I didn't want them any closer. Carnelian reassured Flare, She's just showing us a way past her monster friend.
And I know an easier way than through the top of the mountain. I didn't want them forgetting that my way was easy. I was scared they would get bored and try to find another way out.
On we flew, far below Starns Island. If I'd had lungs I would have been panting, the island was so crushing. The fault was huge, but it felt tiny. Worse, I felt like it was getting smaller all the time. The walls trembled with all those tons of cliffs, fields, rivers, hills, and lakes on top of them. If they slipped, how much of the earth's might would they release? Enough to split the island? The fault was the seam. This one was set to rip…
Slowly, so slowly I didn't notice at first, the weight changed. It eased. The fault was rising. I knew I ought to sink deeper into it, but the change felt so good. Suddenly a huge amount of pressure vanished. I sent power up, enough to feel the shape of the world overhead. We were three miles deep, no more. We had passed out from under tall cliffs. The fault had entered the shallows of the sea.
Stop! I heard a volcano spirit cry. Where do we go?
We came this way before! someone else called. While we searched for you!
Be quiet! Carnelian shouted back to them. Are we your leaders or not? We told you, we know a way out! A way that will leave us the strength to fly when we have broken through!
More of us will fly free this way! Flare whirled in a circle before the distant spirits, a fiery beacon. You said you trusted us, so trust us! He told me softly, And we had better be able to trust you, Evvy. If not, we will twine around you until you are nothing but smoke.
Don't threaten me, Flare, I warned him. I'll tell Luvo on you.
He glared at me for a moment. Then he blazed white-hot, sending heat clean through me. It felt… nasty. I pulled away from him.
Carnelian rammed him from the side. Steamhead! Do you want her friend to come for us?
The others were roiling where they waited a hundred yards back. They were getting restless. Come on, you two. Stop frisking, I ordered. We have a long way to go still. Your friends will come to see what's going on if you don't move. Do you want them to find out you're listening to a whosawhatsit like me?
That was enough to calm them. We went forward. I led them along the quivering fault. We were away from the river, after all. My friends were out of the way if steam or even ash and stone escaped the ocean floor. And I was free of the weight of Starns.
It never occurred to me that the sea might be even worse.
The Sea
O verhead I felt her weight grow as we flowed under the waves, a mile, then two miles from shore. I had thought the island was bad. At least when we were under it, everything on top of us was filled with stones. This was something like the voyage to Starns. I was burdened with miles of stoneless water.
Don't be silly, I told myself. You're wrapped in stone. You're miles under stone. Well—only three miles down, now. But still, that's plenty of stone. A little while ago you were burdened with stone.
But now the power of the sea lay on me. Normally, the magic in water touched me not at all. Stone and water were too different in the usual way of things. Maybe I was changed, after melting and spending so long in my magical body. Perhaps it was because I was in stone that had carried the sea for time out of mind.
Possibly it was because this sea knew I was there.
What are you, hiding far below with those other hot worms? Not rock, but rock in your veins, the sea hissed, its voice slithering down into the fault. I looked at Flare and Carnelian. They didn't seem to hear that creepy, cold voice. Rock in the power that runs through you. The voice dripped down through the tiny cracks that ran to the salty water. I'll draw you up, small silvery rock worm. I'll draw you into my aqua embrace and float you between tides. You will never touch so much as a flake