Into the Land of the Lost

by Tony Abbott

  Suddenly — whoosh! — it was over and they were in air again. Flying below the water.

  Cool air fluttered over them as the boat floated slowly toward the ground below. It seemed as if the boat were protected by invisible parachutes.

  “Our clothes are dry,” Julie said.

  “Even my socks!” Neal said. “This is weird.”

  “This is Agrah-Voor,” Max said.

  Eric looked up. The river they had just passed through was like a thin stripe across the sky. Above that was the cavern and the Ninns peering down from it.

  “Look at them,” Max chirped happily. “Staring at us like numbskulls, tugging their chins!”

  It was good to hear Max laugh, Eric thought. Even though he knew Max was worried about Keeah. And about Sparr and the Golden Wasp.

  And it wouldn’t be long before the Ninns stopped staring and started following.

  The boat floated down and thudded gently on the ground outside the giant city wall. They climbed out. The ground was hard and dusty.

  “We did it,” said Julie. “We actually got here.”

  “But we’re on the wrong side of the wall,” said Neal. “How are we going to get in?”

  Before anyone could answer — swoosh! — something flashed down the wall at them.

  A figure dressed in green, swinging on a rope.

  “Aeee!” cried the creature, crashing into the kids. Neal and Eric tumbled backward over Max. Julie went spinning to the ground.

  “Hey! He stole my mirror!” Julie cried. She sprang up at him, but he twisted away and scrambled back up the rope. “Rope, up!” he said.

  “Stop him!” Julie yelped.

  With one strong leap, Max jumped to the rope and pushed the creature off. Neal tackled him as he tried to jump away. Eric pounced and pinned the creature’s arms firmly to the ground.

  “I give up! You win!” came a high-pitched squeal.

  The creature had a face something like a rat’s, with a long pointed snout and whiskers. His arms were long and muscular, his legs bowed and short like a monkey’s. He was dressed in a silky green tunic and wore a leather pack on his shoulder. His slippers curled up at the ends.

  When the kids released him, he jumped to his feet and bowed. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Shago, chief thief of Agrah-Voor. My fingers were made for grabbing, my arms for —”

  “Just give it back!” Julie demanded, setting her face in a fierce scowl and holding out her hand. “That’s Galen’s mirror. And if he finds out —”

  “Galen!” Shago’s whiskers curled sharply. “Oh! First wizard of Droon? Oh! Why didn’t you say so?” He smiled so widely his ears wiggled. Tugging the mirror from his leather sack, he handed it back to Julie. “Queen Hazad speaks of Galen often. Oh! He is one of the great heroes of Droon!”

  “Galen sent us here to help Princess Keeah,” Eric said. “Who is Queen Hazad?”

  Shago snorted. “None other than the ruler of Agrah-Voor! Come. I will take you to her —”

  Splash! The silvery water above broke open suddenly. Ninn soldiers were jumping into the river and splashing through it into the sky, just as the kids had done.

  “The Ninns are following us,” Julie said. “We’d better move it! Fast!”

  Shago snorted again as he tugged sharply on his rope. “Fat Ninns. They’ll make craters when they land! Come, then. Follow! Follow!”

  Shago’s voice squeaked when he grew excited. But beneath his whiskers was a smile Eric liked.

  “Follow!” Shago repeated, racing to the great wall. “Unless you’d rather chat with Ninns?”

  “If I have a choice,” said Neal, scrambling after the thief, “I think we’ll follow you. Fast!”

  But he couldn’t. None of them could.

  For when Shago reached the foot of the wall, he mumbled some words, then slipped quietly, smoothly, and impossibly right through the thick stone wall.

  “Holy crow!” Eric exclaimed, jerking to a stop. “I think we just met our first … ghost!”

  “Ghost or not,” said Julie, “Shago’s the only one who can help us now! Shago! Come back!”

  Flump! Boing! The Ninns bounced to the earth, jumped upright, then rushed at the kids.

  “Oh, man!” Neal gasped. “Hey, Shago!”

  The thief’s face popped up above the wall. “Why didn’t you follow me?” he called down.

  “We’re not ghosts!” Julie yelled up. “Yet!”

  “But we soon will be,” Eric said, “if you don’t send down your rope!”

  “Rope, down!” Shago’s rope unwound down the wall and dropped at the kids’ feet. The moment the kids touched it, it began to pull them up. Soon they were standing at the top of the wall.

  “My magic rope!” Shago said, beaming. “I stole it from a witch. But you must not think I’m a ghost.”

  “But you walked right through that wall!” Neal said.

  The thief chuckled. “I snitched a magician’s spell book once. Learned a trick or two. No, no. Only heroes of battle live in Agrah-Voor.”

  “Then why are you here?” Julie asked.

  Shago’s tiny brown eyes grew moist. “My family is here. They are the true ghosts.”

  Boom! Boom! The Ninns were pounding at the walls.

  “We must tell the queen,” said Shago. “Rope, down!” The rope tossed itself down into the city.

  Eric couldn’t believe the view as they descended. Agrah-Voor was a city of twisted turrets and crooked towers, of purple stones and dark banners, of winding alleys and narrow streets. At its center was an enormous fountain.

  Julie pointed to a large wooden gate. “Is that the way out?” she asked.

  Shago nodded. “The Gate of Life. When Droon is at peace again, the ghosts will leave through the gate. They will live again. Alas, it has been sealed for many years.”

  “Because of Lord Sparr?” said Julie.

  Shago gritted his teeth. “The evil one himself.”

  They swung lower into a crisscross tangle of streets.

  “How can you tell where you are?” Neal asked. “These streets go every which way.”

  Shago smiled back at him. “The pipes,” he said, pointing to a spidery maze of water pipes running along the ground below. “The pipes lead from the outer wall to the fountain. At the fountain we shall find our queen!”

  Neal nudged Eric. “Good thing there’s not a leak in one of those pipes!”

  “If there were, we wouldn’t let you fix it,” said Julie.

  Shago twitched his whiskers, and the rope touched the ground.

  They entered a broad paved yard the size of a football field. The fountain in the middle spouted crystal water. All around it were men and women and creatures of all kinds dressed in leather and armor of every color.

  Some warriors hurled large rocks to one another. Others clanged old swords against rusted suits of armor, sending off sparks. Still others ran footraces around the edges of the square.

  “The heroes of Droon!” Shago whispered. “Keeping in shape for when they live again.”

  “They don’t look like ghosts to me,” Neal said. “Pretty colorful. Are they really, you know …”

  “They are dead,” said Shago. “But they wake each day hoping that today Droon will be at peace. As the hours wear on, they lose their hope, their color, their life. By nightfall, you’ll see. They’ll be different.”

  With those mysterious words, Shago led them to a large wooden throne. Pillow-shaped purple Lumpies stood at attention on either side. On the throne sat an old woman.

  “Queen Hazad,” said Shago softly, bowing.

  Queen Hazad was beautiful but very old. She wore a crown, but it did not sparkle like most crowns do. It was oddly shaped, as if it were made of thick branches of wood.

  But the queen’s cheeks were rosy, and she wore a bright orange gown.

  “My cane, please,” the queen said. An old spider troll scampered up with a carved stick.

  “Welcome,” the queen said, ho
bbling over to the kids. “I sense you do not bring good news. We do not often get visitors, you know.”

  Eric bowed. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m Eric. These are my friends Julie, Neal, and Max. Sparr has captured Princess Keeah and is bringing her here. Galen sent us to help her — and to warn you about something else.”

  “Sparr knows the Golden Wasp is here,” said Julie. “He’s mad and he wants it back.”

  “So the Ninns are trying to bust down the wall,” Neal added. “They sort of followed us.”

  The queen drew in a sharp breath. Her cheeks seemed to grow slightly paler. “Guards!”

  The warriors jousting with the suits of armor hustled over. “My queen!” they said.

  “Gather my people,” the queen said. “Agrah-Voor is under attack.” The guards raced off.

  The queen turned to the kids. “Sparr cannot harm you or Princess Keeah. But you cannot stay long.”

  “That’s why we’re here,” said Eric. “And to keep Sparr from getting the Wasp.”

  “The Golden Wasp!” the queen said, as if remembering something painful from the distant past. “It is a cursed thing with a sting that can turn love to hate, beauty to ugliness, life to death.”

  The kids shivered as she described the Wasp.

  “Long ago, Galen charmed it and hid it,” the queen went on, “but its power could not remain hidden for long. Sparr battled me for the Wasp. I kept him from it but lost my life. I took the Wasp with me when I came here. For so many years it has remained a secret.”

  Ka-blam! Lightning flashed across the sky.

  “Until now,” said Julie.

  “Sparr has broken the wall!” a guard reported.

  As the man spoke, more color left the old queen’s cheeks. And not only her cheeks. The bright robes she wore seemed to turn gray, the color of ashes.

  As Ninns thundered through the streets, other warriors began to turn pale, too.

  Eric shivered with fear. He knew what that meant. Their hope was leaving them.

  “Oh! Oh!” Shago cried nervously. “I am a thief, not a warrior. I must hide!” He scampered away quickly.

  An instant later, the square was swarming with Ninns. Lord Sparr swept in with them. Keeah was held by two Ninns. She was still in a trance.

  “Where is the Golden Wasp?” Sparr demanded, the fins behind his ears flaring red. “Tell me, Queen Hazad, or I shall tear your city apart!”

  “I shall never tell you!” the queen replied.

  “Then Princess Keeah herself shall become a ghost!”

  The sorcerer roughly pulled Keeah to the center of the square.

  As the princess stood there, silent, unmoving, Sparr pulled the black orb from his cloak and tossed it in the air above her.

  “What is he doing now?” Max whispered.

  “I don’t know.” Eric still felt the pain in his head where the orb had struck him with its light. “But I am really getting to not like that thing.”

  Eric stepped forward. “Sparr, let Keeah go! You can’t harm her here, so why even try?”

  “Yeah,” Neal snarled, moving up behind Eric. “Why not crawl back where you came from?”

  The sorcerer turned slowly. The fins behind his ears became black with anger. “You will not talk so bravely when I march into your Upper World to fulfill my mission!”

  Mission? thought Eric. What mission?

  Sparr then pointed his fingers at the hovering ball and muttered some words under his breath.

  “Leave our princess alone, Sparr!” the queen shouted.

  Sparr’s eyes flashed. “Oh, yes! I’ll leave your princess alone. She’ll be all alone. Inside!”

  “Inside what?” Eric demanded.

  “Inside … this!”

  With that, the ball flooded its light around Keeah.

  Suddenly — fwang! A wall burst up from the ground behind the princess. It was ten feet high and jagged across the top.

  Sparr laughed. “Keeah … awake!”

  The princess blinked, then looked around her. “Where am I?”

  “In your new home!” Sparr replied. “Orb … continue!”

  Fwang! A second wall burst up next to her. Another shot up on the other side. A fourth wall in front closed her off.

  “Stop!” said the queen.

  But the walls kept coming.

  Some walls curved in, some bent out, but all of them twisted and tangled around Keeah until she was entirely hidden by them.

  “A maze!” Julie gasped. “Sparr is building a maze. Keeah will never find her way out!”

  Fwang! As the last jagged wall jolted into place, the square fell into silence. The maze was complete. Its walls filled the square.

  Sparr laughed. “I may not be able to harm your princess. But there is only one path through this maze. Only the orb knows what it is. It will take her days to find it. Weeks, maybe. Perhaps never! If your princess ever stumbles out, she will be … a ghost!”

  “We’ll get her out!” Julie said firmly. “You can’t stop us!”

  Sparr’s lips curled into a nasty smile. “I have no intention of stopping you. You’ll stay to help your friend. And you will become ghosts, too! Ha-ha! I can see you getting pale already!”

  His fat soldiers gargled with laughter.

  Then the sorcerer whirled around. “With these troublemaking children out of the way, I am free to find my Wasp. Ninns! Tear this city apart! Queen Hazad, you will wish you had given me what I seek.”

  At Sparr’s command, the Ninns began breaking everything in sight, trying to find the hidden Wasp. The ghosts tried to stop them, but the Ninns tore fiercely through the streets beyond the square.

  The children stood alone before the maze.

  “Keeah-eeah-eeah!” Julie shouted, her voice echoing inside the black walls.

  The sounds of fighting echoed in their ears, too. Max began to whimper as he paced in front of the maze. “What to do? What to do?”

  Eric felt his spirits sink. Without even checking Galen’s hourglass, he knew. There was no way to get Keeah out in time. Sparr would find the Wasp and become even more powerful. And their friend would be stuck in the Land of the Lost forever.

  And yet, something about the huge maze seemed … familiar to Eric.

  How could that be?

  The maze was huge. Sparr said there was only one way to the center, but no one knew the way.

  No one.

  No one?

  As Eric stared at the maze before him, he was sure he had seen it before.

  “That’s impossible,” he said out loud.

  “No kidding it’s impossible,” said Neal, checking the wizard’s hourglass. “We’ll never find her in time. Prepare to be ghosts, people. My mom’s going to be really mad now!”

  “No,” said Eric. “I mean, I’ve seen this maze before, but I couldn’t have.”

  Eric’s head began to ache. It was the same pain he had felt when the glass ball shot him with its light. It still hurt….

  It still hurt.

  “Oh, my gosh!” he gasped. “The lines! The squiggly lines when the orb’s light blasted me. The design on the ball is the same as the maze!”

  Julie blinked. “Do you know the way in?”

  Eric closed his eyes. He suddenly felt helpless. And dumb. “I see some of the design, the crisscrossing walls, but not the whole thing.”

  “Galen could unlock your mind,” Max said. “If he were here. But, of course, he’s not —”

  Julie nearly jumped. “The mirror! We can call Galen!” She pulled the wizard’s magic mirror from her pocket and quickly rubbed the surface.

  Galen’s face appeared. “Ah! My friends. King Zello and I are keeping the spider trolls safe from Sparr’s snakes. What news?”

  “Sparr created a terrible maze from his evil orb,” said Julie. “Keeah is locked inside.”

  “And Eric thinks he knows the way in,” said Neal. “He’s seen it before. Only he doesn’t remember all of it.”

  “We must re
lease his memory,” said Max.

  “Eric, come closer,” the wizard said, waving his hand. A swirling light shone in the glass. “I will put you to sleep. When you awake, you will see the maze in your mind’s eye.”

  “I’m ready,” said Eric.

  “You are sleepy,” Galen droned softly. “Very sleepy. Your eyelids are getting heavy. Heavy.”

  Eric stared into the swirling light. His mind drifted. He felt sleepy.

  He knew Galen was speaking to him, but he wasn’t sure of the words. He felt as if he were falling. Then, all of a sudden, he bolted upright.

  His eyes were open. The mirror was blank.

  “Huh? What happened?” he said.

  “I think you were hypnotized,” said Julie. “Do you remember anything? Think, Eric. Think.”

  Eric closed his eyes. He tried to silence all the sounds. The distant swords clanging against one another. The grunting Ninns, the yelling ghosts.

  If the sounds disappeared, maybe he could —

  Enter.

  He blinked. “Who said that?”

  Neal gave him a look. “Said what? You’re the only one talking.”

  Enter. Then go left three paces.

  Eric entered the maze.

  Neal turned to Max. “Maybe you should weave a spider-silk thread as we go. So we can find the entrance again.”

  Max’s eyes brightened. “Good plan, Neal.”

  He shrugged. “I get one, every now and then.”

  “Three paces left,” said Eric. “Then turn —”

  Right, left, straight, left, back again, two rights, a sharp zigzag. It seemed to take hours to thread their way between the jagged black walls.

  But Eric did not make a false move. Every turn, every angle, every crisscrossed line of the orb stood out clearly in his mind.

  Then, finally, they took one sharp right turn and came face-to-face with a blank wall.

  “What?” he said. He closed his eyes again.

  He saw the wall there, too.

  What happened? What was going on?

  “No pressure or anything,” said Neal. “But we’re losing time here.”

  Eric put his hands on the wall. It was cold. Night was falling in Agrah-Voor. Soon after that it would be midnight. He suddenly felt very afraid. Afraid that Keeah would be trapped. Afraid that he had taken them the wrong way. Afraid that they would become ghosts — and it would be all his fault.