Enchanter's End Game

stout white horse, rode out across the grassland, exulting in the sense of freedom their ride brought to her.
    They reined in at the base of a long, sloping hih to rest their mounts. Noble, pumping like a bellows, cast a reproachful look over his shoulder at his tiny mistress, but she heartlessly ignored his unspoken complaint. "It's an absolutely wonderful day for a ride," she exclamed enthusiastically.
    Ariana sighed.
    Ce'Nedra laughed at her. "Oh, come now, it's not as if Lelldorin were going someplace, Ariana, and it's good for men to miss us a little once in a while."
    Ariana smiled rather wanly, then sighed again.
    "Perhaps it's not as good for us to miss them, however," Adara murmured without any trace of a smile.
    "What is that lovely fragrance?" Ce'Nedra asked suddenly.
    Adam lifted her porcelain face to sniff at the light breeze, then suddenly looked around as if trying to pinpoint their exact location. "Come with me," she said with an uncharacteristic note of command in her voice, and she led them around the base of the hill to the far side. About halfway up the grassy slope there was a patch of law, dark green bushes covered with pale lavender flowers. There had been that morning a hatch of blue butterflies, and the winged creatures hovered in an eostatic cloud over the flowers. Without pausing, Adara pressed her mount up the slope and swung down from her saddle. There with a low cry she knelt almost reverently, gathering the bushes in her arms as if embracing them.
    When Ce'Nedra drew closer, she was amazed to see tears welling up in her gentle friend's gray eyes, although Adara was actually smifing. "Whatever is wrong, Adara?" she asked.
    "They're my flowers," Adara replied in a vibrant voice. "I didn't realize that they'd grow and spread this way."
    "What are you talking about?"
    "Garion created this flower last winter just for me. There was only one - just one. I saw it come into existence right there in his hand. I'd forgotten it until just now. Look how far it's spread in just one season."
    Ce'Nedra felt a sudden pang of jealousy. Garion had never created a flower for her. She bent and pulled one of the lavender blooms from a bush, tugging perhaps just a bit harder than necessary. "It's lopsided," she sniffed, looking at the flower critically. Then she bit her lip, wishing she hadn't said that.
    Adara gave her a quick look of protest.
    "I'm only teasing, Adara," Ce'Nedra said quickly with a false little laugh. In spite of herself, still wanting to find something else wrong with the flower, she bent her face to the small, crooked blossom in her hand. Its fragrance seemed to erase all of her cares and to lift her spirits tremendously.
    Ariana had also dismounted, and she too was breathing in the gentle odor of the flowers, although there was a slight frown on her face. "Might I gather some few of thy blossoms, Lady Adara?" she inquired. "Methinks they have some strange property concealed within their blushing petals that may be of some interest to Lady Polgara - some healing agent too subtle for my limited familiarity with unguents and aromatic herbs to discern."
    Rather predictably, Ce'Nedra, having gone one way, suddenly reversed herself. "Marvelous!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands with delight. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if your flower turned out to be a great medicine, Adara? Some miraculous cure? We could call it 'Adara's rose,' and sick men would bless your name forever."
    "It doesn't exactly look like a rose, Ce'Nedra," Adara pointed out.
    "Nonsense," Ce'Nedra brushed the distinction aside. "I'm supposed to be a queen, after all, so if I say it's a rose, then it's a rose, and that's that. We'll take the flowers back to Lady Polgara at once." She turned back to her tubby horse, who was lazily regarding the flowers as if wondering whether or not to eat a few of them. "Come, Noble," the princess said to him with extravagant overstatement. "We'll gallop back to the Stronghold."
    Noble winced visibly at the word "gallop."
    Polgara examined the flowers carefully, but, to the disappointment of the princess and her friends, she would not commit herself immediately concerning their medicinal value. A bit subdued, the little princess returned quietly to her quarters and her duties.
    Colonel Brendig was awaiting her. Upon reflection, Ce'Nedra concluded that Colonel Brendig was by far the most practical man she had ever met. No detail was too small for him. In a lesser man, such concern with little