"For now," she says darkly, eyes still on the scraplet struggling against her vines. "They weren't after me in any case, just Calendula. I think I ought to get to the garden. I'll be better armed there."

And when she takes a good look at Kain, she adds, "Maybe you should join me. I can do a better job with all those bandages, and I have a medicine stash tucked away." She'd guessed, from the targeting of her knives and her robot, that it was metal they were after. She studies Kain with quiet curiosity. Daja had living metal attached to her skin, but she's the only person Rosethorn's ever heard of with that particular quality.