THE DIAMOND AND THE PEARL

5.

Gaelry

The next morning when April awoke the sun was shining, the sky was a pretty, light, blue, with little, white, fluffy, clouds here and there in it, and there was a gentle breeze that came up every now and then. There wasn't one sign of rain anywhere in the sky.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!" squawked Lolly, flapping wildly on the branch above April's head.

April was damp and very stiff from lying against the tree all night. Unable to jump up as usual, she slowly made her way to the others.

They had bread and water for breakfast (Lolly had some to), and then they started out again.

"What does Gaelry mean?" April asked Carl.

"Gaelry?" Carl said in a strange tone. "It doesn't mean anything really. It's the name of a magical sword. But if you touch it, you turn to stone. So no one really knows if it's magical or not."

"Learn to stone,' could be 'turn to stone,' April thought, remembering the night and the voice.

"How did you hear of Gaelry anyway?" Carl asked.

Before April could even open her mouth to answer, the ground under their horses' hooves gave way. The horses reared in fright, and they all found themselves falling or rather rolling down a huge tunnel. In a moment they all came to a thudding stop at the bottom. "Oh, oh, my poor, poor wings and feathers; they're all dirty." squawked Lolly.

April stood up and brushed herself off, and then she looked around. A cold shiver went down her spine as she realized where she was.

She was in the very same cave where she had seen the black cloaked man enter the night before. There were the chests. There was the gold, diamonds, and pearls. There were the pictures, and there in the center of the room was the sword.

April started back toward the tunnel, but Mitch who had caught sight of the sword was walking toward it.

"Hey! Look at this!" he said excitedly.

Both April and Carl leapt toward him at the same time.

"Don't touch it!" they both yelled.

"Why not?" Mitch asked. "It won't do any harm just to touch

it.

"You'll turn to stone," April blurted out.

"How do you know that?" Carl said.

So April told them what she and Lolly had seen last night and about the words she had heard.

"But there's no stone people here," Mitch protested.

They all looked around. He was right. In fact, there wasn't a stone (except for the huge rock in sight.

"No there isn't." Carl said. "But she is right. It is Gaelry."

Martha, who had not spoken one word since they had fallen into the cave, spoke up. "Did you say that the words said not to touch the rock?"

"Yes," April replied.

"Well, what if you touch the sword?,, Martha said

"What?" April asked.

Martha picked up two pearls and walked up to the sword and rock. Then she took one pearl and threw it at the rock. It immediately turned to dull stone.

Then, she took the other pearl and threw it very hard at the sword. It bounced off the sword and fell to the ground at Martha's feet. She bent down and picked it up. It was still a gleaming pearl.

Everyone stared at the pearl in her hand.

"Well, it's still a pearl isn't it?" Mitch said. "So let's take it."

He started for the sword.

"No, wait!" April cried. "I think I might know why you turn to stone when you try to get the sword. You see, even though the sword is harmless, the rock is so big that in order to pull the sword you'll have to touch the rock, too."

"Then, how in the world are we supposed to get it out?" Mitch shouted in frustration.

"Let me think," April said. "Ha! I've got an idea. Do you still have those weeds with you, Mitch?"

"Weeds? What weeds?" Martha asked.

"You know, those weeds that we used to catch the dragon."

"Well," April said, "he brought some of the leftover weeds with him. Just in case they'd ever come in handy, held said.,,

"Yeh, I still have them," Mitch said, "except they're up there with the horses.,,

Lolly squawked happily, "I'll get them! I'll get them! I'll get them!"

"Okay, Lolly," April said. "Go on."

Lolly flew up and got the remaining weeds. Then, flew back down with them in his beak.

April took the weeds and examined them carefully.

"Lolly, could you go up and tie this end of the weeds to a tree?" April asked the parrot.

Lolly looked at the weeds for a few minutes.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he squawked in reply.

Lolly took the end of the weeds and flew through the cave entrance. He looked around for a second or two; then, he spotted a tall oak not far away. He flew over to it and tied the end of the weeds around its trunk. Then he flew back down to the others.

"Ready! Ready! Ready!" he squawked.

April turned to Martha and said, "Come on, we have to go up."

"Why?" asked Martha.

"If we go up, we can throw the weeds down to Carl and Mitch," April explained. "And between the two of them, they should be able to wrap the weeds around the sword. Then Lolly can bring the end of the weeds up to us, and we can pull the sword out.,,

"But we can't pull it through the tunnel," Martha pointed out. "We don't have to," April said, surprised. "The hole above the sword -- we can pull it out that way."

All of their eyes went to the sword, then up; and sure enough there was a hole above the sword, and it was a big hole.

"Come on 11 said April to Martha while she took hold of the weeds. "Let's go up.,,

Slowly, they made their way up. When they reached the top, they

went to the tree, untied the weeds, and threw them down to the boys. Then, they waited.

Down in the cave Carl and Mitch took the weeds and started wrapping them very tightly around the sword.

Then Carl said to Lolly, "Come and take these two ends of the weeds, and bring them up to April and Martha.,,

Lolly took the ends of the weeds and flew up through the hole in the roof. He gave the weeds to the girls.

April took hold in front, and Martha in back.

"Okay," said April, "on the count of three, we pull. One ... two ... three!"

Both girls pulled with all their might, not expecting the sword to come out easily. Instead it nearly flew out of the rock, and both girls tumbled backward. The sword plopped onto the ground next to April.

They both looked at the sword. It didn't look like the same sword that they had seen in the cave embedded in the stone, just a few minutes ago. Instead of a plain black hilt, it now was gold with diamonds and rubies all over it. The coal black scabbard and sword belt had gems on them too, and here and there were designs in gold as well. When you pulled the sword from it's scabbard, the sword's point shone in the sun.

"Hey, Martha, April, would you mind maybe throwing the weeds down so we can climb up," Carl's voice came through the hole.

"Oh, right away," April said a little startled. With the excitement of the sword, she had forgotten all about the boys still down in the cave.

She and Martha ran to the hole and lowered the weeds again. In a few minutes, they were all standing in the sunshine.

"Well, where's the sword?" Mitch asked.

"Over here," April said. She ran to the hole and picked the sword up. Because of all the gold and gems, she had expected it to be heavy, but to her surprise it was light as a summer breeze. She quickly ran back to the others and propped the sword on a big rock so that they all could see it.

"Golly, it's beautiful!" Mitch said. "It didn't look like that at all in that dark, old cave.,,

"Sparkle! Sparkle! Sparkle!" Lolly squawked loudly.

Without saying a word, Carl unfastened the broken sword that hung around his waist and fastened Gaelry on.

Then, he took the old broken sword and the sword belt and threw them down the cave entrance. Immediately all signs that the cave had ever been there disappeared.

"Why did you do that?" Martha asked.

"It's no use to me anymore," Carl replied, as he mounted Morjen.

The rest of them mounted also, and they stared off.

Ahead of them was a challenge beyond any of their imaginations.

6.

Stone Grave

Martha looked up. Huge boulders and stones were rolling very fast down the rocky slope she was climbing. "Help! Help!" she screamed.

But Mitch, April, Carl, and Lolly weren't near enough to hear her. Then there was a flash, and a blazing sword with a golden hilt and a point as white as snow was in front of her. The sword shone so bright that it was as if the sun was in front of her eyes.

Suddenly she sat up. She was trembling from head to foot, it was pitch dark, and she had been resting against a huge tree trunk. It was just a nightmare she realized. She closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

All five of them were starting out again on the third day of their search -- four riding and one flying. They had just finished a breakfast of bread and water which Mitch had grumbled a lot about. He could not understand why they had to eat bread and water for breakfast two days in a row and wanted to know why they couldn't have scrambled eggs. It had taken awhile to make him understand that there wasn't any place nearby that they could get eggs. It was a little cloudy, but it looked like the rain might hold off until the next day, at least that's what they all hoped (not a one of them relished the thought that they might have to walk the other third of the island in a rain storm).

In a little bit they came to a huge hill of stones that seemed to go on endlessly in both directions, east and west.

April dismounted and approached the stones. "Hey, there's a little sign down here!" she exclaimed.

"Well, what does it say?" Mitch grumbled. He was still upset about breakfast.

"It ... it says 'Stone Gravel," April replied, a little puzzled. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Grave! Grave! Grave! Dead! Dead! Dead!" squawked Lolly.

"But where is it? asked Mitch. "I don't see any grave anywhere near here."

"I go look! I go look!" squawked Lolly. He flapped his wings violently, and flew higher into the air. He flew back and forth a few times looking for any sign that there might be a graveyard nearby. Then he flew back down and perched on Carl's shoulder.

"No grave! No grave! No grave!" squawked Lolly.

"Well, let's not spend all day looking for some grave. Let's go," April said. "We have a ways to go yet, and it's going to take a little while to get across these rocks anyway."

With that she put one foot on the Rocks, and immediately the ground gave way underneath her foot. She gave a little yelp and jumped back.

"I ... I think we have found the gravel, April said, a little shakily.

"What do you mean?" Mitch asked.

"Watch!" April said.

She went off a little ways and picked up a big stone, then she came back.

"What are you going to do with that?" Mitch asked. He was becoming more and more puzzled.

"What do? What do? What do?" Lolly squawked.

"Just watch," April said. She raised her hand and threw the stone as hard as she could. It went about six feet up the rocks. They saw the rocks part underneath the stone and swallow it up. They all looked with astonishment at the place where the stone had been.

. It's death to anyone who goes across there," Carl said in a low voice.

"Yeh, and an unpleasant death, too," April agreed.

"Well, the rocks can't go on forever. Can they?" Martha said. "If we go east or west far enough we should come to the end of them."

Carl gave Martha a doubtful look but said nothing.

"End! End! End! Charlie, Martha, April, and me find end!" Lolly squawked.

"Would someone stop the bird," Mitch said. He had noticed that Lolly had not included him in his list of names.

Carl gave Lolly a hard look, and Lolly snapped his beak shut and didn't say another word.

So they started off going east first and then west. After two hours they stopped. They were no better off than when they had begun.

As they all sat in despair trying to think of a way to get across the rocks, memories of Martha's dream started coming back to her -- boulders coming down toward her, the blazing light, and the sword in front of her blocking the boulders.

Suddenly, Martha jumped up. "Carl!" she yelled.

Startled, Carl looked up.

"I need the sword," Martha said.

Carl looked slightly puzzled, but he started to unbuckle the sword belt.

"No, just the sword," Martha said.

Carl looked even more puzzled, but he unsheathed the sword and gave it to her.

She took it and held it out at arm's length. Its blade pointing toward the sun. Then she walked forward onto the rocks. To all their amazed eyes, they couldn't see one rock fall underneath her feet.

"Perhaps," said Carl, "if one of us holds onto the sword and we all hold hands, we can all go over the rocks without being buried."

"I'll see if it works," April said.

April went and held Martha's hand. Now, she found she could stand on the rocks next to Martha without the rocks giving way.

"Well, we know we can cross," said April. "But what about the horses?"

"We'll have to ride them without using our hands," Carl said.

April looked up at him a little scared.

Carl smiled, "I'm kidding. We can lead the horses with one hand and touch each others' hands with the other."

Martha held the sword with her left hand and led her horse with her right hand, then came April, with her left hand clutching Martha's wrist and with her right hand holding her horse's reins, then came Mitch doing the same and then Carl. Lolly flew over. Slowly but surely they made their way. It was hard work because they had to be careful that they didn't let go of each others' wrists.

Finally, they stepped onto the grass on the other side of the stone grave, and for the first time they looked around.

It was a beautiful valley on the other side of the stone grave. There were bushes in bloom everywhere, and trees with bright green leaves. The whole countryside was strewn with wild flowers of white, pink, purple, blue, yellow, and even a few rainbow-colored ones here and there. The sky was a pale blue, although occasionally a white, puffy cloud would float by. A little stream flowed though the valley, and not far off they could hear a waterfall.

After they had walked a little ways, they saw a berry bush.

"Berries!" April exclaimed. "Hey, Mitch, we won't have to eat just bread and water."

April, Mitch, and Martha ran to pick the berries. Carl and Lolly, who was perched on Carl's shoulder, did not; both Carl and Lolly were examining a large rock on the ground.

Suddenly, Carl jumped up and ran over to where the girls and Mitch were picking handfuls of berries. Seeing that April was just about to put a berry into her mouth, Carl grabbed her hand. Startled, April dropped the berry.

"Do Not Eat Anything," Carl commanded.

"Why not?" asked Mitch. "I'm hungry."

Carl went over, picked up the rock, came back and sat it down in front of them so that they could all see it.

They all looked and saw these words: "DEATH VALLEY."