Melting Stones - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,71

More babies and mothers live because nature never minds a little extra help."

"How did you find that out?" I asked, curious. I'd never met a man who could talk midwifery.

"Jayat hasn't been around to help Tahar for long," Oswin explained. "Before that she was without an apprentice for a couple of years. I helped her. We are talking about volcanoes, Evvy."

"Blasphemy." Luvo was rocking from side to side. His weight shifts made him hard for me to balance.

"I'm not proposing an end to the process through which mountains are born. This is just a new wrinkle." Oswin was being very patient. "Could many stone mages even do it?"

"Evumeimei's skills are unusual," Luvo said, distracted from his crankiness. "I believe the fact that her first instructors were green mages influenced her power. Her magic follows more flexible channels than those of the stone mages I have encountered."

"I am standing right here," I told them. "I can speak for myself."

"I was wondering about how Evvy does things. Most stone mages I've encountered seem very, very settled" Oswin commented. "They only deal with their immediate circle of stones and learning. Certainly they aren't flexible. I never heard that a mage's first teachers have an effect on how their magic works, though."

They would remember me eventually. In the meantime, the refugees were drawing away. Luvo calmed down as I started walking, and Oswin caught up. He and Luvo kept talking about first teachers. I turned Oswin's idea over in my head. Hadn't Rosethorn mentioned something similar? She'd been joking, but Oswin wasn't.

Flare and Carnelian didn't know I had tricked them. If they did, their anger would be enough to blow the quartz trap to pieces. They might suspect. If I showed up before they broke out, though, if I set them free, I could convince them it really was just a game.

Worse, I didn't know if I could keep them from the surface. They were big before they went into the quartz. If they were bigger when they came out, I might not be able to control them.

I might die.

The road crested a high point in the ground. Below us was the long line of refugees. Rosethorn was riding back, a little boy behind her, a little girl in front of her. She looked tired and thin.

I promised Briar I would take care of Rosethorn.

I interrupted Oswin and Luvo. "Where do I take Flare and Carnelian? I can't just drag them any old where. They'll come straight back here."

Oswin grinned. "All of those roads that lead away from Mount Grace, and you can't think of something that's a better place than this?"

"I don't know any roads for volcanoes" I didn't feel like playing games! Then I bit my lip. The cracks. The cracks, that led to the faults deep in the ground. The seams in the earth. Where might they take me?

In my mind's eye I saw black, cold depths at the foot of a stone cliff. Strange sea creatures danced in cold salt water. They swirled around an opening that spurted clouds of hot water.

"Luvo…" I whispered.

"I saw." Of course he saw, I was holding him. "Is it far enough from human dwellings?"

"Is what far enough?" Now we had confused Oswin.

"I'm not sure," I said. "It's seven miles. We need Myrrhtide."

Oswin, Luvo, and I worked our way down the river-bank. Myrrhtide was in the water again, his habit kilted up around his waist. He walked along the river bottom as easily as I walked on the road. He didn't slip or slide like I did.

I stared in awe. Fishes darted around and between his feet, some of them big ones. Now and then one would leap in the air and hit broadside, splashing him. His pale lashes were marked with water drops. Water beads sparkled on his short red hair. He looked… happy.

Maybe our voyage would have been more fun if we had just towed Myrrhtide behind the ship on a rope.

"Excuse us—are you working on something?" Oswin could be very polite.

"No. Evvy, if your face freezes like that, you will frighten small animals. Is something the matter?" Myrrhtide asked gently.

Kanzan bless me, with fish nibbling at his toes, Myrrhtide was actually decent. "Back on the ship, when I banged you in the face, did you know where we were?" I inquired.

He bridled, as if I'd suggested he didn't know how to do his sums. "We were directly over the Ditlo Trench, the deepest such trench in the Pebbled Sea. It measures ten