Battle Magic

sprout up in case Evvy slipped and tumbled into the icy water. She could control rocks, but not dirt.

When he reached her, he had to shout in her ear. She had chosen a spot right over a series of rapids. They boomed in the night.

“What are you doing?” he cried. “The enemy could be nearby! And you scared the sentries!”

“The mountains sing.” Strangely enough, her voice was perfectly clear. “Not like the Yanjingyi singers do, or the Gyongxin warriors. It’s in my bones. They sing of caves and snow and vultures.”

“No, thank you!” Briar shouted. “I’m sure it’s lovely, you bleat-brained stone mage, but we’re going back to camp now! I bet your pocket stones will sing to you if you ask them nicely!”

“All right,” she said, as if he’d asked her to feed the cats. She linked her arm in his and walked peaceably back to the cook fires with him. She even apologized to Kanbab and the sentries. Briar was shivering by the time they sat down to get warm. These mountains weren’t like any others they had seen. She had liked the heights and the occasional glacier, but she hadn’t been strange about the mountains themselves. He remembered the skeletons stepping out of the cliff face not so long ago, and the knowledge that, in Gyongxe, this kind of thing happened over and over. Evvy had been friendly with Gyongxe’s rocks all winter. What if they survived this war, and Evvy was too entangled with the stone and mountains of Gyongxe to leave? What could he say to her that would compete with the highest mountains in the world?

11

FORT SAMBACHU

SNOW SERPENT PASS GYONGXE

The sunrise was just touching the river the next day when the hills in the east ended in towering cliffs. They were free of the gorge. Half a mile on they found a wide bridge that crossed the Snow Serpent River. They turned south and rode across it, off the main road. A lesser road following a deep stream took them to a short and jagged hill where Fort Sambachu was built at the feet of the Drimbakang Lho mountains. By then Briar was leading Evvy’s pony. Her eyes were fixed on the soaring peaks ahead. In the gorge the hills had obscured the mountains beyond. Here Evvy saw the immense, snowy heights that stood between Gyongxe and the Realms of the Sun.

“See those three?” Kanbab asked Evvy, pointing to the nearest mountains. “According to the worshippers of La Ni Ma, our sun goddess, those mountains are her husbands. The east one is Ganas Rigyal Po, the Snow King. The west one is Ganas Gazig Rigyal Po, the Snow Leopard King. And the one in the middle is Kangri Skad Po, the Talking Snow Mountain King.”

“What does that mean, the ‘Talking Snow Mountain King’?” Briar asked. He wasn’t sure if Evvy even heard.

Kanbab looked at Briar. “I think the worshippers feel he is the most conversational of the Sun Queen’s husbands.”

“The sun isn’t a queen in the Living Circle,” Evvy murmured.

Kanbab smiled at her. “But this is Gyongxe, the home of many faiths. Surely they told you that when you were here for the winter. Garmashing itself has more temples than even the God-King can count, it is said. People come here to build at least one temple for their faith because our realm is closest of all to the heavens, and our mountains hold them up.”

“And why do people want to be close to the gods?” Evvy wanted to know. “Back home, Shaihun does horrible things to people.”

Kanbab gave Briar a strange look.

“Shaihun is a god of the deep desert,” Briar explained. “Is that Fort Sambachu or a temple?”

“It’s the fort,” Kanbab said in confirmation. “Let those lowland creepers come against us there and see what they get!”

Briar had to admit, the fort looked promising. Its hill and its towers commanded a view of the pass, the road, and the grassy plain for a good distance. The curtain walls sloped inward and climbed the hill in steps, which would allow the archers on the highest level to shoot above the heads of those lower down. Around the outer walls an army of five hundred or more tents was camped, flying banners of crimson, turquoise, and emerald silks.

Evvy yelped and reined up, almost forcing her mount to rear. Briar instantly reached for her horse’s bridle, though he was trying to keep from pulling too hard on his own animal’s reins.

“Wait! Wait!” Captain Rana called, raising a hand. “It’s all right! They are allies, and welcome ones at that!”

Kanbab rested a hand on Evvy’s elbow. “If you’re this jumpy now, what will you do when you get to the war?” she asked. “We’re just getting ready for it. Garmashing is where you’ll find the real danger!”

Parahan rode up beside Evvy. “These — these are Kombanpur flags, but not my uncle’s or my father’s. What is going on here?” He dismounted and walked into the tent village.

“He’ll catch up with us,” Rana said. “Come on. The general’s waiting for you.”

Once inside the fort, they barely got a chance to wash up and release the cats in the rooms to be shared by Rosethorn and Evvy. Rana shooed the three travelers along the halls of the fortress to General Sayrugo’s audience chamber. There the notables were seated on one side of a long, worn table behind pots of the ever-present tea and teacups. Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy watched as Rana marched up to an imposing bronze-skinned woman in a fire-orange tunic jacket. He presented her with the reports he had written each night on the road.

Then they saw the older man on the general’s right and forgot all about her and Rana. Evvy squeaked and threw herself around the corner of the table to hug First Dedicate Dokyi. Rosethorn and Briar were more restrained, but every bit as glad to see the older mage.

“Evumeimei, where is your dignity?” her most recent teacher asked as he patted her on the back.

“I don’t have any,” Evvy said, her voice muffled by the cloth of his habit.

Dokyi looked up at Rosethorn and Briar. “General Sayrugo has been good enough to allow me to read the reports she received from Captain Rana,” he said. “I understand you had a difficult time. Evumeimei, did you bring your cats?”

She straightened up, indignant. “Of course I did!” Then she saw his smile and realized that he was teasing. “Sorry, Honored Dedicate. You can visit them whenever you like.”

“Perhaps a little later. I should very much like to hear Monster purr again. Now.” Dokyi looked up at Rosethorn. “Captain Rana wrote that you came to warn us, but as he has told you, your warning was not needed. Weishu made secret treaties with both Inxia and Qayan, which freed his armies so he could launch an invasion here. He is a greedy fellow, is he not?”

Rosethorn smiled wryly and told Dokyi, “That is one way of looking at it, Honored Dedicate.”

“Is it true, then, that you are also determined to fight here?” the older man wanted to know.

Rosethorn nodded. “More than ever after our time at the Winter Palace,” she said. Her belly griped. Her heart cried out for Lark, but her answer had to be the one she had given Dokyi and the reason she had taken her two children and brought them back to Gyongxe. After what they had seen of Weishu and his court, she had to do all she could to stop him. The emperor of Yanjing was a monster in human skin.

“Good,” Dokyi said. “I have an errand of utmost importance. You are the best person I know of our faith who can carry it out.” He came out from behind the table and gripped Rosethorn gently by the shoulder. “Forgive me. I did not let you walk into peril on purpose. I did not know that war was inside our borders until the God-King did, and I did not let this errand wait until you were the only one who could do it for me. At first I undertook it. A week ago I set out from Garmashing. For each step I tried to take due south on this errand, there were Yanjingyi troops to drive me south and east. To here, in fact, where I would find