He felt around until he found Evvy’s stone alphabet by his packs. With his hand resting on it, he slept.
18
UNDER AND ON THE GNAM RUNGA PLAIN
BETWEEN THE TEMPLE OF THE TIGERS
AND THE TOWN OF MELONAM
Under Gnam Runga, Evvy lost track of time. It was hard to remember days without sunlight. Her companions did not help: One counted time in thousand-year chunks and the other didn’t talk. Except for brief stints running and necessity halts, Evvy stayed on Big Milk, even to sleep.
Luvo told her about the coming of the Realms of the Sun and how that slab of land had shoved the edge of what would be Gyongxe higher and higher to form the Drimbakangs, youngest of all the world’s mountains. She told him about Briar, Rosethorn, and the things they had seen as they had traveled east. That seemed to require many more explanations than Luvo’s stories. He found humans mystifying, particularly the human need to take things from other humans, and to put an end to other humans’ lives without the need to eat them. He was also curious about what Evvy had learned to do with stones. She managed to collect a few new stones from the walls and floor of the tunnel, teaching some to produce light or warmth if they had the capability for either.
The tunnel had plenty of strange pictures on the earthen walls, pictures given odd movement by the green fungus that was the sole source of light. Evvy examined the pictures every chance she got at first. She was eyeing one that seemed to be a spindle-legged horse with a bird’s head when she turned to find a creature just like it staring at her.
She screamed. So did the creature. It clattered into the dark on impossibly thin legs, followed by three others that would have been colts if it had been a horse. Big Milk, who was eating one of the heaps of grass that someone had left at intervals, looked at Evvy with a reproachful eye.
“Evumeimei, you must not scream at the deep runners because they are not what you are used to,” Luvo told her mildly. “This is their country after all.”
“Their country?” cried Evvy, clambering onto Big Milk’s back, where Luvo already waited. “It’s a tunnel underground!”
“Underground is where they and their kindred live, unless danger brings them to the surface.”
“The God-King and Dokyi never said anything about horse-birds!”
“Forgive me, Evumeimei, but from what you have told me about your friends, it seems to me they did not tell you the greatest part of the secrets of Gyongxe.”
Evvy sat cross-legged on Big Milk’s broad, solid back and propped her chin on her hands. “No, I suppose not. Please don’t feel insulted, Luvo, but even though you have the most splendid mountains I have ever seen, I will be glad when I leave here. Gyongxe is too strange for me.”
“Would you not become accustomed to things?”
Evvy started on a little braid in Big Milk’s fur. She had made quite a few of them so far out of the yak’s hair and brightly colored threads from her clothes. Luvo had said the giant yak did not mind. Evvy found it was good to focus on braiding in the green-lit gloom of the vast tunnel during those bad times when she might otherwise dwell on the smiling Jia Jui as she raised the rod over Evvy’s feet.
“No, Luvo,” Evvy said. She couldn’t tell him the cold winds would always remind her of the piled dead, or that the jeweled night sky would show her the picture of her cats’ limp bodies. “I’m sorry.” Something scampered by overhead. She bent close to Big Milk’s fur so she wouldn’t see what it was.
The army remained in camp for a day, to give the wounded a chance to rest. After a heated conference and some back-and-forthing of messengers, two companies of warriors took the Yanjingyi prisoners and wounded back to the village they had passed the day before. They could not spare soldiers to guard captives as well as their own wounded on the road. The companies returned well before sunset.
Briar heard all of this from his friends among the twins’ and Lango’s companies. He did not wake until twilight. When he joined them at their cook fire, they hooted at him.
“I overreached, that’s all,” he growled. “I got a little tired.”
“You had best make a decision,” Parahan said, handing him a full bowl.
Briar accepted the bowl and blinked at the big man. “Decision?”
“Fight or heal once the serious battles start. You can’t do both without half killing yourself. Most mages don’t even try,” Parahan said.
Briar frowned. He had always thought mages chose to be healers or war mages because they hadn’t the talent to do both. It hadn’t occurred to him that they might simply be conserving their strength. “But me and Rosethorn fought and then did healing on our way east, when bandits attacked our caravans,” he said. “And Rosethorn fought the pirates back home and then did healing after.”
“I used my medicines when we fought pirates,” Rosethorn corrected him. “I cleaned wounds and bandaged them. I didn’t put added strength into my medicines, not when I might need it for the thorns on the beach. Parahan’s right. We won’t be able to do much healing and fighting at the same time, not once we face real armies. We didn’t do anything like that on the way here.”
“Do you have to choose?” Briar asked.
“Of course,” she replied. “Moreover, I’m sure General Sayrugo will prefer we use our abilities as battle mages. This army is short of them.”
“Not that you’re exactly battle mages,” Souda remarked.
Rosethorn chuckled. “We aren’t what the generals order when they call for battle mages at all. We can’t throw fire, we can’t make things explode, and we can’t send a hundred catapult stones flying through the air at once.”
“Hey!” Briar said, offended. “We can do better things than that!”
“Oh, he’s a man, all right,” Souda said, rolling her eyes. Riverdancer laughed once her translator relayed what the princess had said.
“We can,” Briar argued, grinning. “We can put acres of thorn vines down among the enemy in a flash. We can ask the grasses to tangle the soldiers’ feet and the feet of the horses. We can make their wood useless to them. You’ll see!”
“They will see,” Rosethorn agreed. “And I have a few other ideas. Most of the temple mages and shamans are healers, and they can use our medicines. We’ll help in the tents when we can, but when it comes time for armies, we are battle mages.” She got to her feet and wandered off into the darkness.
Briar returned to their tent to make sure his armor was in order and he had plenty of seed balls ready for the next day, then went over Rosethorn’s things as well. When he began to yawn, he went to use the privy for the last time.
On his way back to bed, Briar saw Rosethorn and Parahan talking in the shadows near one of the supply tents. They stood close together — very close. He squinted, trying to get a better look without going over to them. Something in their postures said they would not welcome an interruption. Then Parahan rested a hand on Rosethorn’s hip.
Briar turned away and briskly walked to his tent. He knew that Rosethorn sometimes slept with people other than Lark. He knew that Lark knew that Rosethorn sometimes slept with other people than her. Rosethorn had done so twice since they had left Winding Circle. Briar simply was never certain how he felt about it. This was the first time he actually knew one of those someones before anything happened.
Why am I surprised? he wondered as he pulled off his boots. They’ve been circling around each other since we met up near the border. And it’s Parahan. If I was damohi, I’d give Parahan the eye myself.