Battle Magic

imperial archers had loosed a deadly rain straight at the Gyongxin leaders.

Rosethorn and Briar also looked up. They did not so much as stretch out their hands. Suddenly crossbow bolts, sprouting twigs and leaves that slowed their flight, tumbled to the open ground between the armies.

The snap of ropes pulled Evvy’s eyes to boulders that arched into the air. She grabbed Luvo. “Can we do something? Please?” There was nothing she could do about the zayao balls, but the boulders were different.

Come with me. His voice boomed inside her skull.

She twined with him inside his magic. They rose above their bodies into the unpleasant, thin air. Evvy glanced down. Everyone seemed to be frozen. Even the green-leafed crossbow bolts had stopped where they fell. Five stone balls were above the Yanjingyi army; three were unmoving. Evvy and Luvo spread themselves wide to cover those, sinking deep into the limestone that made them.

Evvy knew a thing or two about limestone. While Luvo did something that made the stones tremble, she sorted through the bits of lesser material that formed them. She couldn’t touch the bits of coral. Coral wasn’t a true stone, but the remains of an animal, and immune to her magic. There were other minuscule sea animals that had gone hard like the coral. She ignored all of them. With each non-stone thing she thrust aside, the limestone cracked. Luvo’s trembling magic made the cracks grow and spread. Evvy made piles of bits of flint, jasper, and chalcedony, leaving gaps behind as she shifted each piece. Abruptly her body down below sneezed. She lost her concentration and separated from Luvo. She was back in her physical shell.

Small pebbles rattled as they bounced off the soldiers’ helms. Luvo was covered with gritty dust. So was she. Nearby she heard screams — human and horse. “What did we do?” she asked him.

“We broke three boulders in midair,” Luvo said. He sounded very satisfied with himself. “I wish we could have caught the other two. They damaged our army, but two stones did less harm than five would have done.”

“Luvo, can we take rocks apart before they throw them?” Evvy whispered.

“Put your hands on me,” he said quietly. “It works better with both of us.”

Evvy obeyed and left her body again.

The stones of the plain raced under them as Luvo drew her along, bound for the biggest rocks in one Yanjingyi catapult. It went quicker this time. They did not have to work inside moving boulders. Evvy simply ignored the fossil coral and bone, plucking the stones she recognized out of the limestone.

Luvo pulled water from someplace and turned it to ice in the cracks Evvy made. Evvy didn’t know where he got it until they rose above the heap of gravel that was the remains of the boulders ready for the catapult. Only then did she see shriveled bodies on the ground through Luvo’s vision. They wore the colors of Yanjingyi soldiers and, in the case of two of them, the black tunics and bead strings of mages. Luvo had taken the water from their flesh.

Serves them right, she thought savagely. They’re the enemy. I bet they would have tortured us if they could. I’m glad they’re dead.

There are other catapults here, Luvo said. Shall we deal with them? If we reduce the stones to nothing, these humans will have to go far to get others.

Yes, Evvy told him. Let’s do that. She was careful not to think about the people ready to load the massive stones into the catapult slings at their officers’ commands. She simply followed Luvo into the stones, removing the grains that held the boulder together so he could freeze water in the cracks she left behind. Everywhere around them soldiers and mages gasped for water and died without any idea of what killed them. Evvy did her best to ignore them. Each time she felt her hate weaken, she remembered the heap of cold dead outside Fort Sambachu. Now their ghosts had company. Wasn’t that a good thing?

21

BEFORE THE GATES OF GARMASHING, CAPITAL OF GYONGXE

In the front of the Gyongxin and Yanjingyi battle lines sergeants bellowed for archers to shoot. Just ahead, boulders smashed the Gyongxin army in two places, killing the horses and men that hadn’t been able to flee. Briar watched for imperial arrows; he knew Rosethorn did, too. He took a quick glance at Evvy. Seated on horseback, she clung to Luvo, her eyes closed. The youth trotted over and pinched her gently, with no response. He cursed softly, but there was nothing he could do, or dared to do.

“Luvo?” he whispered. “Luvo!”

The rock didn’t answer, nor did it look at him, if “look” it could be called when the creature had no eyes that could be seen. Briar thought Luvo turned his head knob just to make people feel better, not because he really needed to do so. Now Briar prodded Luvo, without effect.

Blasted bleat-brain, he scolded himself. You should have told them to do nothing without checking with you or Rosethorn! He took a breath, wondering if he should talk with Rosethorn or keep quiet, and coughed. His mouth tasted as if he’d walked through a dust cloud. Dust lay on his armor, too. He spat and drank from his flask.

Rosethorn was coughing. He ran to her and thrust his flask into her hand, watching anxiously as she drank.

“What targets should we go after when the enemy isn’t shooting?” he asked when she returned the flask to him.

“The catapults,” Rosethorn said firmly. “Plant them deep and grow them as high as you can.”

A soldier nearby heard. “They’ll be magicked,” he warned. “Written over with spells to prevent other mages from interfering.”

Rosethorn smiled at him. “But they won’t be spelled against us. We become part of the wood; we don’t try to work spells on it.”

“As you say,” the soldier answered, clearly not believing her. “I’m just here to run errands for you.”

“We could use more water,” Briar said. The man nodded and left. To Rosethorn, Briar said, “Will you handle catapults and I’ll take care of arrows?”

He did not have to ask her twice. She sat and placed her palms flat on the earth on either side of her. Briar sat cross-legged next to her and kept his eyes on the imperial forces. He could not hear their officers’ cries, but he saw the next volley of crossbow bolts arch into the air. He reached for them, tapping the memory of their lives as trees deep in the wood. He called those lives out, encouraging the bolts to sprout and leaf. They fought the metal arrow tip and thrust roots past the fletching, slowing the bolts’ flight and draining their deadly power as they dropped to the ground. He couldn’t reach all of them, but he reached a great many.

He was so fixed on that flight of arrows, and the next, and the next, that he did not hear the groans of the catapults as Rosethorn called upon their own memories as trees. They sprouted roots, splitting their metal fixtures and joins. The catapults exploded into pieces as the wooden towers and throwing arms burst free of their constraints, sank roots, and put out branches. Once a newborn tree was fixed in its bed, Rosethorn moved on to the next.

Briar kept track of her work through occasional touches as he rested between flights of arrows. A glimpse of Evvy as she drooped over Luvo and her horse’s neck told him that they had finished whatever they’d been doing.

A roar from a large number of human throats drew Briar’s attention to the battlefield. General Sayrugo’s trumpets were sounding the attack. On their left, cavalry riders on both sides battled with spears and halberds. On the right, a pit opened under the Yanjingyi cavalry. They were trying to climb out, but the earth was dry. It slid under the feet of horses and fighters, dropping them back on top of those who were lower down.

Whose work? Briar wondered. He looked at the different groups of shamans. One of them sat on the ground, resting. The others were chanting, dancing, or standing with hands joined. He felt magic roll off them in waves. He made a silent vow never to vex the shamans.

A shout drew Briar’s attention upward. Twenty or more zayao globes fell toward their forces. Lighter than the boulders, they had been thrown by Yanjingyi mages, not catapults. His belly rolled and cramped. He reached with his power but knew the attempt was useless. The charcoal in