The Stone of Salazara (Book 1 of Saga of the Stones)

Chapter 6

The next three days went by in a blur, and I wasn't ready to leave. The king and queen supplied us with specially made elven cloaks. The gave us a small ship with a crew of about a dozen elves, not counting the prince.

For the first ten minutes, it was smooth sailing. But as the elven docks disappeared over the horizon, Matt, Jem, and I started getting seasick. We had to run to the edge a few times. We never actually threw up, but there were a few close calls.

I was amazed at how easily the elves manned the ship. They hardly spoke, and yet the worked in perfect sync with one another.

Prince Levilan showed us a map of where we were sailing. In three days time, we would reach the Invisible Isles that the dwarf had talked about. We would stop there to see if we could scrounge out any supplies, then head on to the shipwreck.

On the third day, an elf in the crows nest of the boat shouted; "Land ho!"

We ran to the side, and my jaw dropped.

The Invisible Isles lived up to their name. They weren't totally invisible, because you could see the wavy sea on the other side, but it was blurry, like a painting that was rained on when it was still drying.

We were still a distance away, so Prince Levilan ordered his elves to prepare the rowboats. In a few moments, the four of us and a few elves to scavenge, went ashore.

It's odd, trying to walk on something you can barely see. We left the few elf sailors that had come with us by the boats, and we went to explore the near-invisible surroundings.

The really odd thing was that even though the trees were like glass, they still cast shadows. We walked in the cool shade of them, and if I closed my eyes (after making sure there were no trees in the immediate area) I could imagine I was back in the woods around my hometown.

Suddenly, Prince Levilan stopped, and held up a hand. We all froze, and then heard what he was referring to. A slight rasping sound was coming from the translucent trees around us. Matt reached for his sword, I grabbed my dagger, and Jem and Levilan raised their bows and notched arrows to them.

Suddenly, something jumped at Jem. She jumped back, and Matt stepped in front of her. He swung his sword in a wide arc, and I heard a sickening cutting sound. A moment later, a cheetah-like creature slowly appeared on the ground. We all stared at it.

"What the-" I started, but then another one jumped out, this time at me. It hit me in the chest and sent me sprawling. Luckily, my knife was still in hand, and I stabbed at whatever it was. As it appeared, I pushed it off of my chest and stood.

Just then, I heard Prince Levilan shout something in elvish. I didn't understand him, but I had the sudden urge to duck. As I did, an arrow whizzed over my head. He had just shot it, and I heard the creature hit the ground behind me with a thump. I stood again and got right back into the fight.

It only lasted a few minutes, but when no more of the creatures jumped at us, we were out of breath.

"Sorry," Prince Levilan apologized. Yeah, I said it; apologized. "I should've shouted in English, not Elvish."

"It's ok," I said, slightly shocked. "You meant duck, right?"

"Yes. I'm just so used to shouting commands in Elvish that I didn't stop to think." He flushed slightly. "And I was panicking. I speak in Elvish when I panic."

"You? Panicking?" Jem asked. "I thought elves didn't panic."

"We do. I mean, we were being attacked by invisible cheetahs. Anyone who doesn't panic in that situation is crazy."

"Touche," agreed Jem.

"Thank you again, Prince Levilan," I said. "That one probably would've pinned me down if it hadn't been for you."

"You're welcome. And please, just call me Levilan. I get called prince to much as it is."

"Alright, Levilan."

Matt glanced at the sky. "We should get back to the ship."

"Good idea. Lead the way," Levilan said.

"Wait, what's this?" I asked, grabbing something shiny that had just caught my eye. It was an old fashioned skeleton key, with a pirate ship engraved into the handle.

"Hold onto it," Jem said. "It could help at the ship."

I slipped the key into my pocket, and we started off.

Right before we reached the ships, Levilan stopped us. "Don't tell them that we're friends now, ok? They might tell my dad and he'd never let me got on an adventure with mortals again."

"We promise," Jem said.

"Good. Sorry to say I'm gonna have to act mean to you while we're on the boat."

"We'll pretend to be mean right back, if that's ok," Matt said.

"Fine by me. Lets just keep them of our trail."

And we did just that. For the next two days, Levilan acted mean to us, we acted mean to him. When we finally reached the tiny island the ship was on, Levilan ordered to crew to stay behind and watch the ship. They obliged, eyeing the creaky old boat wreck warily.

As we walked into the ship, we all burst out laughing.

"I think we pulled it off!" Levilan chuckled.

"They didn't suspect a thing," Jem giggled.

Matt got his laughter under control, then smiled at us. "Come on, let's enjoy this before we have to go back to the boat and act mean again."

The boat was old, creaky, and rotten. We had to step carefully to make sure that none of the boards fell out from underneath us. As we entered to captain's quarters, I heard a bone chilling noise. Literally; it sounded like bones rattling around in a box.

In the corner, a large crate rattled, creating the noise. Matt carefully tiptoed over to it, and threw the lid off. As he did, he jumped back, as hundreds of bones flew out and started reconstructing themselves on the floor. I unsheathed my dagger and slashed one in the rib. It crumpled and fell, then automatically began building itself up again.

I tried again, and again. Each time, it built itself back up. Finally, out of aggravation, I stabbed it in the head. It crumpled.

I waited, but it did not regrow.

"Get them in the head!" I shouted to the others, stabbing another skeleton creature in the eye. The others followed my example, and in another few minutes, the room was littered with bones.

Matt heaved a sigh of relief as he helped Jem up from where she had fallen onto the floor. "What were those?"

"No clue," I said. I walked over to the crate, curious if anything else was in it.

Inside, was a small chest, with a carving of a pirate ship over the keyhole. I pulled the key from the island out of my pocket, and compared the ships.

Exactly the same.

I stuck the key in the keyhole and turned it. I heard a click, and slowly opened it, hoping for the best.

It wasn't the best.