Battle Magic

flew south below her as she slid from wind to wind.

She didn’t notice when Dokyi left the room and returned with a tray of tea and buns. She came a little to herself when he wrapped her hands around a warm cup. “Drink. Do you understand, girl? You will take them to the Temple of the Sealed Eye in the Drimbakang Lho, west of here. Their priests are the only ones who can hide such things so no others can sense them. They are immune to the power that great magics possess over others. Only a dedicate of exceptional will and power can carry such a burden. Only a dedicate with strong reasons to return can take the Treasures there and come back.”

Slowly Rosethorn looked at him. She could have sworn she heard Lark ask someone to fetch Comas home from the looms. “What if I didn’t have such reasons?”

“Drink.” Dokyi helped her to lift the cup to her lips. A few sips and she began to feel as if she was more herself. “You would become a priest of the Sealed Eye. As I told you, I did try to take the burden myself. Thanks to the gods, I have to suppose, I failed. You must not.”

Rosethorn emptied the cup and set it down. “What if something happens to me?” she whispered. “The emperor’s soldiers …” She turned her head. There — that was Niko’s voice. He was talking about Tris, and Lightsbridge University.

Dokyi gripped her chin and made her look him in the eyes. “You will stop hearing the sounds shortly. It is the winds that carry them to you. Or perhaps it is the life’s blood of all the plants that link roots beneath the surface of this world. The sounds will fade. Listen.” His voice made her blink. “I was right about you,” he said with great satisfaction. “They can be distracting at first. But I knew the acceptance of the Treasures would not drive you mad.”

“Surely someone from Garmashing could have …” Rosethorn began to say. Then she saw the complexity of the table’s wood grain. She sensed a grain within the grain, and patterns inside that. Gently she followed the whorls with her fingertips. She might follow them to the tree that had supplied the wood for the table, if she concentrated hard enough.

“You are not listening. One of my dedicates perished in the attempt to hold the box, and another lost his mind. No other dedicate had both the strength to go and the need to return, Rosethorn.” Dokyi spoke into her ear so that she could hear nothing else. “Only a very strong mage can survive the Treasures and the Sealed Eye temple. But you — half of you walks in the sun, and half of you walks in shadow. You will need the shadow in the Temple of the Sealed Eye.”

“What!” Rosethorn yelped. “That’s not true! I’m a plant mage! I need sunshine, I thrive on it —”

“Then how did you die and return?”

She opened her mouth, inhaled, and thought the better of whatever she had meant to say. Instead she exhaled and rubbed her temples. “It’s a long and difficult story.”

“Then I will live through the fighting, because I want to hear it. In the meantime, I am First Dedicate of the Living Circle faith, First Dedicate of all of the Living Circle temples, and your vows of obedience are vows to me. I need you to do this because if the emperor, if any evil person, seizes these Treasures, they will poison our temples first, and then the world. No more arguing!”

She bowed her head. “No, Honored Dedicate.”

“Eat something.”

“Yes, Honored Dedicate.” She picked up a bun and bit it. Red bean. She hated red bean. She ate it anyway.

As she chewed, Dokyi explained, “In a day or two General Sayrugo will send troops on a sweep of the villages between this fort and the Drimbakang Zugu. The people here in the south must be moved to safety, should imperial armies come this far. You will ride with the soldiers as far as the turnoff for the road to Sealed Eye. They will guard you.”

“Will the children and I have a guide?” Rosethorn asked. She bit another bun. This was very spicy meat. She ate it dully.

Dokyi shook his head. “No. The fewer people who know of this, the better. Briar and Evumeimei must remain behind.”

That pierced the fog in her brain. She sat straight. “Dokyi, no. They’re my charges.”

“Briar is a man as such things are judged here. Others will look after him and Evumeimei. You cannot take them with you.”

She remembered their restless nights on the way through the pass, when she had roused them both from ugly dreams. Did Dokyi even understand the weird effect the mountains were having on Evvy? Briar was watchful, but he hadn’t spent years of his life raising young mages. “You’ve forgotten what they’re like. Briar seems tough, but he worries himself sick over me. Evvy’s still a child. And the mountains are pulling at her. She should be watched carefully.”

“They will not be able to accompany you. I swear it. No, I will not prevent them,” Dokyi said in response to her glare. “The magic of the Sealed Eye itself will do so. Once you set foot on the path to their temple, your young people will lose you in plain sight. This friend of theirs, this Parahan, will keep them safe. Or they may remain here, but you must take these Treasures into hiding!”

Rosethorn bowed her head, feeling very weary. “I am really the only person who could have done this?”

“I am one of Garmashing’s defending mages,” the man replied. “I took precious time to try to do it myself and failed. I am needed in the capital now.”

“Oh. Forgive me, Honored Dedicate,” Rosethorn whispered. Her heart twisted. Briar would not understand. Sadly, Evvy would understand all too well. Evvy expected everyone to leave her sooner or later.

All you can do is deliver this thing and hurry back to her, Rosethorn told herself. Get a grip on yourself, Niva!

She looked at Dokyi.

“Look,” he said, understanding that she was ready to listen. “This pack will keep the Treasures concealed for ten days or so. Anyone who snoops will think it holds clothing. Place the Treasures inside it.” He held the leather pack open for Rosethorn. At first she hesitated to touch them, afraid of what the combined Treasures, even in their silk wraps and boxes, might do to her. When she saw Dokyi’s glare, Rosethorn glared back, wiped her fingers on a handkerchief she kept in her sleeve, and gripped the box by the sides. It felt like any other wooden container, cool and smooth. Rosethorn set the box inside the pack.

Briskly Dokyi did up the ties and buckles that secured it. Once he was finished, he placed it on the table. “Now you must take the map to the temple from my mind. This is why you require no guide. If the map is behind your eyes, no one can steal it from you.”

Rosethorn nodded. She had done spells like this twice, though she did not care for them. She closed her eyes and found the core of her power, the part that was pure magic. It surged up through her arms and into her hands more fiercely than ever before. Carefully she pressed her fingers against Dokyi’s temples.

His Earth magic answered hers. Once again she saw a landscape. She knew it for southern Gyongxe in vivid detail. The Snow Serpent River flowed over its rocks and hollows, plunging into the gorge. The fort lay just below her, with the army camped around it. Now she turned west, following the Snow Serpent River deeper into the country. There were villages on both sides and temples dedicated to gods she did not recognize. Only once did she spot a Circle temple to the north on the plain. She recognized it by the four-colored banner that flew from the bell tower.

When the Snow Serpent met the Tom Sho River, the map spell drew her south, into hills that were just lower rises of the massive Drimbakang Lho mountains. Inside the first line of peaks the magic pulled her along first one gorge, then another. At last she found the shadowed spot that was her destination, the Temple of the Sealed Eye.

She took her hands from Dokyi’s head. “I should tell Briar and Evvy something,” Rosethorn murmured. She felt dizzy and strange. “Where’s the pack?”

Dokyi gave it to her. “You must rest and have a proper meal. Soudamini wishes to meet you and thank you for saving her brother.”

Rosethorn blinked at him. “Souda-who?”