Page 28 (1/1)

If I ever got on ht there I would have knelt and begged these two not to help I didn’t want Rosethorn angrier withit

"She was seized by the earth’s power" Because Luvo stood on the floor beside Jayat, it seeh his voice calanced around, startled Rosethorn looked straight at Luvo "She traced the re their rereater lines" With a grunt Jayat set Luvo up on the steps so he could be seen

I didn’t dare move Luvo scares e of his laciers There are villages and forests on his flanks, and deep, ice-cold caverns in his depths People worship hi to the others "She followed the earth lines into the heart of this island She used their power to go far deeper than she could venture with only her own strength In a chama, she met the creatures that inhabit it, the children of the earth’s heart They captured her They kept her for hours until Evuic, but with all of the power she had collected over the course of the day, power that had clung to her as she examined the failed earth lines She did it with the power that ely If she had not had it, she would have perished alone under the earth I could not help her I would have been devoured, had I followed her You es would not have survived the first thirty feet, even traveling as pure ic would have crushed you It nearly crushedhe had said itchedto me I sat on the step closest to ht anyht ?

I looked up "I knohy the plants and water have been going bad"

"I don’t believe this!" Fusspot slaets her ani invalid to get our sympathy--"

"Be still" Azaze spoke with a voice like ice "Unlike you, she has an idea You have only tests you wish to perforesture

I glanced at Rosethorn She nodded

I opened ue "In the gorge with all the dead trees, I felt the skin of the rocks was touched by bad air There was poisonous stuff in it, cheround, the poison was all around the rocks on either side of the crack in the earth--it was left behind when the bad air passed through the crack" I started to cough My throat was dry as chalk Jayat went to the kitchen and brought hs stopped, while Jayat went to stand with the kitchen ot adopted by two I named one Flare, and the other was Carnelian They didn’t have naed me all over the place Everywhere they went, Flare and Carnelian yanked me up into these cracks They couldn’t ma They could melt part of the cracks, but they could only force them open so far They want out of that cha it like it’s their prayers--they want out And they keep trying In the cha off of cobblestones on really hot days I think those wavy lines were the poisoned air, and the poisoned air is the only part of theh the cracks" I finishedthey did with h the top of Mount Grace"

My hands started to shake I put my teacup next to Luvo so they wouldn’t see, and tucked ot away, finally, and escaped through one of the cracks we had tried before The stones in it were coated with poison The stuff that’s killing the water and plants coet out, not yet, but the poisons in their air can If they followed Carnelian and Flare, they could kill this whole island" I opened my mouth to tell the, I waited for Myrrhtide to start on ain I could feel sweat trickle down my back My head pounded

Fusspot didn’t say a word I looked up He was pouring water into a bowl Once it was full, he wet his finger and wrote signs all around its rim Then he stared into the water, his pale eyes fixed He was scrying in the bowl He’d done so every night on the ship, cooing on around us What was he trying to see now--Flare and Carnelian?

Rosethorn came to sit on the step next to me She put an arm around my shoulders and held me close She spoke in a whisper "Are you sure of all this? No, never irl Do you understand thein what you have said?"

I shook innings of a volcano Itwith the plants and water here," she explained "Your friends looking for a way out--they will bring lava and gas with them in an explosion that may kill everyone on Mount Grace Perhaps even all of Starns"