Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce Read Free Book Online Page A

too, the liquid shivered. I closed my eyes. Grimly I concentrated on what I could feel. Under my feet and my behind I felt the ghost of a vibration in the floor and in the bench.
    I rested my hand on Luvo.
More earth-pulses
? I asked him.
    The earth can be as restless in its sleep as you, Evumeimei
. I didn't like his tone. It was troubled. Luvo had faced armies in Gyongxe without even grinding his crystal jaws. I hoped that whatever troubled him would go away soon, before it started to trouble me as well.

5
Dead Water
    Even after two years in this aboveground world, I still love to watch the sun rise." Luvo was speaking quietly to Rosethorn as I woke up. "This is a gift you and Evumeimei and Briar have given to me. When I was safe in my mountain body, I did not understand the glory of the dawn."
    Rosethorn explained, "Having to do midnight temple services for worship of the Earth gods puts a dent in my admiration for sunrise." When I cracked my eyelids I could see Rosethorn pour her morning wash water into the basin. She went on, "I'm too tired to appreciate it, most of the time. On the road it's different."
    I looked out of the window. Ever since Luvo had first told me about his love of daybreak, I remembered all the sunrises
I
had missed, living in my burrow deep inside the stone cliffs of Chammur. Usually I watched for dawn with him. I could see it from my cot now. The sky was the pink of rose quartz.
    As I tossed aside my blanket, I noticed that Rosethorn was staring at the water in the basin.
    "Rosethorn?" I asked. "The water's shivering, isn't it? Making ripple circles?"
    "Yes. Last night, my tea did the same. Myrrhtide didn't mention it, but I saw him try to make his stop moving. He failed." She looked at me. "A water mage of his degree couldn't get a cup of water to stop quivering, Evvy. That's… interesting."
    "What do you think it means?" I wanted to know. "Earthquake?"
    She shook her head. "No earthquake I've ever been through was so regular in its warnings. Nor did it send greetings by water like this." She took a breath and started to wash.
    When I joined Luvo at the window, I saw that he wasn't looking east, where the hills were gold around the sun's rim. His head knob was turned north. There, at the western edge of Lake Hobin, stood Mount Grace. It was tall enough to have snow at the peak, even in summer. Trees covered the lower slopes.
    "Luvo, do
you
think there's an earthquake coming?" I asked him. "Rosethorn says not, and she's been through plenty. Have you ever been in one?"
    "Small ones, many. Large ones? Only when my mountain—when I—was born, the earthquakes, and the volcano that created me. I know of that because the older mountains told me of it. Though some of what I feel now reminds me of my earliest memories. Terror, fire, bursting into freezing air as the warm earth spat me out. Growing higher, rising into the air, above everything around me. But I do not know if these are true memories, or what I was taught."
    "Then what is a true memory?" I wanted to know.
    Luvo began to pace along the windowsill. I had to sit on my bed, I was so startled. Luvo
never
paces. He's not the pacing sort. He's the standing sort, or sitting. He did the new pacing slowly, but still… I glanced back at Rosethorn. She had stopped in the middle of tying the belt to her habit. Like me, she stared at him.
    "I remember slow stiffness that began on my skin, and grew into my flesh, turning it from lava to stone," he said. "I got hard and cold. I felt crystals and minerals form. The stiffness went on, bringing with it stillness. Silence. Indifference. It came closer to my heart. To this piece of me, that you think of as Luvo." His stone feet thumped on the wood. "I had to make my first choice. I could let my heart, as well as my body, go solid and silent. I could dream my days away. So many of our kind choose that, unless they are awakened by great events. I could also choose to fight. I knew the battle would be hard and