Enzo felt trepidation coursing through him as the Luna Moth approached the service station, which was made up of two dozen structures built into a group of lonely rock spires about two hundred miles off the coast. A few isolated buildings were on the surrounding spires, most likely to provide weather watch and lookout; the main complex was set in a spire that leaned precariously to one side depending on which angle it was seen from and easy to spot because of the three jetties protruding from the sides of the freestanding stone pillar. As they approached, signs denoting various locations in the station came into view.

There was Earl's Repair Shop. Arenar Grill and Lounge. Swinging Hammock Inn. Deep Sea Sushi Bar. Whale Tale Café. Then there was the sign that identified the entire place. Crafted from rough coral and sporting reflective paint and luminescent lights, it stood on the roof of the largest building in bold letters: Selina's.

They descended toward the lowest jetty and two figures came into view. One was a cat like Enzo, but pure white and quite female, and the other was a robot. Enzo killed the engines and let the momentum carry them in, then he and Rico stepped out onto the foredeck. "She's not going to like this, Enzo," Rico said quietly.

Enzo heaved a growling sigh. "Tell me something I don't know, Rico," he answered. "I'm not going to like this any more than she will."

As the white female cat watched the ship dock, the robot behind her leaned close and said, "Don't do anything foolish." She growled as the ship's captain descended the boarding ramp.

"Hey, Sel!" Enzo called, moving with much more excitement than he felt. She offered no greeting in return–in fact, her scowl seemed to deepen as he stepped up to her. "You look good!" He never saw the blow coming. One minute he was a step away from her, hoping she'd only squeeze his paw too hard when he offered it to shake, and the next his face was sideways and he was on his tail.

"What are you doing here, Enzo?" she demanded, sounding not at all happy.

He rubbed at his assaulted cheek and looked up at her. "I just need some fuel and repairs, Selina. Then I'll be out of your hair."

She glared down at him. "I thought you'd stopped flying this route long ago."

"I did."

Navin and Leon came rushing down the ramp. "Are you okay, Captain?" Navin asked.

Enzo placed his hat on his head. "I'm fine. I'd like you all to meet someone." He gestured toward the white cat. "Everyone, this is Selina Figgins, the owner of this station."

Selina scoffed. "Are you still chasing after that stupid flying city?"

"For your information, these good people have asked me to take them there."

In the small crowd of onlookers, Rico said quietly, "These two have a bit of a history."

"You have no idea where it is, Enzo," Selina said. "Do these people know just how lost you are?"

"Selina, please. Just fuel up the Moth and we'll be on our way."

She humphed and turned to her robot assistant. "Tell the boys to make this ship their priority."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You and your friends can stay the night," she said to Enzo, "but I want you out of here in the morning."

"You have my word," he promised.

"And don't ever come back here."

Emily was last to come off the ship. Wind whipped through her red hair, and she looked in the direction it was coming from and saw a dark, angry storm about an hour from the station. A gray haze below the boiling clouds signified heavy rain, and jagged bolts of blue foretold of a wild electrical storm. She knew that the wind now playing across her face was the precursor of much more violent turbulence, and that they would be heading into that maelstrom tomorrow. A determined frown brought her eyebrows together; she had plans to make.

An hour later, everyone was seated in the main lobby, sipping at soup and munching on fresh buns. The space was a comfortable size—neither emptily spacious nor claustrophobically cramped—longer than it was wide and furnished with ten round tables with half as many chairs around each. There were cases of books built into one wall between the windows and a long bar counter with several stools along the other side. The sun had been setting by the time they'd arrived at the station almost two hours ago, and as the light had dimmed it tinged everything with a dull orange hue. The color was warm and inviting, and would have even been relaxing if not for the worry pervading the air.

Navin was stuck in that pit along with most of the Moth's crew. He slowly stirred the soup in the bowl before with his spoon, staring with dull eyes into the thick liquid. Karen both saw and felt his distress. "Don't worry, Navin. I'm sure they're okay," she said, attempting to comfort and distract him. "They seem very capable, and I'm sure they weren't eaten." His head twitched in her direction, but his expression didn't change. "This is like when you lose one of your toys: They'll turn up again eventually."

Navin sighed heavily and shook his head in disagreement. "I don't know, Mom," he answered. "I don't think this is like that at all."

Behind them, Leon and Enzo were locked in heated conversation. "We can't invite trouble like this, Enzo," the fox said, tapping the tip of his finger hard against the top of the table. "You should have warned us."

Enzo stared levelly back at him. "Hey, I was trying to avoid this place," he said defensively, then drew himself up. "And if it's Selina you're worried about, don't sweat it. She may hate my guts, but she won't sell us out to the elves. She's trustworthy."

"I don't care about her trustworthiness," Leon hissed, thumping a fist on the table. "We just have to make sure that we don't attract unwanted attention." He clenched his fist tighter. "One false move can jeopardize our entire mission."

Two tables away, a hooded figure sat with his back to the talkers, slurping at the drink in his hand while listening in on the discussion. All the others would see was someone who wanted some time alone, and whose hooded cloak was his way of separating himself from the world around him.

Trellis climbed a staircase that spiraled upward. He'd noticed that Emily had walked right on through the lobby while everyone else had taken seats and been served soup and bread. After downing his own portion of the food, he slipped out through a back door, found the staircase and started climbing. It came out onto a small flat area, and near the edge of it was Emily, her fiery hair and autumn cloak billowing in the wind. Her back was to him, but he knew she would sense his eyes on her. "What do you want, Trellis?" she demanded.

"You should have let me help you," he said flatly.

"I don't want you near my family."

"You don't trust me."

She turned her head around to look at him. "I get the impression that the feeling is mutual."

Trellis nodded curtly. "Fair enough. But the next time I try to help, I suggest you stay out of my way. For your sake."

Emily watched him turn and start to walk away, then said, "Wait. You never answered my question." Trellis stopped. "Why turn against your father?"

A moment of silence, then, "It's a private matter."

She scoffed. "If you want me to trust you, you need to start trusting me." He turned buck to face her. "And you can start by telling me why you need my help to take down your dad." Trellis stood there, silently staring at her, his face as unreadable as ever. The only outward indications of any sort of deliberation were some minute twitches in his cheek, just below the eye. Finally, he sighed in resignation and sat down on a rock a few feet away from her.

He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees and lacing his fingers. And for the first time, despite the frown seemingly frozen on his face, his attitude radiated a sense of hopelessness. "On Gondoa Mountain, the day we met," he finally began. "The arachnopod carrying your mother was supposed to find its way back to him, but I stopped it. You know this, of course; you were there. You saw me tear it in half. Then I told you that you could help me stop the elf king."

Emily scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You certainly did that well."

"What I'd done was seen as an act of treason. My father was looking for a young Stonekeeper to take my place as his successor, and I wanted to stop him. I thought I could use you against him—if I couldn't convince you to help me, then I'd resort to force, but I failed on both counts."

Emily looked at him, incredulous. "He wanted me to succeed him?"

Trellis nodded. "Being jealous, I assumed that was his wish. But the truth was far more sinister." He hung is head slightly and closed his eyes. "For the past several years, I've had trouble remembering things–things one doesn't easily forget. Much of my childhood and early life is lost to me, and I suspected that my father had something to do with it. Strangely enough, one of the few remaining images in my head was that of my father's face. It was the only thing I saw clearly, as if I'd decided it was the only memory worth keeping. I wanted to see him again, to catch a glimpse of his face behind the mask, in hopes that it would help bring back more memories.

"Under the cover of night, I snuck into his tower bedchamber, and what I saw will haunt me as long as I live. Behind the mask was my father's face, just as I remembered it. But just as my memory was frozen in time, the face before me was also frozen. Something was wrong. His features were gaunt and gray, his skin the color of stone. His eyes were glazed over with a milky white substance, with nothing but a cold emptiness behind them. I was so shocked that it took a moment for what I was seeing to connect, but when it did, I wished it hadn't. Realization of the truth made it no easier to accept, but I had to at least acknowledge it: My father was dead.

"The elf king is nothing more than a walking corpse, and whatever lives inside it now killed my father. I want to destroy it before it doesn't any more harm to my homeland."

Emily's mind spun. Trellis's description of the thing that had been his father was frighteningly similar to a zombie, a monster that was used in horror and thriller media and often depicted as a reanimated dead body at some stage of decay that moved slowly, had minimal sense of direction or higher brain function and was possessed of an inexplicable drive to seek out the living. But if the monster he'd described was in fact a zombie, then it must be a very special kind of zombie. For what she could piece together, the zombie that had once been his father had the ability to reason and form coherent thoughts. Finally, she asked, "But if he's dead, how can we defeat him? How can he even be harmed for that matter?"

"Destroy the stone." Emily and Trellis turned to see Luger standing behind them. He looked as frail and timid as he had the first time Emily had seen him. "A Stonekeeper provides both focus and balance for the stone's power," he explained. "A stone is as alive as its keeper, and no stone has ever been known to survive without one. But this stone has found a way to reanimate its dead master, using the darkest kind of magic there is. And it's likely that the king wasn't the first victim." He looked between Trellis and Emily, his eyes seeming to linger more on Emily. "You will need to work together to defeat the stone. You can't and won't succeed if you try to do it alone."

Trellis stood. "Go back inside before you get sick," he said, gently guiding Luger back toward the inn.

Emily also stood. "Why me, Trellis?" she asked. "Why do you need my help?"

Trellis paused and looked back at her. "Because my stone told me it had to be you," he said simply. Then he turned and walked with Luger back to the inn, and Emily watched them as the sun slowly sank below the crimson sea.

Several hours later, Emily woke in sweat. The stone had sent her another message, and like last time it was terrifying. She moaned before finally sitting up. The stone was floating before her in its bright red aura, and she stared at it in curious exhaustion. She was so tired; all she wanted was to sleep, but the stone seemed to think that what it had to tell was more important than rest. And as comprehension of its latest contact dawned on her, she knew that sleep wouldn't come now.

She looked over at Navin, who was sleeping so deeply that he snored uproariously. She giggled silently—he'd apparently inherited their father's dark tendency to snore like a tiny earthquake when he slept. But her mirth died almost as quickly as it was born as the distraction lost its effect and the stone message again took precedence in her mind. She swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood up then walked out as quietly as she could and into the main room.

She heard more snoring coming from somewhere near the fireplace, and as she drew closer to the source she realized it was coming from the couch. As she came around it, she saw Enzo and Selina slumped on it, both out like a light. A bottle of wine and two glasses were on the coffee table in front of them. They were side by side, which surprised her because when the Moth had docked and he stepped out onto the jetty, she'd looked ready to tear him a new one, then let out with a wicked right hook that caught him square on the cheek and demanded what he was doing here. His explanation hadn't done a lot to sooth her anger, but seemed to have calmed her enough to keep her from attack-ing him outright.

She wondered if this was a normal thing for them. And if so, what had caused the amnesty between them? She could only guess, but her mind was on other things as she took a seat by the fire and stared into the flames, trying to puzzle out what the stone was telling her. The thing seemed to have developed a fondness for riddles, and everything it told her sounded as twisted as a wrought-iron fence.

"Having trouble sleeping?" She recognized the voice immediately and looked back. Karen approached, a concerned expression on her face. "I noticed you weren't in bed. Can I join you?"

Emily turned back to look at the fire again. "You should be sleeping, Mom," she said nonchalantly. "We have a long day tomorrow."

Karen chuckled. "Don't worry about me. When you and Navin were little, I got used to operating without sleep. I'll manage." She sat down in the chair next to Emily's. "Now tell me why we're both still awake."

Emily took the stone around her neck in her thumb and forefinger, looking at it with a mixture of exhaustion, exasperation and maybe a little bit of anger. "I just had a bad dream," she said thoughtfully. "Except I'm not sure that it was just a dream."

"I know exactly what you mean." Emily's head snapped up in surprise, and Karen nodded. "When your father died, I felt pretty much like you do now. I was so broken up and had so much weight on my shoulders that I almost broke down completely. Without his support, I didn't know what to do. I felt so alone. But when I looked at your faces, I realized I had to stop feeling sorry for myself and focus on taking care of you, and I couldn't do that if I stayed in the emotional pit I'd fallen into. So I trusted myself to pull things together and figure them out. And my worries vanished.

"If you can find the confidence to trust yourself, you can make it through just about any situation, no matter how bad things might seem. Now stop worrying so much; you're wasting your time and wearing me out." She saw Emily smile a little, and held out a hand. "Come here."

Emily went over and laid her head on her mother's shoulder. "You're not worried?" she asked.

Karen chuckled. "I'm your mother, sweetie. I make a career out of worrying about you."

Enzo and Selina stood out on the jetty, looking at the tiny ship silhouetted against the predawn light. The sun was just beginning to rise and the sky was still dark, but that would change quickly. Selina nudged Enzo with her elbow. "You're getting old, Enzo. You know that, right? It's time you start thinking about settling down."

Enzo scoffed lightly. "I've still got a few years on me yet, and I intend to you them to realize my dreams."

"Someday, you'll have to stop chasing rainbows and think about what future you've got left."

"This isn't a rainbow, Sel–not this time. I'm closer than I've ever been to finding Cielis, and I have my passenger to thank for it."

Selina gave him a small smile. "Look, just remember when you decide to settle down that there'll be a job for you here at the station."

He returned her smile. "Thanks for the offer, Sel, but I plan to settle down in a city high above the clouds." They shared a last hug— something they rarely did anymore—then he began to climb the boarding ramp. He glanced back and said, "I'll send you a postcard." She smiled. He went into the pilothouse, started the engines and throttled away from the jetty. In minutes, the station was only a dark column on the horizon.

Leon looked up from the map he was studying. "If we travel through the lighter areas of the storm, we may be able to see Cielis from afar."

Enzo kept his eyes on the rising sun. "I'll take us all the way in."

"We're still don't know that Cielis is there."

"There's really only one way to find out. We better let the others know to buckle up."

Emily stood on the prow of the little ship, staring straight ahead at the massive storm into which they were flying with a determined look in her eyes as if daring the cyclone to challenge them. "Enzo says we're heading in," she heard Rico announce. "He wants everyone to sit down and secure themselves."

"Go find a seat, Navin. Emily, come on in."

"How exciting," Luger said.

Barely an hour later, the storm was raging so fiercely that even through the wind's furious howling the tiny ship's crew could hear the flag above them snapping like a whip. Rain fell in sheets that were driven nearly horizontal by the wind. Enzo stood at the helm, the wheel grasped firmly in his paws against the wind sheer that threatened to tear it from them. Leon sat behind him at the navigator's table, studying something in Silas Charnon's old thick journal. As he flipped through the pages, skimming over them and absorbing relevant bits of information, one diagram appeared that was particularly interesting.

"I don't think we're the only ones out here," Enzo commented.

Navin glanced out the viewport and gasped. Outside the ship he saw an enormous serpentine creature slowly fly past, its body move-ments identical to the aquatic snakes and eels he'd seen on TV and in aquariums back home. On the side of its head that was facing him he saw three eyes—one big and two small—glowing a brilliant bright blue. Several fins were arranged along its length and massive teeth jutted out from its mouth. Then another flew up alongside it. "What are they?" he asked in a mystified tone.

"Sky eels," Luger answered.

"Are they dangerous?"

"No. Sky eels are docile creatures and among the oldest living animals in the world." Luger pointed to one. "That eels right there is probably older than your entire recorded history." He placed his hand against the cold glass of the viewport. "Can you imagine all the things it must have seen in its lifetime? The trove of knowledge it must possess?" He sighed sadly. "I can't even recall the days of my youth."

"That's okay," Navin said cheerfully, trying to console him. "Old people forget things all the time."

On the rear deck of the ship, a lone figure sat, his knees pulled into his chest and his cloak wrapped tightly around them, a lost look in his eyes—as if he too could not remember something.

The tiny ship continued on, bravely facing everything the storm threw at it and stubbornly refusing to give in. Strangely, the monsoon was actually seeming to get angrier the farther in it went, almost as if the little vessel's staunch refusal to be defeated was taunting it. But the storm hadn't run out of challenges for them, and its latest effort started to grow on the handrails and from the overhead cover of the gangway. "Enzo!" Rico shouted. "We've got ice!"

"We'll have to deice the wings before the weight and wind sheer tear them off. Rico, help me. Samson, take over." Enzo looked at Navin. "Hey, kid. Just watch and learn." Samson meeped after him as he ran out, and Navin had an upset expression on his face. Enzo ran to the hose roll and began to spool it out. "Wait until I give the word!" Rico nodded. He aimed the nozzle at the wing and shouted, "Okay, Rico, open it up! Full blast!"

Rico turned the valve and instantly the hose inflated with liquid that jetted out the nozzle and against the wing's surface with a spray of white foam. Rico glanced forward and cried, "Enzo! We've got a problem!"

Enzo turned his head and snarled. "Funnel clouds! Just what we need!"

Funnel clouds were very similar to waterspouts and tornados on Earth, but didn't come and go with weather conditions. They were permanent residents in this storm, whirling in tight circles and speeds one could only guess at. The Luna Moth passed between two of them, causing the wheel to spin wildly to starboard. Samson reached for it but the robot's hand was smacked away, the force flinging him into the wall and knocking him out.

Navin realized that it was up to him. Not only was this the chance he'd been waiting for—a chance to pilot the ship—but with Samson knocked out and Enzo and Rico both busy spraying ice off the wings, it fell to him to keep the ship stable and on course. Looking at the wheel, he raised his hands and steeled himself for the stinging pain that was sure to come when he latched on. Drawing a deep breath and clenching his teeth, he shot out his arms and growled as the wheel's grips slammed into his palms. Once sure it was firmly in his grasp, he set his sights on a shaft of light dead ahead and shoved the throttle full forward.

He felt the rumble of the engines in his feet and guided the tiny airship through the twisting maelstrom purely on grit and instinct. The winding path he was forced to take took only a few minutes, but things were so tense that they seemed like hours. Rico whooped out congratulations to Samson for the flying, but Enzo wasn't so convinced and peeked into the pilothouse. He saw Navin at the wheel. "You can take over whenever you want," the boy said.

"Looks like you've got it under control," he answered. "Keep it up. Rico and I are still busy out here."

An hour later, they were coming to the eye of the storm and things were finally beginning to calm down. The wind slowed and eased off its furious howling, the rain lightened and brilliant sunlight could be seen. "It's clearing up!" Karen exclaimed.

Rico pointed. "Enzo, look!" All eyes turned forward to see a small floating diamond of stone with a doorway in the side facing them and statues of robed figures around the upper center cone. A platform circled it.

"Is that Cielis?" Emily asked. "Or what's left of it?"

"No, it can't be," Leon said, equally confused. "All surviving records indicate that the Council raised the city from the earth intact–the entire city–and that nothing was left behind. Actually, I'm not really sure what that is."

They sailed toward it slowly, the floating diamond of rock looming larger in their vision as they approached. It seemed incredibly out of place, especially here in the center of a raging storm whose origins had passed out of memory and whose winds had claimed lives beyond count. Details that had eluded them before now came into focus. Chief among them was a large door leading into the floating island and several stone statues carved from the stone—six that they could see, though they estimated that at least a dozen ran the circumference. Enzo brought the Moth to a stop above the outer platform, then Rico threw a rope ladder over the side.

Emily, Trellis, Leon, Enzo and Rico all descended the ladder. Emily was the first down, and she made use of the time it took the others to join her to get a good look at the place. The carved stone statues were immense, standing at least sixty feet tall, and all were of slender builds and had strong faces. The door was almost as high. She looked up to the Moth's gangway and saw her mother leaning over. "You and Navin should stay on the ship, Mom," she called. "We'll go check it out and come back if it's clear."

"Promise me you'll be careful!" Karen hollered back.

"I promise, Mom. This place is deserted, you've got nothing to worry about."

"That's what has me worried."

Emily couldn't keep her eyes from rolling. Her mom's insistence on worrying when there was no reason to worry sometimes grated on her. She sometimes wondered why adults didn't worry themselves to death. Then the little expedition walked through the doorway; Emily, Leon and Trellis went first, while Enzo, Rico and Luger brought up the rear. They entered into a large chamber that appeared much like they imagined the throat of a blown-out volcano would. A few dozen feet above them, smaller in diameter than the chamber, was a floating ring that rotated slowly clockwise and had crenelations on its upper side like a castle wall. The inner surface of the band was like an Oreo sandwich cookie, with two discs and a space in between for creamy vanilla filling. The middle space was recessed, and inside the recess was a long stretch of runes that none of them could read or even begin to guess at their meaning.

And in the very center of the room, floating above a raised circular platform, were several very large pieces of crystal. Runes and icons that glowed azure blue and were connected by lines adorned the shards. The images differed in shape and design, but were of the same general size. Of those they saw, there was a swirl, a circle with a single dot in the center, a circle with four dots arranged in a diamond formation, and two lines that swirled in toward each other and met at the center.

Consulting Silas' diary, Leon said, "According to the book, this island os some sort of beacon. This is some kind of puzzle that must have been placed here to test those seeking passage to the city."

Emily stared in wonder at the floating shards. "How are those suspended like this?"

"The island and these rocks," Luger answered, "are imbued with a special energy—the same energy that powers your stone."

Leon's found something in the book. "Emily. Trellis. Let's begin."

Back on the ship, Navin was yanking on a wrench trying to tighten a bolt. During his time in Alledia, he'd become proficient in many things he'd never even thought he had any talent for. Among them were piloting, as demonstrated when he flew the Moth through the funnel clouds in the storm, and mechanicking. At the moment he was trying to shore up the little vessel's reactor core, which had begun to come apart during their wild maneuvering through the storm.

He was just fitting the wrench for another turn when Samson shook his arm and meeped urgently at him. "Hey, settle down," he told it, but the little robot continued to meep like the sky was falling. "Can't you see I'm busy?" he demanded. Suddenly a hand was over his mouth, and in the next thirty seconds he and Samson were bound and gagged. Navin let out muffled growls and yells at his assailant, but the elf only turned back to him, raised the weapon in his hand and pressed a finger to his lips.

In the galley, Karen and Rico were working on lunch. "Why do I always get kitchen duty?" Rico complained mournfully as he chopped a carrot.

"Come on, Rico," Karen said cheerfully as she flipped a sizzling pan of sausages, mushrooms and beans. "We all need to eat before we get to Cielis."

"But I can't even cook!"

"This is just as important as what they're doing." Suddenly she felt the four pointed ends of some sort of weapon pressing against her head, and she froze.

"Hold still," said a grating voice. "Put your hands where I can see them."

Karen started to comply, then grabbed the panhandle and brought the dish smashing into the side of the attacker's head. "Rico! Warn the others!" Rico turned to leave, but bashed his head against a box on the wall and fell to the floor, unconscious. "No!" Suddenly she found herself raised by the throat and held against that same wall. "Let go of me!" she ordered.

The elf looking up at her grinned, showing his sharp teeth. "I don't want to hurt you," he said in a voice a smooth as silk. "I only want to join your little party. And I'll need your help."

"Or what!?" The elf's grin widened, and she almost shivered.

Emily and Trellis reached out with their minds and tapped into their stones' vast reserves of power, then guided tendrils of that power toward the crystal shards. "Very good," Leon said, nodding in approval. "Now guide the pieces together." The Stonekeepers complied with his direction and began to fit the pieces into their proper places. It took only minutes, then Trellis moved the final shard into the only place it could go. It slid into the empty space with a crystalline tap.

Suddenly the reconstructed beacon began to thrum and glow, drawing in waves of energy from all directions, then the whole chamber became filled with a deep rumbling noise. Bits of rock fell from the ceiling, then the beacon lit up brighter than the brightest lighthouse and shot a beam of blinding blue light upward through the hole at the peak of the island.

"What happens now, chief?" Enzo asked.

"We wait," Leon told him. "It's all we can do."

"How considerate of you," grated a voice that made them all turn. An elf stood at least a dozen yards away with a very angry-looking woman of slender build and blond hair between him and them, pressing some sort of weapon to her head. "Looks like we're late for the party," he told the woman.

"Mom!" Emily cried.

"Stand back, Stonekeeper!" the elf ordered. "This weapon was made to kill your kind; you don't want to see what it does to the less fortunate." He paused for a few heartbeats, then added, "Personally, I'm more than a little curious to see the results."

"That voice," Luger gasped. "I know that voice."

"You made my hunt so easy it was almost trivial. I only had to slip aboard during that wyvern attack and hide under the good captain's cargo. You were so preoccupied with finding the Flying City that you never even paused to think that maybe you had a stowaway. Really, are you so naive?"

"Shut your toothy mouth and let her go!" Emily demanded.

"I've informed the elf king of this temple's location," the elf said. "It's only a matter of time before the forces of Gulfen ravage Cielis once more." He smiled evilly at them. "How does it feel to know you're responsible for the fall of the Guardian Council?"

"Emily," Trellis whispered, "I can get you maybe ten seconds."

Without shifting her gaze, Emily whispered back, "What?"

"I can protect your mother for a brief moment. It will distract him and leave him open to attack. You'll have just enough time to strike him down."

"How do you intend to do that?"

"Just follow my lead."

The elf holding Karen hostage looked up and laughed. "Come on down, you guardian scum! We'll be ready!"

Finally something in Luger's memory clicked into place. "That's it! I know who you are!" he exclaimed, pointing a finger at the elf. "You're Gabilan, the one who did this to me! You're the one who made me forget everything!"

The elf shifted his gaze to look at him and said, "I was only following your father's orders, Luger."

"My father?" Luger gasped.

"What?" Trellis blurted.

"Luger's your brother?" Emily asked.

Gabilan chuckled deep in his throat, a low and vile sound. "Oh Luger, you didn't know? I must have done a better job than I thought."

Suddenly Trellis leapt forward and cried, "Now Emily!" He lashed out with an arm of magic and snatched Karen from Gabilan's grip. Taking her cue, Emily shot a burst of brilliant red energy that caught Gabilan square in the chest and flung him backward. Trellis brought Karen to the group and set her down gently. "Now stay back," he told the others. "Emily and I will handle this." The two Stonekeepers turned to face their foe.

"Is that all you've got, Stonekeeper?" Gabilan snarled. He lifted up his left arm and a shield formed on his wrist; from his right gauntlet emerged a twelve-inch blade. "Let's see how well you fight!"

Emily lashed out with a powerful beam of magic, which Gabilan caught with his shield. The energy sank into it like a sponge. "It's absorbing their attacks!" Luger observed. The energy arced over to Gabilan's right arm and shot down the gauntlet and finally from the blade at his wrist. Emily and Trellis overcame their shock just in time to avoid the attack. Gabilan laughed.

"It's his shield!" Emily told Trellis. "Don't hit the shield!"

"I'll work my way around it," Trellis answered, and let loose with a winding beam that Gabilan also caught and turned against him. The redirected energy hit Trellis square in the gut, propelling him back through the wall and would have thrown him from the island entirely had he not managed to grab a small but sturdy plant right at the edge. He looked down into the eye of the Golbez storm below him, panting, then to draw himself back up. Bringing his eyes above the rim, he saw a boot and looked up to see who was wearing it just as a fist caught him in the face.

It's time to finish this dance, Emily, the stone told its wearer. Now focus.

Gabilan glared at her. "You Stonekeepers make me sick. Your powers were simply given to you; you never had to earn them. And still you can't defeat a simple elf. Despite your abilities, you're as perceptive as toddlers and easily outwitted."

Let's show him how we match his wits. You know what to do.

Emily let loose a tendril that flew past Gabilan and seemed to sink into the wall. Nearly too late did he realize that she'd actually pulled out an enormous rock and evaded its crushing weight by a hair. But Emily didn't stop there: She continued to pull boulders free from other places in the chamber, breaking them up until they were small but heavy enough to do the work she wanted them to do, then bringing them down on Gabilan, half-burying him. Then she plucked him from the pile. "You think you're in control," he told her, "but you're not. The stone has its own agenda. And when it's finished with you, you'll die like all the others."

"Jealousy births hatred," Emily said, then threw him out of the chamber and from the island entirely. He would have fallen to his death in the storm below had his thunderbird not caught him.