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I gulped I didn’t have Luvo to helpfor me? Could she lay vines over the shakier parts of the stone on our left? There’s a tre I’ll hold the stone back here if she can do that Tell everyone we’re gonna get a hard shake It’s coledy parade, passing on the warning I dismounted from Spark and passed her reins to somebody Then I called up all that power I had collected the afternoon before, greeting the rock on ranite was lava that had cooled slowly enough for bits of quartz and feldspar to fore here So had quarrymen, who had taken away stone for buyers around the Pebbled Sea

Hold strong, I told the unsteady slabs Can you feel these youngsters rushing around?

I heard the whisper of stone laughter Then the volcano spirits rolled under us in a fiery tide They were returning to Mount Grace far beneath the river They bellowed for Flare and Carnelian as they traveled They had been searching under the Pebbled Sea, with no luck Now they plunged into the hollow charanite boulders underThey had wanted to move Another time, I promised them Maybe even today

That cheered them up I kneould

I looked ahead Apart from some tu seeht On ent Eventually people started to fall behind, especially the older ones, and the kids

Rosethorn rode back to ed boy riding behind her "You look co horse, by yourself"

I scowled at her "In Gyongxe you let xe you had flayed feet And I did ot flayed" She raised her eyebrows "Are you too worn-out froave Spark up to Meryem and two of Oswin’s small boys I even carried a baby He wet hiood measure he burped sour milk on my shoulder By then the road had coave the baby back to his ed Then I happily took off my boots and walked into the icy water Cold doesn’t bother me that much And the smell of water and wet stone wasblue moonstones on the river botto chae Thefor the Now the ones who had gone out were rousing up the ones who had stayed behind They started to whirl around, deep below the earth The walls of the chaer

"Shake!" I yelled to the people on the road "Shake, a big one! Shake!"

They scraet out of the carts I dared not e slope of loose, quarried rock beside the road Even a tiny shiver would send tons of granite on top of everyone there Next I sucked the river boulders’ weight into an to kick Once I was fixed in place, I spreadasthousands of stone fraghchary They wanted Flare and Carnelian I sent that hunger back to thes Confused, they backed deeper into the cha round under everything buckled and rolled

Then, for the first time, I heard their voices They wanted Flare and Carnelian

They are near! one of them shouted We need them to lead us!

We need thelory and fire! another cried, one that sounded feuides! Where are they? That one seemed older

Where are the ones ill free us of the prison and the shadows? Froet out for a very long tiuide us to freedoe, or sounded that way, at least

Find the it over and over

The shake and the spirits’ screao on forever I held down the rocks on the slope until I thought I would melt I was so full of heat and power I wanted to rip the earth in two and bare its heart I wanted to shake the world to pieces

The earthquake eased and stopped The volcano spirits traveled out of the cha chamber half full They sensed that Carnelian and Flare were someplace close And now I understood their need Luvo and I would never be able to hide Carnelian and Flare from the other volcano spirits forever

Those two volcano kids had it all wrong They’d understood only part of the story

I pulled ht a lot of poiththe refugees For the second ti for ed myself in here, tucked myself in there Finally I jammed myself back into my skin

I came around to discover I was drenched Myrrhtide stood beside me in the river He’d put his arm around my chest so he could hold my head above water