Melting Stones

Panic

I was struggling to get free of my ropes when I heard Rosethorn say, "Hold still, Evvy." My ropes were hemp, of course. At Rosethorn's command, they came untied.

Azaze caught me before I fell off Spark. "Oswin isn't to know one of his children is missing," Azaze told me quietly. "Understand, girl? We can't go back for her, and Oswin has twelve others who need him. It's a sorrowful thing but true. In the rush he won't be able to count them. Not a word, or I swear, you'll travel in the bilge—or not at all."

"She won't talk. Evvy understands reality." Rosethorn looked as bleak as slate. "We have been here before, haven't we, Evvy?"

I nodded and sat on the ground. Puffs of ash rose around me. We had been here before. I hadn't wanted to be in this position ever again.

"We've work to do. Try to get yourself moving, girl." Azaze bustled off.

"Myrrhtide put our packs on that ship over there, the Brown Gull. Try to be aboard when the captain weighs anchor. For now, when you can walk, start helping to get some of these people seen to." Rosethorn looked at me. "Did you do it, at least? Lead them away?"

"I don't know." My voice cracked. Rosethorn passed a water bottle to me. I think I drank half of it. I sounded better when I spoke again. "I got them away, but only three miles out. I was exhausted. I couldn't drag them any farther. They got bored. They're trying to smash their way through the ocean floor." I hung my head. "Maybe they'll stay there, or move on. Or maybe they'll come back, to the places they know."

Rosethorn rested her hand on my head. "Evvy, you were foolish to take on volcanoes in the first place. It was like wrestling Luvo."

I was going to cry, I just knew it. "Rosethorn, it's my fault Meryem ran away. I said mean things to her."

"I know. She told Nory, who told me." Rosethorn's voice was quiet. If she condemned me, I didn't hear it. I couldn't look at her, so I couldn't see it in her face if she felt that way.

"If she dies here, it'll be my fault," I said.

"And you will have to learn to live with that, Evvy," Rosethorn told me. "I never said the first steps on the road to becoming a destroyer wouldn't hurt. I would imagine it would bother you less, over time."

I broke down and cried, then. Rosethorn sighed. "Perhaps that was hard. I am, sometimes. But Evvy, six-year-olds are tender plants. The slightest frost kills them. I cannot blame you, not really. In the years when you should have learned to be with people, you were scrabbling to survive all alone. But you haven't learned to go easy with the defenseless, something I'd hoped Briar and I would have taught you by now. I can only pray you will remember this, and not get worse. Oh, Mila save us—I have to go break that up. Come help me when you can." She strode off along one of the docks. Two men were fighting over a bag of something. It ripped in two. The seed in it sprouted and fell to the dock as living plants.

"Now you have nothing to quarrel about!" Rosethorn informed them angrily. "Get on that ship!"

I massaged my cramped leg muscles, trying to get my body moving. Ash drifted onto everything from the crack that had opened on Mount Grace. It lay in a light powder over people's faces, the animals, the ships. It made me sneeze constantly.

"Do you need a hand up?" Oswin had come over. He helped me to my feet. "Listen, Evvy, don't blame yourself about Meryem. I should have kept an eye on her." His face was pale and strained. "I knew what had happened. When Meryem's upset, she heads for home."

So much for not telling him. "You're not angry with me?" I couldn't look at him.

"You didn't order Meryem to go back." He steadied me. "Nory's blaming herself. She's wrong, too. This is a mess." He looked around. He was right—it was a mess. One ship was riding low in the water at the dock. It was overloaded. Sailors tossed goods overboard, while passengers screamed in rage. Didn't they see that furniture would do no good if they drowned?

"Where is Nory?" I looked around. I didn't want to get punched again. I also wasn't sure what Nory might do to me next. Kill me, maybe.

"Helping Treak get the children aboard our ship. That one over there, with the sun on its prow." Oswin walked over to a family with a wagon. He helped them take bundles out of it. "You should get aboard your ship, Evvy. Myrrhtide wants to set sail. He says the shakes are setting up strong currents in the sea. Once we're out there, he can use his magic and those currents to help us move quicker. And the captains have winds tied up in knots. They're going to set them free to get us away from here."

"Not southeast." I unsaddled my horse, Spark, who had been waiting for me all this time. We were going to have to leave my patient little mare. Would she be clever enough to get away from the shore? Would she go far enough? I slapped her on the rump when I had all of her tack off and watched her run. "Oswin, did you hear me?"

Oswin turned to look at me. "Huh? What did you say?"

"I said, tell them not to go southeast," I called. "A volcano is coming up underwater there. That's what caused the quake a little while ago."

"Southeast—got it." Oswin stared at the ship where Tahar sat. Treak stood beside her, jumping up and down. He waved to Oswin. The other children were with him. Some of them were crying. The others looked miserable, furious, or both. The boy who had ridden with me on Spark was hanging on to two of them, who fought his grip. Oswin walked toward the ship, his eyes searching the faces at the rail. "Treak, where's Nory?"

My belly flip-flopped. I knew where she was. And if Nory had gone missing… I looked around for Jayat. A moment ago he'd been standing with Azaze. Now Azaze and the guards were moving the last of the villagers onto the ships. I couldn't see Jayat anywhere.

Oswin turned and strode down the dock, his face grim. Ash streaks made him look like a Qidao shaman had painted him for war. His eyes blazed turquoise, blind with the ideas in his head. He looked half crazy.

Azaze moved in to cut him off. "Where are you going?"

"Nory's out there," he said hurriedly. "She went after Meryem. They—"

"And what of your other eleven children?" she demanded. Once again I thought Azaze should have been born as a queen. Right now Moharrin needed a queen, not a head-woman. Only a queen could stop Oswin if they wanted to keep him. "You are all they have, Oswin Forest. You saved them from starvation yourself. You stepped in and interfered with the destiny the gods chose for them. If you abandon them now, the gods will surely strike all of you down as payment for your abandonment of your duty."

"You can't know that." Oswin's voice was as hard as diamond and as soft as chalk.

"I know that the gods watch when you replace their plans with one of your own," Azaze's voice was sure. "You had best make good on your new plan if you interfere in theirs. You can't just decide you're tired of your new plan, or that one part of it is more important than the rest. What will happen to those children when we get to wherever we're going? I'll do my best, but I can't control them. The only one who could ever do that is you"

"Azaze—" Oswin reached out to Azaze. His hand shook. "They're my children, too."

Azaze's face was iron hard. "But they are only two of your children, and they are out of your reach. Treak obeys only you, Oswin. You're the only person I know who can grind lenses so that Jesy can see. Deva calls you 'Papa.' And—"

A boy's voice rang out clear over a sudden quiet at the docks. "Oswin, are you leaving us?"

Oswin's shoulders drooped. He looked back at the ship where the other children waited. "No. It's all right, Natan. I'll be there in a moment."

Azaze took one of his hands. "I am sorry, my boy."

"They have my idiot Jayat with them, or Norya does, at least!" Tahar screeched from the ship. "That's more luck than they deserve!" She looked and sounded furious, but there were wet streaks under her eyes.

I'm wasting time, I thought as Oswin got back to work. I need Luvo.

He stood with Rosethorn and Myrrhtide, on the dock. Enough of the refugees were on the ships that they had decided it was time to do magic. Rosethorn twisted and knotted strands of hemp. She was using spells to strengthen the ropes and sails of the ships. Myrrhtide whispered over chains set with water-magic stones: jade, pearls, beryl, aquamarines. They were too busy to notice anything else, including me.

I knelt beside Luvo. Through our magic I told him, Take care of Rosethorn. Make sure she gets home safe. I have to go back into the fault.

Luvo reared up onto his hindquarters. I couldn't see his eyes bulge. If he'd had them, though, they'd have popped from his head. You will do no such thing. What would it accomplish? You are as weak as a flake of mica. Three miles is enough if these meat creatures hurry.

I didn't have time to say it fast. I gave it to him all in a rush, as pictures and feelings. I showed him Meryem, Jayat, and Nory all headed inland. That three miles weren't enough, if the volcano was a big one. That the volcano spirits could get bored or frustrated. They could return to the cracks under Starns if they couldn't break out where they were. That if the volcano was big enough, it would set the forests on fire.

How it was my fault for losing my temper with Meryem, and with Carnelian and Flare under the sea. How I should have been patient, and made the volcano spirits keep going. How after Gyongxe, I just couldn't bear for more animals or people to die if I had a chance to save them.

How the great fault under our feet was slipping little by little. Sooner or later it would slip a lot.

I know all this. Luvo sounded testy. Evumeimei, I have never done so much rushing in all my days as I have done in my time with you. Now I must rush some more. I do not welcome it.

I don't want you to rush! I cried. I want you to leave with Rosethorn and tell her what happened to me!

For a moment he was as silent as only a stone can be. Then he said, Take this part of my strength. He set a huge ball of magical fire inside me. For a moment I thought I might explode like a volcano. Find the diamonds ten miles down. Gather their power. Then try to deal with Flare and Carnelian again.

That was all he said. I struggled with what he'd given me, trying to arrange it so it stopped choking me. When I could speak, I asked, Luvo? Luvo?

He was gone. Just… gone.

I opened my real eyes. Luvo was a purple and green lump on the dock. He looked like a rock. Rosethorn and Myrrhtide hadn't noticed anything. They were deep inside their own spells. I tucked my friend in Rosethorn's mage kit. My hands shook. He weighed no more than an ordinary rock of his size. Then I walked away. I used empty wagons as shields. No one noticed I was going in the wrong direction.

They'd think I was already on the ship. Once they knew I wasn't there, they wouldn't turn back. They had to save the most people. And Rosethorn wouldn't return alone. They would need her to keep the sails and the ropes in one piece. Captains hoarded the winds they bought against emergencies, since they paid a lot of money for them. If they freed all of the winds at once, they wouldn't risk losing everything if a hemp rope or a sail gave way. For that they needed a plant mage with the ships. Rosethorn knew it.

I hoped she would understand why I had left. I thought she might. I wanted her to know that I meant to build and not destroy, at least when it came to meat creatures.

Anyway, I was out of time.

I ran in the direction that Spark had taken. She was cropping grass outside the village. "Silly horse," I said as I slipped a bridle on her. I had found it in the street. "You were supposed to head into the hills."

She didn't like it when I climbed onto her bare back. She tried to nip me. I tugged her head around and kicked her sides. "We're in a hurry, Spark. Stop playing."

We galloped up the hill behind the town. I wanted to get farther from any gadolgas that might flood the town, but the gods decided my stopping place. A big shake rolled in. It knocked me off Spark's back. I clung to the rein as the poor thing neighed and reared.

When I got her calmed down, I took off the bridle. "Now go. Away from the sea, knothead. Heibei watch over you."

This time she went, headed up into the hills. Even horses learn.

No more time, no more time. Who knew what the volcano kids were doing now? They hadn't escaped the earth, or the quakes would have stopped. They were still ramming themselves into the fault.

I lay flat on the ground, sucking more strength from the granite all around. Accidentally or guided there by the gods, I had found a good place. I thought then that I should say good-bye to my body, just in case. I wasn't sure I would be able to come back to it. The fault was really unstable. My chances were good that the volcano spirits would overwhelm and melt me.

So I thanked my strong arms, that helped me to climb and lift and fight. I thanked my hands. They had led me to Briar and my magic, by itching to handle and polish stones, and by accidentally waking the power in them. I thanked my legs, with the muscles that could hike and kick. I thanked my poor feet. They had carried me so far. They'd had such awful punishment from the emperor's soldiers. I thanked my belly and guts, for putting up with the bad food I gave them when I couldn't find anything else. I thanked my bones, my skin, my mouth, my nose.

Maybe that was how I could survive the volcano spirits. Carnelian said she and Flare could still remember who they were during the melting together. My stone magic wanted to melt like all stone did. I had to remember my meat self, my human body. I had to remember what made me Evvy.

Holding tight to Luvo's strength and the power I drew from the nearby stones, I rolled into a ball of magic and dropped through the shivering earth. I had to get to those diamonds. I needed as much magic as I could stand. All around me every stone and every grain of dirt was moving. Every bit of water had spread to make the soil damp. Ponds and streams leaked out and down, turning the ground into mud. This was part of a big earthquake, when the ground seemed to turn to water. Houses would collapse, their walls sinking and cracking. The sides of the hills and mountains would slide.

I would not slide with them. I was two miles down, three, and still dropping. The ground's shivering made it easier. The movement shook power free of the stone. I gobbled it all as I passed. I could hear the thunder of the volcano spirits who had stayed behind under Mount Grace. Their voices boomed through the faults. They were wondering if they should have left, too. They were asking if they ought to find Carnelian and Flare now, and follow them out.

The earth bucked around me. Each time Flare, Carnelian, and the others rammed the fault, they shook it. Stuck as it was, the fault trapped the power of their blows, storing it.

I turned some gathered magic to speed. If the fault came unstuck in a big way, the earthquake that followed would make these little ones seem like the shake of a lamb's tail.

It scared me to think of disasters, but disasters were coming no matter what. They might be big gadolga waves. They might be earthquakes. If the volcano broke through too close to Starns, it would bring earthquakes, fire, and ash. And a volcano here wouldn't be a disaster just for the island, but for the nearby Battle Islands, too.

How lucky are you, Evumeimei, I thought. You go from Gyongxe's human war to nature's war on Starns. At least you know it isn't you. This stuff has always begun by the time you get there.

Seven miles, eight. I felt the diamonds now. They sang to my magic, a chorus of nightingales. Luvo had found a bed of them, each one a dull star filled with the earth's power. If I'd trapped Carnelian and Flare here, instead of the bed of quartz, I never could have controlled them.

Now I bounced from stone to stone. I rippled over faces so hard my power skidded on them. Doing so, I breathed in the strength from the hearth of the world.

But it was Luvo's power in me that mattered here. It sang to the diamonds. Luvo's strength called up sparks and flares of power, drinking it in. Drop by drop, I was flooded with magic that was harder than that of any stone I'd ever felt. It was the strongest in any rock that existed. It would guard me in the heat, it would make me strong. Each surface in that diamond bed gave up a stream of magic that wound through Luvo's and mine. When I was ready to burst, I leaped free.

Lines of power showed in my vision. I could see the fault lines all around me, silvery gray fire tinged with red. They vibrated with the strain that the shakes were putting on them. In the distance, I saw the hollow chamber under Mount Grace. The volcano spirits who were still there boiled and leaped. Some of them raced through the earth, following the path Flare, Carnelian, and I had taken out to sea. Others were so excited that they pounded the highest part of the chamber, smashing into the peak of Mount Grace. Some jammed into cracks in the mountain's shoulders. They turned groundwater into steam and anything that would burn into ash. Both escaped into the air over the mountain. Those volcano spirits couldn't get out of the mountain—not yet. How many more shakes would it take before those cracks opened and let them out?

I screamed and flew through the ground, seeking the quickest path to the place where I had left Flare and Carnelian. I had to let them and their friends out! They had to go where I chose. They would not escape through all the places they were trying to open up. They'd learn the truth—that out was cold, slow, and not at all exciting. They would be free, even if it wasn't what they had dreamed. Who gets exactly what they dream in life, anyway?

The sea hissed when it felt me reach the ground below it. Silvery rock worm, you are so much bigger now! So much more to seek and grind to sand! You should have stayed in the dry places, where you were safe!

I'm in a hurry, and I have no time for you, Great One. I covered myself with the faces of diamonds.

Where are you? she demanded. You cannot vanish, not in my own realm—where have you gone?

I let the sea cast around, searching blindly for me. Over my head, my reach so much greater with the power of Luvo and diamonds in me, I felt other magics that I knew. The ships were sailing. Rosethorn, Myrrhtide, and Luvo were in them.

Thump.

The earth around me thudded, like someone had struck the giant, loose head of a drum. The fault shook a little, not a lot. I half-hesitated, afraid this small shake might knock the fault loose, but it held. I kept moving. I was flying so quick I soared past Flare, Carnelian, and their friends. Feeling silly, I had to come back around to get them.

Again! Again! Flare yelled.

Flare, it's not working. Look at it, Carnelian ordered.

Carnelian and Flare had hammered the crack in the fault where I'd left them. They had melted away slabs of rock and tons of earth. They had gone just a little crazy. Though they weren't even a mile closer to the surface, they were still at it. The volcano spirits crowded in behind them. I was squeezed between rock and magma. Since I was decked out with so much power, I felt hot and too big for the space that held me.

Do you think you can hide from me down there, silvery worm? whispered the sea. I will come to you in time. I will scour away all this rock that shields you. I will beat it down to helpless specks that float on my tides. I will turn your hot friends to cold stone and treat them the same. And then I will have you. I have everything in the end. You will be cold. Miniscule. Helpless. Mine.

I began to gasp, though I couldn't breathe in this shape. I was too hot. I was trapped. The weight and the heat were making me smaller, making my edges runny. If I didn't stop this, I would melt again!

I gathered the diamond magic into a human shape, so Flare and Carnelian would know me. Then I slammed through the crowd of volcano spirits, cutting my way through. They pulled back. They had never seen anything like me before, not with all the power I had to shield me. I scared them. They didn't know that I would eventually melt if they swamped me again. I didn't wait for them to work it out. Instead I darted into the open space they'd left around Carnelian and Flare.

For some reason Carnelian and Flare still kept the humanlike shapes they had taken after they had met me. That was my good luck. I grabbed each of them by an ear.

Stop that! Flare yanked against my grip. I poured diamond into it to make sure he couldn't get loose. We're trying to get out!

That hurts! Carnelian wriggled and squirmed. I used more diamond on my hold on her, too. Evvy? Is it you? Or the monster with the big voice? You shiver like him!

I glanced down at myself. Now my magical body looked as if it was made of ice—or diamond. What are you on about, shivering? It's me, not Luvo. I'm tired of being reasonable. If you won't mind common sense, then you just have to do what I tell you. This isn't the way. I dragged them out of the hollow they had made, through the crowd of volcano spirits. They got out of our way. Seemingly they feared anything that could tow their precious leaders along like naughty children. If they had children, and if they towed them by whatever passed for ears.

I hauled Carnelian and Flare along the fault, in the way I wanted to go. They fought me with all their strength. They were really strong, but Luvo's power, all that I'd collected, and the diamond magic together made me stronger—for now.

Where are you taking us? Flare dug at me. He ripped at my arms with claws made of fire. They slid off my diamond armor, leaving scratches in it. The magic was tough, but Flare was still a creature from the earth's heart. Even a diamond was in trouble there. We're not going back down!

You're going out the way I told you to! I snapped. I'm tired of fussing with you and finding ways to keep you busy and out of my hair. You're a danger to my friends. You can't be trusted to do things so you don't kill everything in sight. If you're so determined to die, fine. You'll do it where you don't murder everything else for miles around.

Why do you care? Carnelian wasn't fighting me as hard as Flare. Instead she twined her arms around the one I used to grip her ear. Her warmth burned even through my diamond armor. Everything's all temporary anyway, she said. You touch it—well, we touch it, and it disappears. It's not like it's important.

That sounded like Luvo and me calling people and animals "meat creatures." It scorched me almost as much as Carnelian's hold. It's important to them, I said. And in my right shape I'm one of those temporary things.

Carnelian tried to pull me to a halt. One of 'them?

I dragged her onward.

Flare hauled against me, trying to wrench away. How can you have any power over us? How can you be here or touch us? This is our world!

Is the monster a temporary thing, too? Carnelian's voice was very soft and scary. Are you saying we ran from the likes of that?

For the first time I was more scared of Carnelian than Flare. I sped up. No. Luvo isn't like me at all. You're lucky you listened to him.

I wonder. Flare was suspicious now, too. Maybe he was another one of your tricks.

You seem to know a lot of them, Carnelian remarked suspiciously.

Carnelian was getting heavy. How could she do that?

Maybe this is another trick, Carnelian went on. Maybe your way out is just another way down.

You can't lose us. This is our home. We will find a way back to your precious mountain and blow it all to pieces! Flare fought me even harder.

I loosened my human shape. I lengthened my legs and wrapped one around him, one around Carnelian, then clung to them with the strength of diamonds. For Meryem and Nory and Jayat and Spark, I told myself. I tightened my grip on their bodies and their ears.

They had to learn to fear my voice, not Luvo's! You can't scare me, you two. I was beaten by imperial soldiers. I lived for weeks without undressing because it was so cold. I was sold for a slave and lived on my own for years on garbage. You call that temporary? Fine. But I'm going to be temporary for a while longer, without you destroying everything around me. Without you destroying me. And if you want to die so bad, then I'll help you do it! But you aren't going to defy me ANYMORE!

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 can't 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.