'Oh Jason-' She shook her head. 'I-is he really-'
'He is,' Cameron said gravely. She did not pull away from him. 'And unfortunately, the manuscript went with him.'
'I don't care,' she replied fiercely, taking hold of him as if she never planned to let him go.
He took a deep breath, and in his turn sagged against the remains of a building beside them. 'I am not apt with words of romance-' he began.
'Nor I,' she answered awkwardly.
'Then I will reply for both of you,' said a dry, impatient, ancient, and utterly exhausted voice. Master Pao limped slowly out of the smoke, with a younger Chinese man at his elbow-a man hideously disfigured by old burns. 'You are in love with Rose; she with you. You are compatible, all will be well. However, the demise of the lamentable Beltaire has freed his Salamanders to rage where they will through the wreckage of the city, and there is very little any of us can do about it except to flee.'
'You charlatan!' Cameron roared-or tried to. He discovered he lacked the strength for anything more than an indignant whisper. 'Where the hell were you when we needed you?'
Then he took a closer look at Pao-and saw that the man was as exhausted and spent as they, too tired to reply.' Master Pao was keeping the Dragons from shaking the earth until there were not two stones left standing from Los Angeles to Portland, Firemaster,' said the unknown, and bowed. 'Forgive me, Firemaster. I am Master Ho, Master of Eagles.'
'Master of Air-' Rose breathed, and straightened. Cameron released her so that she could bow herself. 'Are you the reason the Sylphs-that is, the Eagles hated Beltaire so much?'
Master Ho simply bowed again, and gestured. 'Please. All this can be explained in the Firemaster's home where it is safer. Look-' He pointed behind Cameron who turned, and saw the red glare of flames just beyond the building that they were sheltering near. He started; he had thought that the growing heat was entirely due to the fight among the Salamanders and Sylphs, not a growing conflagration!
'Dear God-' He started for the fire, intending to try to do something about it. 'There are people still trapped in those buildings, alive!'
But he did not get more than a foot before falling to his knees.
'You have no strength left, nor she, nor I, nor Pao,' Master Ho said, coming to his aid and helping him back to his feet. 'I am sorry, Cameron. These poor victims must live or die without our aid, and we will not help them by perishing with them.'
Jason bowed his head, momentarily choked by frustration, and looked up to see Rose gazing gravely and tenderly at him. 'I do not want to admit it, but my own Salamanders are spent, and I cannot hope to control a single Elemental that is spending out its rage. You are correct. Do you have transportation?'
Master Pao clucked, and a small cart clattered into the street, pulled by a pair of donkeys. 'In!' he snapped, and Cameron found enough strength to lift Rose into the back before clambering in clumsily himself. Master Pao somehow dragged himself onto the driver's seat; Master Ho climbed up beside him, and the cart bounced away, at a much faster pace than Cameron would have expected given that it was being pulled by two such tiny beasts.
He held Rose against his shoulder, and she seemed perfectly content to be there. 'Was Pao right?' he asked softly.
'When have you ever known him to be wrong?' she replied, and managed to dredge up a smile for him.
And that was all that he needed. Out of the ashes, out of the pain, out of the rubble, the most precious possession of all remained intact.
Epilogue
Rose Cameron bit the end of her pen, and finished her translation. Master Ho would be pleased, she thought. She was rather pleased with it, herself.
In the past year, San Francisco had arisen from the ashes of the fires that destroyed the greater part of the city much like the legendary Phoenix. Much to the surprise of some, and the dismay of others, China-town had been
