Found by Sarah Prineas

knapsack, I went back to searching. The mouth of the cave grew brighter as the midday sun shone down on the cave’s doorstep. Inside stayed dark-dim. I gave up on the pile I’d slept on and moved to the next pile. I climbed onto it and started pushing some of the rocks aside, when I caught a glimpse of something glitter-bright.There, right under two plain brown stones. I picked it up and polished the dust off it with the hem of my sweater. It was about as big as a hen’s egg, and deep blue.
    I caught my breath. “ Lothfalas ,” I whispered.
    The stone lay quiet in my hand. Drats. I’d know my locus stone when I found it, and this wasn’t it.
    I tossed the jewel stone aside. It tumbled down the side of the stone heap and dribbled out onto the floor. I stared down at it, shining softly in the late-afternoon light from the cave mouth.
    Oh. I was being stupid. The blue stone was a jewel. Just like my first locus magicalicus had been. I looked around the wide, dark cave, at the piles of stones all over the floor. They wouldn’t respond to the lothfalas spell because they weren’t mine, but all of these stones were locus magicalicii, weren’t they? What were they doing here? Had they been collected here? Why?
    Not something I could answer now. I got back to my search.
    When my voice was hoarse from saying lothfalas over and over again, my empty stomach told me it was time for something to eat.
    I shuffled through the stones scattered across the floor, picked up my knapsack, and scuffed over to the cave mouth. I looked out. The sun had gone down behind the mountains. Cold air breathed in from outside; I shivered and hunched into my coat. My stomach growled.
    I dug through the knapsack, looking for the packet of dried apples. I took a drink of water from the canteen, which was almost empty, and pulled everything out of the knapsack to look again.
    The apples were gone.
    Just like the biscuit, in the morning. I hadn’t miscounted; I’d never miscount biscuits.
    The cave must have rats, just like in Rat Hole, where I’d lived in the Twilight. Those rats had nibbled at everything, even soap and books and candles, even the bristles of my toothbrush.
    I looked around the cave. A little leftover sunset shone in, but it was almost completely dark exceptfor the glimmer of silver water on the cave walls, way across from me.
    “Stay out of my bag, you rats,” I said.
    No scurry of feet or squeaking.
    Oh, well. I broke a biscuit in two and ate one of the halves and put the other half in my coat pocket; then I slung my knapsack onto my back. They were good thieves, these rats, but they couldn’t steal my food from under my nose.
    I went back to searching until I fell asleep.

CHAPTER 19
    I n the morning I woke up with the knot of worry in my chest getting tighter. This search was taking too long. It’d take me days to walk all the way back to Wellmet, and I’d be starving by the time I got there.Arhionvar might be in the city by that time, and I had no way to tell Nevery I was all right and coming home as soon as I could. Sure as sure Rowan would tell him about the dragon, though.

    My knapsack was under my head like a pillow. When I checked inside it, another biscuit had gone missing.
    “Curse it!” I shouted. I was going to run out of food before I found my locus magicalicus. My pencil and paper were gone, too.
    I got out the canteen and the tin cup and, carrying the knapsack, went outside to collect some snow for water.
    I stood on the cave doorstep and looked out. The sun was just coming up, and the snowfield and steps before the cave mouth were deep in the shadow of the mountain. I crouched at the edge of the doorstep and scooped up some snow in the tin cup. Thirsty, I ate some mouthfuls of snow, then set the cup down. When the sun came ’round the mountain, the doorstep would get warm and thesnow would melt and I’d have water to drink.
    As I was standing up, a swoop-whoosh shadow passed overhead. I crouched down,