A boy said, I have her head—you grab her tail. Who knew she could get all liquid like us?
I ought to know the boy’s voice, too.
Don’t let her drip! the girl ordered.
Blue and carnelian-colored hands dragged me along, out of the heat and the power. Legs, or tails, or something, wrapped around parts of me. They pulled me along. Carnelian and Flare yanked me into cold stuff. It had hard lumps in it. They rolled me up, shoving my liquid pieces into a tighter shape. I squirmed and wriggled, fighting to get back to that hot river. I was going to float in the heart of everything. I would be reborn with the stones.
A chunk of diamond dug into my side.
Diamond. I curled myself up around it. How could I forget diamonds? Diamonds were so hard it was almost impossible to cut them, impossible to break or crush them. I could only ask one to break for me. It would do so only if it wanted to. I’d never find a diamond in all that molten stone. I’d never find any rocks in it. And I’d never find a single crystal.
What had I been thinking?
I uncurled myself and looked around. Flare and Carnelian, shaped like they wore clothes, sat on either side of me in the earth. They had saved me. They had pulled me out of there.
The others said they had a rock that acted like one of us, Flare told me. You’re lucky we thought that sounded weird enough to be you.
They say they’ll go, Carnelian said. They say they’ll follow us out. They were so excited they shook the earth. Are you fit to take us there now?
I wanted to be melted some more…The warmth pulled on me. I shook it off and ran my magical fingers through the diamond, soaking up its strength. I can do it, I replied. I was thinking, You saved my life. And now I’m going to lead you out into the cold, cold ocean to die.
It’s either the ocean or the open air, Evumeimei, I told myself. Slowly I pulled every last bit of me back into my normal shape. They’re going to die anyway, because they want to get out of the earth. And if they get into the air here, they’re going to kill a lot of people and animals, too. They maybe did already, them and their friends.
What about my friends in the air above? That scared me. The last shake was such a bad one, and it had cracked the surface in so many places. How much ash, underground water, mud flow, and flying rock was set in motion? I had to get the volcano spirits out to sea, before they split the island like a melon.
We’d have to take the fault that lay under the Makray River. And we’d have to go deep, really deep. So deep the refugees on the road next to it would be safe.
I didn’t even know if I could bear traveling so deep under the earth, but I would have to. Fat lot of good it would be, for me to lure the volcano spirits away from the quartz trap and Mount Grace, and have them escape right under everyone I wanted to protect.
I can show you the way, through the deepest cracks of the earth, I told Carnelian and Flare. But I’m afraid to travel with your friends. I’m afraid I’ll melt again. I have to stay away from them.
Of course you’re staying away from them! Flare got larger for a moment. We’re leading them, not you!
Which way is the crack you want to travel? Carnelian watched me, waiting. I had a feeling she would wait forever. Her patience scared me a lot more than Flare’s temper. If I ran away, I had a feeling that wherever I went, Carnelian would find me and take revenge.
I sent out a tiny burst of magic. It was nothing like what I’d entered the earth with. It showed me the chamber under Mount Grace. I described the part of it that opened onto the fault under the Makray River to Flare and Carnelian.
Gather the others, Flare, said Carnelian. Tell them to assemble at that entrance. I will take Evvy there around the room of the melting together, outside, so there is no danger. She leads us, and we lead them.
That’s a good plan. Flare sounded happy. We’ll get away from Evvy’s monster. And the ones who stay behind when we go? They can tell all the ones who haven’t come up from the core yet that we led everyone to glory!
He raced away through the crack in the ground. Stones melted in his path.
This way. Carnelian pointed down. If you’re feeling strong enough.
No, but I have a way to fix that. I pulled my magical fingers through the diamond again. All of its inner surfaces vibrated, passing their power to me. When I had drawn every bit of magic from it that I could, I looked around. There was another diamond, a smaller one. Quickly I gathered its power. This was real luck. With these two stones I was nearly at full strength. I needed to be.
Carnelian dropped through the earth, straight down. I followed her. So do you like mashing all together like that and losing yourself? It doesn’t sound very good to me. No wonder you want to go out so bad. I lied. It was good. When I’d turned into a ribbon of hot syrup, it had felt wonderful. I had been the essence of every rock in the world, free of my meat body. I’d been all the other volcano spirits, and they had been me. Evvy was lost. Instead I had just been a glorious part of everything. I wondered if I had felt like that before I was born, inside my mother.
I don’t know, Carnelian replied carelessly. Once we grow that little kernel that says we are one creature, separate from the others, we can’t ignore it. We can’t forget ourselves all the way. We can’t stop being curious about things, either. We keep leaving the pool to look for new things, things that don’t melt away when we come close. We dropped through the biggest chunk of basalt I had ever seen. Sometimes we go back to the pool and join it, Flare and me, because it makes us happy. We can’t lose ourselves, but it’s still fun. What do you do for fun?