overhead. Far, far above I could hear the cold whisper of the sea in all her malice.
I retreated to the side of the fault. Flare, Carnelian—this is it. If you go straight up through there, you can come out into the sea. You can form shapes, and make steam… Well, you'll see how it works.
Flare, Carnelian, and the spirits shot up into the crack.
We're free! Carnelian, let's go! Flare became a volcano spirit again in his shape. Only his hair remained of his old seeming.
Time to grow! Carnelian lost her human shape, until she looked like all the other volcano spirits. The only way I knew which one was her was from the blue, dresslike sheath that covered part of her.
They rammed themselves up into the huge crack that led to the ocean floor. The other volcano spirits followed.
They raced along in a river of fiery melted stone. I watched them flood the long crack that would carry them into the cold, cold sea. There they would go black on the outside, then billow along the ocean floor, still red-hot stone in their hearts. They would build on each other, climbing toward the surface. In advance, they would send out waves and steam to warn passing ships. Soon enough—there were so many of them—they would break the surface of the water, throwing up stones and ash. They would have all changed into something else. And sooner or later they would become an island with a volcano at its heart.
Did I know you could get these islands to help, Luvo? I asked.
We did not know we could command those terrors, replied Starns. I thought my only choice was to wait for my own destruction, and hope the change would be good.
But we like being islands, the male one said. It's interesting. I wasn't bored yet.
I did not know it would work, Luvo told me. But I found I was not prepared to let you die, Evumeimei. I know it must happen. I learned that if I may put it off even for a drop of time, I will take that drop.
You did not have to be so very rough with us, Great Luvo, the male island complained. We were listening.
You did not listen fast enough, Luvo told them.
Out of the Ashes
L uvo and the island spirits carried me back to Starns. I couldn't have reached it on my own. I had used up everything in that last fight with Carnelian and Flare. The islands even gave me some strength, after Luvo nudged them.
I will tell Rosethorn you are alive, Evumeimei. We will come for you as soon as we can find a ship to bring us, Luvo promised. You know she will manage it. I did know that.
The strength the islands gave me was enough so I could crawl into a barn uphill from the place where I had left my body. I needed to be under cover. Ash still fell from the cracks that had opened on Mount Grace. I had no way to know if there would be any gadolgas from the volcano sprouting out to sea. I barely noticed the earthquake that shook the hill just as I began to climb it. My sense of everything was dull and distant. I wasn't too far from being a cinder.
A s soon as I could do more than bleat like a sheep, I searched for food. Sooner or later I had to see if Meryem, Jayat, and Nory were alive. If I had only been unconscious for a day, they might be partway to Moharrin, if they lived. That day when I woke up in the barn, though, I could do little more than stagger. The bit of light that came through the clouds of ash was fading. In my present shape, I wouldn't make it as far as the river without food or a horse.
I had to find food before the light was gone. My feet—then my knees and my hands—crunched as I headed for a nearby farm.
In their rush to escape, the farmers had left plenty behind. I ate my food cold for two days. The house's fires were out. I couldn't bear so much as the heat from a candle flame, anyway. Even the touch of my own breath on my skin was too hot. I hoped that effect of being nearly scorched by volcano spirits would wear off soon. Normally I like fire.
That second day, the farm's goats came back. They were hungry. I fed them