"I'm aware of our position, Jeffson."
"You will not find the Silver Princess higher than this," he said. "The mountains become inhospitable for such a delicate flower."
Was Jeffson arguing with me about botany?
I wanted to point out that I knew precisely where Silver Princess could and couldn't grow, and I didn't need his advice, but that would have been rude.
"There have been reports of it growing much higher than this elevation," I said instead. "I'm not ready to give up."
The silence from behind me was deafening.
I stopped and turned to face the group. Twelve faces looked back at me, ranging from Gavon's amused half-smile to Jeffson's stone-carved disapproval. Between them stood my two research assistants, who couldn't have worn more different expressions if they'd tried. Denna, whose mousy exterior hid a mountain cat's heart, was nodding her approval, and Palel, who hated field trips, especially when they involved trekking up the mountains, was glaring at me but trying not to.
If anyone was going to start a mutiny, it would be him.
The remaining eight were seven experienced porters and one field medic, whose name I kept forgetting because he never took part in any of our conversations. He wore a perpetually worried expression, which had deepened considerably since we'd passed the first marker.
"I know that we've been climbing since dawn, and the Silver Princess isn't where it was supposed to be." I smiled encouragingly. "I also know that you are all tired and want to get down to where it is warmer."
Hope sparked in Palel's eyes, and he nodded enthusiastically in agreement.
Denna looked disappointed.
Gavon leaned against a boulder and struck a pose, his blond hair still perfectly slicked back and glossy-looking despite hours of hiking.
Whatever product he used on his hair could probably anchor a ship in a storm.
"How much higher do you intend to go?" he asked.
"Another two hundred meters. Maybe two-fifty." I held up a hand to forestall the objections I could see forming on multiple faces. "The magnetic concentration increases sharply abovefifteen hundred meters. The higher it is, the better our chances of finding the Silver Princess."
"It might be extinct," Jeffson said. "Forgive my bluntness, Your Highness, but you are basing this expedition on the word of a goat herder who might have suffered from altitude sickness and hallucinated the Silver Princess. We might be risking our necks for a plant that no longer exists."
"The last documented specimen was collected less than forty years ago, which means that someone found it growing within living memory."
"The bloom is a myth," Palel murmured so quietly that I almost missed it.
I ignored his comment the same way I ignored all the other cautious voices and the well-meaning advice of people who thought a princess should cultivate roses in her private garden, or even better, stay indoors to avoid exposure to the sun.
I did cultivate a garden, but the varieties I bred were experimental hybrids intended to explore the potential of plants as medicine rather than to produce the most beautiful flowers.
My mother didn't approve of the tan I got from gardening, but she considered my so-called hobby an acceptable eccentricity. That being said, she was strongly opposed to the expeditions, but she had given up on trying to dissuade me from embarking on them.
"Two hundred meters," I repeated. "If I don't find evidence of Silver Princess growth within two hours, we turn around and go back to camp. We will still make it well before dark."
Jeffson looked like he wanted to argue further, but he'd been working for me long enough to know when I had made up my mind and wouldn't budge.
"Two hours," he said. "Not a minute more."
"You've got yourself a deal." I smiled at him as if he had actually managed to negotiate successfully with me.
There was no reason to undermine his authority in front of his people, even if he was just capitulating to the demands of an eccentric princess.
As the group re-formed and resumed climbing, Gavon fell into step beside me. "I'm starting to think this expedition wasn't such a great idea," he said.
"You've been complaining nonstop since this morning. You wanted to come, so you don't get to complain."
"I thought that it would be a great opportunity to get first-hand experience for my script." He smoothed his hand over his slicked-back hair. "They say to write what you know, right?"
