Page 106 (1/1)
To the west, on the open field, the city gates opened Warriors dashed froyi ared past the resting shaht on its southern front Arrows flew in three directions The translator was right: So reeen the observation platforet it with boulders or zayao bo, ineers They had asa bomb or boulder on their own troops Now the battle was down to archers and warriors Everything was shrieking, bloody chaos, with no way to tell inning
She took a breath and entered herthe enees, and see if she could turn them on their masters
Evvy and Luvo had run out of catapult stones to turn to gravel Evvy wasn’t tired in the least Working with Luvo see She wanted to do asher attention to the land, she filled as many ic The stones were loose on the ground, having been stepped on by huons TheyWarriors and horses alike lost their footing They backed up, crowding those behind theround in back of them or to the side was no more stable than that on which they stood
Evvy heard screaain A reddish cloud rolled toward them from the imperial lines
"What is that?" she whispered
It swept over part of Sayrugo’s troops as they fought a Yanjingyi coyi and Gyongxin, as well as their horses -- lay on the ground, their bodies twisted in agony Evvy whiuards ran into the clear space in the o’s, Parahan’s, and Souda’s troops Those with gongs rattled them all at once As they did, the shaether in a circle and turned counterclockwise again, chanting an eerie, deep-toned spell They halted; those with gongs pounded them The shamans whirled Then they entered their circle and turned counterclockwise, chanting With each repetition the earth boomed and the air shivered
With the fourth repetition the red cloud stopped in its advance It, too, began to spin counterclockwise, pulling in on itself and rising Slowly, so slowly at first that she couldn’t be sure, the funnel retreated, or advanced on its own aryi soldiers directly in front of it panicked They ran, fighting with fellow soldiers ere in the way So thealloped out of the tornado’s path The cavalry farthest froe of the enee of horsemen at the iround and raced ahead to help She grabbed for sandstone: There was muchpieces of it, she called the quartz crystals in it to her They popped free of the other minerals and followed her as stone after stone went to pieces Suddenly the Yanjingyi cavalry horses were charging in sand
Evvy was dizzy She left her crystals and returned to her body She are enough to do that There she made the discovery that she was too weak to o’s and Parahan’s soldiers were cutting a huge gap in the Yanjingyi lines On her left, soldiers were pouring out of Gar on that side was aif they could The tornado was chopping the side of the i, too Dead soldiers and horses lay everywhere
Where was Luvo in her roped with her power and found a rope that seemed to lead to him It took her to a side of the observer’s platforround Since she hadn’t caused that, and his rope led her there, she wondered if Luvo was responsible The Yanjingyi soldiers wouldn’t like seeing their generals tilting sideways
The thought rew everywhere, though the plain had been treeless They had sprung from the remains of catapults Had Rosethorn and Briar done all that? She had known thes before, but never soto drink, or so to eat, or a bed She was very tired, but she wanted to see how the battle came out Surely the emperor had more soldiers than this
She had the sense to dismount frootten out of his scarf-sling on her chest His spirit was not in the stone body she thought of as Luvo, she discovered when she tried to apologize She gave up and let her horse’s reins trail on the ground "Don’t go away," she told hie of her Sheher up in blankets and scolding until Evvy drank tea Evvy tried to explain that noric, except she had been breaking catapult stones and sandstone and li rocks under people’s feet The explanation seemed far more complicated than it should have been, particularly when Riverdancer kept patting her on the shoulder, as if to say, "It’s all right"