The City didn’t sleep that night. There were celebrations, worship taking the place of wine, prayer in place of feasting. Tian could feel the city exhale a breath it had been holding for a long time, ready to draw in fresh air.
“This is, even for us, weird.” Liren and Tian watched the celebrations from the sky, their little boat hidden in a puff of cloud. “We made a god that isn’t you, but is based on a myth about you, from a spirit that comes from I guess the purified demon finger?.”
“Something like that. Damned if I know where the spirits come from. It has been a strange day.” Tian conceded. “But that’s not what’s got my brain in a twist.”
“What’s boggling you, then?”
“I think this is standard procedure for the kingdom. Maybe not quite to this scale, but basically this.”
“How do you figure?”
“The Emperor can, on behalf of the Celestial Court, grant positions to spirits and make them local deities and city deities. There are earth gods too, and deified people like generals or officials.”
“Um.” Liren tilted her head to the side, then nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. The Emperor holds the Mandate of Heaven, and can make those arrangements in the mortal world. Or that’s what we were taught, anyway.”
“I think it’s true, but I think there is another layer to it.” Tian pointed down at the celebrating people. “Safety. They are celebrating because they feel more protected. They know the shamans use spirits to attack and curse people. Well, now they have a spirit of their own to guard them. And not just any spirit, it’s a local. One they can build up with worship and incense. If there is one thing the Kingdom is good at, it’s doing the same damn thing for thousands of years without getting bored of it.”
“And if there are spirits in the Steppe, there are spirits everywhere. The kingdom appoints gods for the same reason it appoints magistrates and garrisons troops. Keeping order and maintaining public safety.” Liren half smiled. “Which means the local gods are civil servants and need to be administered. By the Ministry of Rites, for example.”
“The Imperial Cult makes a lot more sense too. Once you know the kingdom has a fate dragon, those sacrificial rituals start feeling a bit different.”
That made Liren laugh silently. “No wonder they don’t let the masses join in on the worship. Who could tolerate their greatest reliance taking pay from possible rebels?”
“I’d bet it’s more a case of vanity. ‘I, alone, am worthy of venerating the Heavenly Dragon and receiving its blessings!’ and all that.”
“I do remember hearing that the emperor is surrounded by dragon qi.” Liren shrugged. “Never thought it was literally true.”
“Well who knows?” Tian watched an old ritualist making his own yellow paper talisman, writing out the nine character blessing and pasting them next to the door of a home. He couldn’t judge how wealthy the family inside was. So much of the city looked almost identical- smooth fronted buildings built so close together, there was barely a seam in the stones. In the event that the gates fell, the soldiers could retreat deeper into the city, turning every street and alley into a kill box. Tian had seen the heavy iron chains the soldiers used to block off streets. Liren had to explain it to him. It didn’t have to be a wall. It just had to stop the horses and soldiers from moving freely. A navel-high chain the thickness of a man’s arm would do the job very nicely, when locked to iron hoops set deep in the stone of the buildings.
“Can’t say I blame the Yuu for not wanting to take on the city head on. The whole thing is built to be a nightmare for horse archers.” Liren drummed her fingers on the edge of their boat. “This kind of indirect siege is the best. Cut off from supplies, money slowly running out, morale weakening, keep up the pressure with raids and infiltrators, all while your people keep rotating between their usual pasture grounds. Clearing up any villages and forts they come across along the way.”
Tian pinched the bridge of his nose. “How are they clearing the forts?”
“Eh?”
“How are they clearing the forts? The walls aren’t as big or thick as the ones around Burning Flag City, but they are substantial enough and were specifically designed to keep out the Yuu. Can’t shoot the people under cover, can’t charge them down when they are behind a wall. I don’t see the Yuu using human wave tactics to overwhelm the defences either. Too expensive in lives and morale for too little profit. They definitely aren’t making or hauling around siege engines and towers. So how?”
Liren stared out into the darkening sky. “Dunno. Want to go find out?”
“‘Want’ isn’t the right word.”
Liren nodded. Then, seemingly irrelevantly, “It’s time to go back to Fort Askarmand.”
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“Oh? Why?”
“More heretics and Yuu will have gathered. They will be setting an ambush for us there. It will give us the opportunity to set our own counter ambush. Besides, we have your new concealing spell, the concealing incense, and I have a kind of dumb idea.”
Tian looked at her expectantly.
“Let’s fly over, but higher.”
“Higher.”
“Higher.” Liren nodded.
“How much higher?”
“You would have to squint to see the back of an eagle below you. As high as we safely can, or as high as the boat will carry us. It’s nighttime, and everyone’s qi senses have a limit for how far they will stretch. What if we were just above that range? Same thing with the spirits. If they are looking down through the eyes of birds, we just need to fly higher than the birds can.”
“Alright… I have no idea how that will go, but I get the idea. How about the attacking part of things? I have a range with how far I can control my needles, and you aren’t going to stab anything outside of twenty feet.”
She nodded sagely. “I prepared a secret weapon. Very deadly, the kind of military supply common folk wouldn’t dream of keeping at home. It should serve for at least the opening moves of the battle.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Her voice was grave.
“Let’s see them.” Tian smiled, rubbing his hands. Who didn’t love a good secret weapon, when it was on your side?
Liren turned over her hand, and a head sized rock appeared. It was not, Tian noticed, a particularly interesting rock. He wasn’t a rock expert, but there didn’t seem to be anything notable about this one. No significant amounts of qi, no obviously different minerals, no talismans or enchantments or poisons on it.
“Are you going to demonstrate the weapon with this rock?”
“Yes.” She sent the boat over to the other side of the city walls and found an empty patch of grassland. She then coiled her body, bringing her knee up and the stone-holding hand up and back, then stepped forward, flinging the stone downward. It hit with a hell of a thump, punching a hole deep into the ground and leaving a crater around it.
“Funny thing, I always thought that catapults launched boulders. Turns out, no. Launching stones the size of a fist up to the size of a head by the basket-full is much more effective at clearing out soldiers. Head sized rocks are genuinely a military munition.” Liren’s mouth twitched. “I’m just glad there isn’t a crafter in earshot who can hear me say that.”
“It would shatter on a ward, though, surely.”
“I think so too, but so what? I can throw a lot of them, and how many protective talismans can heretics have? Or the shamans, for that matter. And I’m not planning on attacking the fort outright. Yet. Besides, the more trouble we cause the Yuu away from the city, the less inclined they will be to commit forces to just the area around the city. We spread them out, buying time for the relief column and for whatever preparations we can make.”
Tian snorted lightly. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s do it.”
“In a minute. I want to watch a while longer. We just invented a god, Zihao. Not some make-believe thing. There is an actual spirit inhabiting that statue, and it’s going to fulfill the duties of a city god because that was the ritual we performed. That’s incredible. That…”
“That’s real magic.” Tian murmured. “Flying on swords, throwing fireballs, so what? But calling a god from the void and binding them in service to a city? That’s real magic.”
She stared at him a moment longer, then shuddered faintly. “Brother, don’t take this to heart too much, but have you ever considered… no, never mind.”
“What?”
“Forget it. I was thinking something stupid.”
Tian smiled. “You aren’t stupid. What?”
She just shook her head and wouldn’t say more. Down below, the people buzzed, checking in on each other, laughing, walking with their heads high. Over in the City Lord’s Manor, the City Lord had on a breastplate and helmet. Tian saw him write out the nine character blessing in the dirt with the butt of a spear, then slowly start a spear drill. He saw the City Protector sitting with the Red Plumed General at a go board, setting scenarios, testing them, clearing the board and creating anew. Doctors and orderlies toured their wards, telling their patients about the great events at the shrine.
Tian hadn’t read any books of strategy, but he had read many histories. Unifying the hearts of the people, giving them faith and direction. That was the greatest strength he could provide to Burning Flag City. That, and clearing out the Grand Shamans. He looked over at Liren who nodded, and set to rowing. It had been a long day. It would be a long night too.
The stones fell on the Yuu encampment like lightning without thunder. Heretics had mixed in with the tribes, and Liren was broadminded in who she offered stones to. There wasn’t much of a visible result, but they could sense immortal breaths vanishing, and the strange qi of the shamans vanishing too. They weren’t sure if they managed to pick off any Heavenly Shamans. Trying to maintain the water qi around the boat, the concealment, throwing the rocks, and accurately assessing targets was too much to manage all at once. They split the jobs. Tian focused on gathering the water qi and concealment. Liren focused on the throwing.
The higher up you flew, the stronger the winds got and the colder it got. That wasn’t too much of a surprise, but the intensity of it was. The qi was stronger, much stronger, but it was utterly chaotic and didn’t stay put. It ripped along, threatening to tear apart anyone who tried to cultivate with it, or even just stayed put for too long. It also knocked the rocks off-target. Liren overcame this natural obstacle with elegant technique. She threw the rocks harder.
The rocks flew downwards with a rushing, hissing sound. Tian had thought they might whistle, or make a rippling noise, but they were remarkably quiet for something so big. They hit the ground with a muffled thud, and the occasional collapsing ger, but little other sign.
The Yuu were expecting an attack. They figured it out soon enough. In four corners of the camp, brilliant spots of light blazed in the dark. The sparks unfolded, growing and stretching in a blink of an eye. Rising up from the grassland. Circling, coming higher. Tian squinted. Hawks. Four hawks, made of flames and filled with mighty spirits. The Grand Shamans were making their move.