After ten minutes of wandering, I noticed a storeroom full of tea. There Ammi was, steeping tea leaves in hot water with dried orange peel.
“Master Tamarin!” she exclaimed.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” I began. “I was wondering whether you could help me with something.”
She blew her hair out of her face. “I’ll try. What do you need?”
“Spices. For my dyes.”
“Spices?” Ammi wiped her hands on her apron. “Spices are expensive.”
“Berries would also work. Roots, bark, mushrooms. Anything you could spare.”
“Well, seeing as you’re making slippers for Lady Sarnai—”
“How do you know that?”
She smiled. “Word gets around, especially in the kitchen.”
“What can you tell me about Lady Sarnai?” I asked.
“Not much. The lady is impossible to please. Her maids complain that she enjoys tormenting them.”
I’d feared as much. At least Lady Sarnai was consistent in tormentingeveryone.
Ammi led me to where the spices were stored. “I’ll distract the spice master,” she said. “Be quick.”
When she gave the signal, I slipped into the storeroom. There rested a fortune of spices. Cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cassia, and an assortment of flavors I had never heard of. Safflower, saffron, cardamom. The colors were vibrant, but they weren’t what I was looking for.
Outside, Ammi giggled, and there was a thump on the door. I needed to hurry.
I reached for a random jar on the shelf, praying it wouldn’t be more pepper. No, it was chili. The next, turmeric. Then ginseng, licorice, fennel. I was running out of time!
I reached for another jar in the far corner. As soon as I opened it, I thanked the gods of luck.
Dried pea flowers. The cooks used them in sticky rice desserts to color the rice a rich shade of blue.
I poured a good handful of the dried flowers into my pocket and, ripping sheets from my sketchbook, wrapped up a few pinches of saffron, fennel seeds, and sorrel—all yellow dyes. Even if Lady Sarnai didn’t like yellow,Idid. I liked how it stained my fingertips with sunshine and brightened the other colors surrounding it.
Ammi had somehow orchestrated it so that a trio of servant girls giggled around me as I slid out the door.
“Ammi’s so lucky she gets to serve the tailors.”
“Will you come back and show us your winning shawl?”
“Ammi told us you’re going to win the trial.”
“I hope so.” I laughed with them until I reached the exit.
Ammi winked at me, and I smiled my first real smile in days, mouthed a “Thank you,” and made my way back to the Hall of Supreme Diligence.
• • •
“Where have you been?” Yindi demanded when I returned from the kitchen.
I was suddenly glad the spices were tucked in my pocket. “I went for a walk.”
Yindi sniffed, his pudgy nose wrinkling. “I smell spices.”
