The pillars of creation

As they moved quickly down the hill, making their way past the silent battle line, not far in front of the heaps of corpses, others of the cavalry, far down the slope on the other side of a wall in an area among small garden buildings and trees, spotted the emperor and raced out to protect him. Soldiers on horseback-numbering less than a thousand out of the over forty thousand they started with-swept in to surround the company returning from the palace. A number of the Sisters rode in, pulling in close to the emperor to provide an inner circle of defense.

Rusty, trailed by Pete, trotted across the lawns, accompanying the tattered remnants of the cavalry. When Jennsen whistled, Rusty recognized the call and rushed in to be close to her. The mare, nuzzling Jennsen's shoulder, voiced a plaintive whinny, eager for comfort. Rusty and Pete weren't cavalry horses, trained to be accustomed to the terrors of war. Jennsen ran a soothing hand over the horse's trembling neck and rubbed her ears. She gave similar comfort to Pete when he pressed his forehead against the back of her shoulder.

"What happened!" Jagang called out in a rage. "How could you let yourselves be taken like this?"

The officer leading the men on horseback looked around in dismay. "Excellency, it was… out of the clear air. It wasn't anything we could fight.»

"Are you trying to tell me it was ghosts!" Jagang bellowed.

"I think it was the horses the scout smelled," another officer said. His arm was bandaged up high but soaked in blood.

"I want to know what's going on," Jagang said as he glared around at the faces watching him. "How could this have happened?"

As men brought extra horses, Sister Perdita dismounted close by. "Excellency, it was some kind of attack involving magic-phantom horsemen invoked by wizardry is the only explanation I have."

His menacing eyes were leveled at her in a way that made even Jennsen quail. "Then why didn't you and your Sisters stop it?"

"It wasn't anything like the conjured magic we ordinarily encounter. I believe it had to be a form of constructed magic, or we would have not only detected it, but been able to stop it. At least, that's what I assume. I've never actually seen any constructed magic, but I've heard of it. Whatever this was that attacked us would not respond to anything we tried."

The emperor was still frowning darkly at her. "Magic is magic. You should have stopped it. That's what you were here for."

"Constructed magic is different than conjured, Excellency."

"Different? How?"

"Rather than using the gift on the spot, constructed magic has already been made up in advance. It can be preserved for a great period of timethousands of years, maybe even forever. When it's needed, the spell is triggered and the magic is loosed."

"Triggered by what?" Sebastian asked.

Sister Perdita shook her head in frustration. "By just about anything, as I've heard it told. It just depends on how it was constructed. No wizard now is able to construct such a spell. We know little about those ancient wizards or what they could do, but from what little we do know, a constructed spell could be something kept dry that comes to life when you get it wet-for example something to help fertilize crops when the spring rains come. It could be triggered by heating, like a cure taken for a feverthe cure carries a construction in and the fever triggers it. Others are triggered by a little magic, some by an elaborate application of incredibly intricate wizardry and great power."

"So," Jennsen reasoned, "someone with magic must have unleashed something so powerful as these phantom horsemen? A wizard, or a sorceress, or something?"

Sister Perdita shook her head. "It could be that kind of constructed magic, but it could just as easily be a spell-albeit an incredibly powerful one-kept in a thimble, and triggered by exposing the construction to… anything-horse dung, even."

Emperor Jagang waved off the very notion. "But something that small and easily triggered wouldn't be this powerful."

"Excellency," the Sister said, "in this, you can't equate the apparent material size of the construction or its trigger with the result-they have no relational value, at least not in the terms in which most people think. The trigger has no bearing on the power of the construction. Even the construction and its trigger are not necessarily relational. There is simply no rule by which to judge a construction."

The emperor swept an arm out before the tens of thousands of men and horses tangled in death. "But, surely, something of this magnitude had to have been something more."

"The army of phantom horsemen who carried out this attack might have been triggered by a wizard drawing spells in magic dust while speaking an incredibly complex invocation, or it could just as easily have been a book containing a cavalry counter that is simply opened to the proper page and held out before the attacking force-even from miles away.