikki glanced toward the open gate. Sure enough, she had only to wait a couple seconds to see the Guardian. All morning he had paced restlessly back and forth on the forest side of the gate. The playful goodwill that had begun to exist between them had dissipated when Mikki had insisted that the women be allowed to go into the forest to pile the rich loam into the baskets. The Guardian had been, quite simply, thoroughly pissed at her.

"It is not wise that the gate be left open," he'd growled when she'd explained how she intended to fill the empty baskets.

"The roses need the nutrients that are found in the organic matter that makes up the forest floor. So the gate has to be open because the women need to go into the forest," she'd told him, in a clear, unafraid voice right in front of all the women.

"The forest is not safe," he'd said stubbornly.

"Isn't that why you're here?"

He growled something unintelligible at her that made her skin prickle, but she'd refused to look away from him, just like she'd refused to back down in her insistence that the women go into the forest. She knew what the roses needed, and some of it could be found out there. Mr. Grumpy would just have to deal with it; he wasn't going to scare her out of what she knew was the right thing to do. And anyway, what could he do to her in front of the women in the realm? Eat her? Bite her? Pick her up and shake her? Please. She was Empousa - he was supposed to make sure she was safe. He couldn't very well be what caused her damage. She figured the worst he could do would be to throw a fit and stomp away. If he did that she'd just have to listen within and figure out how the hell to open a gate made of roses that didn't have a handle or a latch or a . . .

"I insist none of the women leave my sight."

"Whatever you say. Security is your job, not mine."

He'd cocked his head and sent her a black look.

"Well, I mean whatever you say as long as the women go into the forest and collect the loam," she'd amended sweetly.