Melting Stones

Helping Out

M agic, at least the kind Rosethorn and Briar and I have, is greedy stuff. It doesn't always need us to be awake or even conscious. We ambient mages, drawing on part of the everyday world, have it easier than book ones. Our power hunts when we're weak, looking for more. Our magical selves draw new power to replace what's gone. I was asleep, but my power wasn't. It went to the stone alphabet that Briar had given me. That was a collection of rocks, one for each letter of the alphabet. They were neatly laid out in pockets sewn in a quilted piece of cloth.

He used to tease me about it. "Other kids get a book or a scroll to learn their letters. I had to get you an alphabet made of stones, so your letters would make a dent in that stubborn head of yours."

He didn't fool me. He wanted me to have something nice of my own. Something that was all new. I never let on that I understood, of course. Briar would just start hitting the air like he was pushing me away. He'd say, "Girls! Always making a boo-hoo about stuff!"

Just so he knew I didn't forget, I showed him every new stone I added to the cloth pockets of my alphabet. And just so he didn't think I was sentimental, I told him all the magical uses for the new rocks. He'd moan and roll around, saying stones bored him. He'd also see how nice I kept my alphabet.

I have a mage kit, with rocks dedicated to spell work, like any stone mage. But my alphabet is where I store spare magic, in case of blizzards. Or in case I ran into something that milked me so dry I couldn't even call sparkle to quartz.

I didn't think of that as I slept. I didn't think at all. Instead my magic latched on to my alphabet. From agate to zircon, I drained it. In my sleep I felt my strength return.

Eventually I also felt a rude foot kick my bed. It was Rosethorn. "I wish I could let you sleep, but you've had a full day and two nights. We're running out of time, and half this village isn't even packed."

I sat up and moaned. I was stiff all over. "But I can pack us in two shakes of a goat's tail. Why did you even wait? You could have tied me to my horse and taken me down to the ship. You've done it before."

Rosethorn was pouring water in the basin. "And then what? Leave you there? Come wash your face." She waited. Then she frowned. "You thought we would be leaving?"

I tossed away my blankets. Someone, I guessed her, had taken off my clothes and put me in my nightshirt. "Of course. What can you do about a mountain blowing up? Even you can't stop that one, Rosethorn." I was surprised she couldn't see the logic of it. "Fusspot won't be of any use, either. Plant and water mages can't stop moving lava. We should be at sea already."

"You would just leave everyone here to their own devices." Rosethorn said it, she didn't ask.

I was ravenous. Someone had left cheese, bread, and grape juice by my bed. I gulped down the juice. "What are they to me? They're not you or Briar or anyone we care about. It's their island, they have to solve getting off. They're lucky I could warn them." I stuffed bread into my mouth. It was a little dry. They must have left it for me yesterday.

Rosethorn finger-combed her hair. "You would abandon even the babies, Evvy? Even the cats?"

Her remark about the cats stung, especially around my eyes. After losing my cats in Gyongxe, I had avoided even the ship's cats on the voyage home. What was the use of getting attached when I would leave them when we got to Emelan? Lark had offered to let me have a kitten at Discipline, but what if it got sick and died, or was killed by a wagon, or the temple was attacked?

Just because I was afraid to have a cat didn't mean I stopped caring about them. It was mean of Rosethorn to hit me on my sore spot. "Cats die all the time," I made myself say. In my mind I could see the dead animals of Gyongxe. I couldn't save the animals on this island, either, any more than I could save the people. And I like animals. "The world remakes itself. We can't stop it. We'd be stupid to stay. It's time to save our skins."

Rosethorn sighed. "Lark was worried about this aspect of you. I'm not so fond of people myself, Evvy, but I took my vows for a reason. There are two classes of people in the world, the destroyers and the builders. I want to build, not destroy. You need to ask yourself who you're going to be. Deserting people like Jayat and Tahar, or Oswin and Azaze, who have worked hard to build a good village, is a step toward becoming a destroyer. In any event, you're not getting a vote. Myrrhtide is at the lake. He's reaching to every water mage around the Pebbled Sea. Anyone who's close enough will send ships to evacuate Starns. Azaze sent people to warn the other villages and Sustree. And you are going to Oswin's to help them pack. Oswin is trying to get the mountain villagers down, and Nory has her hands full with the children. So eat up and ride out there."

I'd been stuffing food in my face while she lectured. Builders and destroyers—was this the pap they fed people when they took their vows? And I'd always thought Rosethorn was a sensible person. "We need to go" I repeated when I could talk.

"Then the quicker Nory gets the children ready, the quicker we can leave," Rosethorn told me.

I knew that tone of voice. When Rosethorn has her mind set, that was the end of any conversation. I grabbed my clothes. "Myrrhtide can really reach all the way to Sotat and Emelan in water? From here?"

Her smile was crooked. "Why do you think he came? It wasn't because I find his personality charming. I pray that Tuhengri of the winds and Runog of the deep send us enough ships to be of help." She picked up her mage's kit. "Wash your face and clean your teeth." She paused, a funny look on her face. "Might you talk your volcano friends into waiting until we get away?"

"Humans never cease to look for ways out of the circle." Luvo sat up on the windowsill, watching the dawn. "Behind the ones Evumeimei calls Flare and Carnelian are thousands who press forward. They hunger for their time of glory and transformation in the open air. It is what the stuff you call magma, or lava, is made for. If Flare and Carnelian do not lead them, they will find others to do so. Those spirits will not listen to Evumeimei."

Rosethorn shrugged. "I just thought I should ask." She looked at me. "Oswin's, Evvy I mean it."

I can't say I dressed happily. I yanked my clothes on. If they hadn't been sewn by Lark, I would have ripped seams.

I jammed my feet into my sandals. People! Rosethorn would risk her life, and mine, and Luvo's, over these bleat-ers. What if we did get them off the island in a couple of days? There was no guarantee that we would get far enough away to be safe. I saw that old-time explosion that Tahar and Jayat raised from my stones. Those flying chunks of rock looked big enough to punch clean through ships. They would kill anyone they hit. From my books, I knew that volcanoes created earthquakes, and sometimes gadolgas, the killer waves. Gadolgas might swamp a ship overloaded with passengers and their belongings.

I'd rather dive into a volcano than drown, any day.

"How many people have left already, Luvo, did you see?" I asked.

"Quite a few. Those with carts and horses. They assembled and took the road at dawn. I watched them from this window." Luvo hesitated for a moment. "Evumeimei, many villagers came to those with wagons and begged them to take their children. I could see that there was room for at least one or two little ones. Still, many of those in the wagons refused. Some held off the others with sticks and whips."

I growled and put his cloth carry sling around my shoulders. Then I tucked him into it. "The rich only look after themselves. They don't care if the poor are left to die. Let's hurry Oswin's tribe along."

I took him down to the stables, saddled, and mounted my horse. We passed carts and riders on the road. They were all on their way out of the valley. I ignored them and looked at the land itself. Now that I had seen the first volcano in the vision spell, I spotted traces of the ancient crater it had left. It surrounded the lake, forming the rim of tall hills and the spire of Mount Grace. Many of Jayat's lines of power had been cracks in it. They led from the shallowest parts of the crater down into the great chamber where I had met Carnelian and Flare.

All this time the old volcano's remains had been asleep. Then magma began to fill that hollow again miles below the ground. All that power slowly building in the earth… It gave me the shivers.

Once I reached Oswin's, I found a patch of grass for my horse. I unsaddled it and left it to graze there. The door to the house stood wide open. A boy whose hair went in every direction but down was wrestling a wooden box across the yard. He was on his way to a rickety cart tied together with rope. "Don't… expect me ..." He heaved his crate into the cart and stood there, panting. "To do anything for you. I promised Oswin I'd load this Lakik-blessed thing."

"Lakik don't bless things, unless it's with fleas or maggots." That's what Briar always said, and he'd gotten me in the habit. "I'm looking for Nory, anyway."

"I'll pray for you," he said. "She's inside, herding kids."

"Which one are you?" I asked.

He was already dashing around the house to the back. His hair bounced like storm-tossed branches as he ran. "Treak!" he called.

So that was furniture-breaking Treak. He didn't look crazy.

I banged on the open front door. Nobody answered. I heard yelling upstairs, so I followed the sound. There I found Nory and the girl she had called Meryem the last time I visited. They watched as four boys tore a room to pieces.

"I don't care if you can't find every toy," Nory told the boys as she clung to Meryem. "Even if you don't have everything you want in those bags I gave you, we leave at noon." She turned to me. "What do you want?" Her blue-gray eyes flashed dangerously. "If it's Oswin, he's helping the widow who lives by Bottdik Pond. Up the main road and turn by the split willow. There's only one way to turn, and one split willow." She walked down the hall, towing the howling Meryem. She must have realized I hadn't moved. She halted and glared at me. "Why are you still here?"

I sighed. "I was told to come make myself useful. If you want me to go away, fine, but Rosethorn sent me to help."

She cocked her head at me. "And you brought your toy rock for comfort?"

Luvo poked his head out of his sling. "I am of use in my own way."

If Nory was impressed, she hid it pretty well. "All right. Give Meryem a bath and dress her in clean clothes." She thrust the little girl into a room off the hall. "You have a tub in there. The water's probably only warm by now. She has clothes, and brushes for her hair, and soap, and towels."

"What good does a bath do?" I asked. "She'll only get dirty again on the road."

Nory propped her hands on her hips. "Meryem has bad dreams about soldiers killing her family some nights. She had the dreams last night. When she has the dreams, she has accidents. I cleaned her up as best as I could, but unless you want to carry her on your horse, you'll give her a bath."

I didn't want to carry a girl who'd wet herself with me. I guess that meant I'd have to wash her.

Nory frowned at Luvo. "I haven't the foggiest idea about what use you might be. You can't pack."

He said, "I can watch those boys and guide them in their choices of items to take. They obviously require supervision."

Nory smiled crookedly. "That they do. Suit yourself. Watch them all you like. If you actually watch things. I have a hundred questions, I suppose, but the other girls are probably fussing and there's Oswin's things to pack." She trotted up the stairs to the garret. I put Luvo on the floor and watched him go back to the room with the boys. Then I went into the bathroom with Meryem. She stood next to the large tub, scowling at me.

I scowled back. "Don't think you can out-stubborn me. My magic comes from rocks. I might as well be one myself as far as stubborn goes. Dirty clothes off and into the tub."

She broke to my left. I stepped back, close to the door, and grabbed her by her shift. Since she was dirty anyway, I dumped her into the tub, clothes and all. She thrashed and wailed as I pulled the shift off. Now both of us were soaked. I grabbed a handful of gloppy, homemade soap, and tried to put it in her hair. Meryem got in a lucky head butt. She jammed my hand up into my face.

By the time I had rinsed the soap from my burning eyes, she was gone. I cursed in every language I knew, then grabbed some towels. I promised myself I'd tie her up if I had to.

I followed Meryem's wet footprints down the stairs and out of the house. They were still clear in the dirt of the path to the dead pond. I ran, then. I was scared she might fall into the water. The acid water would burn her.

The sight of dead animals in the pond stopped her on its shore. When she saw me, she ran to the far side of the water and stuck her tongue out. I was thinking of a plan of attack when bubbles rose to the surface of the water. They popped with the stink of rotten eggs. Slowly I approached Meryem. As I did, other bubbles burst. They smelled less like rotten eggs and more like other kinds of bad air.

Bad air.

"I'm not coming!" cried Meryem. "You're not my family! I'm not leaving! People always make me leave!"

"Maybe they're trying to save your life!" I didn't want to argue. I wanted to think. What might bubbles of bad air mean? If they were coming up, what was coming after them? "Go back to the house. Go back and wait! Go!" Bad air went hand in glove with Flare and Carnelian. How close to the surface were they? What if they were right behind these bubbles?

"OOOMMMM." The sound made the air quiver. "OOOUUUUUUUMMMMM."

Meryem shrieked. "What was that?"

That was Luvo, getting serious. The boys must have tried to play some trick on him. The sound would be even worse to them, trapped in the same house with Luvo.

A large bubble popped with a stink that made my throat close. I moved away from it. I couldn't let myself be distracted. "That sound is a warning that you'd better get back to the house no!"

She didn't make me repeat myself. She ran to Oswin's as fast as she could.

"Finish your bath and get dressed!" I yelled after her. Then I lay on a dry patch of ground, away from the mud. I put my hands flat on the earth and drew from the rocks all around me. Even though I had built myself up again with my stone alphabet, I wasn't as strong magically as I was before I had come to Moharrin. I needed whatever power I could gather. I could find magic in ordinary stones—they were the heart of my power. They wouldn't hold as much as ones I had fiddled with, but they could still help.

Today I was lucky. To my left was a pocket of feldspars, forged in that volcano. All of them held some of its ages-old strength. Rainbow, plain, and black moonstone, plain feldspar crystals and gaudy sunstone, I drank all of it in, then thanked the rocks. In the ground I searched out the heavy, dense granite, dark and stubborn basalt, and the cruel edges of gabbro. I spread my net wider for stones filled with holes: scoria and pumice. I needed them so the drag of the volcano spirits would pass through me instead of pulling on me.

Once I was armed, I glanced at the pond. It bubbled like a kettle boiling on the fire. "Don't wait any longer, Evvy," I told myself. I let my magical body fall out of my flesh one, seeping into the ground.

There I saw as clearly with my magical eyes as I could with my real ones. The power of the volcano spirits shone in tiny wisps from a crack on the bottom of the pond. I dove into it, following the power back down into the earth.