Stop that! Flare yanked against my grip. I poured diamond into it to make sure he couldn’t get loose. We’re trying to get out!

That hurts! Carnelian wriggled and squirmed. I used more diamond on my hold on her, too. Evvy? Is it you? Or the monster with the big voice? You shiver like him!

I glanced down at myself. Now my magical body looked as if it was made of ice—or diamond. What are you on about, shivering? It’s me, not Luvo. I’m tired of being reasonable. If you won’t mind common sense, then you just have to do what I tell you. This isn’t the way. I dragged them out of the hollow they had made, through the crowd of volcano spirits. They got out of our way. Seemingly they feared anything that could tow their precious leaders along like naughty children. If they had children, and if they towed them by whatever passed for ears.

I hauled Carnelian and Flare along the fault, in the way I wanted to go. They fought me with all their strength. They were really strong, but Luvo’s power, all that I’d collected, and the diamond magic together made me stronger—for now.

Where are you taking us? Flare dug at me. He ripped at my arms with claws made of fire. They slid off my diamond armor, leaving scratches in it. The magic was tough, but Flare was still a creature from the earth’s heart. Even a diamond was in trouble there. We’re not going back down!

You’re going out the way I told you to! I snapped. I’m tired of fussing with you and finding ways to keep you busy and out of my hair. You’re a danger to my friends. You can’t be trusted to do things so you don’t kill everything in sight. If you’re so determined to die, fine. You’ll do it where you don’t murder everything else for miles around.

Why do you care? Carnelian wasn’t fighting me as hard as Flare. Instead she twined her arms around the one I used to grip her ear. Her warmth burned even through my diamond armor. Everything’s all temporary anyway, she said. You touch it—well, we touch it, and it disappears. It’s not like it’s important.

That sounded like Luvo and me calling people and animals “meat creatures.” It scorched me almost as much as Carnelian’s hold. It’s important to them, I said. And in my right shape I’m one of those temporary things.

Carnelian tried to pull me to a halt. One of them?

I dragged her onward.

Flare hauled against me, trying to wrench away. How can you have any power over us? How can you be here or touch us? This is our world!

Is the monster a temporary thing, too? Carnelian’s voice was very soft and scary. Are you saying we ran from the likes of that?

For the first time I was more scared of Carnelian than Flare. I sped up. No. Luvo isn’t like me at all. You’re lucky you listened to him.

I wonder. Flare was suspicious now, too. Maybe he was another one of your tricks.

You seem to know a lot of them, Carnelian remarked suspiciously.

Carnelian was getting heavy. How could she do that?

Maybe this is another trick, Carnelian went on. Maybe your way out is just another way down.

You can’t lose us. This is our home. We will find a way back to your precious mountain and blow it all to pieces! Flare fought me even harder.

I loosened my human shape. I lengthened my legs and wrapped one around him, one around Carnelian, then clung to them with the strength of diamonds. For Meryem and Nory and Jayat and Spark, I told myself. I tightened my grip on their bodies and their ears.

They had to learn to fear my voice, not Luvo’s! You can’t scare me, you two. I was beaten by imperial soldiers. I lived for weeks without undressing because it was so cold. I was sold for a slave and lived on my own for years on garbage. You call that temporary? Fine. But I’m going to be temporary for a while longer, without you destroying everything around me. Without you destroying me. And if you want to die so bad, then I’ll help you do it! But you aren’t going to defy me ANYMORE!

We were nearly five miles out. I poured more magic into my grip. I let the diamonds’ power fill the tentacles that I had wrapped around Flare and Carnelian. They squealed, feeling their own heat reflected back upon them.

It’s not death, you stupid creature! Inside her skin, parts of Carnelian were moving. They raced through her, around and around. She was turning herself into the quartz trap, spinning her power. As it whirled inside her, it built. She got stronger as she fought. It’s not death at all. If you weren’t so temporary, you would know. We go to the next place, the next part of ourselves. Who wants to swim around through all of time! We want to grow up.

Getting out means we are worthy to move on. We become part of the great world, not cooped up inside it. Now Flare did the same thing as Carnelian, spinning inside his skin. They got hotter, burning me. I moved faster, dragging them for all I was worth. The fault was turning deeper under the ocean floor. The canyon that was my goal was another two or three miles away, perhaps. We weren’t near enough. Worse, at the edge of my senses, I felt my stone alphabet. The ships were sailing right overhead. There were breaks in the ceiling of the fault here. If Flare and Carnelian got free now, they might come up right under the escaping fleet.

Let us GO! roared Flare, slamming me into the wall of the fault.

We don’t believe you anymore! Carnelian dragged me in one direction, Flare in the other. They were ripping me apart, blazing as their insides spun. The volcano spirits saw them fighting with me and screamed. They swamped us. Every inch of the open fault around me was filled with magma. They copied Flare and Carnelian, whirling in circles. Heat built up everywhere, blinding hot.