Melting Stones

by Tamora Pierce

  “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 now!”

  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.

  12

  The Quartz Trap

  It took me a long time to track the traces of their magic until I ran into Flare and Carnelian. When I had noticed those bubbles in the pond, then seen their power under it, I had been afraid they were close to the surface.

  Both of them had kept their humanlike shape and seeming. I hoped that was a good thing.

  Where were you? Flare circled me so fast I began to spin like a top. We looked all over the chamber but you were gone! We thought you had left us with everyone old.

  Why did you go? We know you did. We didn’t like it. Carnelian stared at me. The stone around us softened and dripped down the sides of the crack where we drifted.

  You almost crushed me up there. Although we were deep underground, I somehow knew where Mount Grace was. I pointed to it. I’m not like you. You have to see that. You nearly killed me. Of course I ran away. If you start trying to crush me against this roof here, I’ll leave again, I promise. You’re big and strong. I’m not. I have a right to preserve my life.

  We couldn’t crush anybody here. The roof is weak, can’t you tell? There’s more bounce. Flare pushed the stone over us with his arms. It didn’t bounce, though parts of it melted away. I think it bounces. If we push…

  The shimmering waves around him streamed into the thin crack in the stone. That was the poisoned air, I knew. It would speed to the surface far in advance of him, bubbling into the pond. Could it widen the crack and open the way for Carnelian and Flare?

  I didn’t think Nory would like it if a volcano, or even a slowly leaking lava flow, came up out of Oswin’s pond.

  Maybe if I help. Carnelian rose to put her shoulders against the crack. It widened under her pressure. More poisoned air rose into it.

  I felt heat rise below us. I looked down. At the far end of the crack, where it entered the underground chamber, the others had noticed something was going on. A handful of them had swum up to stare at us. I had to get Flare and Carnelian out of here. The others might not follow if we moved quick enough. They weren’t as curious as these two. I wished I could get Luvo down here with his big noise. Luvo could teach them!

  Luvo. Teaching. I thought of the crystals I had seen, the ones whose strength I had borrowed. Something about Luvo teaching crystals…

  That morning on the mountain, above the canyon of the dead trees. Luvo was telling Jayat about the new line of power. He was saying it might be a trap for a mage, because of all the quartz crystals around it. The crystals would grab power and reflect it inside themselves. They would be a maze for magic. I might have a trap for my new friends. Of course, it would only work if pride wasn’t something common only to humans. Still, Luvo had pride. It was worth a try.

  I know a game you might like. I looked back at the other lava spirits. But it’s a small game. The place to play it isn’t very big. The three of us could play, but there isn’t enough room for them.

  They won’t follow. Flare didn’t even look at them. They only follow if it looks like we’re getting out. Will this game let us get out?

  Flare and Carnelian stared at me, their
black-rimmed eyes wide around the orange fire inside. If I’d had skin on, it would have crawled. They looked hungry.

  It was so much easier to lie without a real face or body. I could see myself reflected in those flaming eye openings. I was a shimmering silver ghost shape of a girl, with nothing to give away what I thought.

  No, it won’t let you out! I don’t know any game that does that! This game makes you stronger, so maybe you can break through the peak one day, if you can’t find another way out. But the way this game is played is a little scary. I hesitated for a moment, then did the thing that Briar always called “setting the hook.” You gave the person you lied to one last shove, so they would do what you wanted them to. It’s probably too hard.

  It’s not too hard! Carnelian might be a spirit of a young volcano, but in some ways she wasn’t much different from a human. You’ll see! Just tell us how it’s played!

  I drifted toward Mount Grace. Flare came on one side of me, Carnelian on the other. The game has one tricky part. See, I notice that when you touch the cold hard parts of the ground, it starts to melt.

  So? Flare sounded just like any other boy. If it melts, it gets out of our way.

  Except you need to work with that stuff for this game, I explained. There’s a special form of it, called crystal. It’s got flat sides all at angles to each other. Within the crystal, things bounce from side to side, and they get bigger as they bounce. Say you put power in the crystal, like the kind you two have. If you bounce around inside the crystal long enough, it’ll make you stronger.

  Why didn’t you say so? Flare swarmed ahead of me. What’s this crystal look like? Here we go shoving ourselves into cracks, when we could have been in these crystal things…

  I was stupid then. I grabbed his fiery legs. For a moment my arms sank into him, becoming part of him. I felt myself start to melt into Flare. His body started to become mine. My heart roared like a furnace: I wanted to soar up through the earth and shoot straight into the sky. I panicked and struggled, fighting against his pull. Finally I yanked free.

  That hadn’t happened before. They had grabbed me and towed me all over Starns, and it hadn’t bothered me.

  Carnelian looked at me. I swear I saw her smirk. We’re stronger, aren’t we? Not strong enough to break out, but soon.

  I glared at her. Without my game you’ll never break out. Flare! I kept my hands to myself. If you go into a batch of crystal like you are now, you’ll melt it. You’ll never get stronger that way!

  Flare came back. Then how does it work?

  Wait. I sent my magic out, until it began to come back to me in chimes. It had struck that great bed of quartz under the canyon. This way. I led them toward it, then stopped far below the quartz, so they wouldn’t melt the crystals. The trick is, you have to break yourself up into tiny, tiny bits no bigger than this. I showed them just a scrap of my finger. I had been calculating all the way. I had to scatter Flare and Carnelian in hundreds of tiny pieces throughout the bed of stones. Broken up, small, they wouldn’t be hot enough to melt them. They would bounce inside each piece constantly. And they would get too dizzy to pull themselves together into whole creatures again. They would be occupied for a while, maybe forever.

  It wasn’t foolproof, but it was the best I could think of, in a hurry.

  How will we get strong if we’re all in pieces? Carnelian seemed to be the thinker.

  Each piece gets stronger, reflecting from the faces of the crystal. I used my “everyone knows that, bleater” voice. So all of you is strong, not just part. Then, when you find the way out, you’re better than when you went in.

  I’m not sure. Flare darted back and forth. Break ourselves up? It took me forever to become one separate person in the deep down under.

  In the core. Carnelian whispered it like it was the name of a temple. In the core, where all of us are born.

  Well, we were in pieces there, and had to come together to make one person, before we came up to the pool, Flare said. What if I stay in pieces this time? What if Carnelian stays in pieces?

  I thought of a core that was all volcano spirit, and shuddered so hard I nearly broke into pieces myself. You won’t stay apart, you two. How can it be a game if you stay apart? The game is that you get stronger. The winner is the one who puts herself together quickest, Carnelian or Flare. I wasn’t about to tell them the trick: that if they broke themselves up, and jumped into each piece of quartz, they wouldn’t be strong enough to escape and put themselves back together.

  What makes you think it will be Carnelian? Flare demanded. I’m faster. I’m the one who wants to win and get out the most!

  You are not faster! Carnelian exclaimed. And whose idea was it to break out in the first place? Mine!

  It was your idea, but I found the first crack. Flare broke into hundreds of tiny flames. All of them asked with his voice, Where are these crystals?

  We’ll see who wins this game! For someone who worried about breaking apart, Carnelian sure managed it in a hurry.

  I led the way through the ground until we came up into the cold, hard bed of quartz crystals. Two fiery clouds shot past me. They split up like flocks of birds to dart into the stones. Bits of blue and orange fire tangled and sprang apart: pieces of Flare fighting over a particular crystal with pieces of Carnelian.

  I watched for a time. I needed to see if they overheated the quartz. Thankfully, I hadn’t been asleep the day I studied heat and stones at Winding Circle. A candle flame would not burn the stuff. Inside hundreds of crystals I saw flecks of Carnelian and Flare. First, they would have to see that I’d tricked them. Then, they’d have to find a way to escape each small mirror maze, where the only thing they could see on the inside was themselves. They might be trapped for weeks. Just to be sure, I wandered over that seam of quartz at least three times. They were bouncing inside.

  It’s hard! Feel how hard! And cold! And it doesn’t melt or burn like the walls of the chamber! Carnelian’s voices whispered, shivery with excitement.

  It feels so different from the others! Remember the straight edges we could see, before they melted? This is what straight feels like, and flat! Flare’s whispers actually sounded happy.

  I hadn’t thought of that. It never occurred to me this would be wonderful for them. Flare and Carnelian had only known the lava pool and the spirits, or the melting stone and earth that kept them from breaking free. They hadn’t realized yet the quartz bed was a prison. Maybe it would keep them happy for a long time. Then I wouldn’t have to feel bad about sticking them there. They were only kids like me, after all. It wasn’t their fault they could destroy so much.

  I finally began my swim up through the ground. It was hard. I was getting tired. It was more like a climb than a swim, actually, with me grabbing power from every stone I passed. Even after I’d drawn on my stone alphabet and the stones I’d found coming here, I wasn’t as strong as I was normally. Borrowed magic or stored magic is never as good as what you have from day to day.

  I slowed to look at a cluster of sunstones. How did they get the name sunstone? They hardly shone, and only glittered in spots. They were mostly orange.

  Evumeimei, you are dazzled. Luvo’s voice spilled over me like icy water. It woke me from my dazed state. He poured his strength into me as I dragged myself into my cold, real body.

  No, I’m all right! Turning his power aside was like trying to kick an elephant.

  Where have you been? Luvo wanted to know. Norya is quite pleased that you frightened Meryem into taking her bath, but she says that you should have stayed with her.

  If I had stayed with Meryem, Nory might have had Flare and Carnelian eating the house. I opened my eyes and sat up, safe in my body. Luvo had come down to the pond to find me. I put a hand on his back. It was quicker to show Luvo what had happened than to tell him in words. I let him see it all as I had seen it.

  For a long time he said not a word. I began to fear I had made him angry. Perhaps he thought it could have been him trapped in the quartz
under the dead tree canyon. Then he began to glow, his crystals shining. Warmth spilled out of him. It was real and magical. The creakiness in my joints and the fog in my head vanished. I felt as if I could take Mount Grace apart stone by stone.

  Delightful, Evumeimei, Luvo told me. Most splendid. To divert them with the quartz bed is ingenious. They have not known crystal before. Whole, they would have destroyed it. In small pieces, they will be able to enjoy its facets, its resistance to heat. They can learn that it is the firstborn mineral of lava. They may even see that quartz crystals are the children of one of their kind. As such, they will want to get to know all of that bed of crystals.

  “Too bad the bed isn’t larger.” I could hardly breathe. “I wish it ran the length of the island and back. My biggest worry is that they might reach the end of the crystals somehow and break out.”

  Luvo got up and paced for a moment. The glow flowed after him like a scarf that connected us, still wrapping me in his approval. “I have an idea.” He said it out loud, instead of in our magic. “It will take me a time, however. If you will remain to watch over me? I vexed the boys enough that I know they would consider tossing me in the water.”

  “Let them try,” I assured him.

  Luvo sat. His approving glow vanished, but I still felt all that wonderful warmth. I hugged it to me. Did Luvo’s mountain feel like this when he lived inside it? He said the mountain was happy when he was gone, but I couldn’t believe it really was.

  I heard someone approach. It was one of Nory’s boys. “Please tell ’im”—the boy pointed at Luvo, who had curled into a purple and green lump—“that we packed all our things and put ‘em in the cart, and then we helped Nory and the little ones, and we carried what Nory told us to, all to the cart. If’n he asks. If’n he don’t ask, don’t tell him we’re even alive. If he forgets us, that’s fine. But we done like he bid. And Nory says if you want soup you ought to come, ‘cause we’re leavin’ at sun high.” He turned to go, then looked back at me. “He ever done you like that? With the noise, and the house shakin’?”