I was trying to describe eating and walking—I wasn’t doing very well—when we popped into a huge crack in the ground. Far above I sensed the wet coldness of the stones at the bottom of the Makray River. Just above, far off, I saw and felt the volcano spirits. I had never entered the chamber under Mount Grace this way. I turned to inspect the heavy rock sides of the fault. They opened out down below. They shivered from the pressure of the earth and all the shocks that had come through. I hoped the fault would hold steady as we traveled, but I was out of choices. We had to go this way. More people could live through earthquakes than the mess caused by volcanoes: fire, mudslides, floods, moving lava, and falling ash so thick it suffocated. And I was truly impressed by how deep down the fault ran into the earth. I could keep the spirits well away from the river, that was certain.
I glanced at the chamber’s entrance again. At first it was a small orange circle. Suddenly I realized the circle was getting bigger.
Flare raced down the fault toward us. Go! Go! They’re coming. Evvy, if they catch up, you’ll melt again. Show us the way!
I turned and dropped down the side of the fault, plunging into the earth. I was thrilled to find magic along those sides, left over from the power of the earth shocks and the passage of the volcano spirits. It fizzed and popped inside my skin, mixed with fire and the strength of stones. My magic belonged here, and it didn’t belong. I didn’t belong, unless I melted.
Don’t think about melting, I ordered myself. Don’t think about trading your meat life for this liquid one!
The lower I dropped, the slower I went. I had to draw the volcano spirits down, away from the surface and my human friends. I knew that. But I was starting to feel a little…smooshed. There was so much weight on top of me. True, I could draw on the magic in the stone for strength. But the water, the soil, and the clay were dull, and sullen. I had never had so much weight on me. It didn’t matter that my body was magic, a thing of power, that could pass through it all. The island had its own great substance. It rested on me.
Come on! Flare shouted in my ear. The others will see you. They’ll think you’re showing us the way!
I glared at him. Don’t yell at me. Doesn’t the weight bother you?
What weight? Flare asked.
The island, I said. The whole island is pressing down on us. Doesn’t it make you feel crushed?
Carnelian laughed. That tiny bit of pressure? You’ve never been in the core. All the world presses on you there. It’s why so few of us make it this close to the skin. Most can’t fight the core.
If Evvy meant pressure, she should have said so, Flare announced. And I don’t feel any.
Flare’s not sensitive to pressure like me, Carnelian explained. He’s one of the ones that’s more sensitive to heat. Since you melted so fast, you must be sensitive to both. Don’t ever go to the core, that’s my advice.
Has the monster ever been to the core? asked Flare. Does the weight bother him?
I looked at Flare and smiled. He was still afraid of Luvo. He thought Luvo might be watching. The core parts and lets him pass through, I bragged.
Flare sped up until he was beside me. He wanted me to protect him from Luvo.
I never saw the core do anything like that, Carnelian said as we moved on.
The core’s a big place, isn’t it? You couldn’t see everything at once. I tried to sound strong, but the earth was so heavy. I pulled magic from the walls of the fault. I couldn’t even take the time to gather a new granite shell. The volcano spirits would catch up and swamp me again if I did. Don’t worry about Luvo. Just stick to leading your friends out into the open, and you’ll be fine.
She’s right, Flare, Carnelian told him. The others depend on us to bring them out. Carnelian and Flare looked back. Far behind us came the other volcano spirits in a billow of heat that toasted my toes. I didn’t want them any closer. Carnelian reassured Flare, She’s just showing us a way past her monster friend.
And I know an easier way than through the top of the mountain. I didn’t want them forgetting that my way was easy. I was scared they would get bored and try to find another way out.
On we flew, far below Starns Island. If I’d had lungs I would have been panting, the island was so crushing. The fault was huge, but it felt tiny. Worse, I felt like it was getting smaller all the time. The walls trembled with all those tons of cliffs, fields, rivers, hills, and lakes on top of them. If they slipped, how much of the earth’s might would they release? Enough to split the island? The fault was the seam. This one was set to rip…
Slowly, so slowly I didn’t notice at first, the weight changed. It eased. The fault was rising. I knew I ought to sink deeper into it, but the change felt so good. Suddenly a huge amount of pressure vanished. I sent power up, enough to feel the shape of the world overhead. We were three miles deep, no more. We had passed out from under tall cliffs. The fault had entered the shallows of the sea.
Stop! I heard a volcano spirit cry. Where do we go?
We came this way before! someone else called. While we searched for you!
Be quiet! Carnelian shouted back to them. Are we your leaders or not? We told you, we know a way out! A way that will leave us the strength to fly when we have broken through!
More of us will fly free this way! Flare whirled in a circle before the distant spirits, a fiery beacon. You said you trusted us, so trust us! He told me softly, And we had better be able to trust you, Evvy. If not, we will twine around you until you are nothing but smoke.