Melting Stones (23 page)

The thing the mountain did
, the friendly one said firmly,
it made quite a few of us better able to resist heat. That was good
.

And many of us have stolen power from your rude friends
, the housekeeper crystal added.

But we will still be happy if they never return
, the old one told me.
They do not know how to behave. Not like you
.

The crystals split. Out squirted hundreds of drops of indigo and reddish-brown fire. They formed a single, mixed-color pool in the soil, the big drops calling to the small ones that had already escaped.

I waited. The pool sloshed and stirred. The rocks and earth around it softened and shifted. At last the blue drops slid to one side, the carnelian-colored ones to the other. Slowly Carnelian and Flare took on the shapes they'd held when I saw them last. There was one difference. This time, they were taller than me by a head.

They looked down at me. The soil melted and drooled around them.

I threw out my hands.
Flare, Carnelian, hello! I'm so
sorry
!
I talked like Briar did when he courted a rich lady while stealing her bracelet. He didn't steal anymore, but he taught me the approach for emergencies.
Maybe the quartz is a toy
my
people manage better. Are you tired? Were you bored? I was so busy helping my friends that this is the first chance I got to check on you! Honestly, I thought you would have solved it
long
ago
.

You trapped us
! Flare raised a fist.
You wanted to seal us up so we couldn't get out
!

I grinned at him.
Why? I'm your friend. 

Maybe the others got you to do it. To stop us from having fun
. Carnelian crossed her arms.
They never want to have fun
.

When would they do that
?
I asked.
I don't go near them, remember? Now, stop being silly. Shall I tell you how the quartz toy works? Or do you want the other game I have for you?

That was no
toy
!
Bits of flame escaped Flare.
It was a trap! You tricked us into it
! He grabbed for me.

I flowed just out of his reach.
Then why did I set you free? Honestly, Flare, if you're going to be like this, maybe you're not
ready
to be out. In the world above, we understand things like quartz toys
.

Flare split in two. He shot at me from both sides. I dropped down through the soil, then flew up, putting the granite between us. He must have flown straight at it. I felt the ground and the stone shiver when he struck the two-foot-thick shield.

I backed up until I felt heat behind me. I turned. Carnelian had flowed through the ground, past the shield, to follow me. She'd also reshaped herself, so that some of her flames had the shape of clothing. She couldn't make herself stone clothes, though, not when rocks melted within a few feet of her.

What kinds of games do you have
? She smoothed a hand over her front, shaping the flames into a tunic of blue fire.
And what
was
the trick of the quartz toy
?

I folded my arms over my chest, like I was thinking.
It made you and Flare larger. Don't you like that? You would have broken out soon. I'm curious
—
is Flare your brother? Do you come from the same flames, or the same pool? Were you part of one thing, that you're so close
?

Carnelian shrugged.
At first I was in the core, with the others. We were all one. Then I came to know I was me
. 
Separate. I chose to go in another direction from the others. I flowed away. After a time, I looked around. The only other one who swam in a direction, being separate, was Flare. So I kept swimming, and he kept swimming. Both of us, being separate. One day we swam side by side. We didn't even know we wanted to be
out
then. We just didn't want to swim like the others
.

I arranged my stone clothes so I could sit cross-legged.
How long did it take you to get here? To the hollow under the mountain
?

Again Carnelian shrugged. She tried to sit as I did. The best she could manage was to blend her legs together. You have to understand legs to create a proper tailor's seat. When I saw she wasn't going to attack, I spread some power in the earth, above and below me, and on the other side of the shield at my back. When Flare returned, he wouldn't take me by surprise.

Once Carnelian was settled as much like me as she could manage, she answered my question.
We don't understand things like how long it took us to leave the core and come to the chamber. The older ones, the ones who have been here since the last big escape
—

The last big escape
? I asked, curious.
When? Where? Excuse me, but we've never really talked
.

Carnelian shook her head. Her black flame hair drifted with the motion.
Here, of course. Thousands of volcano people got out in that escape. They took huge amounts of cold earth and stone up into the air with them. And some remained behind to tell us newer ones the story when we came, in the great chamber below. They said it was glorious. The thousands broke into the air. They soared out in freedom from this world. It was cold, where they went. They roared. And they died, of course.

Well, that stinks
, I said, feeling bad for them.

Stinks
?
Carnelian cocked her head.
What is that?

I can't explain. Only its not right, to get outside and then die
. I noticed Flare was approaching. His power was hot and shifty. He was still angry, then, but he had it under some control. I drew strength from the stones around me, just in case.

Here comes Flare. He feels better now that he has melted rock
, Carnelian said, pleased.

I wondered how Carnelian knew what he'd been doing. That must be some part of their magic.

What else is there
?
she went on.
We go, we soar into the air and burn in its glory. What more could there be
?

Flare came roaring through the earth, headed straight for me. I was about to jump clean out of the ground when he whirled away from me and spun around Carnelian.
You're starting to look like
her. He didn't sound happy about it.
You're shaping yourself like her. It's just rocks, what she has on her outside. I could melt them all with a breath. Maybe I should
. He opened his mouth as he looked at me. His tongue and teeth were made of flames.

You've had enough stone for the moment
. Carnelian unfurled her legs from their knot, stretched out her arms, and wrapped all four limbs around Flare.
I was telling her about getting out. She doesn't understand. She doesn't think it's wonderful, to be outside and to die
.

They were half-melted together. Carnelian's blue tunic mixed with Flare's shoulders and chest. His black flame hair wound around her arms and legs.
Do you have something better
?
Flare wanted to know.
At least when we leap outside, we turn into something
new.
We will become something none of the others have been
.

But Carnelian says others
have
done this before
. I put a bit of needle into my voice.
A lot of them, right here. They blew the whole crown of this island apart
. I shrugged.
And that was
ages
ago. Nobody cares now. Nobody cares about
old
stories. They only care about new ones
.

Well
, we
don't care about what
your
people care about
. Flare opened his mouth. His tongue shot forward. It was a long spout of flame, green and pink mingled with orange. It flicked the air a thumb's width from my nose. I felt the gold feldspar on the tip of my magical nose melt. I hid a shudder. I
never
wanted to see that again.

Tricks
, I said.
If that's the best you can do
…

An earth shock rolled into us from just a few miles away. It drove me back against the shield, pressing me into the obsidian. It mashed Carnelian and Flare into one creature. With the shock came a bellow so loud I thought it would tear me to shreds.

As I pulled away from the shield, Flare said,
It's the others. They're… over that way. Hundreds of them
. He separated himself from Carnelian.

More sound blasted through the earth. The rocks that made my girl body dropped off. I couldn't hang onto them and my magical self at the same time.

They
want
to talk to us
? Carnelian was as astonished as Flare.
They say we are to lead them
?

They turned toward the sound of their kinfolk. That's when I got scared. And when I get scared, I'm the first to admit it, I turn nasty.

Lead them where
? I demanded scornfully.
Around and around and around? You couldn't even get out of a quartz
toy.

Lucky for me I realized what a bleater I was. I moved as soon as I said it. Flare turned on me. He opened his mouth and shouted. Except there was no sound, only ripples of heat. Everything between Flare and where I had been melted as that heat passed through.

I meant that in a
helpful
way! A useful way!
I scrambled to tell them.

I don't
. Flare came at me, stretching out, a snake of fire in the ground. Soil and fast-melting rocks went to soup as he raced for my throat, his blazing hands grabbing for me.

I darted away. Reaching Carnelian I said,
I can show you a way out. It's a lot easier than the mountain
. Then I ran, because Flare was coming.

Your quartz wasn't a toy. It was a
trap, Flare growled.
You are a cheat. I'm going to melt you. Then I'll coat the quartz "toy" with you
.

People in my world escape those toys every day, Flare
. And
we escape things like the mountain. Well
, I
did
. I turned on the persuasion.
But there's another way out that's
made
for only a pair like you and Carnelian. I found it by accident on my way here
.

Flare opened his mouth. Heat billowed from him, turning solid earth to smoke. I couldn't move fast enough. Pain
shot
through me, pain I thought I couldn't feel in that shape. I rolled into a tiny ball, fighting the agony. I was terrified that if I gave in to it, I'd lose control of my magic. I'd turn to smoke just as that soil had done, and be lost forever.

You will stop
. Luvo's voice boomed from every pebble, every stone, and especially from the huge obsidian and granite shields. It shivered the soil.
You will stop, or I will crush you so deep, it will be forever before you rise this high again. Hurt Evumeimei once more and I will see to it that you forget your soul
.

I stretched out. Carefully I remade my magical eyes. Flare and Carnelian had curled up. I didn't blame them. I felt like paste. Luvo's voice was that big in the ground. He sounded like the mountain he was at home, a mountain far bigger than Mount Grace.

Rain luck on us, Heibei, I prayed. Don't let them find out Luvo has no power over them!

Evvy, who's that
? Carnelian whispered.

You do not have the right to address Evumeimei
, thundered Luvo.
You have not earned the right to address
anyone.

I shivered everywhere, in every grain of stone that filled me. Carnelian and Flare shrank even more.

He's not as bad as he feels
, I whispered.

Who are you, Big Voice
? Flare didn't sound as nasty as he had just a few moments ago, but he wasn't as wary as Carnelian.
And who's Evumei
—
whatsit
?

SHE
is Evumeimei. You are not so much as a drop in the earth's veins
.

Luvo's bellow flattened
me
, and my magical body wasn't entirely real. It drove Flare and Carnelian deep into the earth, hundreds of yards below where we'd been. I let myself drop to follow them.

I
had
to find out how he did that.

When I caught up to the volcano kids, they were slowly stretching themselves out, making themselves big again.

What
was
that
? Carnelian kept her voice quiet, in case he might hear.
Where did it come from? How does it know you? Can it hear us? Can it find us
?

Flare just looked around nervously, as if Luvo might appear out of the rock. With a magma vein warming my magical feet, giving us all new strength, I knew Luvo couldn't come near this place. Still, after what he had just done, I had to think about exactly what Luvo meant when he said he was helpless. Apparently he and I had two different meanings for that word. I couldn't do
anything
when
I
was helpless, but Luvo could… thunder through the earth.

"It"
is a "he
," I explained.
His name is Luvo. Well, that's part of his name. The only part I can pronounce, anyway. He's a mountain. He makes the mountain you're trying to break through look like that piece of granite I put between us
. I was doing some
really
fast thinking now.
He's my friend, but I have to tell you, he doesn't like the idea of you and your friends blasting this mountain apart just so you can get out. I don't think he'll let you do it
.

The earth moaned. The others were calling, Carnelian and Flare's people.

We can't just stop
. Flare sounded shaky.
They want us to
do
something for them. I can feel it
.

He may be a mountain, but he isn't
this
mountain
, Carnelian said.
He can't stop us. We're going to go out
. She didn't sound much more confident than Flare did, but I had the feeling that didn't matter with Carnelian. If she wanted to do something, she would try it even if she wasn't certain she could succeed.