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“I’ bad reports of you to Winding Circle”
I didn’t like that thought, so I changed the subject I looked at Luvo, who sat on the deck between Rosethorn andtremors often?” I asked him “It’s not like ordinary earthquakes, where two slabs of rock are slipping together This is more like—”
“Molten rock Mag I have sensed such treth Prepare yourselves Another comes”
I put ives orders Far below the ship, stone power rose to e, pressing like hot, solid water on asped The wave passed on, but the sense of stone didn’t die, not coes ofocean floor
A ridge! There was a ridge underneath the ship, three hundred yards below! I could feel basalt—good, cal slabs of it!
Myrrhtide ca arm of seawater with Rosethorn’s hat on top of it It passed the hat to Myrrhtide, who patted the tentacle as he’d pet a good dog The water dropped back into the sea Myrrhtide offered the hat to Rosethorn
“Thank you” She ran her fingers over the hat The seawater dropped out of it I guess she s that had been plants, to do al
“Waking tre up to, Luvo?”
“It h to turn in its sleep, as you huan in a distant place It is hard to say”
I could feel the ridge start to drop away from me It was just a sharp peak, not a rise in the land under the ship, and ere sailing away from it “Nooo!” I leaned over the rail “Cole of all those beautiful rocks this soon! I had been so lonely, even with all my old stones and Luvo to keep me company “Stay close! Stop this stupid ship!”
“Evumeimei,” Luvo called
“Let e ofaway from rocks!”
“Evu that dreadful noise, I will show you a thing,” Luvo said patiently To be honest, I think Luvo has fewa
“What she’s doing is called ‘whining,’ ” I heard Rosethorn say “I don’t think you should reward her for it”
“Young mountains are restless and ierous Theyuide her as one And that noise sheEvumeimei, sit on the deck and place your hands on me”
When Luvo speaks to me firmly like that, I do as he says
I felt ghost hands reach through his clear skin and wrap around my wrists He pulled host Luvo host before you are dead In Yanjing, they would say I was cursed forever for being a ghost while I was alive So e
We dropped into the water It ran through ly with salt, wars We zipped through a huge school of fishes, their skins slick and slippery The water got colder as ent down Bright flashes sparked along littered
They are flecks of stone borne by the sea Luvo’s voice sounded in rains, it is light enough to float The sea carries the grains They are so little you could not sense theic I feel them all
More fishes dashed by, blurs in the water I was starting to wonder what they ate, to make them rush so, when I understood It was not the fishes, but Luvo
Is this how you see Rosethorn and Briar and Myrrhtide andaround like someone had turned us into crazy flies? Because we’re meat creatures and you’re stone?
I made an adjustment to see you as you see yourselves It was necessary I shall make one now, Luvo replied
The crystal ladders and spirals that o loose, then twist The dashing fish twinkled Suddenly they slowed Jellyfish appeared—I hadn’t even seen those until now Luvo and I continued on down, onto the ocean floor The ridge I had felt lay before us Beside it was a deep canyon Luvo took us into that I reached host hands out to feel its stony sides
It’s volcano rock Why is there a volcano canyon in the ocean? I asked
Volcanoes exist everywhere Once—long before my time—the world was born of volcanoes
Long before his tiine anything older than he was
I have spok
en with the mountains from those times, he continued They were only pebbles by then, but they were very wise I learnedpatiently to hear their wisdom
Is that “patiently” thing a hint to me? I wanted to know
I would never hint to you about patience, Evumeimei
The loe fell in the deep canyon, the war by now? I inquired What makes it warm?
Luvo said, Look, and you will see
2
We Meet Our Guides
Below us lay a deep, deep crack in the canyon floor Strange, death-colored plants grew there, food for the pale fishes that nibbled on them Around one hu up through the water It looked like athe nesius The crack itself was limestone
The vent belched It threw out a boiling cloud of bubbles that passed through Luvo and me Where does it come from? I wanted to know Where does whatever air that is in the bubbles come from? What made this crack, and why did it burp just now?
It “burps,” as you comically put it, because the heart of the earth is forever in motion, Evumeimei, said Luvo This seaas and liquid stone These things coh such vents, be they under water or under the land That is where the ocean rolls to the earth’s pulse
So where does this seao? Under the Battle Islands?
Many do, he replied I have heard it said that earthquakes often take place in this part of the world It is because ht that if I showed you these things you ht have fewer questions Instead, you have ?
I could tell Luvo was teasing me I’m quiet when I sleep Besides, you said you wanted to stopYou didn’t say you wanted , am I?
We began to rise along the canyon wall The creatures that had been blown out of the hen the vent belched were returning to it Do they worship their ocean volcano, Luvo?