The Dragonstones Trilogy
Chapter 16

At first all Sara saw was darkness, but as her dream self’s eyes adjusted, she was able to see more clearly. She was in a room, with three beds. Small girls ranging from five to eight slept in each of the beds. Sara could hear their soft snores.

Sara sensed an eerie presence in the room. She could feel it watching the sleeping children. Sara looked around the room. There wasn’t anywhere to hide. The space under the beds was too small. The curtains were over the windows. Sara’s dragon senses detected an odor, one of blood and death. There was nowhere to hide except for the closet. Sara looked closer. It was closed right now, but Sara was certain there was someone in there. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

She watched in horror as the closet door slowly opened, making no noise. A man crept out. He looked normal enough, but then Sara saw his eyes. They were black as night, just as Cole’s had been. This man was working for Aevill. He slowly reached into his pocket and drew out a knife, never taking his eyes off of the girls. The blade seemed almost incandescent in the moonlight. The girls slept on, unaware of the danger they were in.

The smallest girl whimpered in her sleep, then stirred and opened her eyes. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. She looked around the room, until she saw him. Sara tried to stop the man as he lunged toward the girl, but could do nothing. It was only a dream.

She could have sworn she heard laughter from the man, or maybe even Aevill. Sara awoke with the girl’s scream still ringing in her ears. A voice clearly said, “Follow the Shadow Stones, and this will happen again.”

Sara’s eyes flew open, and she jumped out of bed, screaming. Her bedroom door opened, and her mom walked in. Her mom took in the tangled covers on the floor, and her daughter standing near the bed, panting with wide eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Sara couldn’t find her voice. She nodded, then shook her head. “What happened?” her mom asked.

Sara shook her head trying to clear it. “Just a bad dream,” she said, though she wasn’t too sure. She glanced down at the Dragon Stones near her bed. They glowed, as if knowing what she was going to do. “I just need to talk to the dragons,” she said.

Her mom looked at her, concerned. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” she asked.

Sara nodded. She still hadn’t told her mom about what had happened in the cave, or that Cole had attacked her, James, and Aspen at school. There was nothing she could do to change the past, and she didn’t want her mom to worry. It was best not to think about it. Maybe all that had happened recently was what had caused the nightmare. Sara cheered up at the thought that her dream could have been just that: a dream.

Sara reached down and touched a Dragon Stone. Her meeting with the dragons was long overdue. Her room was bathed in blue light, then replaced by the Dragon Cave. Sara heard her name being whispered among the dragons. She shifted into a dragon, then walked over to a nearby rock and sat down.

The dream refused to leave her head. She could not convince herself that it had only been a dream. It had seemed too real. A dragon with glittering white scales walked over and jerked Sara out of her thoughts.

What has happened in the Land of the Living? He asked her.

Sara started telling him what had happened recently, but he interrupted her.

You don’t need to use words to speak. He said. You can send memories.

Sara took his advice. She focused on everything that had happened, from the cave to even the dream, and her hope that it had only been a dream.

She relived those moments, but this time the white dragon could see them too. Sara was relieved when they were finally done watching the last of the memories. Those moments had been more terrifying for Sara than when Drusk had almost killed her. She had had months to get over that experience, and she hadn’t had a week to recover from these.

The white dragon was silent until Smolder flew over. The two dragons stared at each other, and Sara knew the white dragon was sharing the memories he had just seen with Smolder. When they finished, Smolder said, It has begun. The other dragon seemed to know what Smolder meant.

Smolder turned to her. The fight against Evil. You need to be ready. Sara recalled that on her last visit, he had said something similar. For what? She asked.

Soon you and James will confront Aevill. By attacking Aevill, you attack a large part of Evil itself. The Shadow Stones you saw in your vision are the key to defeating Aevill. Magic itself is changing. A rare fairy we have not seen for centuries showed herself to you to aid our cause. You need to be ready.

How will I find the Shadow Stones? Sara asked.

You will find a way. Smolder said.

Wait. What do you mean? Sara said, but she got no answer. Instead, the Dragon Stones lit up. There was the usual flash of blue, and Sara was sitting on her bed.

“Hey!” she yelled. The dragons had controlled the Dragon Stones before, but sending her back to the Land of the Living against her will was a new one. Sara stood up and paced her room. The dragons wanted her to defeat Aevill, but they wouldn’t tell her anything of worth when they actually knew the answers.

Sara tried to calm herself, focus only on her footsteps, but it didn’t work. Left, right, left, Aevill. How was she supposed to beat Aevill when she didn’t even know what the supposed key to defeating him did? Right, left, right, Cole. What were they supposed to do about Cole? Who was he? He was being controlled by Aevill, but why? Was it because of the shadow flames?

The dream. Sara wasn’t even sure if it had really happened, but if it had, who would want to kill little children? The very thought was evil, but that was why the dragons were resisting Aevill. He was evil, evil enough to kill little girls through other people. Sara took a deep breath, and this time succeeded in calming herself. The dragons knew what they were doing. She would just have to trust them.

Sara looked out the window. It was still dark outside. She could use a few more hours of sleep. She got back in bed, and when she woke up again, her whole mood was calmer. Sara went downstairs and scanned the fridge for something to eat. She selected a few eggs, then found a skillet to cook them with. She didn’t cook them. Instead the eggs prepared themselves and Sara supervised.

When the eggs were done, Sara got a plate from the dishwasher. She walked over to the eggs, and held the plate out. The eggs disappeared for a second, then reappeared on her plate. Sara looked at the clock. She still had an hour to kill before school.

Sara walked into the living room, and turned on the TV. It was on the news channel. Sara avoided watching the news whenever she could and changed the channel again and again. There was nothing else on that was even remotely interesting. Sara turned back to the news channel, not yet willing to get up off of the couch.

Sara was done eating when the people on the news changed topics. Sara only half listened, but was jolted out of her stupor when a picture of three small girls appeared on the screen. They were the girls Sara had seen last night in her dream. Sara shrieked before she could stop herself. She covered her mouth, then listened for movement upstairs. No one seemed to have heard her scream.

Sara listened to the news now. The woman who was talking said, “The girls along with their family were reported dead last night when one of the neighbors thought they heard a scream coming from the other house. The family was found dead, stabbed to death by an unidentified knife.” Sara stopped listening. The dream was real. She had witnessed a murder, and Aevill was behind it, but why? Why would Aevill attack a family for no reason?

Sara recalled one time when the dragons had in part explained where magic came from. Humans gave off energy that could be used as magic by any magician or magical creature. When humans gave off dark energy that could be used by dark magicians, it meant that they had done something bad, maybe even evil. “Oh,” Sara said quietly to herself. Aevill was controlling humans and forcing them to do terrible things, so that he would be stronger. There would be more dark energy for him to feed on, for him to use.

Sara looked down at the plate next to her on the couch. She made a shooing motion, and it flew over to the sink and started washing itself. She needed to talk to James and see if the dragons could tell her anything besides what they had told her last night. After her last cryptic conversation, though, Sara wasn’t that eager to talk to them. She would do it this afternoon. Sara wasn’t sure if James would have anything valuable to add either, though. For some reason, she just wanted to be around him.

James’s voice popped into her mind. Sara!

Sara jumped up and shifted into a dragon. What? She asked him.

There was a long pause. Uh, nothing. Sorry. He sounded embarrassed. Do you still want to go after the Shadow Stones?

Sara looked at the clock. She still had plenty of time. Meet me at the cave. We can talk there.

There was silence on the other end, then James said, I’m there.

Okay. I’m coming. Sara took a few seconds to decide the best way to get through the front door as a dragon, and ended up changing back into a human. Once she was outside, she changed back into a dragon, and took flight.

Within minutes, she was outside the cave and in front of James. Sara landed, and changed back into a human. “I need to find the Shadow Stones. I’m going after them,” she said. She had seen Aevill kill children, and laugh. She needed to stop him, permanently.

James looked at her with a strange expression on his face, and sighed. “I knew you would say that. Where do you think we should start?” he asked.

“You want to help?” Sara asked.

“You didn’t think I would let you beat Aevill without help, did you?” James smiled, but his eyes didn’t.

“No,” Sara said slowly.

“So I’m coming,” James said. He yawned. Sara looked closer at him. He looked a lot more tired than usual. He looked at her. “You look tired. Did you sleep okay last night?” he said.

Sara shook her head. “Last night I saw little girls being killed. The man who did it works for Aevill.”

“You sure it’s not a dream?” James asked. He knew that the Dragon Stones sometimes gave Sara visions, but sometimes dreams were just dreams.

“This morning I was watching the news. There was a picture of the exact same girls. The news said the were murdered.”

“Oh.” James was silent for a moment, then said, “So do you know where the Shadow Stones are?”

“No, but I could try to find out in my dreams. There’s also the cave, but after what happened, that may not be the best choice, and maybe the dragons, but without me they don’t really know what’s going on in the land of the Living.”

“I can also try some locating spells,” James added.

“Great.”

“We should tell Aspen and Victoria. See if they can help,” James said. Sara doubted it. In a magical fight, Victoria would only be able to see the magic. Aspen was good with plants, but she wasn’t violent. But she would ask anyway. They would want to know what was going on.

“Okay,” she said.

There wasn’t much to say after that, so they both jumped into the air and flew toward the school. The day was uneventful until lunch, when Sara told Aspen and Victoria their plan to get the Shadow Stones. It wasn’t much of a plan, and there was nothing planned after finding the Shadow Stones, but it was enough for her for the moment.

As predicted, Aspen and Victoria couldn’t do much, but promised to help in any ways that they could.

That night, Sara went flying with James. When it was so dark that her vision took on a greenish tinge, Sara flew home and turned the house upside down until she found her computer. She hadn’t used it in a while, but tonight she had a reason to.

She got onto the internet and typed in Shadow Stones. The results were mainly junk, and Sara soon gave up the idea that someone might have released information on the Shadow Stones into cyberspace. After her computer search failure, Sara touched a Dragon Stone and entered the Dragon Cave.

Sara changed into a dragon, then walked over to the closest one. She was a smaller dragon, with purple scales. Sara knew this dragon. Her name was Amethyst, named after the color of her scales.

What do the dragons know about the Shadow Stones? She asked her.

Amethyst exchanged a glance with a black dragon, then said, What do you want to know?

Everything. Sara said. If I’m to use them to defeat Aevill, I need to know how to use them.

Amethyst sighed, or would have, if she had been human. She looked at Sara. Her purple eyes seemed to stare into Sara’s soul. All right. She said. She waited, and Sara could almost see the thoughts going from the minds of the dragons to Amethyst’s mind. When Amethyst had everything she needed, she spoke to Sara. Let’s begin. She said.

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