It was your idea, but I found the first crack. Flare broke into hundreds of tiny flames. All of them asked with his voice, Where are these crystals?

We’ll see who wins this game! For someone who worried about breaking apart, Carnelian sure managed it in a hurry.

I led the way through the ground until we came up into the cold, hard bed of quartz crystals. Two fiery clouds shot past me. They split up like flocks of birds to dart into the stones. Bits of blue and orange fire tangled and sprang apart: pieces of Flare fighting over a particular crystal with pieces of Carnelian.

I watched for a time. I needed to see if they overheated the quartz. Thankfully, I hadn’t been asleep the day I studied heat and stones at Winding Circle. A candle flame would not burn the stuff. Inside hundreds of crystals I saw flecks of Carnelian and Flare. First, they would have to see that I’d tricked them. Then, they’d have to find a way to escape each small mirror maze, where the only thing they could see on the inside was themselves. They might be trapped for weeks. Just to be sure, I wandered over that seam of quartz at least three times. They were bouncing inside.

It’s hard! Feel how hard! And cold! And it doesn’t melt or burn like the walls of the chamber! Carnelian’s voices whispered, shivery with excitement.

It feels so different from the others! Remember the straight edges we could see, before they melted? This is what straight feels like, and flat! Flare’s whispers actually sounded happy.

I hadn’t thought of that. It never occurred to me this would be wonderful for them. Flare and Carnelian had only known the lava pool and the spirits, or the melting stone and earth that kept them from breaking free. They hadn’t realized yet the quartz bed was a prison. Maybe it would keep them happy for a long time. Then I wouldn’t have to feel bad about sticking them there. They were only kids like me, after all. It wasn’t their fault they could destroy so much.

I finally began my swim up through the ground. It was hard. I was getting tired. It was more like a climb than a swim, actually, with me grabbing power from every stone I passed. Even after I’d drawn on my stone alphabet and the stones I’d found coming here, I wasn’t as strong as I was normally. Borrowed magic or stored magic is never as good as what you have from day to day.

I slowed to look at a cluster of sunstones. How did they get the name sunstone? They hardly shone, and only glittered in spots. They were mostly orange.

Evumeimei, you are dazzled. Luvo’s voice spilled over me like icy water. It woke me from my dazed state. He poured his strength into me as I dragged myself into my cold, real body.

No, I’m all right! Turning his power aside was like trying to kick an elephant.

Where have you been? Luvo wanted to know. Norya is quite pleased that you frightened Meryem into taking her bath, but she says that you should have stayed with her.

If I had stayed with Meryem, Nory might have had Flare and Carnelian eating the house. I opened my eyes and sat up, safe in my body. Luvo had come down to the pond to find me. I put a hand on his back. It was quicker to show Luvo what had happened than to tell him in words. I let him see it all as I had seen it.

For a long time he said not a word. I began to fear I had made him angry. Perhaps he thought it could have been him trapped in the quartz under the dead tree canyon. Then he began to glow, his crystals shining. Warmth spilled out of him. It was real and magical. The creakiness in my joints and the fog in my head vanished. I felt as if I could take Mount Grace apart stone by stone.

Delightful, Evumeimei, Luvo told me. Most splendid. To divert them with the quartz bed is ingenious. They have not known crystal before. Whole, they would have destroyed it. In small pieces, they will be able to enjoy its facets, its resistance to heat. They can learn that it is the firstborn mineral of lava. They may even see that quartz crystals are the children of one of their kind. As such, they will want to get to know all of that bed of crystals.

“Too bad the bed isn’t larger.” I could hardly breathe. “I wish it ran the length of the island and back. My biggest worry is that they might reach the end of the crystals somehow and break out.”

Luvo got up and paced for a moment. The glow flowed after him like a scarf that connected us, still wrapping me in his approval. “I have an idea.” He said it out loud, instead of in our magic. “It will take me a time, however. If you will remain to watch over me? I vexed the boys enough that I know they would consider tossing me in the water.”

“Let them try,” I assured him.

Luvo sat. His approving glow vanished, but I still felt all that wonderful warmth. I hugged it to me. Did Luvo’s mountain feel like this when he lived inside it? He said the mountain was happy when he was gone, but I couldn’t believe it really was.

I heard someone approach. It was one of Nory’s boys. “Please tell ’im”—the boy pointed at Luvo, who had curled into a purple and green lump—“that we packed all our things and put ‘em in the cart, and then we helped Nory and the little ones, and we carried what Nory told us to, all to the cart. If’n he asks. If’n he don’t ask, don’t tell him we’re even alive. If he forgets us, that’s fine. But we done like he bid. And Nory says if you want soup you ought to come, ‘cause we’re leavin’ at sun high.” He turned to go, then looked back at me. “He ever done you like that? With the noise, and the house shakin’?”

I nodded and tried not to giggle. “Several times.”

“And you still be with ‘im? You mages is god-touched. I aims to get as far from him as the sea’ll put me!” He trotted back to the house.