I didn’t have time to say it fast. I gave it to him all in a rush, as pictures and feelings. I showed him Meryem, Jayat, and Nory all headed inland. That three miles weren’t enough, if the volcano was a big one. That the volcano spirits could get bored or frustrated. They could return to the cracks under Starns if they couldn’t break out where they were. That if the volcano was big enough, it would set the forests on fire.

How it was my fault for losing my temper with Meryem, and with Carnelian and Flare under the sea. How I should have been patient, and made the volcano spirits keep going. How after Gyongxe, I just couldn’t bear for more animals or people to die if I had a chance to save them.

How the great fault under our feet was slipping little by little. Sooner or later it would slip a lot.

I know all this. Luvo sounded testy. Evumeimei, I have never done so much rushing in all my days as I have done in my time with you. Now I must rush some more. I do not welcome it.

I don’t want you to rush! I cried. I want you to leave with Rosethorn and tell her what happened to me!

For a moment he was as silent as only a stone can be. Then he said, Take this part of my strength. He set a huge ball of magical fire inside me. For a moment I thought I might explode like a volcano. Find the diamonds ten miles down. Gather their power. Then try to deal with Flare and Carnelian again.

That was all he said. I struggled with what he’d given me, trying to arrange it so it stopped choking me. When I could speak, I asked, Luvo? Luvo?

He was gone. Just…gone.

I opened my real eyes. Luvo was a purple and green lump on the dock. He looked like a rock. Rosethorn and Myrrhtide hadn’t noticed anything. They were deep inside their own spells. I tucked my friend in Rosethorn’s mage kit. My hands shook. He weighed no more than an ordinary rock of his size. Then I walked away. I used empty wagons as shields. No one noticed I was going in the wrong direction.

They’d think I was already on the ship. Once they knew I wasn’t there, they wouldn’t turn back. They had to save the most people. And Rosethorn wouldn’t return alone. They would need her to keep the sails and the ropes in one piece. Captains hoarded the winds they bought against emergencies, since they paid a lot of money for them. If they freed all of the winds at once, they wouldn’t risk losing everything if a hemp rope or a sail gave way. For that they needed a plant mage with the ships. Rosethorn knew it.

I hoped she would understand why I had left. I thought she might. I wanted her to know that I meant to build and not destroy, at least when it came to meat creatures.

Anyway, I was out of time.

I ran in the direction that Spark had taken. She was cropping grass outside the village. “Silly horse,” I said as I slipped a bridle on her. I had found it in the street. “You were supposed to head into the hills.”

She didn’t like it when I climbed onto her bare back. She tried to nip me. I tugged her head around and kicked her sides. “We’re in a hurry, Spark. Stop playing.”

We galloped up the hill behind the town. I wanted to get farther from any gadolgas that might flood the town, but the gods decided my stopping place. A big shake rolled in. It knocked me off Spark’s back. I clung to the rein as the poor thing neighed and reared.

When I got her calmed down, I took off the bridle. “Now go. Away from the sea, knothead. Heibei watch over you.”

This time she went, headed up into the hills. Even horses learn.

No more time, no more time. Who knew what the volcano kids were doing now? They hadn’t escaped the earth, or the quakes would have stopped. They were still ramming themselves into the fault.

I lay flat on the ground, sucking more strength from the granite all around. Accidentally or guided there by the gods, I had found a good place. I thought then that I should say good-bye to my body, just in case. I wasn’t sure I would be able to come back to it. The fault was really unstable. My chances were good that the volcano spirits would overwhelm and melt me.

So I thanked my strong arms, that helped me to climb and lift and fight. I thanked my hands. They had led me to Briar and my magic, by itching to handle and polish stones, and by accidentally waking the power in them. I thanked my legs, with the muscles that could hike and kick. I thanked my poor feet. They had carried me so far. They’d had such awful punishment from the emperor’s soldiers. I thanked my belly and guts, for putting up with the bad food I gave them when I couldn’t find anything else. I thanked my bones, my skin, my mouth, my nose.

Maybe that was how I could survive the volcano spirits. Carnelian said she and Flare could still remember who they were during the melting together. My stone magic wanted to melt like all stone did. I had to remember my meat self, my human body. I had to remember what made me Evvy.

Holding tight to Luvo’s strength and the power I drew from the nearby stones, I rolled into a ball of magic and dropped through the shivering earth. I had to get to those diamonds. I needed as much magic as I could stand. All around me every stone and every grain of dirt was moving. Every bit of water had spread to make the soil damp. Ponds and streams leaked out and down, turning the ground into mud. This was part of a big earthquake, when the ground seemed to turn to water. Houses would collapse, their walls sinking and cracking. The sides of the hills and mountains would slide.

I would not slide with them. I was two miles down, three, and still dropping. The ground’s shivering made it easier. The movement shook power free of the stone. I gobbled it all as I passed. I could hear the thunder of the volcano spirits who had stayed behind under Mount Grace. Their voices boomed through the faults. They were wondering if they should have left, too. They were asking if they ought to find Carnelian and Flare now, and follow them out.