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.