Sandry watches all the nobles settle in to wait for the empress to return.  The boys who had been set to flirt with her before slack off once the empress is out of sight, and instead they just look jealous that Briar got some alone time with Berenene.

“Silly amdain,” a man said near her right shoulder.

[…]

“Why do you say that,” she asked, knowing that amdain meant fool in Namornese.

First, unless he was leaning over and speaking to her shoulder, that should have been “a man near her shoulder” and not “said near her shoulder.”

Second, everyone here is speaking Namornese, so if there’s a direct translation of the word (“fool”) then it should be used.  Usually when everyone is speaking a language and it’s ‘translated’ into English, if something is kept original, it should be something that doesn’t have a direct translation.  Either that, or something that the viewpoint character doesn’t understand.  Other books in the series have done this with slang or words that require a phrase to properly translate.  There’s simply no reason for it here, though.

This young man is Shaun, and he’s a second son of a noble, but he hangs around at court because he’s pretty and empress likes him.  He’s the Master of the Hunt, officially speaking.  They flirt for a while and talk about how Berenene set “acceptable matches” at Sandry, and Shaun thinks it’s ludicrous that Sandry intends to defy the empress and leave at the end of summer.

They flirt really cutely, and Shaun is irreverently silly, and it’s obvious that Sandry likes him even though she’s determined not to admit it.  Unlike the other boys and their “look at me, look at me,” he’s all casual about it, so I guess it was easier for her to be taken in.

After she’s thoroughly in his good graces, they return to hang out with Daja and the other ladies, all of whom also are shocked at the idea that Sandry isn’t planning to stay put.  I’m getting the idea that the empress isn’t disobeyed around these parts, how about you? ;P

Once inside the main greenhouse, Briar expected the empress to drift along, pointing out the sights, attended by bowing gardeners.  And I’d’ve been dead wrong, Briar thought.

So…he did think that, but he would have been wrong?  Make up your mind, book.

I didn’t realize how many little mistakes are in this book.  When I enjoy something, I still notice things like that, but they don’t stick with me.  So I notice them in isolation, but I don’t feel like they’re piling up, because I don’t carry the annoyance from one mistake to the next.  Essentially, no, you don’t have to be perfect to be an enjoyable book, but you do have to mostly good and distract me from the errors.

Although, this still could have used another pass through a proofreader.

The entire sequence with Briar and Berenen in the greenhouse does nothing but show off that they both like plants and the author knows stuff about greenhouses.  Entertaining, but not much to report.

Back outside with Daja and Sandry, the other courtiers chat about life at court and the boys are annoyed that Briar is getting too much attention. 

“When she goes to two hours of effort to dress every morning, men had better look at her!”

“Women, too, eh, Rizu?”

Up to this point, there’s been a little bit of Rizu flirting with Daja, mostly just in the way that she focuses her comments on her and “casually” touching her hand and such.  It’s adorable.

“Never break into her chambers when she’s there.  The last fellow who tried is nothing but a greasy spot.”

“He thought she would like a pretend kidnapping, for the sake of romance,”

The way they say that so blithely is so utterly creepy, but it’s supposed to be.  On the other hand, Sandry and Daja don’t even blink at it, so…you guys awake?  I know these courtiers can go on long enough to put anyone to sleep, but that was a pretty blatant comment there.

Back at the castle, Tris senses a storm coming on and she wants to go watch it.  Because that’s Tris.  She loves any kind of weather that might kill her.

Ishabel comes to find her to invite her to lunch, but Tris is all “lolnope, storm time” so instead they go up to the castle wall together to watch.  They do some magic that lets them see farther out to sea (lake? It’s a big lake) where a bunch of fishing boats are trying to get home before the storm.

Berenene and her court show up to give Tris a proper audience while she magics up a wind to blow the boats home in time.  …okay, I lie, they’re there to make Tris uncomfortable while she does it.  This book takes odd delight in having Tris do flashy magics, having a big audience there to oooh and aaah over it, and having Tris hate it.  I can’t tell if it’s for the sake of making Tris special or for the sake of tormenting her, since authors like doing both those things to their darlings all the time. 

It’s well-worth reading for the descriptions of how Tris uses her magic, though.  I think Tris’s magic has always been my favorite out of the quartet.  She pits storms against each other and then sucks them both into her hair.  …it makes more sense in the book, really.