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!