almost said, Who cares about stupid old humans, but I didn't. Instead I ground my teeth and gave Luvo a very obvious look.
"Master Luvo's different." Treak waved a hand at Luvo. "He's a god or a spirit or something. The rules are different for them. But regular old rocks just sit there. They don't have a brain. They can't speak. They can't hear."
"You show your ignorance, young meat creature." Luvo was sitting on a wooden chair. He settled a little, and the seat bowed with his weight. I kept an eye on the seat. If Luvo forgot and settled again, the chair might break. "Rocks and crystals have memories far longer than yours. It was their memory, called forth by Tahar and Jayat, that told us of the first volcano here. Rosethorn can tell you of the prints of ancient animals and plants carried within stones. They can tell you of the changes in the earth and of the sea. You dwell here for a speck of time, but stones have the memory of thousands, millions of humans."
"Stones can tell you about light and heat and water," I broke in. "Look here." I took the cloth roll of my alphabet from my back. Carefully I untied it, opening it up on the bed. I drew out my favorite stone. "See this? It's an opal. The colors work because the crystals are arranged at different angles in the stone. Crystals bend light. Crystals know more about light than you could ever dream of." Meryem bent over the opal, her mouth open. I hesitated, then let her hold it. "Some stones will keep heat for a long time. Others you can heat and heat and heat and nothing happens. Some will tell you all about the weight you need to press stone together so its layers blend. Some will say how long they took to move from the bottom of the sea to the top of the mountain. How is any of that boring?"
Treak shrugged. "If you have to ask me that, then you can't understand my answer. Meryem, it's just a rock."
"It's a beautiful rock. It's the most beautifullest rock I ever saw." Meryem gave the opal back to me. "I have a beautiful rock of my very own. There's green and blue in it."
"It sounds pretty." I looked at Treak. "Just because you don't understand, don't pick on Meryem." I took out the stone that looks like shards of blue ice crystals trapped in white ice. I showed it to Meryem. "No, I'll hold it. It's really fragile. It's called kyanite."
"Lemme see." Treak grabbed for it. He broke off the long spar that stuck out of one end. He looked at the slender length of kyanite, then at me, shocked. "I didn't mean—"
He was wearing a red shirt. The imperial soldiers wore red tunics. For a moment Treak looked a little like one of them. They had smashed their way into my room to capture me, and broken the stones I was keeping there. "No wonder the thing you're best at is breaking furniture! Get out!" I yanked the stone from his hand. I didn't even care that it cut him.
"You mages think you're so great! You think even your dung is magic!" Treak reached for the basin. I think he meant to throw it at me.
Meryem seized his arm. "Stop it, Treak!" She looked at me. "He doesn't mean it, Evvy! I can fix your rock, honest! Oswin makes this special glue. I can put your rock together!"
I couldn't stand that look in Meryem's eyes. She looked like a kitten climbing out of a stream. "The rock's fine—it just lost a piece. Take Meryem to Nory, Treak. Before you really make me mad."
He towed Meryem to my door. Then he looked back at me. "I hope your volcano spirits eat you. I hope you get lost under Mount Grace!"
I answered before I thought. "It would be better than being around people like you!"
Treak towed Meryem out of the room.
"It is but one piece of kyanite, Evumeimei."
"I'm just being a meat creature, Luvo. Give me a time."
Now I could cry as I sat on the bed. He had handled this piece of my new life—the life with no hunger, beatings, or cold—as if it was a cheap toy. I tried to fit the kyanite pieces together. It was useless. Once the inner bonds that held it were broken, no magic could fix this delicate chunk of crystals.