The earth bucked around me. Each time Flare, Carnelian, and the others rammed the fault, they shook it. Stuck as it was, the fault trapped the power of their blows, storing it.

I turned some gathered magic to speed. If the fault came unstuck in a big way, the earthquake that followed would make these little ones seem like the shake of a lamb’s tail.

It scared me to think of disasters, but disasters were coming no matter what. They might be big gadolga waves. They might be earthquakes. If the volcano broke through too close to Starns, it would bring earthquakes, fire, and ash. And a volcano here wouldn’t be a disaster just for the island, but for the nearby Battle Islands, too.

How lucky are you, Evumeimei, I thought. You go from Gyongxe’s human war to nature’s war on Starns. At least you know it isn’t you. This stuff has always begun by the time you get there.

Seven miles, eight. I felt the diamonds now. They sang to my magic, a chorus of nightingales. Luvo had found a bed of them, each one a dull star filled with the earth’s power. If I’d trapped Carnelian and Flare here, instead of the bed of quartz, I never could have controlled them.

Now I bounced from stone to stone. I rippled over faces so hard my power skidded on them. Doing so, I breathed in the strength from the hearth of the world.

But it was Luvo’s power in me that mattered here. It sang to the diamonds. Luvo’s strength called up sparks and flares of power, drinking it in. Drop by drop, I was flooded with magic that was harder than that of any stone I’d ever felt. It was the strongest in any rock that existed. It would guard me in the heat, it would make me strong. Each surface in that diamond bed gave up a stream of magic that wound through Luvo’s and mine. When I was ready to burst, I leaped free.

Lines of power showed in my vision. I could see the fault lines all around me, silvery gray fire tinged with red. They vibrated with the strain that the shakes were putting on them. In the distance, I saw the hollow chamber under Mount Grace. The volcano spirits who were still there boiled and leaped. Some of them raced through the earth, following the path Flare, Carnelian, and I had taken out to sea. Others were so excited that they pounded the highest part of the chamber, smashing into the peak of Mount Grace. Some jammed into cracks in the mountain’s shoulders. They turned groundwater into steam and anything that would burn into ash. Both escaped into the air over the mountain. Those volcano spirits couldn’t get out of the mountain—not yet. How many more shakes would it take before those cracks opened and let them out?

I screamed and flew through the ground, seeking the quickest path to the place where I had left Flare and Carnelian. I had to let them and their friends out! They had to go where I chose. They would not escape through all the places they were trying to open up. They’d learn the truth—that out was cold, slow, and not at all exciting. They would be free, even if it wasn’t what they had dreamed. Who gets exactly what they dream in life, anyway?

The sea hissed when it felt me reach the ground below it. Silvery rock worm, you are so much bigger now! So much more to seek and grind to sand! You should have stayed in the dry places, where you were safe!

I’m in a hurry, and I have no time for you, Great One. I covered myself with the faces of diamonds.

Where are you? she demanded. You cannot vanish, not in my own realm—where have you gone?

I let the sea cast around, searching blindly for me. Over my head, my reach so much greater with the power of Luvo and diamonds in me, I felt other magics that I knew. The ships were sailing. Rosethorn, Myrrhtide, and Luvo were in them.

Thump.

The earth around me thudded, like someone had struck the giant, loose head of a drum. The fault shook a little, not a lot. I half-hesitated, afraid this small shake might knock the fault loose, but it held. I kept moving. I was flying so quick I soared past Flare, Carnelian, and their friends. Feeling silly, I had to come back around to get them.

Again! Again! Flare yelled.

Flare, it’s not working. Look at it, Carnelian ordered.

Carnelian and Flare had hammered the crack in the fault where I’d left them. They had melted away slabs of rock and tons of earth. They had gone just a little crazy. Though they weren’t even a mile closer to the surface, they were still at it. The volcano spirits crowded in behind them. I was squeezed between rock and magma. Since I was decked out with so much power, I felt hot and too big for the space that held me.

Do you think you can hide from me down there, silvery worm? whispered the sea. I will come to you in time. I will scour away all this rock that shields you. I will beat it down to helpless specks that float on my tides. I will turn your hot friends to cold stone and treat them the same. And then I will have you. I have everything in the end. You will be cold. Miniscule. Helpless. Mine.

I began to gasp, though I couldn’t breathe in this shape. I was too hot. I was trapped. The weight and the heat were making me smaller, making my edges runny. If I didn’t stop this, I would melt again!

I gathered the diamond magic into a human shape, so Flare and Carnelian would know me. Then I slammed through the crowd of volcano spirits, cutting my way through. They pulled back. They had never seen anything like me before, not with all the power I had to shield me. I scared them. They didn’t know that I would eventually melt if they swamped me again. I didn’t wait for them to work it out. Instead I darted into the open space they’d left around Carnelian and Flare.

For some reason Carnelian and Flare still kept the humanlike shapes they had taken after they had met me. That was my good luck. I grabbed each of them by an ear.