Melting Stones (Circle Reforged)

by Tamora Pierce

  “I have sons at home who will insult me for nothing.” The miner was still talking. “Forgive my saying so, Master Luvo, though I don’t mind telling you I feel funny, calling a little fellow like you ‘Master.’ But I’ve been in the mines all week. Nobody enjoys the ground-shakes, but we’ve weathered them. It just seems like Mount Grace is missing her lover more than usual. But she isn’t the volcano sort. I’ve seen two of the volcanoes we have in these islands, Sharyno and Kieta. Our Mount Grace has never been that sort.”

  That made me perk up. “Never? Never?” I looked at Jayat and Tahar. “You know the spell for looking at a thing, right? The one where you tell it to show its nature? My book mage friends say it’s like your ABCs, you all learn something like that.”

  “I know a curst sight more than my letters, you pepper-mouthed minx.” Tahar glared at me for good measure. “My Jayat, too.”

  With Lark’s strengthening blanket around me I could walk. “I’ll be right back.”

  As I was climbing the stairs I heard Luvo say, “All of these islands are volcano-born. How can you not know that? The lines of power that your mages called on, they are but tributaries to great faults in the earth. Those faults lead to the furnaces in which everything was made.”

  In my room I got the rocks I had collected the day before: mica, obsidian, quartz, and feldspars. All had been shaped far below the earth, where they should have stayed. I carried them downstairs, my knees wobbling.

  “It is a small undersea volcano, seven miles off your shore and one mile deep.” Luvo was telling them about the vent we had found under the ocean. I could see the village councilors didn’t believe him. I wasn’t surprised. One thing I had noticed in my travels with Briar and Rosethorn. People took to them because their magic was ordinary. So Briar and Rosethorn talked to plants and played with them like pets. At the end of the day, they had dirt under their nails, stickers in their clothes, and a crop to show, like everyone else. Unless people witnessed it when they did some great magic, calling out huge thorny vines from a gravel slope, or turning a tiny tree into a giant one, they seemed like everyday people. They were the kind who got invited to meet daughters or say the blessing over the new grandbaby.

  But Luvo was not like that. Luvo was not everyday. I wasn’t everyday. I was Luvo’s friend, and I had no liking for people. They were fine as long as they left me alone, of course. I preferred cats and rocks.

  I put my stones on the table next to those I had gathered that day. Azaze and the carpenter moved aside so Tahar and Jayat could see them. “Ask the stones, Mage Tahar, Jayat. Stones don’t lie or make up pretty stories. Ask them what their nature is, where they came from. What they came from. Don’t ask me, I’m a lying chit trying to get out of being in trouble. Ask the stones how they got made.”

  I sat at the table where Luvo stood. Even with Lark’s blanket around me, I guessed I had overdone things. I was feeling cranky. I’d been up at dawn to traipse all over their silly island. I had tried to see where their precious source of mage-strength had gone. Then look what had happened to me! Catch me warning people their stupid home was going to blow up again.

  Now that Rosethorn and Myrrhtide knew the problem was nothing to do with plants or water, we could go home. Against volcano spirits, my magic and theirs was helpless. Our ship was waiting for us in Sustree. I didn’t even care that it meant another week at sea. I’d have the new rocks I’d gathered here to entertain me. And maybe a view of the volcano when it finally exploded. That would be really interesting.

  Jayat and Tahar drew spell designs on the floor. Their lips moved as they called on the rocks to show where they came from. I sighed. It was taking forever.

  Then I had to smile at myself. I was spoiled. In the old days, in Chammur, magic never happened at a snap of the fingers. We waited for the mage to dance, shake rattles, burn herbs, or spin a prayer wheel a hundred times, until the mage was ready and the magic was done or failed. It wasn’t until I knew Rosethorn and Briar that magic turned into something at the speed of, “Here you go.”

  I smelled heating stone first. It’s a dry smell, like the sun in the desert. Grains of dirt and dried leaf from the rocks I hadn’t cleaned were baking. Then the leaves burned outright. I shook my head. In a good spell, the heat that the stones remembered would never escape the spell. If the leaf bits were burning, there would be scorch marks on the table, too. Azaze had better not blame me.

  My pieces of mica started to crack. I wasn’t bothered. I’d collect more on the way back to the ship.

  A little volcano image appeared over each rock. Jayat looked up from the design on the floor. He was sweating. He made a swirling motion with his hand. The little volcanoes formed one big image, one big volcano that stood over six feet tall. Just as the single image came together, a blast of smoke and stones blew the mountain’s side out. Everyone flinched, though the blast—the eruption, my books back home called it—went through them like a ghost, and vanished.

  Tahar sighed. The image disappeared. The room seemed darker, though the lamps and the fire still burned. I went over and picked up a beautiful pink granite chunk I had found that morning. It would have burned anyone else. Just as I thought, it left a scorch mark on the table. My lovely mica was just ruined. They might have to scrape that off the wood.

  The nervous herder gulped her tea before she spoke. “But—I don’t understand. Where was the lake? Where was Mount Grace?”

  “This happened thousands of centuries ago.” Rosethorn rubbed her eyes. “Didn’t you look at the trees? The only time you’ll ever see leaves like that is captured in stone, just as you’ll find animal and fish skeletons. They’re the ancestors of your trees. The distant ancestors.”

  “But our lake.” Just like her goats, the Herd Mistress wouldn’t let go of something she had her teeth into.

  “The place where the volcano erupted…” Tahar was hoarse.

  Jayat poured her a cup of tea.

  Once she finished drinking, Tahar went on. “Where the volcano blew out its side, that became our lake. The remains of the volcano became the spine of our Mount Grace.” She looked at me. “The child found countless rocks here which were born in a volcano. If Dedicate Rosethorn is right, that volcano last erupted in the dawn of time. We sit on top of its sealed grave. That seal is about to come right off.”

  Rosethorn got to her feet and put an arm around me. “Well done, getting their own mages to show them. Very well done. Time for you to go to bed. There’s more talking to do, but you’re about to collapse. Don’t even try to carry Luvo. I’ll bring him when I come up. It’s not as if he sleeps.”

  “Are you sure?” I know I was swaying where I stood. “I can go for a bit longer.”

  “Of course you can.” I knew better than to believe her when she spoke all syrupy sweet like that. “Why, you can last just as long as it takes to go back up those steps. I’ll bring the rest of your stones, too. Go on, Evvy. You know it will just annoy you to hear us negotiate with the locals. It usually does.”

  “It annoys you, too.”

  “Yes, but my vows say I have to be nice to people sometimes, for the good of my soul. You haven’t taken vows. Scat.”

  Every now and then I like to do as I’m told, just to confuse people. This was one of those times. I climbed the stairs and fell into my bed. I don’t think I even took off my sandals.

  11

  Helping Out

  Magic, 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 bleaters. 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 he
aved 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.”