I watched Luvo, thinking about those times in Yanjing that he had used his mountain voice on Briar and me. We had been awed and curious, not terrified. Well, maybe we had been a little terrified, the first few times. Or just deeply impressed. It’s hard to tell the difference between so much awe and fear.

Luvo uncurled. “I have done a thing.” He wobbled as he sat up. I felt pulses like earth shocks travel through me. They didn’t pass through the ground, though they somehow moved in the stones in the ground. A long, groaning shock dragged at me. Another shock followed. It dumped Luvo and me on our sides. Another dragging shock came next, and a last bump that threw me and Luvo in the air. We landed with a thump.

The strange part was, we were the only two things that moved. Nothing else did. Not one piece of grit or stick.

What did you do? I cried in our magic as I grabbed on to a nearby tree and stared at Luvo. Aloud I said, “That was like an earthquake, but in the magic! And it bounced you, too!”

“Sooner or later Flare and Carnelian would have found the end of the quartz bed,” he told me. “You said it yourself. So…I arranged for them never to find it.”

I just stared at him. “How can you arrange that?”

Luvo stood on all fours and shook himself. His crystals jumped and settled inside his clear stone skin. It was enough to make a person ill. “I took one end of the bed and pulled it toward the other. Before I joined the ends, I gave one a half twist. I had the idea from a puzzle shown to me by a Gyongxe monk. Try it with a piece of paper. Once the two ends are joined, if one traces the paper’s edge, one will find the circle has only one edge throughout its length. The circle is infinite. Flare and Carnelian will never find an end to it. They will pursue their reflections in each bit of quartz forever.” Luvo hesitated. “Evumeimei, when you tricked them into entering the quartz bed, did you realize, that if they reassemble themselves, they would be far stronger? I do not absolve myself of blame. It will be worse if they escape my variation on your trap.”

I hugged my tree. “It was the only thing I could think of in a hurry,” I growled.

Luvo made a sound that was scarily like a sigh. “That is my excuse, too. We shall pray we are off Starns when—if—they do manage to free themselves. I fear they will destroy much more than this island should they escape.”

I looked at him. “We didn’t mean to make it worse.”

“We bought time, Evumeimei,” Luvo said. “We must warn the people of the neighboring islands to flee in any case. The measure of how great these children will be as a volcano is beyond our skills. We must hope that we have done enough, and go. Before Flare and Carnelian are too strong for our trap to hold them.”

13

Oswin’s Kids

Nory waited for us at the back door when we reached the house. “Do you believe I’ll thank you for inspiring Meryem to bathe and dress? You were supposed to be with her.”

I gave her my best glare. With my head spinning, I doubt it was very good. “I had something important to do, all right? If I hadn’t, maybe none of us could have left here at all. And your darling Meryem might have gotten her toesies boiled.”

The darling Meryem peered at me from behind Nory’s skirts and giggled. I scowled at her, but not very hard. She was as cute as an amethyst once she was clean.

“There’s nothing around here to boil her toes.” Nory didn’t look convinced.

“There would have been, had not Evumeimei acted quickly.” Luvo walked over to Nory and sat on his rump so he could look up at her. “How are the boys?”

She had to back up and kneel to talk to him politely. It was interesting to see that she wanted to talk to him politely. “They’re packed and in the cart. We’re all ready to go.” She glared over Luvo at me. “You can forget anything to eat.”

My head ached and my hands shook. Her mention of food explained my wobbliness. I had overdone things, even with Luvo’s approval magic to bolster me. I needed food. I’d hitch a ride in the wagon back to the inn, and get something there.

“If you’re ready, why are we gabbling?” I picked up Luvo. “We’re wasting time.” This was the problem with meat people. They had to be talked into everything. I made myself forget the time I spent arguing Flare and Carnelian into doing things. Anyway, it was stones I was thinking of, calm and quiet stones.

“So I’m to believe you found some huge magic thing to do out by our pond.” Nory led the way back through the house. “A pond so useless we can’t even get decent-sized fish out of it.”

“We can play in the water when the weather’s hot.” Meryem decided to hold on to my hand. I don’t know why, but it made me feel funny. She kept looking up at me, too. Was there mud on my face? I had plenty of it on my clothes.

“Yes, Meryem, you play in it when you’re hot.” Nory stopped to shoulder a pack and pick up two carry sacks left in the hall. “Then you walk back here and track dirt in the house. And you’re coated in pond mud and I have to give you a bath.”

Meryem just grinned. “Treak gives us a bath sometimes. And Lexa and Jesy and Deva. You aren’t the only one. And they mop the floors sometimes. It isn’t just you.”

“Sometimes.” Nory checked the pack’s straps. “And sometimes they get silly and pour water all on the floors and get mud all over everything.” She pushed the front door open. “Some help. Urda save me, did you kids pack up the entire house?”