they have shoved their way out? I had no way to know. What I'd had was all those kids, as well as Nory and Luvo, in the house nearby. Luvo couldn't even come near the chamber under Mount Grace with me. The power of the volcano spirits was the power that gave birth to him; it could destroy him. He could get near it only after Flare and Carnelian broke themselves up into hundreds of tiny pieces.
I couldn't risk it. I couldn't have risked them escaping that pond to kill Luvo and the others.
But Luvo and I had only bought days for Moharrin and the other villages around Mount Grace. If the quartz held out. If Carnelian and Flare didn't get so strong in it that they melted each crystal, if they didn't break out, if the volcano spirits didn't find new leaders to bring them up into the air…
"Ifs just make your head hurt, Evvy," Briar told me often. "They're probably bad for your teeth, too. Concentrate on 'will,' as in 'I will do this,' or 'I will do that.' It saves you head- and toothaches, take it from me."
I wished Briar was here. He made cold-sweat fear seem like a small problem I could kick in the bum. And he always made me laugh as he did it.
Oswin
I mounted Spark and guided her onto the road, trotting through Moharrin. I waved at the people who called out to me, but kept going. Not everyone was waiting to get out of there. Spark and I passed a stream of horses, donkeys, and carts already bound for Sustree. There were even some people on foot.
We left them all behind. When we turned off the main road, we followed the trail to the place where the river flowed out of Lake Hobin. Up here, where the river flowed from the lake, it was rapids. Once I got to the rocky bank, I found a place where Spark and me could halt. I watered her and gave her some carrots, then tethered her.
Finally, I settled myself. The river had shifted. I could see the former bed. It was marked with dried slime and dead creatures who had not been able to follow it. Rocks along the original banks had tumbled from their places. The old stones were cross. They were used to water sliding over them. They did not care for this new life in the sun.
"Luck of the circle, lads," I told them. "One day you're under water, the next you're not."
"You talk like a dedicate," Oswin said. I jumped. I hadn't even heard him ride up. "Are you a novice?"
"What are you doing? Are you following me?" I asked.
"Absolutely." Oswin swung down from his swaybacked horse and took off the saddle, like I'd removed Spark's. "You looked like you were going to do something mage-like. One more of those times when I might learn something useful. Your Rosethorn is badgering people to get packed and get their carts in line. Word got out that Luvo said we might have a few more days, so our people act as if they have forever. I've done all I can for the moment, so I followed you."
I didn't feel like arguing. He'd get bored fast enough. People always do. "Don't make any noise, then. I need to find the new line of strength and draw all of it I can."
"Why?"
"Why? Because I might need it," I said, testy. "I'm not restocked from yesterday, all right? Because I'm a squirrel who stores up nuts of power for the winter. Why." I closed my eyes and sent my quivery magical self down into the ground. I searched out the fizzing rocks that showed me where the old line of power had been. Then I spread out and down, seeking the new one. Just as I thought, it was under the changed riverbed, a seam in the granite that shot straight down. It blazed white-hot with the earth's pure strength.
I soaked it up like the rays of the sun after a long winter. I bathed in it, drank it, filled my skin with it. The more I gathered, the more was offered to me. Streams of it poured through me to those things I was connected to, my stone alphabet and my mage kit. We brimmed over with power.
I let myself follow the big fault where the power flowed away from the mountain. It ran along the Makray. It made the river's bed. I flew in