“I would have just said that I don’t go around wasting magic.” I stowed my obsidian pieces in the front of my shirt. One of them had cut me. I hid the cut before she noticed it. As I followed Rosethorn onto the road, I explained, “It’s these rocks. So many of them are fire-born.”
She looked around at me. “Fire-born?”
I shrugged. “From volcanoes. I keep finding the kind of rock that my stone teachers say is made in fire. I’ve never seen so much in one place, not so close to the surface. There’s some at Winding Circle, but all underground, mostly. There’s granite here, and feldspars, and obsidian—obsidian is really hard to find. And they’re all volcano rocks. Starns is one big basket of treats for the likes of me.”
We reached the road. Dedicate Fusspot looked as if he was about to complain. He changed his mind when Rosethorn and I both glared at him.
“Play with your obsidian treats in the saddle, please,” said Rosethorn. “No more delays.”
She leaned against my horse’s shoulder as I climbed onto its back. I felt guilty as I looked at her. Coming home from Gyongxe, Briar and I had made her rest. She had relaxed after we got to Winding Circle, but she still got tired easily. Rosethorn had ordered Briar and me not to talk about all she had done to fight the emperor’s armies. She had put so much strain on her body and heart. Seeing her lean on my horse, hidden from the people who rode with us, I wished Briar and I had disobeyed her. I wish we’d told the Winding Circle council that she was in no shape to go saving villages, not so soon.
“Did you drink your medicine tea?” I asked her. “The kind that smells like boiled mule urine?”
My horse was nervous, pawing the ground. Rosethorn pushed away from it. “I will have it in the village, if we can get there with no more—”
The other horses snorted and stamped. Birds flew out of the trees, shrieking.
“Evumeimei…” Luvo said in warning.
I felt it coming, too, from under my feet—liquid stone on the move, rich and heavy. Now was the time to use tricks I had learned from the riders of Gyongxe. I wrapped the reins tight around my right arm, locked my legs around my horse, grabbed Rosethorn’s arm, and hung on. I muttered prayers to Heibei, god of luck. This time the weight of the earth’s power drove straight up through the ground underneath us. It boomed under the horses’ hooves and rattled down the road, away from the island’s heart. On the far side of the river, stones dropped from the cliff to hit the water with huge splashes. Behind me I heard the sound of tearing wood and the crash of a big tree as it fell. I clutched Rosethorn with both arms and the horse with my legs, to keep Rosethorn from tumbling down the riverbank. She clung to me, her lips tight and her eyes all business.
Then we had silence. We listened for a time, waiting for a second shock. The horses quieted down. Finally, the birds began their usual chatter.
“You may let go now, Evvy.” Rosethorn gave me a little push.
I let go. People tell me sometimes I have a grip like stone. I think I must have used it. Rosethorn’s wrist was marked where I grabbed her. The cloth of her habit was as wrinkled as if I’d ironed it that way.
Rosethorn rubbed her white fingers to get the blood flowing into them, then looked at Oswin. “If I had wanted to bounce like this, I would have stayed aboard ship. Is your island normally so lively?”
“We’ve had a lot of tremors in the last couple of months. Times like this come and go, Dedicate Initiate. You—we become accustomed, anyway.”
“Charming.” Rosethorn went to grab her horse’s reins. “I can’t wait to become accustomed.”
We stopped for a cold lunch Oswin had brought, then rode on—and up. Moharrin was high on the side of Mount Grace. As it got later, and the river and the road entered forested mountainsides, things turned cooler. I dug out Rosethorn’s coat and rode over to her.
“Evumeimei, she dislikes it when you try to put warmer clothing on her.” Luvo had seen me do this dance with Rosethorn before.
“You just have to wait until she isn’t paying attention,” I whispered to him. “Hush.”
“Stop.” Rosethorn climbed off her horse and walked away from the road. With her eyebrows together and her forehead crinkled, it was clear she was in a thinking mood. Myrrhtide reined up his horse and grumbled. He didn’t like to ride, I could tell, but he wouldn’t say so. Oswin and Jayat dismounted. Jayat went to refill their water bottles.
“Perfect, Luvo. If I move fast, I’ll get Rosethorn’s coat on her before she even notices.” I slid to the ground and caught up to her. She was busy inspecting two dead trees. I danced around her back and sides, working her arms into the sleeves, while she ignored me. Of course, I made sure not to get between her and the dead trees.
“I can get my own coat, Evvy.” She looked at a big patch of dead plants behind the trees. In the dim woods light, that spot looked as if it was filled with plant ghosts, the dead leaves pale against the living shadows of the forest beyond. At the heart of the ghost space, dead birds lay beside a slab of basalt that jutted from the earth.
Do birds and trees have ghosts? I wondered. In Yanjing and Gyongxe, everything human has ghosts. That’s what I was raised to believe. Were there bird ghosts here? And wouldn’t Rosethorn believe that plants have ghosts? Plants are her people, just as stones are Luvo’s people, and mine.
“Briar told me to look after you. I could see you were shivering.” I answered her in a whisper. I didn’t want the attention of bird or plant ghosts. “What killed them, Rosethorn?”