Battle Magic

“Call me untrusting, God-King,” he said apologetically, without taking his eyes from the emperor, “but in case Hengkai does try something, I will take his master’s head. He was Weishu’s chief general because he can work battle magic very quickly.”

“The cave snakes have an eye on Hengkai, Parahan,” the God-King assured him. Briar looked at the general. A number of baby cave snakes and two of the larger ones lay at Hengkai’s feet, watching him. Perhaps that was why the man trembled so much. Perhaps he was steadfast enough in ordinary battle, but these strange beings were too much for him.

Hengkai handled the beads he’d gathered in a particular order, his lips moving. He passed his free hand over them. That done, he shifted the beads to his free hand and murmured, then passed the other hand over them. Briar felt a pressure on his ears, then a pop.

“Don’t you feel better?” the God-King asked Hengkai. “It can’t have been easy for you, holding such a vast spell for so long a time.”

The general did not answer him. He sank onto the top step by the throne and put his head in his hands.

Weishu did not even ask if he felt unwell. He ducked Parahan’s sword and walked down the steps, ignoring the God-King. He brushed past Rosethorn and Sayrugo, pointing to different Yanjingyi soldiers. The others moved out of his way.

“They will leave their weapons here,” Sayrugo called as Weishu was about to pass through the open doors.

“Very well,” the God-King said. “Weishu, you heard General Sayrugo.”

The emperor did not move, but the soldiers he had chosen did. They stripped off their sword belts and even their daggers, leaving them in a heap before they accompanied Weishu out of the throne room. Without discussing it, the God-King, Parahan, Soudamini, Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy followed.

“Are you coming?” Evvy asked Riverdancer when they passed her.

The shaman shook her head. “I have see too much … death,” she said haltingly, proving that she spoke a little tiyon.

They kept pace with Weishu and his soldiers as they passed from the God-King’s palace onto the wall that encircled the city. From there they followed the wall down, level by level. All the way to the gate they saw that Gyongxe’s big and little gods had been fighting here, too. They found Yanjingyi soldiers in smothering bundles of spider silk and others bloated and face-black with poison. More were wounded or hacked apart by sharp edges. On and off Briar looked over the edge of the wall, inside the city and out. Quite a few soldiers had jumped to get away from whatever had attacked them up here.

Weishu pretended to see none of the men and women who had died for him.

At last they came to the main gates and the scene they had viewed in the spinneret pool. No inch of ground on the plain was untouched. The earth was dark from spilled blood. Parts of it moved. The creatures they had seen in the pool — cave snakes, peak spiders, the eagle-headed horses Rosethorn had called “deep runners,” nagas, ice lions and lionesses, and mortal snow leopards and cave bears — wandered everywhere, together with huge red, blue, green, and orange many-armed gods. Giant vultures wheeled in the sky together with mortal eagles and ordinary vultures. Some were busy killing those of the enemy who were still alive. The rest were pursuing the fleeing army. And it was fleeing.

Any sense of victory Briar felt over Weishu’s army vanished. These poor bleaters had no idea of what they might be walking into. They were used to fighting their northern neighbors’ armies, horse nomads, and imperial Namorn’s trained army in the northwest. The emperor had walked them into a storm of magic and creatures from their nightmares. He wondered if they had even been given a choice about joining the army. Knowing Weishu, probably not.

He glanced at Rosethorn. She was even whiter than usual. Only Evvy looked happy. There was a small, tight smile on her lips. She’s entitled, maybe, Briar thought. More than maybe, after what they did to her.

There was no expression on the emperor’s face at all.

The God-King had to reach up to put a hand on his enemy’s shoulder. “Let’s go back inside and talk about a treaty. You won’t even think of breaking it when you get back to Yanjing, I know. You can never tell what kind of spies will choose to come back with you.”

They turned back toward the palace. Briar chose not to mention the baby cave snake dangling from a silk thread — or a spider thread — on the emperor’s robe.

Rosethorn drew a deep breath. “I’m going to get my kit and go down there,” she said. “I won’t hold it against you if you stay behind.”

As if he would let her go alone! Briar looked at Evvy, who was shaking her head. “I’ll keep Luvo company,” she told them. “There isn’t much I could do down there. At least here we can help rebuild.”

Rosethorn nodded. She and Briar went in search of their medicines.

GARMASHING, CAPITAL OF GYONGXE

A week later, Riverdancer came to the workroom to tell Rosethorn and Briar that Weishu had left for Yanjing with those healthy soldiers who remained to him. He had needed a cart just for the agreements he had signed with the God-King.

Rosethorn murmured, “Mmhmm.” Briar made no sound at all. They had spent most of their time with the Earth temple novices, filling bags with their fast-growing barley. With luck, the Gyongxin farmers might get four short, plentiful harvests before the winter snows.

“Hengkai did not go with him,” Riverdancer said through her translator.