Then everyone squeezed in, crushing me. My diamond faces strained, trembled, then splintered. The volcano creatures stuck threads of magma into the cracks. They oozed into me, trying to swamp Evvy until all that was left was liquid stone magic.
I fought. I wasn’t liquid stone! What of my body? I tried to feel the hands and feet that had done so much. I wanted to sense the mouth and belly that loved good food. I remembered the tooth that was starting to ache. Deep inside I promised myself that I’d tell Rosethorn, so we could get the tooth looked after. The promise felt like a quartz shard, cracking in the heat.
I tried to rebuild myself. I needed Luvo’s smooth and polished skin. I imagined him shedding water as I wanted to shed these fierce, hot creatures.
While I fought to be whole again, they spun faster.
Up, Carnelian whispered fiercely. We’re going up here and now, Evvy. You’re going, too. You’ll find out what it’s like. And we’ll shake the world when we go.
Up, up, UP! Flare shouted. He and Carnelian darted to the top of the fault. They pulled me along.
I dragged on them, but my arms were noodles. My strength had melted. I was done.
Gods of all stone be praised, Luvo said. We are not too late.
We won’t fall for this trick another time, Evvy. She said it, but Carnelian still halted.
Flare stopped too. You don’t fool us. We’re going out right here.
NO. I didn’t know this great, female voice, but it was familiar. I knew the stones in it, from mica to obsidian to basalt. It sounded like…Starns. It sounded like the island.
NO. That male voice was strange, too, smaller, but solid and just as unmovable. I knew it was odd, but he sounded like the island I’d seen next to Starns.
NO, the two islands said together. Their mingled voices set the earth to trembling.
Power as great as the sea’s wrapped me up. I felt Luvo in it, but there were at least five strangers there, too. They folded me around, shutting out the lava. I was enclosed in a globe of magic that was cool and solid. I would have cried if I’d had eyes.
Not here, fiery young ones, said Starns. You will not destroy my waters.
You will not shower death on our shores, said that second voice. You must change. We know this.
Once we too changed. Once we too broke free of the molten chambers under the earth. That was Luvo. Each of us was born like you and leaped free, like you. But my friends here, the Battle Islands you would destroy in your new birth—
We are not ready to change, Starns told them. And now we have found that if we join together, we can stop you from your destruction. Change all you like.
Someplace else, another island, a younger one, said. We will not permit it here.
You can’t stop us! shouted Flare.
Actually, I think perhaps they can, Carnelian whispered.
Watch us, the islands said.
The entire earth around us pushed, away from the cluster of Battle Islands. The fault rippled, thrusting the volcano spirits onward. From inside the globe that the islands and Luvo had made around me, I shoved Flare, Carnelian, and the volcano spirits down the fault. We couldn’t go back: The islands wouldn’t let us. We could all feel a solid, invisible wall at our backs. So I kept bumping them from behind in the safety of my globe. We headed toward the crack in the ocean floor, the one Luvo had shown me, what felt like ages ago. I was terrified the fault would shake loose, but the islands wouldn’t let it. They held it in place and kept moving us away, their magic harder than stone.
At long last the ceiling of the fault opened up overhead. Far, far above I could hear the cold whisper of the sea in all her malice.
I retreated to the side of the fault. Flare, Carnelian—this is it. If you go straight up through there, you can come out into the sea. You can form shapes, and make steam…Well, you’ll see how it works.
Flare, Carnelian, and the spirits shot up into the crack.
We’re free! Carnelian, let’s go! Flare became a volcano spirit again in his shape. Only his hair remained of his old seeming.
Time to grow! Carnelian lost her human shape, until she looked like all the other volcano spirits. The only way I knew which one was her was from the blue, dresslike sheath that covered part of her.
They rammed themselves up into the huge crack that led to the ocean floor. The other volcano spirits followed. They raced along in a river of fiery melted stone. I watched them flood the long crack that would carry them into the cold, cold sea. There they would go black on the outside, then billow along the ocean floor, still red-hot stone in their hearts. They would build on each other, climbing toward the surface. In advance, they would send out waves and steam to warn passing ships. Soon enough—there were so many of them—they would break the surface of the water, throwing up stones and ash. They would have all changed into something else. And sooner or later they would become an island with a volcano at its heart.
Did I know you could get these islands to help, Luvo? I asked.
We did not know we could command those terrors, replied Starns. I thought my only choice was to wait for my own destruction, and hope the change would be good.
But we like being islands, the male one said. It’s interesting. I wasn’t bored yet.
I did not know it would work, Luvo told me. But I found I was not prepared to let you die, Evumeimei. I know it must happen. I learned that if I may put it off even for a drop of time, I will take that drop.
You did not have to be so very rough with us, Great Luvo, the male island complained. We were listening.
You did not listen fast enough, Luvo told them.