Parahan growled under his breath and rode off. Souda sighed. “He always gets silly before a major battle, Rosethorn.”
Briar looked to the west, where hills rose a mile or so off. Those were the leading edges of the Drimbakang Zugu, whose white-capped peaks gleamed in the distance. To the right the grassland was striped with charcoal streaks where it had been burned. Buzzards rose from the carcasses of horses and humans alike. Among the bodies and the burns he saw blast craters, the marks of the Yanjing empire’s zayao.
The smell was unspeakable. From the condition of the dead, Briar guessed they had lain in the open for at least five days. The cool nights would slow the decay, but the sun and the scavenger animals would speed it up again. He noticed that Rosethorn was holding a handkerchief to her nose.
They soon left the scene of the fighting that had taken place here and rode steadily all day, stopping only to rest the horses and to grab cold meals. The road moved deeper into the hill country as they drew closer to the Drimbakang Zugu and Garmashing. Twice they passed massive temple fortresses. Their gates were closed and barred. The general sent messengers to speak with the temples’ commanders, but the army itself continued north.
They halted ten miles from Garmashing. General Sayrugo called the commanders and the chief healers, including Rosethorn, to a meeting in her tent, along with the leaders from the eastern and western tribes and temples. The rest of their army camped on a hillside that overlooked the road. Sentries were posted everywhere around the camp, together with mages who could sense the presence of spells.
Evvy stuck by Briar as he brewed their supper tea. Jimut, who was keeping an eye on them, brought a pot of noodle-and-dumpling soup for all of them to share. He joined them, but he was the only one. Evvy heard him tell Briar that he didn’t mind not having more company. Everyone could see that Evvy needed quiet.
She did, too. She had gotten used to the emptiness of the tunnels under Gyongxe where she and Luvo and Big Milk had traveled. She wished she could talk Briar and Rosethorn into going back into the tunnels with her, where they would be safe. They would never listen; she knew that.
Before she conferred with the general, Souda had told them to go to bed early, saying, “We’ll be fighting the emperor’s main army in a day or two. You need rest.”
The thought gave Evvy the crawls. How could she rest? She and Rosethorn and Briar and Parahan were the only ones who really knew what they faced. They would be in battle against the imperial army, its ranks full of men like Musheng and Dawei. There would be mages who wielded battle-magic spells similar to the ones placed on General Hengkai’s beads. Cruel spells. None of the people who had come north with them had seen the emperor show off hundreds of thousands of archers and soldiers on his birthday, so many that acres of land were covered with them. There would be catapults to fling zayao bombs into the middle of General Sayrugo’s army. Everyone she knew would die or be taken off and tortured. She would have to stay with them, and risk the emperor’s wrath all over again.
How did Parahan stand it? She had seen him joking with some of his soldiers earlier. He knew what they faced even better than Evvy, and yet he could grin and tease and even steal a kiss from Rosethorn in the shadow of a tent when they thought no one was looking.
Evvy got to her feet. She wasn’t strong like Parahan. “I’m tired,” she said abruptly. “Luvo, are you coming?”
“I wish to remain here for a time more,” Luvo replied. “You do not need to be concerned for my well-being, Evumeimei.”
She nodded and retired to the tent she now shared with Rosethorn. Whoever had put up the tent had also laid out her bedroll, which was a kind thing to do. She lay down on it without removing her clothes. It was hard to undress, even to change to clean clothes or a nightdress now. She was terrified someone might come in and see her naked. Luvo didn’t count, but a strange man … She didn’t think she could endure being seen unclothed by strangers again.
She lay in the dark, listening to camp noises. Playing with the stones of her alphabet helped a little. Their textures against her fingers calmed her. Still, they weren’t calming enough to make her sleep, and they weren’t the textures of the alphabet she had been making on her own. They weren’t the textures of her quartz and flint disks, with the different kinds of magic she had been learning to place on them. They weren’t the textures of the flint arrow and dagger blades she had made herself, after months of study in the art of knapping.
The more she thought about what she had lost, the angrier — and the more awake — she became. She got out of bed.
“Evumeimei?” Luvo stood at the opening of the tent, like a sentry, as he had every night since they had begun living among humans.
“I’m just going out to think. I won’t leave the camp,” she whispered. She opened the ties and slipped out the back of the tent, grateful that Rosethorn had yet to come in. Quietly she made her way through the rows of tents. Most of the fires were now banked for the night. Just enough torches burned to light the main paths. Heading uphill, Evvy kept to the shadows. She did make certain that the sentries noticed her, though they didn’t stop her. There was no point in getting shot by a nervous warrior because she wanted a quiet walk. In any case, she stayed inside their lines.
She made her way to the hilltop where a broad slab of slate thrust out over the northern slope like a shelf. Sentries were posted on the ground below, their eyes to the north, and on the western edge of the ridge, but they were nice enough to let Evvy have the stone to herself. She sat with her knees up, arms wrapped around them, staring at the road they would take in the morning.
A sliver of moon shone down on everything, turning it the color of ghosts. She wondered how many human ghosts might be walking on that landscape soon. Would she be one of them?
She would not let the enemy take her again. She promised herself that. Rather than fall into the torturers’ hands a second time, she would turn herself into stone all the way. There would be no little piece of Evvy left behind to wake up to agony. She would join the rocks of Gyongxe forever.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not hear anything until Briar lay on the stone beside her. He said nothing, only crossed his arms under his head and regarded the sky. Evvy found she couldn’t think of dying in his presence. Instead she let herself trickle through the slate under them and on down through the hillside rocks, naming them to herself. Before long Rosethorn and Parahan silently joined them. Both chose to sit cross-legged on the slate, their eyes on the silvery northern view.
Souda was the last to reach them. She carried a silk quilt in her arms and shared it with Evvy, who was shivering. Eventually Briar squirmed under a corner of it, too. Except for that, none of them moved until Parahan began to snore. That startled laughs out of the women, Briar, and Evvy. Without discussion they woke him and returned to their tents for what remained of the night.
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 thei
r 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 ei
ther 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.