Battle Magic

“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?”

“Parahan’s twin sister is camped before our walls with troops she has brought to join us. Her name is Soudamini.”

“Oh.” There were mountains in Rosethorn’s head. She rose and swayed.

Dokyi stood and supported her by one arm. “Forgive me. The map is complex. Together with the Treasures, you have borne too much all at once.” He snapped his fingers. The dark bubble around them vanished. “I can only say in my own defense that we are all desperate. The emperor took the God-King by surprise.”

“How bad does it look?” Rosethorn asked, leaning on Dokyi as they walked out into a hallway.

“Soudamini’s warriors have shown they are worth more than their numbers. The eastern and western tribesmen and their shamans have been coming in to join our armies. I don’t think the emperor has planned for them,” Dokyi explained. “And we still await the armies of the northwest.” He led her somewhere in the fort; Rosethorn wasn’t certain where. If she closed her eyes, she saw the Endless Ocean and the unexplored lands far to the west of Emelan. She tried to keep her eyes open.

Dokyi handed her over to two female dedicates, who gently took her arms. “Let her sleep and eat. Give her a hot bath. Treat her with all honor,” the man instructed them. “And put this among her things.”

To Rosethorn’s drowsy surprise, he casually handed the pack with the Treasures to the younger of the two. “Rest,” he said, and kissed Rosethorn on the forehead. “I will see you later.”

The older dedicate led Rosethorn into a large room. All Rosethorn noticed was the bed, strewn with Evvy’s cats. Promising herself that she would never let Dokyi talk her into anything more than a fishing trip again, she tumbled onto it.

Briar and Evvy had finished their snack and were wondering what would happen next when the main door opened. Parahan came in, his arm around a much shorter person in a yak-skin coat and boots. They were chattering in the language Parahan often used for swearing. While his companion waited to see the general, Parahan came to see Briar and Evvy and filch a couple of their leftover dumplings.

“Who’s that?” Evvy demanded, feeling a little jealous. She could see that Parahan’s friend was female. She wore a long braid of black hair pinned at the back of her head, and a tiny row of rubies that followed the line of her brows somehow. She also had large golden-brown eyes, a perfect nose, and full lips. She made Evvy feel even more like a grub than she did already. “That’s my sister,” Parahan said gleefully. “That’s Souda — Soudamini! She’s the fierce one and I’m the layabout. There was gossip that the emperor might invade Gyongxe this year or next, so she came from Kombanpur to offer her services and two hundred warriors to the God-King. She heard what happened to me. So now I have my own clothes and weapons, because she prepares for everything, and we are going to fight Weishu, if the God-King will have me.” Parahan indeed had his own clothes: a red silk tunic embroidered with a multitude of birds, blue silk breeches, and proper riding boots. He asked, “Where is Rosethorn?”