by Tony Abbott
Title Page
Dedication
1: Wayfarers All
2: The Magical Grove of Magic
3: To the Blue Flame
4: The Moon and the Smoke
5: Burned by Silver Fire
6: Hand to Hand
7: Palace of Smoke
8: And … They’re Off!
9: The Dark Future
10: Under the Black Palace
11: The Magic of the Moon
12: A Very Good Thing
The Adventure Continues …
Also Available
Copyright
“Salamandra, no!” Eric Hinkle shouted as he tumbled head over heels into the roaring time tunnel known as the Portal of Ages. “Stop the Portal now!”
But the thorn queen wouldn’t stop it. “Sorry, Eric. No can do. You’re all on quests now. Two of you in the past, two in the future. Have fun!”
“No more riddles!” Eric shouted. “No more puzzles!”
“That’s it!” said Salamandra. “Pretend it’s a really big puzzle. Then put it all together. You just may save Droon!”
“But what does that mean?”
“Buh-bye!” she said, smiling crookedly. With a twist of her magic staff, Eric and his friends Julie, Keeah, and Neal went hurtling into the coiling, whirling storm of darkness.
“Hey, hey, whoaaaa!” Neal shouted, zooming past Eric in one direction while Julie flew by in another.
Laughing at the top of her lungs, Salamandra flicked her wrist, and Eric was sucked toward a side tunnel. Bracing himself for an instant, he thought back to five minutes earlier.
Five crazy minutes earlier …
They had all been on a mountaintop in the magical world of Droon. He, Princess Keeah, Julie, and Neal had just battled Gethwing, the terrifying four-winged dragon, when Salamandra conjured her magical Portal of Ages.
The Portal’s spinning storm connected times and places in Droon and in Eric’s home, the Upper World.
With a simple turn of her magic staff, Salamandra could have thrown Gethwing far into the past with no chance of ever returning.
Instead, she stood by as the dragon heaved the children one by one into the Portal. Then she stirred them around the whirling time-storm, laughing and laughing.
Had she betrayed them?
At first, Eric thought so.
But at the last second, Salamandra let Eric drag Gethwing into the Portal with him. Then she told him a magic word he did not understand.
Reki-ur-set.
Eric pleaded that he no longer understood ancient words. But Salamandra said the word wasn’t in an ancient language.
It was in his own language.
Reki-ur-set?
What did it mean? Was it a riddle?
Of course it was a riddle. Salamandra was the queen of riddles. She had sent Eric visions and clues for a long time. He barely understood any of them. One thing he did understand, however, was that Salamandra had taken his wizard powers away. On a recent adventure, he had used her magic staff to save his friends. The price he paid was losing every single power he had.
Now, as he struggled not to get hurled away to some distant time and place, Eric stared into Salamandra’s eyes.
They were cold and cruel.
They were mysterious.
And yet … she had told him things.
You’re all on quests now….
“Eric, watch out!” Keeah cried suddenly. “Gethwing’s right behind you!”
Eric jerked his head and saw the giant moon dragon lunging through the time tunnel straight at him. “Nooo —”
“Enough!” shouted Salamandra. She stirred her magic staff, and three quick blasts of wind tore Keeah, Gethwing, and Eric in different directions.
Before Eric could think of what to do — whoosh! — darkness engulfed him, and he fell, fell, fell, until he couldn’t fall anymore.
PLOP!
Eric landed on solid ground, quickly but softly, as if he had fallen out of bed.
“Oh … whoa …”
Opening his eyes, he saw a spiral of thorns whirl briefly in the dark sky above him, then fade to nothing. The Portal of Ages — Salamandra’s magical time tunnel — had disappeared.
Eric sat up.
Everything around him was gray, as if bathed in the last stages of twilight. The landscape reminded him of an old black-and-white photograph. It looked like the surface of the moon.
Focusing as best as he could, Eric determined that he was on a low ridge over a plain of dark earth that stretched for miles in every direction. In the far distance he could see a range of tall black peaks arching up toward the sky.
Nearby lay a large swamp filled with water the color of oil. Its shore was thick with reeds.
“Nice,” he commented. “Where am I? Nowhere?”
He tried to remember all the remote places he had ever learned about in school. The deserts in China. The southern tip of South America. The North Pole.
This didn’t look like any of them.
Eric struggled to his feet and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Hey! Neal? Keeah? Julie? Anyone? Answer me!”
He paused and listened.
There was no response.
Eric wandered over to the swamp and peered in. All he saw was his face surrounded by nothing. He felt like burying his head in his hands. He didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to be anywhere except at the gates of Jaffa City.
He knew that at that very moment Emperor Ko, the foul leader of the beasts, was leading his armies to the royal capital to burn it down.
Eric wanted to help defend Keeah’s beautiful city. Even though he’d lost his powers, he could still fight the beasts. And he would fight them, until he breathed his last.
“Fine,” he said aloud. “I’m on my own —”
Whooooo …
He heard a faraway sound. At first it was low, then it grew louder, as if it were coming closer.
“I don’t like that sound,” Eric said, staring into the distance. “I think I’d better —”
“I think you’d better shhhh!” hissed a voice.
Eric whirled around to face the swamp again. A head was sticking up out of the black water.
“Get in here, Eric!”
He looked closer. The head had a crown on it. “Keeah? Is that you? Why are you in —”
“Get in here!” Keeah said. She jumped out of the water, slapped her hand over his mouth, and dragged him back into the swamp with her.
“Now breathe through this reed and hide under the surface,” she ordered. “He’s coming!”
“What? Who’s coming —”
Keeah stuck a reed in Eric’s mouth and — splash! — pushed his head under the water.
As Eric tried to suck air through the reed and not get water up his nose, Keeah sank down next to him. She pointed up through the water at the black sky above them.
And there he was.
Gethwing. The moon dragon.
In the same place and time as him and Keeah!
The dragon’s four black wings moved slowly through the heavy air. Gethwing’s fiery red eyes scoured the land below as if searching for something. He circled the swamp twice, then flew on over the plains.
Not able to last another second underwater, Eric shot through the surface and breathed out. “Pah! That is so gross!”
“Believe me,” said Keeah, bobbing up next to him, “if there was another way, I’d have done it. But from the moment the Portal dropped me here, I felt him nearby. He’s looking for something … or someone —”
Another sound broke the quiet.
Ah-roo … ah-roo …
It sounded like a wolf howling from the distant mountain peaks. The howl faded as quickly as it had begun.
“I’ve deci
ded,” said Eric. “I don’t like it here.”
“This is no part of Droon I’ve ever seen,” Keeah said, twirling on her heels to dry her clothes and hair. “I hate not knowing where we are.”
Eric felt the same. “Maybe there are clues we’re not seeing. I’ll climb the ridge and try to get a better view.”
As he clambered up the top of the nearby ridge, Eric couldn’t get the image of Ko’s army out of his mind. It was the largest force of torch-wielding beasts he had ever seen.
He knew that while he and the other kids were falling into the Portal, Galen was flying to defend Jaffa City. But he doubted that even the wizard had magic enough to stop Ko’s vicious attack.
As Eric scanned from the ridge, Keeah took a closer look at the strange, hard earth all around them. Her fall from the stormy Portal had been fast, but she wasn’t hurt. She remembered seeing Eric look so small and helpless amid the giant stones.
She knew he hurt without his powers.
Powers!
Keeah’s heart quaked to remember how her parents, King Zello and Queen Relna, rode swiftly to defend their home. Did they have any chance of defeating Ko? Would they be hurt in the battle to come? What would she find when she returned to the present?
“Nothing,” said Eric, returning from the ridge. “Nothing, that is, except for that tiny blue light. Over there. On the tip of that mountain.” He pointed to a dark, jagged mountaintop far away. “Can you see it?”
Keeah stood in front of him, scanning the distance. “Uh … no …”
Eric put his hands on her shoulders and moved her slightly. “There. It looks like it’s in a cave.”
Keeah looked and looked, squinting with all her might, but she didn’t see anything. “You must have really good eyesight.”
Eric breathed deeply. “Maybe. Anyway, Salamandra said we’re on a quest. If we’re supposed to go somewhere and find something, maybe we should go toward that light.”
Keeah nodded. “With any luck, we’ll find out what our quest is. And where Julie and Neal are. And how to save Jaffa City.”
And maybe what ‘Reki-ur-set’ means! thought Eric.
Another eerie call pierced the air. Whoooo!
“Gethwing’s circling back,” said Keeah.
“Okay, but no more swamps,” said Eric.
Keeah smiled. “I agree. Let’s do something basic here. Let’s run!”
“I like it,” said Eric. “To the mountain!”
As they charged across the black earth, trying to stay clear of Gethwing, Eric and Keeah wondered the same thing: Were their friends together, and did they know where they were? And when they were?
Neal’s first thought as he fell from the Portal of Ages was that his turbaned head was the most padded part of him.
His second thought was that he didn’t want to land on his head.
Quick as a wink, Neal whipped off his turban, stretched it wide, and sat in it.
Then he screamed. “Ahhhhhh —”
Then he landed. Thump!
“Uh … oww?”
His fall was fast, but his landing was soft. Realizing he wasn’t hurt, Neal bounced to his feet, wrapped the turban of midnight-blue silk back around his head, and looked around.
He was in a forest, and it was night.
Lush green plants grew up on every side. Vines coiled down from tall trees whose leaves drooped and swayed. Everything was dappled with bright, silver moonlight.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember how he had gotten there. In his mind he saw a half-dozen pizzas floating around, a big bowl of macaroni and cheese, three giant pickles, a half-eaten peanut butter sandwich, and the face of Salamandra, Queen of Shadowthorn.
“Oh, her!” said Neal. “Now I remember. I got thrown into her Portal of Ages. So I landed here in a forest. A forest that is really beautifuuu — uuuff!”
Something heavy dropped onto his back, and he slammed to the ground face-first.
“Thanks for the soft landing!” said a familiar voice.
Neal rolled over and saw Julie standing over him, brushing herself off.
He grumbled, “Sure, sure. Glad I could help.”
Julie pulled him to his feet, then went still. She listened as a breeze played among the high branches. The leaves tinkled like chimes.
“This place,” she whispered. “It seems … I don’t know …”
“Magical?” Neal added. “I know. Which totally makes sense, because Salamandra sent us here. We’re on a quest. I love quests!”
“But a quest for what?” asked Julie.
She knew — they all knew — that even though Salamandra loved riddles and mysteries and secrets and quests and journeys, there was usually a reason behind them.
“The question is … did she send us to Droon or the Upper World?” she said.
Neal frowned. “It’s magical, so probably Droon. Right?”
But Julie knew that the Upper World — their world — was once home to its own brand of astonishing magic. The wizard Galen, his brothers Urik and Sparr, and their mother, Queen Zara, had all been born in the Upper World long ago.
Over the years, magic had nearly disappeared from the Upper World. That was partly the fault of Salamandra, who stole magic in her younger days. Part of it was the passing of time itself.
So, Julie thought, could this be our world?
Neal sniffed. The air smelled like apples baking in an oven. “I read somewhere that traveling in time makes you really hungry.”
Julie gave him a look. “While you think about food, I’ll try to figure out where we are and why we’re here —”
Trees rustled suddenly behind them.
Turning quickly, the two friends spied something hazy moving among the trees. The thing was the size and shape of a giant, but it made no sound of its own. And though they could see the leaves on the trees flutter as the thing passed, they could not see the thing itself.
“Why am I suddenly afraid?” asked Julie.
“Because you’re smart?” said Neal. He realized that the fragrance of apples baking had been replaced by the heavy odor of smoke. “Phew,” he murmured.
“That’s no woodland creature,” said Julie. “It smells like a fire. We need to follow it.”
“Or we could run in the opposite direction,” said Neal. “That’s an option.” Julie narrowed her eyes at him. “Or not. Your idea is good, too.”
“Then let’s go,” she said, peering through the heavy growth of trees. “But not on the ground. Let’s follow it from the treetops.”
Neal broke into a grin. Flying was one of his favorite genie powers. “I like how you think. Or even that you think!”
“At least one of us should,” Julie retorted.
Together the two friends leaped into the trees and flitted from one branch to another, following the thing through the woods below.
But the forest was vast and dense. The faster they flew, the more lost they got. Stopping finally, they realized that the being, whatever it was, was either gone or hiding.
“Now what?” asked Neal. “I don’t smell smoke anymore. It’s more like … like …” He sniffed. “Baked apples again. This way!”
Together, the two flew on until they squeezed through a thicket of vines and tumbled into a grove of leafy apple trees.
Bright silver moonlight played upon the trees’ fragrant white blossoms.
The moon shone full on them like a silver spotlight. In the middle of the grove was a perfectly round white stone. There was a circular indentation the size of a small saucer in the center of the stone.
Flames licked the sides of the stone from a fire pit underneath, making the stone seem like an anvil. There were tools scattered all around it.
“I can’t believe it!” whispered Julie.
“You found the baked apples?” said Neal.
“No. I think that maybe … this is our world,” she said. “A moonlit grove. An anvil. Tools. What does this make you think of?”
Neal closed his
eyes. Among the floating pizzas, there were now several bowls of cereal and a single silver disk beaming with light.
His eyes popped open. “Wait. A round silver thing? The Moon Medallion? Are you saying that we’re, like, five hundred years ago?”
The ancient and powerful Moon Medallion had been created by Queen Zara before the world of Droon had been discovered. It contained all of the queen’s vast and powerful wizard magic.
Julie searched the grove for other clues, then stopped. “Oh …”
“Oh?” Neal turned to her. “Oh … what?”
Julie gulped. “Oh … her.”
A woman had entered the grove. She was dressed in a silver gown and wore a silver diadem around her head. She was armored from neck to waist with a tunic of hammered silver.
It was Zara, the Queen of Light.
Both Neal and Julie realized at once that they had arrived in the Upper World before Emperor Ko had attacked and kidnapped Zara and her youngest son, Sparr.
As Julie bowed, her mind raced. “Queen Zara, we’ve never met before. We are from … five hundred years in the future. I’m Julie. This is Neal.”
Zara gazed into their eyes. “I think you are friends….”
Julie nodded. “We hope so.”
Neal tried to sort out in his mind how time twisted and turned and how he could be back before he was born, but all he saw were pickles and macaroni, so he gave up.
“Something called the Portal of Ages threw us here,” he told Zara. “Our friends Eric and Keeah are probably in different places and times, and we’re all on quests, only we don’t know what —”
All of a sudden, the leaves rustled, and a young boy swung down on a vine and landed in front of Julie and Neal.
“Who goes there?” he demanded.
The boy looked nearly their age and wore a cape of deep blue with stars and moons on it. He carried a short, curved staff in one hand.
Neal gasped. “Whoa … are you Galen?”
The boy grinned. “You’ve heard of me?”
“Uh …”
“Was it the flood I stopped single-handedly?” the boy asked eagerly. “Or did you hear about me and the seven-headed tree-dwarf? The Backward Clock of Time? The Waterfall of Fiery Blades? You really can’t believe some of the stories they tell about me. You can believe all of them! I’m writing them down in a book I call the Galen Chronicles.”
