Melting Stones (28 page)

We were nearly five miles out. I poured more magic into my grip. I let the diamonds' power fill the tentacles that I had wrapped around Flare and Carnelian. They squealed, feeling their own heat reflected back upon them.

It's not death, you stupid creature!
Inside her skin, parts of Carnelian were moving. They raced through her, around and around. She was turning herself into the quartz trap, spinning her power. As it whirled inside her, it built. She got stronger as she fought.
It's not death at all. If you weren't so
temporary,
you would know. We go to the next place, the next part of ourselves. Who wants to swim around through all of time! We want to grow up
.

Getting out means we are
worthy
to move on. We become part of the great world, not cooped up inside it
. Now Flare did the same thing as Carnelian, spinning inside his skin. They got hotter, burning me. I moved faster, dragging them for all I was worth. The fault was turning deeper under the ocean floor. The canyon that was my goal was another two or three miles away, perhaps. We weren't near enough. Worse, at the edge of my senses, I felt my stone alphabet. The
ships
were sailing right overhead. There were breaks in the ceiling of the fault here. If Flare and Carnelian got free now, they might come up right under the escaping fleet.

Let us GO!
roared Flare, slamming me into the wall of the fault.

We don't believe you anymore!
Carnelian dragged me in one direction, Flare in the other. They were ripping me apart, blazing as their insides spun. The volcano spirits saw them fighting with me and screamed. They swamped us. Every inch of the open fault around me was filled with magma. They copied Flare and Carnelian, whirling in circles. Heat built up everywhere, blinding hot.

Then everyone squeezed in, crushing me. My diamond faces strained, trembled, then splintered. The volcano creatures stuck threads of magma into the cracks. They oozed into me, trying to swamp Evvy until all that was left was liquid stone magic.

I fought. I wasn't liquid stone! What of my body? I tried to feel the hands and feet that had done so much. I wanted to sense the mouth and belly that loved good food. I remembered the tooth that was starting to ache. Deep inside I promised myself that I'd tell Rosethorn, so we could get the tooth looked after. The promise felt like a quartz shard, cracking in the heat.

I tried to rebuild myself. I needed Luvo's smooth and polished skin. I imagined him shedding water as I wanted to shed these fierce, hot creatures.

While I fought to be whole again, they spun faster.

Up
, Carnelian whispered fiercely.
We're going up here and now, Evvy. You're going, too. You'll find out what it's like. And we'll shake the world when we go
.

Up, up, UP!
Flare shouted. He and Carnelian darted to the top of the fault. They pulled me along.

I dragged on them, but my arms were noodles. My strength had melted. I was done.

Gods of all stone be praised
, Luvo said.
We are not too late
.

We won't fall for this trick another time, Evvy
. She said it, but Carnelian still halted.

Flare stopped too.
You don't fool us. We're going out right here
.

NO
. I didn't know this great, female voice, but it was familiar. I knew the stones in it, from mica to obsidian to basalt. It sounded like… Starns. It sounded like the island.

NO
. That male voice was strange, too, smaller, but solid and just as unmovable. I knew it was odd, but he sounded like the island I'd seen next to Starns.

NO
, the two islands said together. Their mingled voices set the earth to trembling.

Power as great as the sea's wrapped me up. I felt Luvo in it, but there were at least five strangers there, too. They folded me around, shutting out the lava. I was enclosed in a globe of magic that was cool and solid. I would have cried if I'd had eyes.

Not here, fiery young ones
, said Starns.
You will not destroy my waters
.

You will not shower death on our shores
, said that second voice.
You must change. We know this
.

Once we too changed. Once we too broke free of the molten chambers under the earth
. That was Luvo.
Each of us was born like you and leaped free, like you. But my friends here, the Battle Islands you would destroy in your new birth
—

We are not ready to change
, Starns told them.
And now we have found that if we join together, we can stop you from your destruction. Change all you like
.

Someplace else
, another island, a younger one, said.
We will not permit it here
.

You cant stop us!
shouted Flare.

Actually, I think perhaps they can
, Carnelian whispered.

Watch us
, the islands said.

The entire earth around us
pushed
, away from the cluster of Battle Islands. The fault rippled, thrusting the volcano spirits onward. From inside the globe that the islands and Luvo had made around me, I shoved Flare, Carnelian, and the volcano spirits down the fault. We couldn't go back: The islands wouldn't let us. We could all feel a solid, invisible wall at our backs. So I kept bumping them from behind in the safety of my globe. We headed toward the crack in the ocean floor, the one Luvo had shown me, what felt like ages ago. I was terrified the fault would shake loose, but the islands wouldn't let it. They held it in place and kept moving us away, their magic harder than stone.

At long last the ceiling of the fault opened up overhead. Far, far above I could hear the cold whisper of the sea in all her malice.

I retreated to the side of the fault.
Flare, Carnelian
—
this is it. If you go straight up through there, you can come out into the sea. You can form shapes, and make steam… Well, you'll see how it works
.

Flare, Carnelian, and the spirits shot up into the crack.

We're free! Carnelian, let's go!
Flare became a volcano spirit again in his shape. Only his hair remained of his old seeming.

Time to grow!
Carnelian lost her human shape, until she looked like all the other volcano spirits. The only way I knew which one was her was from the blue, dresslike sheath that covered part of her.

They rammed themselves up into the huge crack that led to the ocean floor. The other volcano spirits followed.

They raced along in a river of fiery melted stone. I watched them flood the long crack that would carry them into the cold, cold sea. There they would go black on the outside, then billow along the ocean floor, still red-hot stone in their hearts. They would build on each other, climbing toward the surface. In advance, they would send out waves and steam to warn passing ships. Soon enough—there were so many of them—they would break the surface of the water, throwing up stones and ash. They would have all changed into something else. And sooner or later they would become an island with a volcano at its heart.

Did I know you could get these islands to help, Luvo?
I asked.

We did not know we could command those terrors
, replied Starns.
I thought my only choice was to wait for my own destruction, and hope the change would be good
.

But we
like
being islands
, the male one said.
It's interesting. I wasn't bored yet
.

I did not know it would work
, Luvo told me.
But I found I was not prepared to let you die, Evumeimei. I know it must happen. I learned that if I may put it off even for a drop of time, I will take that drop
.

You did not have to be so very rough with us, Great Luvo
, the male island complained.
We were listening
.

You did not listen fast enough
, Luvo told them.

Luvo and the island spirits carried me back to Starns. I couldn't have reached it on my own. I had used up everything in that last fight with Carnelian and Flare. The islands even gave me some strength, after Luvo nudged them.

I will tell Rosethorn you are alive, Evumeimei. We will come for you as soon as we can find a ship to bring us
, Luvo promised.
You know she will manage it
. 

I
did
know that.

The strength the islands gave me was enough so I could crawl into a barn uphill from the place where I had left my body. I needed to be under cover. Ash still fell from the cracks that had opened on Mount Grace. I had no way to know if there would be any gadolgas from the volcano sprouting out to sea. I barely noticed the earthquake that shook the hill just as I began to climb it. My sense of everything was dull and distant. I wasn't too far from being a cinder.

As soon as I could do more than bleat like a sheep, I searched for food. Sooner or later I had to see if Meryem, Jayat, and Nory were alive. If I had only been unconscious for a day, they
might
be partway to Moharrin, if they lived. That day when I woke up in the barn, though, I could do little more than stagger. The bit of light that came through the clouds of ash was fading. In my present shape, I wouldn't make it as far as the river without food or a horse.

I had to find food before the light was gone. My feet—then my knees and my hands—crunched as I headed for a nearby farm.

In their rush to escape, the farmers had left plenty behind. I ate my food cold for two days. The house's fires were out. I couldn't bear so much as the heat from a candle flame, anyway. Even the touch of my own breath on my skin was too hot. I hoped that effect of being nearly scorched by volcano spirits would wear off soon. Normally I like fire.

That second day, the farm's goats came back. They were hungry. I fed them and milked a few. What milk I didn't drink I gave to the other animals that returned. I learned to walk like a sailor when little earthquakes shook us all. Those were more gifts from the Carnelian and Flare volcano, growing out to sea.

On the second day, I lurched around, sweeping ash off of grass, hay, troughs. I brought up water from the well until it was clean. I opened the doors of the house and brought the washtubs and barrels inside, to protect them from the worst of the ash. Then, slowly, I filled anything that would hold water for the animals, inside and out. I dumped grain out of sacks in the barns and sheds. Until rain came to rinse the ash away, they'd be able to survive. I hoped.

The ash stopped falling by the third day. From rumblings in the ground, I guessed a lot of volcano spirits had abandoned the chamber under Mount Grace entirely, going to try their luck under the sea. No one remained to try to escape the mountain. The skies were hazy, but it was clear, except in the southeast, where a black cloud hung. That would be the new volcano. Flare and Carnelian had led enough of their kind out that they had built a mountain on the ocean floor. They were coming into the open air.

I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to find my friends, if they were alive. They had to be alive. After everything—melting, the sea's meanness, fighting with young volcanoes… Meryem, Nory, and Jayat had to be here. They had to be breathing and walking around. I didn't know how I could bear it if, after everything, I found their bodies on the way to Moharrin.

I wasn't sure how easy it would be to reach them. The earthquakes would have knocked the road to pieces. Lucky for me, two of the animals who had come to the farm were mules. You can't beat mules for taking on bad terrain. I sweet-talked them into wearing saddles and packs I had stuffed with food and mule treats. I knew that nobody tells a mule to do anything. It's better to negotiate.

So what if I hobbled like an old woman? It was time to go. Otherwise, like the ferret in the old stories, curiosity would kill me. Or worry. Or fear.

Off we went, slowly. Each step sent up a puff of ash. Tree limbs sagged with more ash. It blanketed the grass and hid the stones. I had to wrap a scarf over my face to keep from breathing it. I even ripped up two shirts and gave the mules scarves for their noses. I envied them their long eyelashes. Every little breeze blew grit right into my face. My eyes watered all the time.

The mules warned me when a fresh shake was coming. That was good. My magic was still limp, so
I
didn't know. When the mules halted, their eyes rolling, I'd slide from the saddle. I'd talk soft to them until the ground settled again. I gave them apples and carrots and paid them compliments in every language I knew. They liked the compliments even more than the treats. Mules are pretty vain.

There's no good speaking of that journey. It lasted two and a half days. The road was just sad. In three places rockslides had wiped it away. Lucky for me that I had mules. Lucky, too, that the Makray River was changed, knocked into a new course by the bouncing earth. We picked our way along the old riverbed. The whole time I prayed to Kanzan the Merciful, to Heibei, and to the gods of the Living Circle. I wanted to see no tumbles of clothes, no bodies half buried by rock or ash. I wanted no sign that the people I searched for had died making this journey. Either the gods listened and they were safe, or they were under so much rock that I never saw them.

I wore out the three brooms I brought, sweeping ash from the mules' grazing and my campsite. I went through every spare bit of cloth. We couldn't drink the Makray's water. It was acid from the damage done by the volcano spirits. The mules grumbled as I measured out water from my canteens, but they could smell the river. They wouldn't touch that water. If I came back after death as anything, it would be as a mule.

It was like a journey through the hell of those who defy the Yanjing will of heaven. I thought I'd stopped believing in those hells, but they hadn't stopped believing in me. They had followed me all the way here. This one had, anyway.