by Tony Abbott
“It’s a fantasy!” said an older boy, bounding through the trees. It was Urik, the eldest of Zara’s three sons. On his back he wore a bundle that squeaked when he entered the clearing.
“Boys,” said Zara. “These are friends from the future. They have come on a quest.”
All at once, Julie realized that Urik’s bundle was none other than his baby brother, Sparr.
The older boy bowed. “Urik, at your service. Mother, I just saw a shape without a shadow, a presence in our sacred woods.”
The two children looked at each other.
“Holy cow! Are we dense?” said Julie.
“I know!” said Neal. “Wait a minute. About what?”
“It all makes sense now,” said Julie. “It’s so simple. That’s how Ko finds out about you!”
“Something is simple?” said Neal.
“Wait,” said Urik. “Who is Ko?”
“Ko is the terrible emperor of the beasts,” said Julie. “He comes here from the world of Droon to … find you. But how does he know about you? It’s so simple. He sends his creepy phantom here first. That’s who is in your forest. Saba. He’s Ko’s phantom and a very bad creature.”
Galen’s jaw dropped. “Uh … that’s a lot of information.”
“It gets worse!” said Julie. “First of all —”
Suddenly, she paused. Was it right to tell them what would happen? Back in the present, Galen had warned them over and over not to share their knowledge of what would happen in the future. It could change the past and, therefore, change the present in ways they couldn’t predict.
“Well, it just gets worse,” she said.
“Then we need to defend the forest,” said Zara. “Urik. If you don’t mind?”
Her oldest son smiled slyly. “Oooh, I love this one. It’s something new I thought up. Ready? Watch this!”
Urik waved his arms and hummed a little tune under his breath. All at once, the trees began to grow together to form a wall. Leaves fluttered, branches slithered together, roots squeaked. In no time, a wall several feet thick had grown around them. As the children watched, it seemed to them that the whole wall moved and breathed as if it were alive.
Then Zara cocked her head and listened. “I hear this phantom creature coming. Galen, take Sparr to the tree house. Urik, children, hide in the trees. Hurry!”
Suddenly, a tremendous wind roared around the grove. The trees shook, the ground quaked, and the air darkened with the smell of smoke.
After an hour spent tramping across the rocky black earth, Eric and Keeah paused to catch their breath. They had scanned the skies every few minutes but had not seen Gethwing since they started out.
“He’s still out there,” Keeah murmured softly. “Not close, but not far, either. Don’t ask me why he doesn’t just show himself and attack.”
Eric had wondered the same thing. Only one reason came to mind. “Maybe he needs us,” he said.
“Needs us? But why? What for?”
“To help him find something,” said Eric. “What if he was looking around, then saw us, but doesn’t want to chase us anywhere? He wants to follow us.”
Keeah looked at the distant mountains. To her, they seemed as black as the rest of the landscape. “Because he can’t find it himself. Maybe he can’t see the blue flame, either.”
“Exactly,” Eric said. “So if he is out there watching us, we need to try to throw him off the trail.”
Keeah smiled. “Good idea. Sneaky?”
“Sneaky,” Eric agreed.
The two friends zigzagged quickly across the plains, sometimes splitting up, sometimes turning back, often going far out of their way, all to confuse the moon dragon.
By the time they reached the base of the black mountains, Eric had noticed something else that bothered him. They had been in this strange place for hours, but the light hadn’t changed at all. Besides that, there was no wind. No breeze. No natural sounds. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed as if he and Keeah were not outside at all.
Instead, when Eric glanced up, the sky seemed to him like the underside of a vast black dome. What looked like a single star hung just above the mountaintop, exactly over the tiny blue flame.
“Ready to climb?” Keeah asked him.
“Ready,” he said.
The rocks were sharp, and the way was dangerously steep. Keeah went first, always keeping her eyes focused ahead, trying to find the safest route. Twice they had to backtrack because there was no way forward.
After several hours they were finally in sight of the top. But no sooner had they reached a narrow ledge below the summit than they heard the sound of rapidly padding feet above them and the same howl as before.
Ah-roo ….
“Something’s up there,” whispered Keeah. “I bet it doesn’t want us to get any closer.”
A second later, another howl overlapped the first. Ah-rooo … ooo … ooo!
“There are two of them,” said Eric.
Keeah gulped. “It’s too late to go back down. We have to go forward.”
Eric nodded, and together they made their last and most difficult climb to the peak.
Only when they groped their way over the last shelf of rock did they realize that what Eric had thought was a cave was really a series of tall stones set side by side in a near-perfect circle.
“This is no natural rock formation,” whispered Keeah. “Someone made this.”
Two of the great stones were bent toward each other, forming an arched doorway into the circle. Between the stones, the children could see blue-tipped flames flickering inside a fire pit within.
Taking a breath to gather his courage, Eric nodded. “Okay, I’m going in.”
“I’m right with you,” said Keeah.
“Here I go.”
“With me on your heels,” said Keeah.
“I’m stepping inside right now.”
“I’ll cover you,” said Keeah.
Eric stared into the ring of stones.
“Why aren’t you moving?” asked Keeah.
“I thought I was,” said Eric.
“No, you weren’t.”
Eric searched his mind. Something was preventing him from entering the stone circle, but it wasn’t fear. He didn’t feel afraid.
No, it was something else.
The place was solemn and silent. The fire leaped and danced, but made no sound. Eric felt as if he were standing in front of … as if it were … as if …
“It’s like a holy place,” Keeah whispered.
“You feel it, too!” said Eric. “A holy place. In the middle of all this … nothing.”
He gazed back at the dark plains. Something moved swiftly across the earth, zigzagging here and there in the same pattern they had run. He knew instantly that it was Gethwing. The moon dragon was following their trail to the mountains.
“He tracked us,” said Eric. “I’m going in!”
“After me!” said Keeah.
The two friends dashed under the rocky archway. When they did, the blue flames flared brightly, and while they gave off no smoke, the air was filled with the scent of something sweet.
Apples? thought Eric. It smells like apples.
“What is this place?” asked Keeah. “Or should I ask, whose place is this?”
Spanning the fire pit like a sort of bridge was a thick stone that gleamed like iron and was itself blue when licked by the flames.
Tools, hammers, tongs, rods, mangled chunks of iron, and bars of silver were strewn across the ground around the fire pit.
“It’s a forge,” said Eric, stepping toward it. “A workshop. Someone is making something.” Even as he spoke the words, Eric’s chest began to heave. Making something?
Who was supposed to be making something?
It couldn’t be. Could it?
But things that couldn’t be seemed to be happening all around him.
“It looks like jewelry,” said Keeah, pointing to several small amulets in the ashes.
Eric took up one amulet. Etched on its face was a design he had seen before — an upside-down triangle with a lightning bolt through the center of it. His heart began to pound against his ribs. “Keeah …”
It had suddenly come to him where they might be. “We can’t actually be … there….”
Keeah turned to him. “I don’t like the sound of that. We can’t be where?”
“I think we might be in … the Underworld. Droon’s Underworld,” said Eric.
Keeah turned to him. “The Underworld? Why did Salamandra send us here? There’s nothing in the Underworld. It’s barren. No one lives here except … uhhhh!” She gasped.
Eric knew it, too. He could still barely believe what he was thinking, yet he couldn’t help speaking the name.
“Sparr —”
Keeah shook her head. “This can’t be his forge, can it? Oh, my gosh! This is his forge! Salamandra said, ‘Put it all together.’ What if she meant the Moon Medallion? There are four pieces to the Medallion. Zara created the base, but her sons were supposed to make the other parts. What if we’re in the future at the exact moment when Sparr makes his piece? What if Salamandra sent us here to find it?! Eric —”
There was a movement in the back of the cave, and the two children dived into the shadows. Eric felt his limbs go weak as he watched a two-headed dog hobble out from behind the rocks.
It was Kem, Sparr’s aged pet.
The old dog paused at the fire, sniffed at it, turned one gray head back toward the rocks, then turned the other.
“Is there anyone?” said a voice. “No?”
Eric’s blood turned to ice. Keeah trembled next to him. The last time they had seen Sparr, he was leaping into a bottomless pit with Kem. Though many thought he had died, Eric had never stopped hoping he’d see Sparr again.
A crunch of gravel, a groan, and there was Lord Sparr. He moved slowly among the rocks toward the fire. He was old, very old, and thin and frail. His terrible sorcerer fins, once jagged reminders of his beastly past, had completely disappeared.
His spiked helmet was off. His hair, always jet-black, was now completely silver. His beard — also silver — hung nearly as long as his brother Galen’s.
“Oh, my gosh, what’s happened to him?” Keeah whispered. “Kem is old, too. How far into the future are we?”
Eric knew Sparr was a sorcerer and a son of Zara. He wouldn’t age as quickly as a normal man. But looking like this? How many years had passed since they left Droon?
Sparr stopped before the fire as if hypnotized by it. He stood there for a long time, saying nothing. When sound came from him, Eric did not see the sorcerer’s lips move.
Sparr said a single word.
“Mother …”
All at once, Eric saw a face rise from the fire. It was a woman. Her skin was as white as snow. Her hair was black. Her image seemed as alive as the fire itself.
Eric’s chest ached. His head throbbed.
“Zara?” he whispered.
“What?” asked Keeah, peering over his shoulder. “Where’s Zara? You see Zara?”
Like a glimmering shadow, the shape of the queen emerged from the tongues of flame. She rose above the fire, then moved to her son’s side and whispered into his ear. She took his hands as he worked the hammer and tongs, gesturing, speaking in musical tones.
“She’s talking to him!” Eric whispered.
Keeah moved aside to try to get a better look.
Along with his other powers, Eric had lost his ability to know what Zara was saying to Sparr. But from the way the sorcerer changed his tools or drove the tongs into the fire, he knew she was instructing him.
Sparr drew a red-hot object from the flames and set it on the stone. Then he took up a long, sharpened tool and began to scratch the surface of the device.
Eric couldn’t believe what he saw next.
While normally a thing drawn from a fire cools, the object Sparr had made did not. With each letter the sorcerer engraved upon it, the device grew brighter, and the ring of stones hummed as if they were giant chimes.
But there was another sound, too, faint at first, then louder, and the image of the queen vanished. When Eric turned to the open arch behind him, he heard it more clearly.
Whooo-ooo! The sound was closing in.
Eric stood, his hands tightening into fists.
“Gethwing!” he said. “No way —”
“Who’s there?” said Sparr, his voice faint.
“Gethwing’s coming, Sparr,” said Keeah, bouncing out from her hiding place.
“Gethwing,” said the sorcerer, as if still entranced. “I’ve heard that name before.”
“You can’t let him take what you’ve made,” said Eric. “It’s why he’s come. You need that device. Droon needs it!”
Sparr jerked his head. His eyelids flicked open and closed several times, as if he just now recognized the children. “Gethwing? Coming for this? No, no. I’ve been working too many years.”
“Years?” repeated Eric. “Sparr, we’ve come from the past. How long have you been here?”
Sparr’s eyes focused on a nearby stone that was scratched with marks from top to bottom. “The number stands at a round fifty years.”
“Fifty years!” said Eric. “Whoa —”
Gethwing broke the air with a howl.
“The dragon comes!” said Sparr, tearing himself away from the fire. “Stand fast, children. Kem, behind me. Eric, with me now. You are needed. Keeah, you as well. The three of us together!”
“But I lost my powers,” said Eric. “Besides, we’re sort of defenseless up here.”
“Oh?” A thin smile curled over Sparr’s lips, reminding Eric of the powerful sorcerer he used to know. “Before I understood what I was to make, I forged these. Kem?”
The old dog pounced on a pile of rocks and ashes and discarded metal objects. From it, he pulled three long blades. They were crooked, misshapen, wicked-looking swords with edges as jagged as saws.
“Battle blades!” said Keeah.
Sparr grinned. “I had to test the fire somehow, didn’t I?”
One blade coiled, another was curved like a ship’s keel, while the third zigzagged like a lightning bolt.
“Now these swords shall be tested in a real battle,” said Sparr. “And I think we shall be tested, too, no?”
“Yes,” said Keeah, cutting the air with her sword.
“Come, Eric,” said Sparr, taking up position on the summit. “Real power is in the heart. You may have no magic, but is your heart strong?”
“I think so,” said Eric.
“Yes?” asked Sparr, searching him with his black eyes.
“Yes,” said Eric. “Yes!”
“Then fight for your life!” said Sparr.
No sooner had he spoken than the terrifying black wings of the moon dragon flashed overhead, and Gethwing dived at the ring of stones.
Neal’s fingers sparked inside the fortress of trees. Julie stood behind Zara and Urik. Galen, just back from hiding baby Sparr, crouched next to them, poised for Saba’s attack.
As solid a wall as the trees made, the phantom battered them. He tore at them with his four powerful hands. Again and again he charged at the trees. All at once, there was a squeal of pain and a tree flew out of the earth and hurtled across the grove.
“Tree killer!” said Galen. “I don’t like you!”
Saba charged into the grove howling. “Arrr! I have hunted you for days. Now I find you! My master, Ko, wants magic! He shall have yours!”
“How about … no!” yelled Urik.
With all their might, the three wizards stood together like a wall. They raised their fingers and fired at Saba.
Wha—boooom!
With a blast that shook the forest, the phantom was hurled out of the grove and vanished away into the trees.
The grove was suddenly quiet.
“He will return,” said Zara.
“He’s like a robot,” said Neal. “With only one
thing on his mind, if you can call it that.”
“Neal, Julie,” said Zara. “Quickly tell us what you know about Ko and Saba. Do not spare us!”
The two children looked at each other.
Julie began. “Back in our time, Emperor Ko is leader of the Dark Lands. He’s able to send his creepy phantom, Saba, through time to get things he wants.”
“And he wants lots of stuff,” said Neal.
“Right now, in our time, Ko is attacking the capital of Droon, trying to burn it down. It’s a beautiful place called Jaffa City,” said Julie. She turned to Galen. “You live there now.”
“Me?” said Galen.
Urik nudged his brother. “Sounds like the Galen Chronicles will go to several volumes!”
Zara closed her eyes and opened them again. “Droon is a name that has played about my mind recently. Perhaps I go to Droon in the future.”
“You do,” said Neal. He paused, wondering what he could say about the future. “I mean … maybe you do …”
“Perhaps we meet again in your time,” said Zara.
Neither child could find a way to tell the queen exactly what would happen. How after Ko kidnapped Zara and her infant son, his curse left Sparr an orphan.
“Your silence speaks volumes. I understand,” said Zara. She paced the grove, then stopped at the great white stone. “Our two worlds are filled with dangers. I have long pondered creating something to contain my magic for when I am no longer here. To bind the forces of our family together, no matter what happens. You could use it to stop Ko in the future.” The queen turned to the children. “I will make it now.”
The next hour seemed to go by in seconds. While Galen and Urik repaired the wall of trees and scanned the edges of the grove with sparking fingers, Neal and Julie watched as Zara created a disk of brilliant white silver on the magic forge.
As the moon’s light shone down, illuminating her every move, Zara painstakingly etched the disk with symbols that seemed to come alive as soon as she finished them. Letters, words, characters — all swam across its silvery surface, humming, whispering, singing of unimaginable magic and power.
Neal and Julie were entranced.
Soon, the queen lifted her head.
