to move the cloth. A new cramp the size of Mount Grace made it seize up.
Jayat took the cloth away and put a lantern on the rock beside me. I was surprised—it was dark. Briskly he kneaded the cramping arm. "I've never seen a living dead person before." He acted like that was a perfectly normal thing to say. "She said to come back with a coffin, because that's how she's going to ship you to Winding Circle. She was very convincing. Should I believe her?"
I tried to nod, and cringed as my neck locked.
Jayat massaged my shoulders, loosening knotted muscles. "You ought to be ashamed, scaring Master Luvo like this. He's been curled up in a ball for hours right next to you. He'd tell me you were all right, just 'traveling.' Then he wouldn't say another word for the longest time. The others came past here about mid-afternoon. She came over and checked your heartbeat and your breathing. Master Luvo talked to her and said you were well.
Dedicate Initiate Myrrhtide was in fine fettle, now that you're in disgrace. Oswin wanted to leave you some food, but Dedicate Initiate Rosethorn said to let you starve. When she went away, though, it turned out she left you these." He held up a cloth with some cold dumplings in it.
Lucky for me he knew the signs. Jayat rolled me on my side with my head hanging over the ground, not the boulders. I started to puke.
That went on for a time, long after I had anything to bring up. Luvo came out of his ball. He walked up and down my cramping thigh, kneading out the bunched knots. When I finished vomiting, Jayat and Luvo worked on me until I could sit without screaming, then till I could stand. I rinsed my mouth with water, and kept from looking at the dumplings as Jayat ate them.
"What happened to you?" he asked, saddling the horses. "Your whole body was as hard as a rock. You didn't even move when I slapped you or jostled you. I waved stinkweed under your nose. Nory fainted a year ago. I used stinkweed on her and when she came around she punched me. She has a good punch, but then, her mother was a pirate queen. I guess she comes by it naturally. Master Luvo, do you eat anything? Can I give you some water, at least?"
I turned facedown on the basalt to let Luvo walk up and down my back. His weight pressed my spine back into its proper shape, making the bones crackle. His feet worked my bunched-up muscles. They tired of clenching, and lay like they were supposed to again.
"I would like to have a little water poured over me, thank you, Jayatin." Luvo stepped down from my back.
As Jayat fumbled with the stopper on his water skin, I whispered to Luvo, "You were afraid. I could feel you, very far back in my magic. You were afraid."
"Do you know where you were, Evumeimei? You were below. Not in the place where all rocks are melted down, but in a higher chamber to that place. I do not understand how so many spirits of molten stone have come so close to our world, but they should not be here. Their touch on our kind—yours and mine alike—is death."
"But Evvy's still here. She's alive." Jayat carefully poured a trickle of water over Luvo. "Tell me when you've had enough."
"Thank you, Jayatin," said Luvo. "I am not a creature of fancies, yet I cannot rid myself of the idea that my skin is hot and stretched. The water is very good, and also sufficient. Evumeimei went as a creature of magic. Because she is not from that world, she can shield herself. I cannot."
"It cost me." I sat up again. My hair fell all around my face. I had to do something about it. The stuff was down to my waist and flopping everywhere since Jayat removed my headcloth. I tried to lift my arms to see if I could wrap the cloth, but my shoulders knotted with pain. That wasn't going to work.
"Had you been stone, it would not have cost you, Evumeimei. It would have killed you."
"Instead it milked every drop of magic I have." I couldn't even braid my hair.
Jayat saw. "My master has arthritis. And I have little sisters. Now, shall you have a turban like Azaze Yopali, or a band and braids, or a wrap like your old one?"