Battle Magic (44 page)

“Gods are too important to be left to the imagination of meat — humans,” Luvo observed. “These paintings are a door to the local gods’ homes. For some reason they believe that you can see them, so they mock you.”

“I understood the mockery part,” Briar admitted. “What is that thing you keep saying and correcting? Meat what? Is it an insult? I suppose it is, or you wouldn’t keep changing to ‘humans.’”

“Formerly I thought of animals, birds, insects, and humans as ‘meat creatures,’” Luvo explained patiently. “It distresses Evumeimei. She asked me to use the word
humans
for those of you who waste two of your limbs and put all of your weight on the other two.”

Despite the pain in his throat, Briar sighed. “We don’t
waste
what we do with our hands. You think your orange gods over there would be so bright if they didn’t get their colors touched up now and then by painters? Those are humans who spread color at the end of little stick tools they hold in their hands,” he said hurriedly, before Luvo could ask what a painter was. “We couldn’t fight the emperor’s soldiers if we didn’t have hands and weapons we made with them.”

“Neither could he fight you,” Luvo said.

Briar made a face. “True enough. But Rosethorn and I make medicines with our hands that help the wounded to heal. We also
help plants to grow with them.” The medicine’s fire died away and, with it, the pain in his leg.

Jimut, who had left Briar to drink his medicine, now returned at the trot, leading Briar’s riding horse. The gelding was saddled and ready.

“Forgive me,” he said, “but General Sayrugo says those who cannot ride will be left here. We are two days from the capital. It is under siege by the imperial army. And Princess Soudamini says that Evvy must stay here, too. A battleground is no place for a child. She said that, not me,” he said hurriedly after a look at Evvy.

Evvy jumped down from the wagon. “Oh, no,” she snapped. “I’m not getting left behind. Not after what they did to me. Jimut, where is she?”

Jimut whistled to a passing soldier. “Take Evvy to Her Highness, will you?” he asked the man.

“Evumeimei?” Luvo called. “Shall I go with you?”

Evvy shook her head and let the rider swing her up behind him. “I try to behave myself in front of you, Luvo,” she explained. “I don’t want you confusing me just now.”

As her soldier carried her to the princess, Briar stood in the wagon’s bed. “I’ll ride or I’ll bust,” he told his companions. They would not leave
him
behind, either. Jimut nudged the horse closer, until Briar could grab the saddle horn and swing his weak leg over the animal’s back. After that it was easy enough to place his good foot in the stirrup.

Evvy soon returned on a horse of her own. Her smile was grim, but pleased.

“Were you rude?” Briar asked sternly.

“Not exactly,” she replied. “I said I’ve been fighting in this war ever since Snow Serpent Pass, and they can’t call me a child when I can make horses and men fall. And Rosethorn said that if we lost, Melonam would be the emperor’s next conquest. So here I am. Children fight all over the world, and Her Highness wanted to keep me safe!”

“She knows His Highness and Rosethorn and Briar all care about you,” Jimut said with reproach.

Evvy rolled her eyes. “I know
that.
But nobody’s let me be a child since my mother sold me. Can we just drop it?”

Briar hid a grin behind his hand. The only time anyone got to protect Evvy was when Evvy wanted protection; he knew it very well. Once she got her hackles up, it was best to stay out of her way.

One of Jimut’s friends arrived with a packhorse whose saddle had been arranged to carry Luvo as well as belongings. Evvy tucked Luvo into the open seat on the saddle, then helped Jimut arrange packs around him. As soon as their wagon was emptied of everything but bedding, the driver headed toward the rear of the supply train. Jimut closed in on Briar’s left, Evvy on his right. Together, with Luvo on Evvy’s free side, they trotted up the road to find Rosethorn.

Briar glanced back at Melonam. The four-headed god to the north side of the gate had turned around to show Briar a naked green bum with four cheeks. The god was bending over to ensure that Briar got the message.

“Do you see that?” Briar demanded of Jimut, pointing to the god.

Jimut looked. “The walls? Those are paintings of the god Shidong, king of the winds and doors and patron of the town. Surely you have seen him before.”

Briar said nothing. He doubted that Luvo would think the god’s behind was unusual in any way. He wondered if Rosethorn could see it. He wasn’t about to ask her, that was certain. He would not risk being tied once more to a sickbed while his friends risked their lives against Yanjing.

“Good, you’re still with us,” Rosethorn said when they reached her. “I was worried that medicine wouldn’t work and we’d have to leave you.”

“As if you could,” Briar retorted.

Parahan, just ahead of them, looked around. “You have something that heals faster than ordinary medicines?” he demanded, scowling. “Why has it not been used on the wounded we left back there? We’ll turn around right now!”

Souda put her hand on her brother’s arm. “Perhaps Rosethorn has a reason,” she said quietly.

Rosethorn met Parahan’s glare. “Do you truly think I would not have used it if I’d had enough of it? The ingredients are rare. I don’t have enough to heal a hundred wounded. I must use it sparingly. If Briar stays with us, he can keep plenty of mages and warriors alive with his own medicines and knowledge. Ask your healers if they can do better!”

Souda kicked her brother. “Go scouting if you have forgotten these realities, my dear,” she counseled. “Have a gallop. Ride with the general for a while. Soon enough you’ll have plenty of things to occupy you.”

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.