“The earthquakes that have come since we trapped them are not normal earthquakes.” Luvo kept his voice down. “They feel more like the waves of the ocean, but far below the earth’s stone shell.”

“It’s the others,” I told Luvo. “The ones Flare and Carnelian said never had the nerve to do anything. I think they were wrong. The others want Flare and Carnelian to lead them out. Now they’re hunting for them. They won’t stop till they find them and everyone gets to break out into the open.”

Luvo began to pace. I leaned back and waited, closing my eyes. My head ached ferociously.

Luvo halted. “I will build shields between the lower depths and the trap we have made for Carnelian and Flare. Obsidian drawn from the riverbed, I think. The obsidian will show the other spirits their own faces, nothing else. It will reflect, not reveal.”

“Granite to back it, though,” I suggested. “If the volcano spirits get close enough, they’ll melt the obsidian. Granite will slow them down. What do you want me to do?”

“Guard me as you ride to the ships,” Luvo ordered. “Azaze and Tahar will wait no longer. Dawn is just a short time away. Pick me up.”

When we came out from behind the inn, I saw that Luvo was right. Everyone was up and moving. No one had gone back to sleep. Tahar was bundled up in a hooded robe. She sat on the seat of her little cart, screeching orders. Jayat stood at the head of the pony that drew the cart. It looked like he was going to walk.

Oswin waited with Nory, Treak, and his other foster-kids. He carried a huge pack on his shoulders as if it weighed nothing, and a pair of kittens in a basket on one hip. If he was worried, he didn’t look it. His head was cocked. He stared into the distance, his lips moving silently. Nory was fastening small cloth packs onto the backs of the little children. They rode the tired-looking ponies who had been harnessed to the cart before it collapsed. When Nory saw me, she gave me a glare that would have peeled paint. Treak and the older kids did the same. I went to saddle Spark.

Once I’d taken care of that, I placed Luvo in his sling and hung it from the saddle horn. He was as still as dead rock. The best part of his mind and power had gone into the earth. I strapped my saddlebags into place. Rosethorn had cared for her own horse. She was talking quietly with Azaze and Myrrhtide.

“I don’t care if we have more days, perhaps!” Tahar’s old voice was crystal clear above all of the others. She was talking to one of the village women. “Perhapses never got fields plowed or wood chopped, you brainless nit! Will you wait for earthquakes to pull your house down, or the volcano to burn it? We’re leaving! The rock may be great among his kind, but he himself admits there’s a chance the spirits will escape the trap. Jayat, stop ogling Norya. Move this collection of splinters!”

Oswin turned to look at the old mage. “What about Dubyine, Karove, and their people? They went back to Snake Hollow. Should we send word that we’re leaving?”

Azaze snorted. “Let them stay and loot until the volcano cooks them.”

Tahar leaned to the cart’s side and spat on the ground. “That for Dubyine and her stinking crew. May they eat ash cakes and drink molten stone.”

For all that everyone said that Tahar wasn’t much of a mage, I saw lots of people grab amulets and press them to their lips. Either they didn’t want to take a chance, or they feared Tahar’s ill-speaking. As far as I was concerned, Dubyine and Karove had called Rosethorn a thief. That settled it for me. I hoped Tahar’s curse took.

16

Mage Stuff

With everyone awake, the cooks fixed breakfast. When it was done, there was enough predawn light to see by. It was time to go. Carts and animals moved forward along the road, finally. I joined the line at the end, with the herd animals and the kids who watched them. It wasn’t the fanciest place in the caravan. That’s why I was shocked when Myrrhtide rode back and fell in beside me. “How are you feeling?”

I gaped at him. He never asked how I felt. “I know it’s kind of dark, but you have to be able to tell you’re talking to me.”

“I know who I am speaking to. Your health is important, young woman. Right now you and Luvo may be our best protection from a tomb made of lava.” When I stared at him, shocked, Myrrhtide snorted. “What? Because I spent the last day in the lake I’m too preoccupied to understand the obvious? Rosethorn and I can do very little against a volcano. You are all the help we have.”

“You don’t think we messed up, letting people know that we’d bought some extra time?” I asked. “I thought you’d be saying I don’t have any right to call myself a mage.”

Myrrhtide rubbed his eyes. “The first thing every mage should learn is that magic makes fools of us. Now you may call yourself a mage. You have learned the most important lesson. Tell me, then—if you did trap our young volcano children, why do we rush along today?”

I have no idea why it spilled out of me. Maybe it was that Myrrhtide had said that I might still call myself a mage, when I had fumbled things so badly. Rosethorn was busy. I could see her up ahead. She was growing vines to pull fallen trees from the road so we could get through. And Myrrhtide was actually listening to me.

He took me back over my tale. He asked questions to clear things up in his own mind. “Luvo didn’t believe these other spirits were a problem?”

I shook my head. “He can see what I do, because our magics join in spots. He thought they were just stupid and didn’t care. We believed if we trapped Flare and Carnelian, that would be enough.” Six miles out and ten miles down, I felt the next squeeze coming. I looked around. We were passing a tall series of granite slabs. On our other side was a slope that led to the river.