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

Chapter 10

Levilan lifted the rock the dwarves had pointed us to, and we carefully lowered ourselves down. It was a chilling darkness.

Levilan's golden glow lit up the cave a bit. It sloped inland, and we started forwards. The walls and floor were made of dirt, and we could see the footprints of goblins, dwarves, gnomes, and quilatoes, which were the invisible cheetah creatures we had encountered on the Invisible Isles.

As we walked, Levilan studied the ground. Being an elf, he was highly trained in tracking. His face looked confused.

"What is it?" I whispered.

Levilan pointed at the ground. "There's a set of human boot-prints here. Its a girl, judging by the size."

Jem and I noticed the prints too. They seemed newer than the monster-prints. We continued to follow the tunnel. As we went along, we heard the cheering of monsters and the stomping of feet. Finally, we turned a corner and...

"Isabelle?" I asked incredulously.

The girl at the edge of the entrance to the large cave turned. It was indeed Isabelle. Her face had dirt smudges on it, as did her clothes, and her hair was a mess, but it was definitely her. "Siv!" she whispered in excitement. She ran over to me and gave me a hug. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"What are you doing here?" I asked, returning the hug. I had seriously thought I would never see her again.

"Getting my dad! Obviously!"

"Siv, who's this?" Jem asked from behind me.

"Oh! Jem, Levilan, this is Isabelle. She's a friend of mine from the dragon caves. Isabelle, this is Jem and Levilan. They're friends of mine. We came to get Matt."

"Hi," Isabelle said, waving slightly. Jem waved back, and I expected Levilan to also, but he didn't. He just stood and stared at Isabelle. Isabelle noticed and stared back. Their eyes locked, and some kind of recognition passed between them.

I remembered how in my vision when I met Isabelle, it had shown Levilan, and in the vision from when I had met Levilan, I had seen Isabelle. They had seen each other before! I realized. Isabelle's view was of him and other elves crossing her backyard, and Levilan's view was her watching from her window! What a coincidence that they'd meet personally...

Isabelle cleared her throat and turned back to the cave entrance. Her face was a slight shade of pink. "So, what's the plan?" she asked.

"For one, we need your necklace," I said.

Isabelle stared at me in shock. "My necklace? Why?"

"Because the stone in it is a very dangerous stone that Massadonic wants to get a hold of."

"So what do we do with it?"

"We need to destroy it," Levilan said, finally seeming to recover from... whatever had just happened.

"How do we do that?" Jem asked. "Matt said no sword can destroy it, except for the Sword of Silvander, which has been lost for centuries."

"So what do we do?" asked Isabelle.

I thought a moment. "Get Matt and your father-"

"His name is Sir Franklin," Isabelle advised.

Levilan nodded. "I see! No wonder he looked so familiar in your dream, Siv. I met him when I went to Kiolim to help fight in their civil war."

"You know my dad?" Isabelle asked.

"Can we talk about that later? I want to get Matt. And your dad," Jem said, looking at Isabelle and Levilan.

They nodded. Then I continued. "We get Matt and Sir Franklin, get out, and then get the stone to someone who knows how to destroy it."

"So... how are we gonna do that?" Jem asked.

I opened my mouth to say something, then closed it. "Um... I don't know. Any ideas?"

We spent the next ten minutes coming up with a plan. Our ideas turned into this;

Jem and Levilan would go in and try to distract Massadonic by making him think they had the Stone. In reality, they would have Jem's TransStone, because it was almost the same color as the Stone. While Massadonic and the other's were distracted, Isabelle and I would sneak around and get Matt and Sir Franklin out of the cage. We would have to find the lever that lowered the cage and hope it didn't make any grinding noises that would attract any attention. If it did, Levilan and Jem would yell and distract Massadonic.

After Isabelle and I lowered the cage and freed Matt and Sir Franklin, they would go and help Levilan and Jem, while I tried to find a place to try and break the stone.

It was an iffy plan that could fail in many ways. However, it was the best we could come up with on the spot.

We quickly put it into action. Isabelle and I made our way around the perimeter of the room while Levilan and Jem distracted Massadonic and his followers. I wasn't really focused on what they were saying, but from what I heard Jem was telling him how vulnerable the two dwarves we had caught were.

Isabelle and I reached the lever that lowered the cage. Jem said something really witty about how all of Massadonic's followers were incompetent idiots, which caused shouts from the goblins and gnomes present. Isabelle and I took the opportunity and pulled the lever. Barely audible above the noise, the gears creaked, and the cage hanging on the chain slowly cam down. It lightly hit the ground, and Isabelle and I got to work on the lock.

"Isabelle!" cried Sir Franklin.

"Shhh! Hi Dad!" Isabelle whispered, grabbing her father's hand through the bars. "We'll get you out in a minute."

"Siv!" Matt whispered. "How'd you find me? Where's Jem-"

"I'll explain how we found you later. Jem is distracting Massadonic and his followers with Levilan. Now stand back while I break the lock!"

Matt and Sir Franklin took a few steps back. I pulled out my dagger and started prying at the lock, while Isabelle checked to make sure no one saw us. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the lock fell off. I opened the door, and Matt and Sir Franklin quickly walked out. Matt grabbed his weapons, which had been taken from him when he had been captured.

"Good to see you again Isabelle," Matt said, nodding at her. Before she could reply, he ran off to help Jem and Levilan, who were now attempting to fight off a small group of dwarves.

Isabelle looked at me. "Do I know him?"

"Kansans," I said. "He transformed himself into King Kamari's nephew to try and find me."

"I don't quite understand, but you can explain later. Dad, lets go help Matt. Where's you sword?"

"One of those goblins took it when I was captured years ago."

"Well we need to find you something," I said. I looked around. A few feet away, what I assumed to be one of the goblins bags was sitting. Sticking out of it was a handle. I grabbed it, expecting to pull out a dagger. Instead, I pulled out a drying pan.

"Perfect!" Sir Franklin said, grabbing from my hand.

"You're gonna fight with that?" Isabelle asked.

"Are you kidding? I fought with one of these in the war in Kiolim! It's very effective. I knocked them out in the front lines and the others came along and finished them off. I was leader of the Frying Pan Squadron!"

"Well then let's go!" Isabelle said. She and Sir Franklin ran off to join the others.