B
EFORE THE GATES OF
G
ARMASHING, CAPITAL OF
G
YONGXE
Evvy and Luvo were seated by the morning campfire when Rosethorn and Briar emerged from Souda’s tent. Both of them wore armor.
“You,” Rosethorn said, pointing to Evvy. “Armor. Now. We’re battle mages today and for the duration. We’re under strict orders to stay away from the healers and save our strength for fighting.”
Briar wandered over to Evvy and Luvo as Rosethorn returned to Souda’s tent. “Not that General Sayrugo’s happy about it.”
Evvy frowned. “Why not?”
“No matter what Parahan and Captain Rana told her about what we did back in Snow Serpent Pass, she doesn’t see how plant mages can be of use on a battlefield. That goes a hundred times extra for somebody who isn’t even a certified stone mage.” Briar reached out to tweak her nose, but Evvy was having none of that.
“
I
don’t know what good I’ll be with a whole army. I just want to try.”
“Probably no good with a whole army,” Briar said. “But if you make the horses of a line of archers skid and skitter because the stones under their feet are moving, you can probably keep them from shooting plenty of us.”
“Oh,” Evvy said, realizing he was teasing her. “Oh, right.”
“Armor,” Briar said, and pushed her toward her tent.
She was struggling with the ties of her cuirass when Briar came in with a plate of
momos
and a pot of butter tea. Luvo followed him. Evvy happily ate while Briar checked the ties on her armor and did the cuirass up.
“What about you, Luvo?” he asked. “Are you going with us, or are you riding in a wagon?”
“I will stay with Evumeimei,” the stone creature replied. “Between us we will not be heavier than an adult of your kind. A horse should carry us both easily. What else will you bring today, Evumeimei?”
“Only my alphabet,” she replied. She looked at the packs that had been found for her among the extra supplies. They held the clothing and odds and ends supplied by Sayrugo’s people and the clothes Luvo had given to her. “I don’t know what to do with those. They’ll just get in the way if I’m fighting.”
“Her things can go with mine and Rosethorn’s, please,” Briar told the soldiers who had come to pack up the tent. Evvy grabbed the shoulder bag with her stone alphabet and the rocks she had collected recently and slung it over one arm. Briar lifted some silk scarves that had been offerings from an open pack and held them close to his eyes. “Look at these, Evvy. Someone gave you doubled silk. One of the village weavers I talked to on the road says this kind of cloth is a way to send messages. The arrangement of
these slubs — these bumps — in the weave, that’s code. They aren’t mistakes at all.”
She thought he’d lost his mind. “We’re going to war and you want to talk about
weaving
?” If the scarves were temple offerings, I guess the message got sent, she realized. “I’ll take those now,” she said, holding out her hand. Briar passed them to her and watched as she slung them around her neck.
Then he pulled her over and kissed the top of her head. “Lakik and Heibei turn their faces against Weishu and all his mages,” he murmured. Evvy rested her face on his shoulder and nodded. “I wish we could call on that ancient sea that used to be here to swallow his whole army.” He was trembling. Evvy wanted to comfort him, but she didn’t know how.
“I will help you,” Luvo said from the ground beside them. “Together Evumeimei and I will teach these lowlanders a thing or two about the stones of Gyongxe.”
Briar looked over as Evvy picked up Luvo. “Good. Weishu in particular needs the lesson.” He slid his hands around Evvy’s and attempted to lift Luvo from her hold, only to find the rock creature was far heavier than he looked. “I don’t understand! How does Evvy carry you?”
Evvy resettled Luvo, balancing her friend on her hip. “We worked out a thing in my magic,” she explained. “I imagine my bones are granite, and it’s easy. He’s really not that heavy, now. He’s at his lightest.”
“His lightest is fifty pounds if it’s an ounce!” Briar cried, laughing.
“I can be far heavier,” Luvo said.
Briar took a breath. “Let’s go. Jimut’s waiting with our horses by now.”
Rosethorn was waiting with Jimut and the horses as well. “There you are. Luvo, you’re riding with us?”
“I am going to help Evumeimei,” Luvo said.
Rosethorn raised an eyebrow, but she made no remark.
Jimut handed the reins of Briar’s horse to him and Rosethorn’s to her. Evvy looked around for someone to hold Luvo.
“I’ll take him,” Jimut said as he passed the reins of her mount over. Here.” He held out his hands.
“He’s heavy,” Evvy warned. She passed Luvo to Jimut, who staggered.
“She warned you,” Briar said.
“You did warn me,” Jimut acknowledged as he regained his balance. “How will you keep him in the saddle with you?”
Evvy mounted her horse. Once settled, she knotted the scarves she’d put around her neck and passed them over her head, shoulders, and arms. When they were around her waist, she held her hands out for Luvo. Jimut passed him over. Evvy quickly twisted both scarves around her friend several times, encasing him up to his head knob. When she was done, Luvo was snug in his cocoon and the scarves were tight around Evvy. He would remain where he was unless Evvy fell from the saddle.
“Nice,” Briar said with approval. “But you know, if Luvo stays with us much longer, we should work something out that’s more permanent.”
“Do not concern yourself,” Luvo said comfortably. “I am certain I will return to my mountain soon.”
Evvy looked down at him, feeling a pain around her heart. She didn’t want Luvo to go. She liked him. She felt safe with him. If anything could withstand the emperor, surely it would be a mountain. Yet what could a street rat like her offer him? He had gods for friends, not to mention the inhuman curiosities that were his friends underground, and all of the Drimbakang Lho for his home.
She glanced at Jimut, who was astride his own horse. Today he was serving as an archer. He had two quivers full of crossbow bolts attached to his saddle before his shins and a crossbow across his lap.
Beyond him Evvy saw the gathered mages. They were a mixed lot. Most were shamans, used to working in groups among their tribes and in the performance of great magics, like calling statues out of cliffs. Today they wore cloth jackets embroidered with symbols and pictures of powerful animals. Their necks, wrists, and ears dripped gold, jade, and ivory jewelry that was useful to their work. They carried small gongs, bells, drums, and a variety of rattles. Riverdancer was with them, as was her translator. Evvy didn’t think Riverdancer needed the other woman when she worked with the shamans. Perhaps she kept the translator close in case she had to join the healers later.
Tired of waiting, Evvy nudged her horse up to the nearby hilltop. General Sayrugo’s troops were spread across the open ground below. Evvy recognized the general’s battle flags at the head of the army, together with the vivid colors worn by the eastern shamans who used their magic to protect Sayrugo and her soldiers.
“Evvy,” Briar called. “Back here.”
As she rejoined her friends, Souda and Parahan rode through the ranks of mages and turned to face them.
“Riverdancer’s group of mages, follow us,” Parahan shouted. “We’re right behind the general. The rest of you mages, your leaders will tell you where to join the order of march with the troops you will defend. They will give you orders in battle. May the gods give us victory this day!”
As those around them cheered, the twins rode down the slope, along with their flag bearers, their personal guard, and their messengers. Riverdancer followed them with a group of western shamans. Rosethorn told Evvy, Briar, and Jimut, “You come with me. We’re to stay close to Souda.”
“Why aren’t we with the other mages?” Briar asked.
Rosethorn looked at him with a crooked smile. “Because General Sayrugo doesn’t know what to do with us. We’ll have to figure out how to fight, ask permission to do it if we can, and then do it.”
Evvy and Briar looked at each other. Evvy wasn’t sure — was this the way mages normally fought wars?
Briar answered that question when he asked, “Sayrugo is joking, right?”
“No,” Rosethorn said, and sighed. “Souda and Parahan say to just do what we think is useful and try not to let the Yanjingyi mages kill us.”
“Well, that’s better, anyway,” Briar muttered.
They took their places behind Souda and her personal guard. Almost as soon as they had done so, the trumpeters who rode with the general sounded a loud, bellowing horn salute. The army set forth at a walk, which gradually sped up to a trot. Evvy
glanced back and saw long, snake-like columns of riders falling into place on the road, four in a row with officers on both sides and scouts spreading out over the uneven ground. The foot soldiers weren’t even in view yet. They were guarding the healers and supplies in the rear.
She turned to look forward again, scanning the horizon. There was a hill to come, and more on either side. Was the emperor behind those? She tried to swallow, but her mouth and throat were paper dry with fear. Then she thought of Mystery, shy gray-and-orange Mystery, who loved to run in open grass like this, and Evvy’s heart turned into a knot of hate. Mystery had never harmed Weishu or any of his people, but they had murdered her. They had murdered all of Evvy’s cats. Behind their armies, they had left Kanzan alone knew how many dead animals who had never harmed them at all. The hate flooded through her veins. Yes, she was scared, scared so bad it made her quiver. But she was burning with rage, too.
Someone had fixed a flask to her saddle. When she unhooked it and sniffed the contents, she discovered it was filled with tea. She took a small sip, just enough to wet her mouth. She would need the rest of the tea later.
Nobody talked. It was hard to do at a trot, and they were too nervous when they stopped to give the horses a rest. Even Briar spoke very little, mostly to check that Evvy and Rosethorn were all right.
Since they had stopped, Evvy eased into the ground and discovered it was full of quartzite stones. Perfect! she thought. Quartzite was regular in its makeup, filled with quartz crystals that would move her power along. She spilled threads of it into
the rocks and let it race ahead of the army, feeling for strange magic.
“Evumeimei?” she dimly heard Luvo ask. “Briar, why has she sent her magic ahead of us?”
“She’s scouting,” she heard Briar say. “The rocks ahead will tell her things, like plants tell Rosethorn and me.”
Something flooded over her stones on the far side of the hill ahead, something dark and nasty.
“Rosethorn!” she made her body shout. “Briar! Magic coming!”
Over the hill ahead rose a giant tiger. It was bigger than three elephants standing one on top of the other, with red flames for eyes and claws. With it appeared a more fantastic creature of identical size, a winged lion with a horn on its forehead. The lion had a mane made of gold flames and claws like black sickles. Tiger and lion opened their mouths and roared loud enough to flatten the standing grass between them and the army. Flames spurted where they stepped.
Some horses panicked and reared; others sidled and backed. Souda and Parahan were able to hold their mounts steady. Rosethorn’s horse did not even move. Jimut gripped the reins on Briar’s horse while another soldier held Evvy’s.
“They don’t smell them!” Briar called to Parahan. “The horses behind us, they’re calm — they can’t see them, hear them, can’t smell them! Cover your horses’ eyes!”
Evvy ignored everything after that. Using the quartzite stones, she flowed under the two monsters. They pressed on her power, making her feel dirty and small. She wriggled deeper in the earth and sped up. She wanted to see what was on the far side of the
hill. Was it the imperial army, or just some mages trying to keep the Gyongxin forces here?
The ground over her head shook as the tiger and the horned lion jumped onto the road. They roared again, setting more grass ablaze. Some of her stones blackened and cracked. She passed under the hill’s crest and on to the flatlands past it. Weight pressed down on her, rock-crushing weight, as far ahead and to either side as she could sense with her power. It shifted slightly, back and forth. Some moved over Evvy as if it traveled toward the hill.
Swiftly she fled to her body, pulling her magic from the quartzite. Up she popped to resume her normal place within her skin. All around her the air boomed in her human ears with the gongs, the bells, and the deep, buzzing voices of Gyongxin mages. She opened her eyes. General Sayrugo’s eastern shamans now faced the horned lion and the giant tiger. Forming a line, they shuffled to and fro, striking gongs or bells and chanting. The noise made Evvy’s teeth hurt. It reminded her of the day other shamans had called two stone skeletons out of the cliff behind Garmashing. She wished those skeletons were here now.
The lion and tiger opened their mouths. They seemed to roar, but Evvy heard nothing. They were fading. Then they were gone.
Evvy’s head spun. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly through her nose. The weight on the far side of the hill — she had to tell someone about it. Only her stomach was angry, because of all the weight stamping on the stones as she had run her power through them. She opened her eyes and slid from the saddle, almost falling as Luvo’s weight dragged her down.
Rosethorn dismounted from her horse and ran to her. “Are you all right?” she asked. Swiftly she cut the silks that held Luvo’s sling to Evvy’s chest with her belt knife.
Evvy shook her head and turned aside so she wouldn’t splatter anyone. Then she vomited the little food and liquid she had swallowed that morning.
Rosethorn passed her a flask.
Evvy tipped her head back and poured a little bit of water into her mouth, rinsed, then spat. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve, then drank. “Sorry,” she told Rosethorn when she was sure she was done vomiting. “Sorry, Luvo. Rosethorn, we’ve reached the imperial army. They weigh
tons.
They’re crushing my stones over on the other side of the hill.”