“I know.” But she’d said her father was pulling on the hot water from an undersea vent, which meant there was volcanic activity already at work, right there. “So I’ll make one here. Usurp his.”
Those silver eyes blinked at him. “Are you insane?”
“Probably.” He grinned, pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Go.”
“Nik.” Her eyes, her voice said what her words didn’t. All the fears, all the doubts.
He kissed her again. “I have to try. I love you, Valkyrja. Now go.”
Her cold fingers stroked his cheek. “I love you, Nikanor. Do not die.”
“Not my plan to.” But it was a risky maneuver, he knew that. As he pulled up the heat and lava, it would melt the ice on which he stood. There was no way around that. He’d end up in the water, and she couldn’t focus on helping him, not now. He’dhave to hold his breath, say a prayer, and hope new land built fast enough to save him as the lava hardened.
Though she looked like she’d rather cry, she nodded and turned inland again. Her hands shook.
“Kyrja.” When she turned her face his way, he willed every ounce of faith he had in her to travel through his gaze and land in her soul. “You are stronger than he is. And you’re not alone. You have your allies, yes, but you have someone even more important. The Giver is on your side. You are his anointed. Don’t forget it.”
She pressed a hand to her heart, nodded, and ran. As he watched, twin blades of ice formed on the bottom of her boots, raising her up fraction by fraction. Then she was gliding across the ice far faster than she’d ever be able to run.
Nik waited until she was a good distance away and then sent his fire-sense out, down. Not to draw heat up, just to find it. Locate the source.
Isidor’s volcano was a fine help with that, actually. He was drawing hot water straight up it, which meant that heat was directly below the cone.
The mountain of ice rumbled and grew again, though far more slowly now. More ice spewed from its top.
His teeth clenched. “I don’t think so, Isidor.” After another glance to make sure he wouldn’t suck Kyrja into the puddle he was about to make, he dropped to his knees. Pressed his hands to the ice. Latched his every magical sense onto the magma far beneath the water. And pulled.
30
Elianne leapt from her bed, ignoring the slight spinning of her head. Her vision had mostly cleared, but her muscles still cramped periodically. She hadn’t tried to do anything more than lie there for the last day. Lie there and try to feel where her son might be.
Daemon had tried to explain his location, but even though it was relatively close to Harroby and Mt. Radsla—places she’d once known so well with her regular senses—it had been too far away for her to detect anything through the magma.
This, though. It was Nik—and it was big.Big enough to send a shockwave through Helviti.
She obviously wasn’t the only one to notice. A shout went up from the common room, and when she rushed out, she found Ember clutching at Logi, eyes wide with fear. Eldrid was cursing and tumbling down gracelessly from his perch, and Daemon ran in from some other tunnel.
“Dae.” Elianne steadied herself against the wall, though that only made it worse, honestly. Whatever Nik was doing, he was still at it. “What’s going on?”
“Well, he said I’d know.” Daemon dropped to a knee too and pressed his palms to the basalt.
“Who? Know what?” Eldrid asked.
Daemon shook his head and closed his eyes. He stood again with a dazed expression. “Ash and flame. He’s forming new land. Under the ice shelf.”
Ember’s mouth fell open. “Can he do that? Won’t he melt through the ice?”
“He will. But he is.” His eyes snapped into focus, and then his gaze moved to Elianne. “I don’t know why he’s doing this, but we should assume it has something to do with Isidor. In which case, we should also assume he’s going to need our help.”
“But he’s miles away. How will we get to him in time to be useful?” Even as she asked it, Elianne ducked back into her room for her boots.
“Not we—you. I need to try to maintain balance in the rest of the Ring of Flame while he’s working, and I’ll do that best from right here.” He turned as he spoke toward the same lava bath chamber Nik had been in not long ago.
She trailed him. “But how am I supposed to—”
“Just follow the streams to him, Elianne. He’s pulling them far faster than they’d ever go on their own, which is widening them. Ask the magma to propel you even faster and I bet you could get to him in half an hour.”
Half an hour? As far away as he was? She’d never traveled so fast in her life, certainly not through the lava tubes. “But…”
