disclaimer: i don't own Tamora Pierce's circle of magic

Things to know:

1) i had to re-type this chapter, because my floppy needed to be formatted so that's why it took so long to get out

2) the twins' eyes are the type that switch color, one day they might be blue, another day green, etc.

3) if this seems different from my other chapters it's because of the rewrite

Purple Flowers and Blue Grass

Chapter eight: Liam's Warning

'...maybe...' he thought, '...three months early...maybe... maybe, they've found her... or a clue of her... maybe.' He rushed down the street, down Bakers Lane. Past the colorful bright houses of Summersea and down the dirty side streets and alleys, then he was there. His house.

His house was much like Daja's. A two story white-washed house. The only real differences in their outsides appearances were that Briar's house didn't have an attached forge. They both had lavish gardens in the front. Briar also had gardens in both the back and on the sides. The flower garden was in the front, urging prospective medicine, or plant, buyers to come forth and into his domain. His herbs took up the side as did some of his favorite grown trees. In the back was where he grew his fruits and vegetables, but there was also a small greenhouse, where he housed his exotic plants and his valuable shakkens.

He composed his face and made it calm, if not they would believe they were in charge and demand a higher price for the information. He walked quickly wand firmly in strides to his front door and down the stones his ex-student Evvy had placed as a house warming gift. The glowed briefly as his feet touched them, his magic, green magic, ran through them and activated the spells that lay dormant in them. The greenery that were trying to creep into them, in between their cracks, scuttled back. Anyone seeing this would scuttle back as well.

"Master Moss..." his servant Verlaine said, as fidgety as one of Tris's. She was normally firm and demanding, knowing when something she was doing was correct or not. She never hesitated to demand things of him, answers or a raise. He valued her and her work a lot, so he put up with it. Her normally free black hair was sharply pulled back into a bun, no stray hair hung loose flirtatiously, like it would have it was one of his hired men. This wasn't Patrick and his brother.

"Who is the caller who called me from family matters?" he demanded, coldly, watching as she flinched away from the door that led to his study. I wasn't going to be someone he was going to be glad to see. Not to mention he had his rock hard maid scared witless.

"He never gave his name master," It wasn't going to be someone he wanted to see. She led the way to the door. "Do you wish for me to bring refreshments?" Briar waved at her, giving her a signal to wait till his judgement.

Briar opened the door and Verlaine stepped gratefully back into the shadows. The room was composed of soft blues and dark reds.The walls were hung with rich blue tapestries as well as light blue. The couches and chairs that were scattered around the room and around his big oak desk were a deep burgundy red. There was a big bay window that opened up to the right side garden, the blue drapes were now closed. The fireplace behind his esk gave off a faint glow, only a small burned there today because of the heat outside (a/n: this chapter takes place in the late spring/ early summer). The floor was covered with a thick, dark red carpet and on the walls sat his favorite shakkens and his books. On one of the two wing chairs on either side of the bay window sat his visitor.

The visitor looked like he hadn't washed in months, he had long black hair that was knotted and matted with leaves and what looked, and smelled, like some kind of alcohol beverage. His cold green eyes stared hard at the green mage. His clothes were in tatters, black leggings with a leg cut off mid thigh. The white shirt lay in stripes, showing off bits of his skin. He wore no shoes, only wrapped cloth protected his feet from the elements. He was a far cry from the man Briar had meet almost five years previous, Liam Vanderschie, former Baron of Vanderschie lands. Clover's ex-husband. He remembered, vaguely, that His Grace had emptied the Vanderschie's from their title, money, and power, all that lay in wait for Clover's son. But what was he doing here? The man who had indirectly caused Sandry to be taken from him?

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Master Moss." Liam said, making Master sound like something disgusting and wrong.

Briar glared at him, taking a seat behind his desk. Nonchalantly he picked up a piece of paper, it was his sales report from the last two months. Ignoring Liam he went about recording it into his little black financial book. When he finished, a half hour later, he finally looked up at Liam. He was once again sitting in his wing chair. Briar glared at him again, "You have five minutes, stand and talk or leave now."

He waited for an answer for all of five seconds before Liam started slowly, "I hear your still looking for that whore fiancee of yours... oops, I meant to say Lady Sandry." It took all of Briar's self-control not to jump from his chair. He just grabbed the arm of his chair tightly. "I have some news that might be of some interest to you." still Briar said nothing. "I know where she is."

"Liar!" he couldn't hold back the rage any more. "How would you...?" a sly smile formed over Liam's ragged features.

flashback; six months previous

He was a sailor now, not a noble Liam reminded himself as he woke one morning to a rocking feeling. He was on a boat, in the arctic. The cold hit him as he swung his feet out of the bed and into his boots. damn her! He cursed the woman he blamed for putting him in this mess. Clover.

How he hated that woman! If she hadn't gone running to that... that street rat that dared to call himself an accredited mage, none of this would have happened! He blamed every little thing that happened to him since on her. It felt worse when he found out their child was boy and was a mage. He had been forbidden to go anywhere near them.

Liam grumbleda bit as he pulled on an extra layer of clothing to protect him from the blistering bitter, cold wind. Suddenly he was thrown backwards against his bed and hit his head against the small chest that served as his dresser. "Damn it all to hell!" he cursed, standing up and looking around the room. His normally neat and orderly room was a havoc wreck.His chest of clothes had fallen over when his head bumped it and spilled the various clothing he had managed to afford after Duke Verdis had stripped him of his title and a few of his family heirlooms he kept hidden from the other sailors at the bottom of his trunk out of fear they would take them. His bunk had been overturned throwing, his ratty blanket and pillow thrown to the floor.

Liam growled in disgust at the captain, the man who normally steered the ship in the right direction, and his first mate. He stomped out of his room and into the narrow the narrow hallway, he wasn't the only one, men still half-dressed, naked, or, like him, dressed, emerged from their rooms. All of them looked as confused as he was. The group, including the somewhat reluctant Liam, made their way up the narrow stairway and onto the dirty the dirty deck.

There was chaos everywhere. The sailors were running around, tying themselves to the mast, one of the many cannons that lined the railing, or throwing themselves down on the ground begging for the gods to spare them. Their ship, the Mary Ellen III, was running into the icy shore.Great chunks off wood were already being pulled off the haul by the ragged icy edges. The icy path was leading them into a ship graveyard of sorts, where hundreds of abandoned, rotten, and iced ships lay, skeletons were visible, frozen as well, with their masts pinning them. Liam knew that if he went to the edge of their ship and looked down into the clear water he would see more dead bodies of the ships' men. He shuddered at the thought.

Am I going to die? he couldn't help but ask himself. But I'm Baron Liam Vanderschie of Emelan. I won't... I refuse to die here! Then he noticed the a small peninsula heading their way in the world of ice. He could jump, couldn't he? It was the only way to survive.

A smarter person would have went back into the ship and quickly gathered some small rations and clothing to help him in the icy world of the arctic, but Liam wasn't all that smart. With a running leap, scattering the few sailors not tied up, he jumped off the ship's ledge and over to the slippery peninsula. It didn't occur to him till he jumped that other men might have tried this before and that's how they ended up in their icy graves down below. But it was too late, and luckily for him he managed to get a grip on the ground below. He had made it. He heard some of the more foolish men follow him. None made it.

He set off into the white horizon of the arctic. The wind blowing snow into his unprotected face.

"If you scrub my back I'll scrub yours," Liam said, smiling wickedly. "I want Clover and my son, and you'll get dear Lady Sandrilene, plus something you didn't even know about." Liam sat back down onto the wing chair, crossing his legs, smirking confidently. Briar glared at him as he didn't want to...

Two days later he was still walking around. Cold, hungry, and exhausted. He hadn't slept, because he was afraid he would never wake up.

Then he saw a warm yellow light on the horizon and around it the shapes of what was unmistakably men, even though they were so bedecked in furs that not even their own mothers would recognize them. Their faces were covered with fur scarves that muffled their voices and their eyes were covered by some weird green colored wraparound glasses. One of the men... a boy around fourteen, he noticed... danced around the fire to keep warm singing a song. As he got closer he realized it was a language he never heard before. Will they be able to help him?

"Help!" he called in a weak voice. They hadn't heard him, his throat was too sore from lack of use. "Help!" he called again, a little louder. Still no answer. "HELP!" he called, fearing he tore his voice box. The boy who had been dancing and singing turned at the sound of his voice and instantly stopped, rushing forward. The others turned to look where their strange companion was going, they too rushed forward at the sight of the bedraggled man in front of him. His clothes were nothing more then strips against his skin and it didn't take a genius to see he was close to the realm of death.

The men quickly wrapped some heated blankets around him and, after packing their things, set off into the snow. They led Liam into a small ice riddled cave, icicles hung down from he ceiling and ice crusted rocks sat everywhere, other then them it was devoid of life.

"We're early, but this is an emergency," came the gruff voice of someone from behind him. He turned his head and looked to see who talked, but since they were all dressed so alike and their mouths were covered it was impossible to tell who had spoken.

"Too bad we didn't get much meat," another commented. They were hunters? A village was nearby!? But all they did was led him to the back of the cave were a semi-transparent wall stood. One of the men pulled a small hammer out from his bag and knocked hard on the ice three times. Not even a minuscule crack appeared. Magic!

The wall pulled back and revealed two more similarly dressed people, this time female. "What's wrong Jake? Why are you so early?" The man... Jacob?... pushed the exposed Liam forward. The women gasped in shock and quickly pulled Liam and the men in. "Julie! Send a message for Gwen, we have a shipwreck survivor." Then they were in a beautiful city that seemed to be made out of the ice itself. Some of the buildings were even carved into the ice itself and they all glowed with a soft light. Above, through the cavern's ceiling he could see the beautiful glowing lights of the aurora. And in front of him hurried a young woman, a young woman with light brown hair pleated into two neat braids that hung carelessly down her back. A young woman with eyes the color of cornflower. She wore a simple white dress and head scarf, but he recognized her from the few times he had been at Emelan's court. Lady Sandrilene Fa Toren, favorite niece of His Grace and likely heir, and a powerful mage by all accounts. Clinging to her skirts were two identical girls, who were undoubtedly her daughters. Blue/green/gray eyes and the same colored hair as their mama swinging gracefully down their backs in tight curls. The two three-year-old wore light blue dresses that brought out the blue in their eyes. He had no doubt who the father was, Briar Moss

Lady Sandrilene hurried forward and pulled one of the boys into the hug. "Ah, Sandry!" he heard the boy complained and Liam recognized his voice as the one who had been singing and dancing around the fire and the one who had first reached him. Sandry ignored him and just unwrapped the scarves that covered his face from view.

Liam hated to admit it but the young lad was good looking. He was a whooping 5"6 at the age of fourteen. His thick light brown hair fell carelessly into his eyes that were as green as the most vibrant emerald. He had already lost most of his baby fat and his face was mostly unmarked except for the small scar below his right eyebrow. Liam imagined underneath the small mountain of warm furs he was as lean as he was tall. Despite the boy's protests he hugged the young mother back.

Oh, this is going to be good, I will finally get my place back in the world. He thought as he was wrapped in more warm blankets and was led away from the small family

But not before she heard young Sandry mutter, "I'm glad you survived your first hunting trip, Joseph." Yes, this was going to be good.

Back in the present Liam still sat comfortably in the wing chair, dangling the end of one of his feet of his leg, waiting for Briar's response. He hoped Briar's answer was what he wanted him to be. But it wasn't.

Briar loved Sandry with all of his heart, but Clover... Clover was like a sister for him, they had a similar background when growing up, and she had appointed him as godfather to her only son. He couldn't betray her after all of this. Could he?

"Are you crazy?" Briar asked Liam in a cold calculating voice. "No, I refuse to give her up to you," he shot a glare over to the bedraggled man casually sitting in his chair, to say the least it sent cold clammy finger-like chills running up and down his spine. He began to cower from the malice in the younger man's face.

Suddenly remembering why he was here, why he was doing all this. For the son and wife he lost listening to his foolish parents. He stood up, back straight and erect. Calmly now he smoothed his ruffled, ragged clothing down. After all, what could one young man do?

"I'll give you a deadline, a year from this date I'll return to the place I found her..." he smirked, before continuing. "... and I'll kill her. Get in touch with me beforehand..." he gave Briar an uncaring shrug. ",,, and we'll see!" He began to leave the room.

Briar stood there in shock as he watched Liam leave. He heard his maid open the front door and let him out. He heard him walk over his stone walkway. When Briar was sure he was truly gone, he sent back into his large, comfy desk chair and cried... and cried... and cried.

"Briar?" someone asked him from the doorway. He looked up and over at the girl in the doorway through puffy red eyes. Daja. "What's wrong? I haven't seen you cry this way since..." never he heard her unsaid word. It hung between them.

"He has her."

"Who has who?" she came and knelt down by him.

"Liam, Clover's ex-husband, has Sandry. Or at least where she is." Daja heard the pain in his voice and knew what he was going to say before he said it. "He said he's going to kill her unless we give Clover to him."

She shrugged. "Well, we can't give her up," Briar nodded in agreement. "So, we'll just have to find her before Liam gets back there." She paused in silence to think and let her words sink into her brother's shocked mind. "I think we need to pay a visit to our teachers." Smiling wickedly, Daja held her hand out to her old friend and foster brother. He took it and used it to get to his wobbly feet. Together the two friends left.

Hiya, hoped you liked it.

the next chapter is going to be Sandry's view when Liam arrives, six months previous, make sure you look hard for him and remember that she has no idea who he is.

Chapter 9: Yin-Yin