Battle Magic

20

BEFORE THE GATES OF GARMASHING, CAPITAL OF GYONGXE

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.”

Rosethorn reached over and patted her arm. “It could have been so much worse,” she said in an overly sympathetic way. “We could have made the wrong turn and fetched up in Namorn. Yes, we knew. The scouts brought the happy word to us.”

“I hate it when everything’s about to go to pieces and you’re all calm,” Evvy told her.

Rosethorn raised an eyebrow. “Would you like it better if things were about to go all to pieces and I turned into a ball of panic?”

Evvy wanted to tell Rosethorn she loved her, but she couldn’t, not among so many people. She stuck her tongue out at her instead.

The general beckoned for Rosethorn to come forward. Shamans from the western tribes joined the easterners ahead of even the flag bearers to form a line in front of the Gyongxin army. As Evvy watched, the shamans removed their shoes. Their helpers passed them flasks of tea. The shamans kept the flasks, tucking them into the front of their coats as the helpers sat cross-legged on the ground. From their packs they pulled out small drums or flutes.

Rosethorn came back at a trot. “The shamans say they will make it easier for us to survive going over the crest of that hill,” she explained as a helper began to strike a drum in a slow, rhythmic pattern. Other drummers and two flute players joined in, weaving their music with his. Rosethorn continued, “It’s something we can’t do, I assume, or they’d have asked us to assist. The general says we may be a little startled, but try not to make any sound.”

Evvy drew her amethyst from her alphabet. It was a good stone for calm. She turned the rough-cut crystal around in her fingers, drawing on the spells she had placed in the stone. Even with that magic, her hands shook.

The shamans bent to place sticks of incense in the ground in front of them. Thin trails of smoke rose through the air. Now the shamans danced, their feet shuffling in the dirt of the road. They dipped and turned, their movements snake-like and alien.

“Watch, Evvy,” Rosethorn whispered. “We may never see anything like this again. Lark is always telling me shamans can do things that mages can’t.”

Evvy clutched her amethyst so hard her fingers cramped. Shapes were forming in front of the mages. At first they were thin and almost see-through, like fine gray silk. Bit by bit they filled in. She saw a curved section of orange skin that slid around. There was a dark fang. When she saw hair like black flames, she covered her face. Rosethorn jabbed her with a sharp elbow, and Evvy dared to look again.

She wished she had not. Creatures not quite as gigantic as the tiger and the horned lion stood before them, but there were more of these. She recognized the four orange beings, with their flaming hair and ivory teeth and claws, from temple paintings. They each had six arms and hands in which they clutched weapons. With them stood six blue-skinned creatures with long, flowing, scarlet locks. They had long yellow claws on their hands and feet and full green lips. Each of them had four arms.

“I don’t see what good these things will do if the emperor’s mages can make bigger ones,” Evvy said as the creatures turned and glided up the hill. She glanced at Briar. He had turned the color of cheese as he stared at the shamans’ creations.

“The emperor’s spell monsters are built of wind, smoke, fear, and illusion,” Luvo told her as the many-limbed newcomers topped the crest. “Our friends are lesser gods, guardians from temple fortresses in western and southern Gyongxe. They carry the power of those places with them.”

Suddenly the great brutes let out shrieks that sent many of the soldiers behind them to their knees as they covered their ears. Evvy was proud that Briar hardly flinched. Perhaps she was too used to strange things by now, because she only took another gulp from her flask. The temple gods plunged down over the hill. The shamans and their helpers moved forward, up to the hilltop, still dancing and playing their music.

General Sayrugo gave the command to advance. Rosethorn and Briar helped Evvy wrap Luvo in scarves from her pack and tie him to her chest, then boosted the girl and her friend into the saddle before they mounted their own horses. Together with the army they rode on, keeping a watchful eye on the clouds as black and crimson lightnings flickered overhead.

As they crested the hill, round balls struck the ground and exploded with a roar: The enemy was using catapults to throw zayao bombs at the Gyongxin army. Evvy’s mare reared. Jimut rode between Evvy and Briar to grab the mare’s bridle and draw her back down to all four feet.

“I know it’s hard,” he told Evvy and Briar, “but these horses are used to zayao explosions. That’s why they were given to you. Now, ease your grip on the reins, Evvy. That makes her more nervous than anything else right now. Loosen your knees, too, before she bolts.”

“Sorry,” Evvy whispered. “I wish someone would loosen my knees.” She forced herself to relax.

She felt a vibration and realized that Luvo had begun a soft, inaudible hum. She was about to tell him she wasn’t a baby who needed to be sung to if she was going to relax, and changed her mind. It did help her manage the horse after all, and her mind was still alert.

“Thanks,” she told him instead.

They crested the hill.

Spread across the plain for as far north as she could see and for a painful distance east was the imperial army: a huge number of soldiers centered on a massive, stepped platform that had to be Weishu’s lookout tower and the place where he kept his best mages. Brigades of cavalry were lined up on the east and west flanks, prepared to force their attackers in to the soldiers at their center. Not only did brigades of infantry wait for the Gyongxin army there, but Evvy could see great crossbows and the kind of catapult that threw giant rocks and zayao bombs. Next to them, at the heart of the army, were archers, their crossbows raised.

Evvy fumbled through her alphabet and pulled out her clear quartz crystal. Holding it against her forehead, she used the spells she had placed on it to help her see flares of red where mages stood in the ranks. Each of the catapults had one, while the emperor’s platform blazed with them.

She continued to inspect the battlefield, trying to find some good news, some weakness. Where the army’s lines ended to the east, its horse camp began. She had never seen so many horses in her life. Her courage was shrinking by the moment.

She looked west. There at last was the great fortress city of Garmashing, safe for the moment behind its thick stone walls. Its temples, palaces, markets, homes, and plazas rose in level after level on its steep hillside, as if it boasted to would-be conquerors that here were treasures they could not touch. Its jagged walls climbed the rising landscape, concealing roads and gardens as they protected the buildings inside. With her crystal against her forehead, she could see the tops of those walls burning red with the presence of mages and the walls themselves red-streaked with magic. After spending her winter there, she had come to love it. The best part was the myriad tunnels that people used when the snows piled to the second story aboveground: It reminded Evvy of her old cave home in Chammur. She hoped the people who couldn’t fight were tucked safely away in those tunnels, out of reach of the zayao bombs and catapult stones.

Crowning the city’s hill was the God-King’s palace, its many gold turrets glinting in the sun. Behind it all soared the white-capped peaks of the Drimbakang Zugu. She knew the apparent closeness of the mountains was an illusion: The Tom Sho gorge with its limestone walls provided steep walls at the city’s rear.

The mountains themselves were cruel guardians with their trackless cliffs and canyons. Wolves, bears, and snow cats roamed freely on the slopes, together with antelope, sheep, and yaks. There were rumors of worse things. After what she had seen under Luvo’s care, Evvy knew they were not rumors. She was wishing for some of those creatures now, not just as magics conjured by mages who would get tired eventually. She wished all of the stone statues born in the gorge would come home to defend their birthplace.

Messengers galloped back down the line of the Gyongxin army, relaying orders to the soldiers behind the mages. Everyone advanced at a trot down the slope, spreading out as they went. They formed on either side of the still-dancing shamans, General Sayrugo, the twins, and their guards, arranging themselves in battle formation. Companies of archers placed themselves on either side of the general and her companions as zayao bombs struck the hillside. Mages among the Realms and Gyongxin soldiers began to work their own magic, shielding their soldiers against the deadly explosives.

Evvy was fixed on the sight of the lesser gods as they collided with the emperor’s soldiers. Bursts of red flared as imperial mages attacked the lesser gods; foot soldiers flew through the air as the Gyongxin creatures picked them up and flung them among their allies.

Suddenly Evvy heard the whicker of arrows in flight. She looked up, almost dropping her crystal. The imperial archers had loosed a deadly rain straight at the Gyongxin leaders.

Rosethorn and Briar also looked up. They did not so much as stretch out their hands. Suddenly crossbow bolts, sprouting twigs and leaves that slowed their flight, tumbled to the open ground between the armies.

The snap of ropes pulled Evvy’s eyes to boulders that arched into the air. She grabbed Luvo. “Can we do something? Please?” There was nothing she could do about the zayao balls, but the boulders were different.

Come with me. His voice boomed inside her skull.

She twined with him inside his magic. They rose above their bodies into the unpleasant, thin air. Evvy glanced down. Everyone seemed to be frozen. Even the green-leafed crossbow bolts had stopped where they fell. Five stone balls were above the Yanjingyi army; three were unmoving. Evvy and Luvo spread themselves wide to cover those, sinking deep into the limestone that made them.

Evvy knew a thing or two about limestone. While Luvo did something that made the stones tremble, she sorted through the bits of lesser material that formed them. She couldn’t touch the bits of coral. Coral wasn’t a true stone, but the remains of an animal, and immune to her magic. There were other minuscule sea animals that had gone hard like the coral. She ignored all of them. With each non-stone thing she thrust aside, the limestone cracked. Luvo’s trembling magic made the cracks grow and spread. Evvy made piles of bits of flint, jasper, and chalcedony, leaving gaps behind as she shifted each piece. Abruptly her body down below sneezed. She lost her concentration and separated from Luvo. She was back in her physical shell.

Small pebbles rattled as they bounced off the soldiers’ helms. Luvo was covered with gritty dust. So was she. Nearby she heard screams — human and horse. “What did we do?” she asked him.

“We broke three boulders in midair,” Luvo said. He sounded very satisfied with himself. “I wish we could have caught the other two. They damaged our army, but two stones did less harm than five would have done.”

“Luvo, can we take rocks apart before they throw them?” Evvy whispered.

“Put your hands on me,” he said quietly. “It works better with both of us.”

Evvy obeyed and left her body again.

The stones of the plain raced under them as Luvo drew her along, bound for the biggest rocks in one Yanjingyi catapult. It went quicker this time. They did not have to work inside moving boulders. Evvy simply ignored the fossil coral and bone, plucking the stones she recognized out of the limestone.

Luvo pulled water from someplace and turned it to ice in the cracks Evvy made. Evvy didn’t know where he got it until they rose above the heap of gravel that was the remains of the boulders ready for the catapult. Only then did she see shriveled bodies on the ground through Luvo’s vision. They wore the colors of Yanjingyi soldiers and, in the case of two of them, the black tunics and bead strings of mages. Luvo had taken the water from their flesh.

Serves them right, she thought savagely. They’re the enemy. I bet they would have tortured us if they could. I’m glad they’re dead.

There are other catapults here, Luvo said. Shall we deal with them? If we reduce the stones to nothing, these humans will have to go far to get others.

Yes, Evvy told him. Let’s do that. She was careful not to think about the people ready to load the massive stones into the catapult slings at their officers’ commands. She simply followed Luvo into the stones, removing the grains that held the boulder together so he could freeze water in the cracks she left behind. Everywhere around them soldiers and mages gasped for water and died without any idea of what killed them. Evvy did her best to ignore them. Each time she felt her hate weaken, she remembered the heap of cold dead outside Fort Sambachu. Now their ghosts had company. Wasn’t that a good thing?