The Fire's Stone is a standalone fantasy novel by Tanya Huff published in 1990.
The stone keeping the volcano on Prince Darvish's island country in check has been stolen.
Without it, it could erupt in mere days, destroying the entire country. And so Darvish, the charismatic prince drowned in alcoholism and hedonism to keep him from being a threat to his older brothers, is assigned to retrieve it. Aaron, a thief captured in his failed attempt on the crown jewel and rescued by Darvish from the torture in prison on a whim, is assigned to use his talents to help.
And then Chandra, Darvish's arranged fiance from another land, sneaks along, hoping to learn more about the magic of the stone and convince Darvish to end their engagement. Between the three of them, they have a mission and a lot of personality problems to work out on the way.
The Fire's Stone contains examples of:
- After-Action Patch-Up: Aaron nearly dies and seriously wounds himself getting the Fire's Stone back into position in the climax of the book and wakes up in Darvish's bed covered in bandages and unable to move. Darvish has a fair number of bandages of his own, but he's at least mobile.
- The Alcoholic: Darvish. He undergoes an incredibly rough detox midway through the book that nearly kills both him and Aaron.
- Altar Diplomacy: Chandra and Darvish's marriage is arranged to ally their two countries and conveniently spirit Darvish away from his loving populace at home.
- Armoured Closet Gay: Or bisexual, in Aaron's case. He is very much attracted to both men and women, but getting him to admit to his attraction to men, particularly Darvish, after the trauma his father's religion inflicted on him takes just about the entire book.
- Arranged Marriage: Darvish and Chandra's engagement is arranged by their royal families. Neither are particularly interested in going through with it, but they do end up married.
- Artifact of Death: Touching the Fire's Stone, with the intense magic concentrated within, brings swift and painful death to anyone foolish enough.
- Benevolent Mage Ruler: Chandra is the heir to her father's throne, but just as devoted to her studies of magic as she is to ensuring her country is safe. She refuses to lose either of these things.
- Can't Live Without You: To ensure Aaron doesn't run off or otherwise kill Darvish, his soul is linked to the prince's so not only will they die together, but they can't even get very far from each other.
- Child Soldier: Aaron killed his first man, someone from a warring tribe of his own, at age eleven.
- Climactic Volcano Backdrop: Justified, since the bulk of the plot is about preventing a volcano from erupting and destroying an entire country. The climax of the book takes place at the volcano and trying to return the Stone just in time.
- Collector of the Strange: Herrek, a man in Ischia who "helps" Aaron break into the palace, has collected so many treasures as trades for information and equipment that he has trapped himself within his own hoard. He also collects information.
- Consummation Counterfeit: Invoked. Aaron offers to kill a chicken to stain the sheets to prove that Chandra and Darvish consummated their marriage.
- Creepy Twins: Darvish's younger twin siblings are considered "cursed" with only half a soul as they were born twins, and they are both servants of the Fourth, and are inclined to favor torture.
- Cry into Chest: Both times Aaron cries in the book, he buries his face into Darvish's shoulder.
- Cunning Linguist: Aaron. For all that he has less formal education than his companions, he is far more well-traveled than they are and speaks far more languages—and while Chandra is quite intelligent, her knowledge is heavily focused on magic only, while Aaron is the one who conceives most of their plans.
- Death Seeker: Aaron spends a significant portion of the book insisting he's already dead inside and simply waiting for the failure that will finally get him killed for real. It's why he tries to commit an Impossible Theft at the opening.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Gender-inverted for Aaron, who rejects Darvish harshly when Darvish first eyes him as a potential lover and remains cold and stoic until they slowly bond.
- Eager Rookie: Chandra is several years younger than both Aaron and Darvish and comparably sheltered. While she wants to join their assigned adventure to retrieve the stone and test out her magic, they are less convinced and would rather leave her behind—and they do try.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Aaron is perpetually incapable of putting how he feels into words.
- Evil Chancellor: At the end, it's revealed that the lord chancellor was responsible not only for encouraging Darvish to alcoholism and hedonism to dent his popularity among the populace, but for the theft of the Stone as well.
- Excessive Mourning: Aaron is so traumatized by his Lost Lenore Ruth that he becomes an empty shell of a person hoping to die.
- Fantasy Pantheon: Darvish and Chandra follow a religion with ten gods, each referred to by numbers and each with their own domain.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Darvish is an incredibly talented swordsman and much larger and burlier than the other two main characters, Chandra in an incredibly talented Wizard of the Nine, and Aaron fell into the plot in the first place trying to steal something from the palace. Together, they make up the trio the book centers around.
- Fingore: Darvish loses part of a finger thanks to a teleportation spell during the final battle.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Chandra, Darvish, and Aaron bond and grow closer to each other after having to overcome obstacles and enemies together.
- Going Cold Turkey: Darvish is forcibly cut off from his alcohol and spends the next few days in terrible withdrawal and nearly dies from it.
- Golem: Chandra creates a golem to take her place at home when she sneaks off to Ischia and beyond to convince Darvish not to marry her.
- The Hedonist: Darvish, as the third prince of the family, he is neither the heir, nor the spare, but he is smart, talented, and very, very popular with the citizenry, so he was encouraged to waste himself on alcohol and sex so he would seem like an Upper-Class Twit and merely a fun Millionaire Playboy to avoid a Succession Crisis.
- Impossible Theft:
- Aaron tries to steal the crown scepter, which is notoriously impossible, but fails thanks to a betrayal.
- However, the stealing of the Stone in the volcano? Should've easily been impossible.
- Ineffectual Loner: Aaron has no real emotional connections at the beginning of the book, but he succeeds and gains a new lease on life by letting Chandra and Darvish in.
- In-Series Nickname: Chandra and Aaron both call Darvish "Dar."
- Kissing Cousins: Aaron's first love, Ruth, was his cousin.
- Lava Pot Volcano: The entire country of Cisali is kept safe from a volcano that is permanently bubbling over with hot lava by a magic stone that keeps it contained. Once the stone is stolen, the lava rapidly starts rising again.
- The Lost Lenore: Aaron's cousin, Ruth, who was engaged to another man and killed for her affair with Aaron by Aaron's own father, the chief of their clan. Aaron's still deeply traumatized by this.
- MacGuffin Title: The "fire's stone" is the stone the heroes are tasked with retrieving to save Darvish's country.
- Magic Is Mental: Chandra talks constantly about not having time for relationships because she needs to devote all of her concentration to the art of magic.
- Mangst: Aaron is full of silent angst that he only talks about after Chandra and Darvish manage to tear down his emotional walls.
- Manly Tears: Despite being The Stoic, Aaron bursts into tears twice in the book, when recalling his traumatic memories of Ruth, and when he managed to convince himself Darvish loved him back only to discover he'd decided to marry Chandra after all.
- Master Swordsman: Darvish is wickedly talented with a blade, but his alcoholism interferes with it. Keeping himself occupied with it actually helps him stay sober.
- Millionaire Playboy: Darvish, thanks to his family's royal wealth and his hedonistic ways. He sleeps around without care or concern, at least before his Character Development.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The Fire's Stone.
- Off the Wagon: After Darvish begins his recovery process, he does slip up and drink alcohol, followed by a long self-loathing speech where he begs Chandra and Aaron to insult him for it.
- Oh, My Gods!: While Aaron is from an area with a monotheistic religion, Darvish and Chandra both follow ten numbered gods and swear by them. They also have skills and magic associated with each god—Chandra is a Wizard of the Ninth.
- The Quest: Darvish, Chandra, and Aaron seeking the Fire's Stone to return it to its rightful place and save the country (and improve their reputations to boot).
- Recruiting the Criminal: Aaron the thief is recruited to help Darvish on his mission as he's conveniently being kept by Darvish as a pet anyway after Darvish rescued him from prison torture.
- Second Love: Aaron's first love was his cousin, Ruth, and after the tragic ending, he kept himself closed off until he cannot help himself falling for Darvish.
- Shared Life Energy: Thanks to his Synchronization with Aaron, Darvish survives a brutal detox from alcohol by leaning on Aaron's life force and draining him near to the point of coma himself.
- Shipper on Deck: Chandra is very well aware of Darvish and Aaron's romantic feelings for each other long before either of them are aware of even their own, and rather wishes they'd simply confess already. She even says at the end of the book she'd never have considered taking Darvish without Aaron.
- Somber Backstory Revelation: Aaron finally defrosts and tells Darvish of his Lost Lenore Ruth and how he left his home after a nightmare while crying into Darvish's arms.
- Speculative Fiction LGBT: The feature characters of the series are two bisexual men, Aaron and Darvish, who begin a romantic relationship, and an aromantic asexual girl, Chandra.
- The Stoic: Aaron is very difficult to get a reaction out of, as he's kept his emotions locked up tight behind several walls. However, the walls get broken down progressively throughout the book as part of his Character Development, leading him to Not So Stoic land.
- Synchronization: Aaron and Darvish are linked together by their souls and any injury to one affects the other. They also can't get very far from each other, and this spell is undone later.
- A Threesome Is Hot: Darvish has more than one threesome in the series, although they're always off-page.
- Training the Gift of Magic: Chandra has done most of her studying on her own, and the Big Bad Palaton tempts her with the knowledge he can share with her to increase her natural abilities.
- Twins Are Special:
- Ischia and the surrounding countries believe twins share a soul between them.
- The Shoi believe twins are a blessing.
- Wandering Culture: Chandra, Darvish, and Aaron run into the Shoi people who assist them on their quest, who are a culture of wanderers that Aaron has met before in his own homeland. They are noted for perhaps having magic and being a race of wizards, but Aaron knows better.Chandra: Does Shoi mean anything?Aaron: It means People. Others, non-Shoi, call them Wanderers.Chandra: What do they do?Aaron: They wander.
- Wedding Finale: While the wedding isn't shown on page, Aaron winds up talking to his fallen friend in the mausoleum with a ribbon from Chandra's wedding dress with threads representing her, Darvish, and Aaron, to place on the urn.
