Excerpt from Strike the Zither by Joan He, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

Some say the heavens dictate the rise and fall of empires.

Clearly, those peasants have never met me.

My abilities as a strategist have earned me many sobriquets, from the Dragon's Shadow to the Tactician of Thistlegate. Rising Zephyr is my personal favorite. "Zephyr" will do, if you please.

"Peacock!"

Unless you're Lotus. Then it's too much to ask for.

I struggle to steer my mare around; horses don't appreciate genius.

Neither does Lotus. "Hey, Peacock!" she hollers over the creaking wagons, crying babies, and cracking whips. She urges her stallion up along the other side until we're somewhat eye to eye, the heads of people and oxen coursing between us. "They're catching up!"

Consider me unsurprised. Miasma, prime ministress of the Xin Empire in name, acting empress in reality, was bound to close in on our soldiers and peasants, who now—thanks to Lotus—realize they're about to die. A child bursts into tears, an auntie trips, a young couple spurs their mule faster. No luck. The steep forest path is doughy from last night's rainfall, kneaded to mush by the hundreds we've evacuated.

Still hundreds more to go.

"Do something!" Lotus shouts at me. "Use your brain!" Her hair has frizzed into an impressive mane around her face, and she waves her ax as if she's itching to use it.

Wouldn't help us. It's not just Miasma we're up against: Our own numbers are bogging us down. We must evacuate everyone, Ren said sternly when I suggested it was time we flee our current town for the next. Miasma will slaughter the commonfolk just for harboring us.

Miasma may still yet, at this rate, but there's no arguing with our warlordess Xin Ren's benevolence. Most strategists wouldn't be able to cope with it.

I can.

"Think of a plan!" Lotus bellows.

Thanks for the confidence, Lotus. I already have—three, in fact. Plan one (ditch the commoners) might be off the table, but there's plan two (cut down trees and pray for rain), and plan three (send a trustworthy general to the bridge at the mountain's base to hold off Miasma).

Plan two is in motion, if the humidity is any indication. I've set General Tourmaline and her forces on felling trees behind us. The trunks will wash down in the coming storm, and the resulting dam should delay Miasma's cavalry by a couple of hours.

As for sending a trustworthy general to the bridge …

My gaze cuts from Lotus to Cloud, Ren's other swornsister. She's helping evacuees farther up the muddy slope, her ultramarine cloak rich against the muted greens of the firs.

Cloud thinks better than Lotus under pressure. A shame, because I don't know if I can harness her. Last month, she released Miasma from one of my traps because Sage Master Shencius forbids killing by way of snare. That's all very nice, Cloud, but was Sage Master Shencius ever on the run from the empire? I don't think so.

"You." I point my fan at Lotus. "Ride down to the bridge with a hundred of your best and employ Beget Something from Nothing."

Lotus gives me a blank look.

"Just … make it look like we have more forces across the river than we actually do. Stir up dust. Roar. Intimidate them." Shouldn't be too hard for Lotus, whose sobriquet only suits her if you visualize the root, not the flower. Her war cry can shake birds out of trees within the radius of a li. She forged her own ax and wears the pelt of a tiger she killed as a skirt. She's as warrior as warriors come, the opposite of everything I stand for. At least Cloud knows her classical poems.

But Lotus has something Cloud doesn't: the ability to take an order.

"Intimidate," she repeats under her breath. "Got it." Then she's galloping down the mountain on her beastly stallion and referring to herself by name in that gauche way some warriors do before riding into battle. "Lotus won't disappoint!"

Excerpted from Strike the Zither by Joan He. Copyright © 2022 by Joan He. Excerpted by permission of Roaring Brook Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.