"Do your parents worship at the Fire temple every day of their lives?"
"My mother worshipped money. Then her ship got hit by lightning and sank while it attacked Winding Circle eight years ago. My father and older brother worshipped Urda and Lakik like sensible people, praying to Lakik's good-luck side. Pirate chasers mistook them for fierce outlaws and killed them. I'm skeptical on the whole question of gods at the moment." If saying these things bothered Nory, it didn't show on her face. "You still haven't told me where you got the talking rock."
I took out the juggling stones I had stuck in my pockets. Luvo could handle this snapdragon himself.
He walked toward her, his short legs thumping on the dry grass. "I sensed the coming of Evumeimei and her friends when they approached my home in the Heaven Wind Mountains of southern Yanjing. I had never felt the spirit of any human like Evumeimei before, and so I left the inside of my mountain to meet her."
"Stone mages are a copper a pair," Nory told him scornfully. "At least, they are in the real world, not this pile of droppings in the Pebbled Sea."
"But none like Evumeimei. She is alive. The world is hers, or she will make it hers. She sparkles."
I spat on the ground. Luvo is a dear, but being a mountain for thousands of years made him a dreamer.
The fizzing in my veins was bothering me even more. I tossed my juggling stones in the air, but my hands shook too much. I dropped one and smacked a finger with the other. That hot, itchlike tingle made me want to scratch my own skin off. Did I bring it back with me from the stones in the dead canyon? Now that I was up here, I knew that I felt the power that Jayat and his master had used. Luvo was right. It was down below the canyon floor.
I picked up my juggling stones. "The earth strength found new paths. If I reach down far enough, I could maybe touch it." I spoke out loud, forgetting I wasn't by myself. "I could maybe find out what happened to the old lines, what made them shift." The rocks I held were puzzling me. One was pumice, littered with long holes. Another was obsidian. One was feldspar. What were volcano rocks doing up here? I brushed the area around me with my power. More volcano rocks. Mount Grace was covered with them.
Never mind those, I told myself. What of all that power far beneath the canyon? That line went someplace, but where? I sent my magic down to touch it. The line passed out of my reach under the mountain. I wondered if I could pick it up on the far side of the peak.
At our present rate of travel, we'd be another couple of hours riding around the top of Mount Grace, even if the grown-ups were done talking. My body's itch was getting worse, the fizz spreading into my bones. By the time we got down the other side of the mountain, I would be chewing my arms.
I can't explain what I did then. I just did it. I ran back to the clearing and threw the bridle on my horse's head. I got the bit on faster than I had ever managed before. I think I had taken the animal by surprise. Once I had done that, I was in too much of a hurry to bother with a saddle. I simply jumped on the horse's back, grabbed the reins, and kicked it in the sides.
I don't even remember hearing anyone, though I am very sure Rosethorn and Fusspot had things to say. I rode, galloping madly along the rocky, twisty mountain road. At least I knew enough of what I was doing to stop and rest the horse now and then. I would wipe it down with handfuls of grass. I even remembered to give it water from my bottle, since there might be acid in the streams.
I'm surprised I thought of it. Otherwise, my mind was on the cracks and seams of Mount Grace. I let my magic seep into them, searching for the feeling of power. I wanted that sure sense that greatness had touched these stones. I searched far ahead of me and to either side, letting my magic sink deep into the ground. The fizzing grew into the thunder of waterfalls through my veins and bones. I had to stop