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Briar stretched hi for the beads wrapped around the eneral was also a kai had been He could only sense the wooden beads In histhree necks and three pairs of arripped his power for just a moment, then flooded the beads with it

Thebeads shattered, breaking the strands around theinto the ground The grasses told hione frantic at the sudden appearance of fast-growing trees They reared and flailed at everything around theround At Briar’s co around their throats Strangling would teach therasses They grew and tightened like rope

That’s it! Briar told the grasses Don’t give way for an instant!

Rosethorn was calling hi to leave just when he was paying the Yanjingyi beasts back

Then he got that bad feeling, the sense of fingers wrapped around his body’s real ear The fingers twisted Only one thing would rasses and oak trees, he retreated across the field and back into the body that hurt with Evvy’s loss

He opened his eyes Rosethorn released his ear after an extra hard flick with finger and thumb "What if we’d had to escape?" Rosethorn deet trapped away fro before," he rasses had succeeded in killing those hed "Revenge is as bad for the one practicing it as it is for those it’s practiced upon, Briar"

He didn’t agree She probably has to say such things because she’s a dedicate, he thought, gulping tea frooing to get e he could do

The eneood condition had fled already Those who remained swayed in the saddle or sported arrows in their own bodies or those of theirback to back as they tried to hold off the Gyongxin warriors

All across the ground between the road and the reyi troops lay the fallen of both sides: horses, the wounded, and the dead The Gyongxin healers were driving their wagons around the troops in the road and out onto the field

Briar shook his head "I won’t do it They killed Evvy"

"All of them?" Rosethorn asked

"They killed other people here, too"

"How iven a choice about it?" she asked him "You know the e ould be punished if they refused to serve in the army? Besides --"

"I don’t want to hear besides" He sounded like a kid even to himself

"The more of them that have decent treatment here, the more of them will know that Weishu’s is not the only way The more of them will realize that these people are not s "You don’t have to couarded her froes’ spells she said, "Mila and the Green Man bless you, Servant Riverdancer" The shaman pressed her hands palm to palm in front of her face and bowed Rosethorn turned to her slinger and thanked him as well He offered to take care of the horse Rosethorn nodded, then proceeded out onto the battlefield

Briar sighed He could look after the Gyongxin wounded That wouldn’t host

"Do you knoagon has e kit?" Briar asked Jimut

"The part with your s behind the saddle of his own horse "Right here" He handed them down to Briar, who took them and went in search of the s infirmary tents where the healers could work, then fetched empty barrels and filled the the wounded into the tents gave the injured horses a ed the animals’ bodies to the side of the battlefield opposite that where they laid out the human dead Cooks set up outdoor kitchens for soup and tea for everyone as the rest of the camp was built around the healers’ tents

Briar, Rosethorn, Riverdancer, and the rest of the healers labored well past ht in the chaos that filled the tents The screah to make Briar want to scream himself To make sure that he didn’t, he bit the inside of his cheek until it bled, then found a piece of rolled bandage to chew on There weren’t enough medicines to ensure that everyone could have their pain eased The healers were forced to keep such potions for the unfortunates who had to have a leg or an are after e was sent froht in or came to consciousness

Jinized froes and healers, helping to hold patients for stitching or surgery, wrapping bandages, carrying water, and sitting with the dying Briar even saw their coht They came to talk to their people and even to fetch water or soup when everyone else was busy