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Heart of Stone

Lauren Esker

The turn off the highas easy to n, half buried in brush, reading Monus Tess overshot it on the first try, even after carefully studying the guidebook in their hotel in Whitehorse that e of cell service here; her phone had stopped giving her directions forty kilometers back

She stopped on a wide place in the road—there weren't ravel underfoot would do in a pinch, but there was a rocky outcropping along the road that was much better for what she needed

David ith a jerk as she parked "What " he ling on his sweat-da worse now by the day "Are we there?"

"I just need to check directions" She leaned over to press her cheek lightly against his hot, feverish one "Go back to sleep"

She walked swiftly to the outcrop, a short nondescript woman with a cap of dark curls and a ainst the rock and let herself sink into it

It was harder than usual to sense the pulse of the land beneath her She'd been afraid of that This land itself was hostile to her; the rock did not want her here She pushed harder, forcing herself through the barriers holding her back—and regretting it even as she did so, knowing she wasn't being a proper guest, but she simply didn't have a choice

These were young rocks, as rocks went: basalt and quartz and granite, thrust up in geologically recent times from the furnace at the heart of the earth There had been volcanic eruptions here in the not-too-distant past, only a millenniu ash layer, buried in the thin, silty soil under the spruce trees around them

And she could sense the hot springs, to the south and west The land was even o with a shiver that went deep down into her bones

There would be a price for what she was trying to do, a bitter and brutal one

But there was always a cost for everything

When she went back to the car, David was sitting up, studying the lazed eyes that he kept blinking as if he found it hard to focus Although it was a warm day and the air was close inside the car, he was huddled in his leather jacket Tess tried to keep fro at the black traceries visible on the surface of his skin above the collar, creeping up his neck, reaching around to the base of his skull

"Weher voice steady "Back around the last turn, I think Somewhere in there"

"Yeah, it's back—back " His words faltered; he see Tess started the car and turned off the AC She rolled down herinstead

"Tess?" When she turned his way, David's soft brown eyes, glassy with pain and fever, searched her face "You doing okay?"