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As she danced and sang, her white crystals formed a solid, unbroken line In it tiny shamans danced and twirled like she did Theythe evenness of the white line The more Riverdancer and the small shamans danced, the ony stopped The tiny shamans waved to Briar and vanished

Rosethorn sat up "Thank you," she whispered "That was -- horrible They would have killed us"

Riverdancer grinned and yi," her translator said "We will take the power they threw at you and return their curses to theainst him "You don’t even knoho has our sweat or whatever it is"

The translator ss Riverdancer can do on her own"

Rosethorn leaned against Briar She was reaching for more of the catapults Briar put an arm around her and watched the sha line in front of Briar, Rosethorn, Evvy, and Luvo They began to chant softly Now and then they sta tiny bells Their voices soaked into Briar’s bones, drifting down through theht his attention Froht, then dropped down into the ranks of the eain the city’s defenders shot, hayi eneic seep into the hillside His body eary; he felt battered after thein the southern Gna Briar drew only a sth into his veins, just as he knew Rosethorn drew on part of it As soon as he was ready, he sped through the interwoven grass roots down the rise and into the flat plain

Horses thundered over his head Next caed to form the trees above hiht oftrees once round he sensed thousands of crossbows and bolts carried by the archers who stood in their ranks around the i for catapults or archers He sought the white blaze of ko

The roups protected by archers, reat observation platforical senses they floated at different levels in the air depending on where they stood on the platforical vision as a series of bead groups; these glittered with an overlay of Yanjingyi ic and the wood’s oer: Didn’t the Yanjingyi es understand how much more powerful their spells would be if they worked with their materials?

He picked at the alien spells for a ave up Whatever they did, it was dedicated to the destruction of the Gyongxin army and the kind of pain that hadto do his best to do soave one set of beads a ic that had been forced on them: The as already dry and brittle fro splinters into theon which they were threaded Briar searched for the next cluster of beads, creaking under their ical burden, and tapped the his beads on cotton or linen, he coaxed the fibers to part and gave the beads enough strength to roll out of all reach Each tie from his beads, Briar i to stop any of theain

Briar was deep in a e trance at her side when Rosethorn sat up with adus

"The work here continues," the translator said, roup of shaes in the robes of different teestures "There were more of the zayao bombs, one batch over our eastern flank and one over the road behind us The shah in the air It blew half of the zayao balls airound" She touched her clasped hands to her head and lips in a prayerful gesture "The general ordered our people off the road, thinking the eneht strike there, so the bombs did not kill as many as they could have done Now they have stopped the zayao bombs, because someone put too many trees in the way"

Rosethorn cursed bombs and the enemy under her breath On the slopes below she could see screa horses and the slumped bodies of soldiers How many of the wounded and dead were men and women she had joked with, or healed, before? And ould she be able to help the healers again? She felt wrung out The wind blew the stench of scorched meat and the dark, bleak scent of black powder into her face Her stomach rolled

She looked up, and her blood quickened There was soantic observation platforot to her feet, shielding her eyes from the sun Sections of the steps on the platform had collapsed, as if worh to tell if there were bodies on them or not And part of the entire platforh a hole had appeared there, knocking the whole monstrous structure off balance