They looked down at me. The soil melted and drooled around them.

18

Luvo Thunders

I threw out my hands. Flare, Carnelian, hello! I’m so sorry! I talked like Briar did when he courted a rich lady while stealing her bracelet. He didn’t steal anymore, but he taught me the approach for emergencies. Maybe the quartz is a toy my people manage better. Are you tired? Were you bored? I was so busy helping my friends that this is the first chance I got to check on you! Honestly, I thought you would have solved it long ago.

You trapped us! Flare raised a fist. You wanted to seal us up so we couldn’t get out!

I grinned at him. Why? I’m your friend.

Maybe the others got you to do it. To stop us from having fun. Carnelian crossed her arms. They never want to have fun.

When would they do that? I asked. I don’t go near them, remember? Now, stop being silly. Shall I tell you how the quartz toy works? Or do you want the other game I have for you?

That was no toy! Bits of flame escaped Flare. It was a trap! You tricked us into it! He grabbed for me.

I flowed just out of his reach. Then why did I set you free? Honestly, Flare, if you’re going to be like this, maybe you’re not ready to be out. In the world above, we understand things like quartz toys.

Flare split in two. He shot at me from both sides. I dropped down through the soil, then flew up, putting the granite between us. He must have flown straight at it. I felt the ground and the stone shiver when he struck the two-foot-thick shield.

I backed up until I felt heat behind me. I turned. Carnelian had flowed through the ground, past the shield, to follow me. She’d also reshaped herself, so that some of her flames had the shape of clothing. She couldn’t make herself stone clothes, though, not when rocks melted within a few feet of her.

What kinds of games do you have? She smoothed a hand over her front, shaping the flames into a tunic of blue fire. And what was the trick of the quartz toy?

I folded my arms over my chest, like I was thinking. It made you and Flare larger. Don’t you like that? You would have broken out soon. I’m curious—is Flare your brother? Do you come from the same flames, or the same pool? Were you part of one thing, that you’re so close?

Carnelian shrugged. At first I was in the core, with the others. We were all one. Then I came to know I was me. Separate. I chose to go in another direction from the others. I flowed away. After a time, I looked around. The only other one who swam in a direction, being separate, was Flare. So I kept swimming, and he kept swimming. Both of us, being separate. One day we swam side by side. We didn’t even know we wanted to be out then. We just didn’t want to swim like the others.

I arranged my stone clothes so I could sit cross-legged. How long did it take you to get here? To the hollow under the mountain?

Again Carnelian shrugged. She tried to sit as I did. The best she could manage was to blend her legs together. You have to understand legs to create a proper tailor’s seat. When I saw she wasn’t going to attack, I spread some power in the earth, above and below me, and on the other side of the shield at my back. When Flare returned, he wouldn’t take me by surprise.

Once Carnelian was settled as much like me as she could manage, she answered my question. We don’t understand things like how long it took us to leave the core and come to the chamber. The older ones, the ones who have been here since the last big escape—

The last big escape? I asked, curious. When? Where? Excuse me, but we’ve never really talked.

Carnelian shook her head. Her black flame hair drifted with the motion. Here, of course. Thousands of volcano people got out in that escape. They took huge amounts of cold earth and stone up into the air with them. And some remained behind to tell us newer ones the story when we came, in the great chamber below. They said it was glorious. The thousands broke into the air. They soared out in freedom from this world. It was cold, where they went. They roared. And they died, of course.

Well, that stinks, I said, feeling bad for them.

Stinks? Carnelian cocked her head. What is that?

I can’t explain. Only it’s not right, to get outside and then die. I noticed Flare was approaching. His power was hot and shifty. He was still angry, then, but he had it under some control. I drew strength from the stones around me, just in case.

Here comes Flare. He feels better now that he has melted rock, Carnelian said, pleased.

I wondered how Carnelian knew what he’d been doing. That must be some part of their magic.

What else is there? she went on. We go, we soar into the air and burn in its glory. What more could there be?

Flare came roaring through the earth, headed straight for me. I was about to jump clean out of the ground when he whirled away from me and spun around Carnelian. You’re starting to look like her. He didn’t sound happy about it. You’re shaping yourself like her. It’s just rocks, what she has on her outside. I could melt them all with a breath. Maybe I should. He opened his mouth as he looked at me. His tongue and teeth were made of flames.

You’ve had enough stone for the moment. Carnelian unfurled her legs from their knot, stretched out her arms, and wrapped all four limbs around Flare. I was telling her about getting out. She doesn’t understand. She doesn’t think it’s wonderful, to be outside and to die.

They were half-melted together. Carnelian’s blue tunic mixed with Flare’s shoulders and chest. His black flame hair wound around her arms and legs. Do you have something better? Flare wanted to know. At least when we leap outside, we turn into something new. We will become something none of the others have been.