Melting Stones (Circle Reforged)

by Tamora Pierce

  They’re bored, said Flare. They want to get to this place. So do we, right, Carnelian?

  No—I didn’t have to get them moving. I wasn’t their leader.

  I shuddered and drank as much power as I could bear. Have you told them how amazing this new place is? I asked. You’ll have black clouds all around as you come out, and black smoke. You won’t have to break the earth open at all! Since you won’t tire yourselves breaking through stone to get free, you’ll be able to fly high!

  Carnelian and Flare went back to tell the others. They stopped attacking the sides of the fault. When I saw Carnelian and Flare returning to me, I flew on ahead, showing them the way.

  Their concentration was broken, though. The volcano spirits roared behind us, growling and grumbling. They were whining, too! I didn’t have to speak lava to recognize the sound of complaints. The fault developed branches, and each new branch distracted everyone who wasn’t me. Wheedling and pleading, I brought them along another mile. It was work, all the time with the sea laughing at me.

  They say, if we’re going to swim, they want to do it melting together. Carnelian was spending too much time in a girl shape: She actually pouted, her lower lip stuck out and everything. They say when we go around melted together, at least they can taste Flare and me, and feel bold like Flare and me. They can be excited like Flare and me in the melting together. In the fault they just run along. There’s nothing new.

  Flare leaned against the side of the fault. It melted away from his shape, the stone quivering like a jelly. I felt something give back there. Back where we were, before you dragged us here. There was a lot of the cold stuff in the way, a lot to melt and draw off our strength, but if we got the others to do the shoving—

  So you can jump into the air and die? I would have gladly smacked their heads together, if I hadn’t cared about my hands. If you don’t fail? You don’t even know how much stone is on top of you! I do! No one has broken through it in thousands of my years. That’s so long the only way we even know it happened once is because there is a record in the stones themselves. How many times do I have to tell you, there is a crack that comes all the way down here. You’ll be able to leave without exhausting yourself in breaking through. The only problem is, a little travel and you start bleating like sheep!

  They stared at me.

  What’s bleating? Carnelian asked.

  What’s sheep? That was Flare.

  We stared at each other, just hovering.

  Pathetic. We were half a mile below the bottom of the sea. Her voice was even louder in my mind this time. The silvery worm tries to bribe melted rocks. Give up, worm. Give yourself over to me. I will have you in time. I will have them in time. You will be exhausted, they will be dead. I will grind and scour you all to nothing. I never, ever tire.

  The edges of my magical body were blurring. I was losing my grip on myself, on my concentration.

  The volcano spirits came roaring up.

  Enough. We’re going to try here. Flare slammed into the side of the fault, where a deep crack reached up. That wasn’t even a fault, just a hollow. Carnelian and a huge ball of the others flew after him, striking the hollow with a roar. More cracks appeared there. Other volcano spirits rippled forward.

  I came to my senses. No! Not here, this isn’t it!

  They ignored me. Flare and Carnelian fell back among the volcano spirits. In one huge surge they struck the roof of the fault again.

  WHAM! All around me the seafloor shook. There was a slow, grinding, growling crunch. The walls of the fault slid, one to my left, the other to my right. Overhead the sea gasped, feeling its belly lift.

  At least you aren’t nattering at me anymore, I told her.

  WHAM!

  The volcano spirits punched the fault again. Once more the walls slid, two inches to my left, an inch to my right.

  Earthquake. A few inches in a fault was an earthquake.

  I had to get back to my humans. The ground under their feet would be buckling. What if there was a gadolga—a tidal wave—headed for Sustree? I had to reach them.

  We were three miles offshore. It would have to be enough. There was nothing else I could do. I was tired, scared, and I couldn’t make the volcano kids listen. I’d done my best. And at least I wouldn’t have to sit around and watch them shoot out of the ground and die.

  I thought it would be easy to get back to my real body. It was, what? Four miles as the goose flew? One mile from the shore.

  But I was so tired.

  You are half the size you were when you crossed my borders, silvery worm, the sea taunted. Why bother going back? You wished to melt. Stay and be ground to a speck instead.

  Don’t you ever tire of the sound of your own voice? I whispered. It wasn’t very good, but it was the best I could manage. I felt as small as a pebble when I found land that wasn’t under salt water. Instantly I leaped to the earth’s surface. It was wonderful to shed the weight of water and earth together.

  Once there, Luvo’s magic was a huge beacon in my eyes. I flew to him, drawing on his strength. He wrapped me around like a good father, taking me into his depths. If my magical body could have cried, I would have wept. I felt so safe in his heart. I was surrounded by his power. He was layered like a tree with centuries of stone life. Here was fire, water, sun, patience, resolve, wrath, wisdom, anything I could ever want.

  I knew then that I wanted to be Luvo someday. I don’t know how, but I can strive to be more like him.

  The patience will need a lot of work.

  Evumeimei, there is a thing, Luvo said in my mind. I fear you will not like it.

  Something about his tone worried me. I didn’t want to leave the good place he had made, but I did. I popped into the body I had left and fought to open my eyes. From the sun’s position, I’d been gone three hours. I was in Sustree, tied to my horse with ropes. Obviously Rosethorn had found me.

  From the look of things, we had just arrived. The docks were a mess. People were trying to get onto the ships. Men and women with weapons were making the refugees leave things: wagons and animals, mostly. Children screamed for their pets. Adults argued and shouted at the guards, who told them there wasn’t enough room. The animals just looked confused. Rosethorn, Myrrhtide, Azaze, Oswin, and the other village leaders were trying to get people aboard the vessels. Tahar was aboard one small ship. I could see her seated by the rail, grim-faced. Jayat was still on the dock, helping Azaze.

  Nory was right beside me. She hung on to my knee so tight it hurt. She’d already pulled me half out of the saddle.

  “Stop that!” I smacked at her, or tried to. My arm was too numb to work. “What’s the matter? Why aren’t you helping?”

  She glared at me. She had pulled me down so far our eyes were on the same level. One more tug and I’d be hanging off the saddle. “Awake, are you? I’m here because I wanted to be around when you opened your eyes.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “So I could do this.”

  Even if I could have moved, I wouldn’t have been fast enough to escape the hard slap she landed on my cheek. Then she slapped me again. She was crying. “While you were playing mage, Meryem decided you would like her again if she gave you a pretty rock she left at home. She went back. I’m not allowed to find her. I’m needed to look after the others. So she’s dead in all these shakes, or she’s hurt, or she’s going to starve. All because you’re a pig who’s mean to little girls!”

  Then she punched me in the eye and walked off.

  Meryem. Meryem had gone back to Oswin’s house. And the volcano was going to come through the ocean floor only three miles out. That wasn’t good enough if a small girl was left on the island. She would be out there while ash and rock bombs fell and set the forests afire.

  21

  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 of
f 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 headwoman. 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?