Battle Magic

protocol, but he stepped closer and put an arm around her anyway for reassurance.

The emperor leaned forward, resting his weight on his elbows. He was the very picture of an indulgent uncle, except for all that gold, Briar thought. Kindly Weishu said, “We are told that you, too, have magic in your veins, unlike these poor servants of mine, who must pull it from spells and potions.”

Evvy bowed low and almost lost her balance. Only Briar’s arm kept her from collapsing. Gently he drew her upright again. “You’re all right,” he whispered.

“I get my magic from stones, not my veins, Your Imperial Majesty,” Evvy said as she stared at the floor.

The emperor smiled. “And how did you learn to get magic from dull stones?” he asked. “Or do you use those that have been spelled already?”

Evvy glanced up at him, startled, then down again. “All stones have magic in them, Your Imperial Majesty,” she said, a little more confidence in her voice. “I can feel it — or I could even before I studied. Now I can see it, too. Just like Briar and Rosethorn see the magic in plants.”

“We are taught of qi, the power that binds all things.” The speaker was the older of the two male mages, a tall, slender old man with silver hair and long silver mustaches. His face was a maze of wrinkles. Like the other two Yanjingyi mages he wore beads of many kinds strung in loops around his neck and worn in multiple bracelets under his full sleeves. Briar closed his eyes briefly, adjusting part of himself. When he opened them again, he saw the light of magic everywhere, enough so that he didn’t want to use the spell for long. He did hold it until he saw the blaze of power from each of the beads that were wooden. Even the other mages in the room didn’t blaze with power as much as the two men and the woman in black robes. The oldest of the mages who stood with the emperor went on, “It would seem this young student has learned more of qi than many of us have forgotten.”

Evvy bowed to the old man, to Briar’s surprise. “I am certain that cannot be true, Master,” she said politely. “I am deeply honored, but I can also recognize the depth of wisdom in a face, a depth I will be lucky to ever attain.”

“Such respect, when we are told those of the west are rude barbarians,” said the emperor, applauding softly.

The emperor held a hand out to Evvy. It was laden with rings that gleamed with jade, rubies, sapphires, and pearls. “Tell me what my ring stones say,” he urged. When his armed guards and mage guards alike stirred, he held up his other hand. “I think I am quite safe. Go on, Evumeimei.”

Gently Briar urged Evvy forward. Slowly she climbed the dais and knelt beside the emperor, knowing that her head must never be higher than Weishu’s. Then, nervously, she took the emperor’s hand in both of hers. Suddenly she smiled at him. “They love you,” Evvy explained. “Not the pearls. Well, maybe they do, I don’t know. I don’t understand pearls because they aren’t really stones, just dirt that got in an oyster. Did you know that?” Weishu nodded, his eyes dancing. “I think it’s a cheat to call them precious stones when they aren’t really,” Evvy went on, happy as always to talk about rocks. “But the others, they love you. They just glow from the inside. They’ve been with you for a long time, and some of them are very old.”

The emperor laughed outright. Evvy quickly released his hand. “I’m sorry!” she cried. “I wasn’t trying to insult you — I didn’t mean —” She looked frantically at Rosethorn, then Briar. “That’s not what I meant!”

“Calm down,” Briar murmured to his student. “See? He’s laughing.” He bowed to the emperor. “She’s all wound up. She’s heard stories of the imperial court most of her life, and she’s been scared to death about coming here.”

“She has nothing to fear,” Weishu assured Evvy, smiling at her. “The stones I believe you meant have come to me from my imperial ancestors. You are right — they are very old. And much may be forgiven so talented a young girl in so overpowering a place. So tell me, Nanshur Briar Moss, how can you teach Evumeimei if her power is drawn through stones and yours through plants?”

Briar didn’t shrug. That would have been impolite. “I could teach her the basics, Your Imperial Majesty — meditation, reading, writing, mathematics. The names and everyday properties of stones, and what they’re traditionally used for. Evvy does the rest herself.”

“First Dedicate Dokyi helped me a lot this winter,” Evvy said. “He’s head of First Circle Temple in Garmashing, and an Earth mage. And so far it isn’t too hard once I read the spells and have the sticky parts explained to me. A lot of stone wants to be shaped, even jade, if you know how to explain it right.” Her face was brighter and livelier. Briar thought he might swell up completely with pride in her. “Stone gets pretty bored, holding the same form all the time,” Evvy explained. “Even mining it doesn’t help, because nobody likes being smacked with a hammer. But if you wheedle just right, and tell it how it will like being smooth and bouncing light, and feeling its magic ripple along its inner surfaces, it’s all you can do to keep it in the shape you want. Sometimes I just let the stone shape itself, for fun.”

“And this Dokyi helped you to do this?” The emperor had retreated behind his blank, official mask suddenly. “He showed you how to shatter rocks?”

Evvy screwed up her face and shrugged. Briar nudged her to remind her where she was. “Oh, no, Your Imperial Majesty,” she said, bowing swiftly. “No, he said he never tried it my way. He uses spells, and puts the spell on stones. I don’t see why. He could probably do it like I do, but he thinks stone is dead.”

The emperor laughed, so those who could hear them did so as well. Evvy had that effect on people.

“Did you enjoy your time in Garmashing?” Weishu asked Evvy. “It is a very old and mystical place, I am given to understand, with much that is unusual in the way of temple art.”

Evvy bowed. “It’s very cold, Your Imperial Majesty,” she said as she straightened. “And it’s harder to breathe than it is here. The mountains were splendid.” Her face lit up. “Granite and other stones, scratching at the sky. Have you seen them, Your Imperial Majesty?”

“Sadly I have not,” the emperor told her gravely.

“When my family went west, we took the north caravan route, so I didn’t see them then,” Evvy explained. “We came to Garmashing the same way. It was snowing so bad that nobody would let me get any closer to the mountains than the cliffs along the Tom Sho River, but I caught glimpses on clear days. Now I believe the books that said they’re the tallest mountains anywhere.” Evvy shook her head. “I wish we’d seen the Drimbakang Sharlog on the way here, but your messenger was in such a hurry, and there were storms that your weather mages were holding off us. I couldn’t see anything but the storms overhead. I thought I could hear the mountains, though!”

The emperor clapped his hands with delight. “Dedicate Initiate Rosethorn, it is wonderful that you have brought Evumeimei and Briar to visit us. I must ensure that Evumeimei has a suitable companion while we absorb ourselves in the wonders of the palace gardens.”

The rippling bang of a small gong interrupted every conversation in the room. The emperor looked toward the entry with a frown. Everyone else turned that way with interest except for Rosethorn. Briar saw that she was looking the room over, paying special interest to the plants.

An emerald-robed eunuch, his face painted white like that of the Master of Presentations, stood by the entry with a small gong in his hands. “His Most Glorious Excellency, the War Lion of the Empire, the Sword of the Emperor, Defender of the Long Throne, Terror of the Foreigners, Commander of the Imperial Armies, Great Mage General Fenqi Hengkai!”

A short, stocky man in iron-scale-and-leather armor under a scarlet robe strode across the room without so much as a glance for any of the courtiers. His square, blunt-nosed face was marked with scars and cruelty. He carried a pointed metal helm and wore no weapons. Once he reached the foot of the dais, standing near Evvy, he set his helm aside, went to his hands and knees, and touched his forehead to the floor.

The emperor stood. All of the Yanjingyi courtiers went to their hands and knees, as did Parahan and those who shared the top of the dais with Weishu. Foreigners bowed deep, including Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy.

“You have met my captive Parahan, have you not, Dedicate Initiate Rosethorn, Nanshur Briar, Student Evumeimei? He will entertain you now,” the emperor said, motioning to Parahan. The big man sat up on his knees with a jingling of chains. “He might have been the king of Kombanpur, in the Realms of the Sun, one day — if his uncle had not sold him to me.” He looked at his mages. “The leash may come off.” To Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy, he said cheerfully, “Once his uncle captures Parahan’s twin sister, I will have a matched set. Now, Mage General?”

The emperor snapped his fingers and led his mages down the far side of the dais. His general walked