“Retreat,” Liyana whispered at the army, knowing that even if she had shouted, the emperor couldn’t have heard her over the sounds of dying. “Please.”
She sent her consciousness out again.
At last she sensed the bulk of the army pulling away. She ducked back into the tent. “Hold the line. Do not let the water seep farther. Keep the scorpions and the snakes here.” She guided each deity, drawing a ring around the clans’ camp.
Breaking his concentration, Sendar began to object. “We could defeat—”
“Do not chase them,” Liyana ordered. “Keep the sandstorms high. But hold them.” Controlled destruction would be more impressive and terrifying than chaotic annihilation, but there wasn’t time to explain that to Sendar.
As the deities continued to pour more magic into the battle, the empire’s soldiers ran from their ring of death.
Sendar opened his mouth again, and Liyana clapped her hand over it. “Silence, or I will silence you.” As magic swirled inside her, Liyana meant every word. She felt Bayla’s surprise, and she ignored it, keeping her eyes boring into Sendar’s until he backed down.
As Sendar sank back into his trance, she threw her magic toward the armies to corral the winds. “So long as the emperor does not attempt to pass,” she said to all the deities, “we will not harm them.” It was the same bargain that the sky serpents had made long ago with the people of the turtle. Liyana bet that the emperor would understand her message.
All the clans celebrated.
Not a single warrior had been harmed, and not a single soldier from the empire had crossed the deities’ defenses. As the celebrations stretched into the night, Liyana walked through the camps. She heard men and women swapping stories, and children chased each other in games as if they were at a fair. Everyone was outside under the stars. In several places, people were dancing. She heard music from various sections of the camps: flutes and drums and voices. People flowed from clan to clan, blurring the invisible boundaries between the camps until they felt like a single clan.
She wished she felt like joining them. But as the deities recovered, she’d used the quicksand pits to bury the empire’s dead, and then she’d let the water disperse back into the bedrock. Without the moisture, the earth hardened above the bodies, and the wind swept the sand clean. Spread across the desert, she had felt it all happen. So many lives, ended.
She walked to the edge of the camp beyond the singing and the laughter, and she looked across the expanse to the emperor’s camp. She didn’t see the guards, but she saw movement between the tents. She imagined that they were dealing with their wounded— and with their fear.
“It isn’t over,” Korbyn said behind her.
Liyana jumped and then nodded. He was right. Though many had died, the empire’s army still vastly outnumbered them. “They won’t underestimate us again.”
Maara was with him. “Did you see the size of that army? That was stamp-on-us-like-we-were-bugs size. Hardly underestimating us.”
“The magician was not in the battle,” Korbyn said.
Liyana nodded.
“One magician?” Maara snorted. “Most likely he stayed out of it because he knew we were here. Come, you two, celebrate with us.” Swaying, she spread her arms wide.
Liyana studied her. She’d seen that look in Raan’s eyes once, the first time they’d met. She noted that Maara held a waterskin. “The emperor won’t leave easily,” Liyana said. “He believes that the mountains hold the key to his people’s salvation.”
Maara shook her head. “Trust me. No one is sticking around to face us after that display! Whoo, did you see those worms? One of them swallowed a soldier whole.” As if to emphasize her point, she took a deep swig from the waterskin.
That soldier could have been one of the ones who Liyana had seen in the emperor’s encampment. She pictured the pinched cheeks and gaunt bodies. She wondered who the soldier had been there for—had he had a wife at home? Mother? Sister? Brother?
“I think you have had enough to drink,” Korbyn said to Maara. “Sober yourself up or sleep it off.”
Maara leveled a finger at him. “You used to be fun.”
You have changed him, Bayla said to Liyana.
Because he cares about more than himself? He— She broke off her own thought. I don’t want to fight right now. She rubbed her eyes. She felt sore inside and out. There’s been enough fighting. And then she knew what she had to do.
Without speaking to any of the deities, including Bayla, Liyana walked away from the camp. She stopped when the voices and music and celebration faded into a blur. She was a quarter of the way to the emperor’s camp. Bending over, she ripped off the white bottom ruffle of her mother’s dress. She broke off a stalk from one of the dead desert plants, and she wrapped the ruffle around the top.
Following her, Korbyn caught her arm. “Liyana, they’ll kill you.”
“The emperor wanted to parlay.”
“With all the clan chiefs,” he said. “And that was before. Now—”
Liyana faced him. With his hand on her arm, he was close. His eyes bored into hers. She was aware of his lips and how they frowned at her, and she remembered how they felt on hers. She felt Bayla stir inside, swirling. I have had enough fighting, Liyana told her again before she could say a word. Out loud she said to Korbyn, “He’ll speak to me.”
Chapter Thirty
Liyana waved the white flag as she walked across the expanse toward the emperor’s camp. After a while her arm ached, but she continued to hold it high. She didn’t want to be riddled with arrows.
You do know what you’re doing, I hope, Bayla said.
You can hope that, Liyana said.
Lowering the flag, she climbed over a cluster of rocks. She raised it up high and waved it once she reached the other side. She watched each step, veering around clumps of brittle grasses, in case not all of the snakes and scorpions had dispersed after the battle.
Ahead she saw the tents in the neat rows that she remembered. It looked as if the emperor had scooped up the encampment from its location on the border and then deposited it intact in the middle of the desert.
You may control this body, but I have a vested interest in its continued health, Bayla said. I do not like the way you are recklessly endangering us.
Guards gathered at the edge. She’d been seen.
I’d like to know what you plan to say to the emperor, Bayla said.
Last time she’d told him a story. This time there was no relevant story. No one had ever done what had happened here. She caught a glimpse of a glint out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw two sky serpents wheeling overhead. Stars reflected off their scales. She wondered what they thought of the battle. She hoped they knew the desert people were keeping their gods’ bargain. I plan to talk to him, Liyana said.
More specifics, please. This is an important conversation. I’ll feed you the words, and you will repeat them. We can’t afford to risk—
No, Bayla. You don’t understand the emperor.
Liyana felt the goddess swirl inside. And you, girl of the Goat Clan, understand him, the emperor of the Crescent Empire? Scorn tinged her voice.
Liyana approached the guards. Yes, I think I do.
The guards clutched their swords. One had a bow with an arrow leveled at her chest. Liyana continued to hold the white flag. “I am here to accept the offer to parlay with His Imperial Majesty,” she said. “I come in peace, and I expect to be treated with hospitality.”
One guard had a gash on his cheek. Clotted blood still dotted his face.