Ceciliate and Sarah reached the door to the off-limit rooms. During the past ten minutes, they hadn’t encountered anyone else.
“Let’s do this,” Ceciliate said, turning the doorknob.
The door slowly pushed open. Ceciliate peaked inside. Seeing no one, she entered, and signaled for Sarah to follow.
The inner hall wasn’t like Sarah had imagined. Rather than a straight hall, it was a round room. Seven doors lined the walls, counting the door she’d just come through.
“Each door is a different color,” Sarah observed. She looked back. “At we came through a white one.”
“Look at this,” Ceciliate said, looking closely at the red door. “There’s an imprint up here in the middle.” She looked down along the door. “And there’s no doorknob. Only the white door has a doorknob.” She looked to doors to her right. “And there’s the green one.”
The girls walked to the green door. Sarah slid her fingers over the impression in the door with one hand, pulling the green jewel from her pocket with the other. “I think they’re…” She lifted the jewel to the impression, carefully placing it inside. “They are. They’re the same size.”
The jewel firmly pressed into place, the doorway pressed open. The two entered, Sarah carefully taking hold of the jewel and removing it from the impression. Seeing the same kind of impression on the back of the door, she closed the door.
“There are no lights in here,” Ceciliate noted, the door closing having blocked the light of the wall lamps outside the room. A tiny flame flickered in front of Ceciliate as she lit of small handheld lamp. “Would you look at this? The walls, the ceiling, the floor, it’s all covered in rocks of green jewel, like the walls inside a cave.” Sarah following close behind her, Ceciliate followed a vein where the green jewel meshed with stone, goes into the wall. Veins of blue jewel peeked out from under the wall. “These stones and jewels aren’t built in this room, this room is built on top of these stones and jewels. These six rooms might very well be the center of all the continents.”
“What does it all mean?” Sarah asked.
“It means the six rainbow-colored jewels aren’t intended to be used the way they’re being used. They’re intended to be used as keys to even greater power.”
Something caught Sarah’s attention as Ceciliate talked. She walked away from Ceciliate, observing a reflection on the wall. Noticing Sarah’s distraction, Ceciliate joined her, holding the lamp up to the reflective surface built into the back stone wall.
“Unbelievable,” Ceciliate said. “It’s a giant Dream Mirror. See how it reflects the room, but neither of us? Amazing. Using this, you could view any dream on the green planet. Using the power of these jewels, a whole room of power, and the Dream Mirror, I think I can see how our ancestors were even able to travel to other planets, not just in mind, but in body as well. With these, we really can save Lady Alsike. I know we can.”
Sarah placed a hand on the mirror. “It doesn’t help me any. I want to see how Samuel’s doing.”
At that time, Shamrock balanced on large pieces of rock, surrounded by flowing lava, on the orange planet. He could feel the weak pulse of the orange jewel closer to the top of the active volcano. Bernard and Alfalfa watched from the foot of the volcano.
“Do you really think he’ll give us the orange jewel?” Alfalfa asked.
“Not likely,” Bernard told him. “Still, it’s too dangerous for either of us to go after it. We’ll let him fetch it for us, the we’ll see what happens.”
A break in the side of the mountain near the volcano’s top formed a cave. The pulse of the inactive orange jewel came from inside.”
By the touch of his earring, Shamrock conjured a bridge over the lava, and to the cave. He hurried along, as the wood bridge started to melt into the lava. The cave didn’t go too far in, and the jewel rested in a small hole in the wall. Ink hieroglyphs decorated the area of wall around the opening.
“This jewel was definitely brought here by a person. Someone brought the jewel to this dangerous place, wrote a message here, and then left. I wish I could read it. It might explain why the jewel’s here in the first place.” He took the jewel in his fingers. “Maybe there was a reason for it. Maybe the jewels needed to be spread out far apart, and now we’re bringing them back together again. I guess it was bound to happen. Even if Sarah and I never used the jewel, Piñole would have sent someone to come and take them from me. I just hope it’s safe to let Piñole have so many of the jewels.”
Shamrock left the cave, and worked hi way back down the volcano, avoiding streams of lava. At the bottom, he found Bernard and Alfalfa.
“Go head,” Bernard told Alfalfa. “We can trust him. Give him the yellow jewel, then receive the orange jewel in its place.”
The two made the transaction. With both sides satisfied with the exchange, they vanished from the planet, returning to the orange continent. There, Shamrock headed straight for the palace, following the feel of the green and violet jewels.
“Wait,” Alfalfa called out, running up to Shamrock. “Master Bernard says if you’re going into the palace, you’ll never reach your destination. If you plan to purify the jewel, I can smuggle you in. Anywhere you need to go in the palace, I’ll lead you there. I know all the back-entrances.”
“Thanks, Alfalfa. You’re a good person. If this jewel can be purified, Arle will hopefully get better. Clover’s probably keeping her safe right now, waiting for my arrival. We should hurry. The sooner Arle is better, the sooner Clover and I can discuss with Piñole whatever the terms are for peace between us. I don’t know why everything going on recently has happened, but I’m sure we can put it all behind us, and work together as friends.”
