by Tony Abbott
Neal scrambled up behind them. “Not even spoons will save us now — we’re doomed!”
Eric’s knees felt weak. His stomach fluttered. But he kept climbing, hand over hand, up the side of the tower.
Then, suddenly, there they were. Two enormous silver birds swooping down from the sky.
The air hummed as the soarwings circled the tower. Sunlight glinted off their feathers in a rainbow of colors.
At last, Eric tugged himself to the tower’s top.
Standing before him was a huge mound of shimmering gold and jeweled objects.
Khan’s treasure.
Keeah tried to rush to Gryndal, but his elves jumped in the way, swishing their palm leaves.
The tower shuddered again. It began to swing back and forth.
“Come here, soarwings!” Gryndal cried out.
Fwap! Fwap! The giant birds descended to the treasure, landing on the tower. They made cooing and purring sounds as they picked and rummaged through it with their long beaks.
In a flash, Gryndal leaped onto the feathery back of one of the giant birds.
His six fellow elves jumped on after him.
“Where did you see my mother?” Keeah demanded. “Tell me where!”
“Beyond the rocky coast of Mintar, near the Bangledorn Forest,” Gryndal shouted. “That is where I was cursed. That is where I saw your mother —”
Fwap! Fwap! Gryndal’s bird began to rise from the tower. The second bird rose with it. They both pulled away from the tower and circled it once.
“Take your treasure!” Gryndal said, grinning, as he and his men swung the giant bird around. “Take it all! We need it no longer!”
“We are free!” his elves yipped happily. “We are going home!”
Keeah stood there as the tower groaned and twisted with each swing in the air.
Then, in a single swift move, Keeah unslung her harp. She held it before her. And she spoke.
“Harp! Take me up!”
“Keeah!” Eric yelled over the sound of roaring wings. “What are you doing?”
But the harp followed her command instantly. In a whoosh of air, Keeah rose from the tower and swept toward the second bird.
“Keeah!” Eric yelled. “Come back! It’s too dangerous! We’ll go with you!”
The princess flew up to the bird and leaped onto its back. She gripped the neck feathers and the bird circled the tower once more.
Julie and Neal finally clambered over the top. Khan rushed to the treasure heap and stopped.
They all looked up.
Keeah’s eyes sought out her friends’ faces one by one. “We finally have the treasure,” she cried. “But now I must go. Gryndal knows more than he is telling. I must find out!”
She turned, smiled bravely at Eric, and waved.
“Keeah!” Eric called. “Wait!”
But she rode the giant bird over the clouds toward the sun.
“Eric, we better get out of here,” Julie said. “This tower —”
Crrrrk! A chunk of the tower cracked away and fell to the ground. Another huge piece split off and tumbled down.
The tower began to split.
“Uh-oh,” said Neal. “I think we’ve stayed too long at Gryndal’s party!”
Khan found his crown and plunked it on his head. “Yes!” he cried. “My people have their treasure back! Now come. We must hurry!” He began to stuff a sack with his treasure.
“Too bad we didn’t think of parachutes!” Neal said, helping Khan stuff his sack. “Did anybody think about how we’re going to get down?”
Eric gulped. He looked around. “Um, no …”
Suddenly — fwoosh! — flames rushed up the side of the tower. A bright blue shape floated by.
“Oh, man! Now what?” Julie cried.
“Jump aboard!” yelled a voice.
Eric peered through the clouds. “Friddle?”
“The one and only!” the little man chirped. He was standing in the basket of a giant hot-air balloon. “Come aboard! The tower is breaking up!”
In a flash, Julie and Neal jumped into the basket. Then Khan swung his giant bag of treasure aboard and leaped in himself.
“Whooooa!” Eric took a running jump just as the tower wobbled again. He had barely reached the basket when the tower swung one last time.
But this time, it didn’t swing back.
The Ninns cheered as the tower of the elf king crashed to the dunes below. Ka-whoom!
A moment later, all was quiet.
As the balloon floated gently lower, Eric felt sad and happy at the same time. Keeah was following her dream. With every mile, she was getting closer. But weren’t they also losing a friend?
“I wish we could help her,” he said.
The Maker turned to him. “And with all our hearts, we shall!” His eyes twinkled as he spoke.
“We’ll help her with all the magic Droon can muster,” Khan said.
“And inventions,” said Friddle happily.
“And teamwork,” said Julie.
The two soarwings were now only tiny dots on the horizon. The purple dawn turned golden.
“Keeah’s dream calls her,” Friddle said. “Yours will call you back here soon. And you will see her again. Your lives are bound to hers. That, I can tell.”
Eric looked deeply into the strange little man’s eyes. He liked what he saw there.
He liked what Friddle had said, too.
It sounded good. It sounded right.
“The stairs,” said Khan. “I see them.”
The staircase shimmered brightly atop a high dune. Friddle landed the balloon nearby. Everyone got out.
Khan, with his crown perched firmly on his head, was his cheery old self again. Over his back he slung his enormous sack of treasure.
“Things will be happy again in Lumpland,” he said to the children. “Thank you for your help.”
“Wait a second,” said Neal. “We never did learn what thalak means.”
Eric turned to Friddle. “I said it to the Ninns and they went away. What does it mean?”
The small man scratched his chin, then roared with laughter. “Roughly, it means — ‘I’ll pinch your cheeks if you don’t go away!’ Yes, Eric, I am sure you confused those poor Ninns!”
With that, Eric and his friends raced up the stairs. At the top, they watched the giant birds rise higher and higher into the brightening sky.
Neal flicked on the light.
Whoosh! The floor appeared. Droon was gone.
For now.
“That was one awesome adventure,” said Julie. “It seems strange that Keeah is just … gone.”
“We’ll find her,” said Eric firmly.
“You better believe it,” said Neal. Then he added, “So … anyone for chili dogs?”
Eric looked at his friends. He couldn’t help but smile. “Gotta eat, I guess. To keep in shape for our next adventure!”
Julie started for the basement stairs. “How about … last one in the pool is a …”
“Hog elf!” Neal yelled. “Snort, snort!”
Laughing together, the three friends charged up the stairs and outside to join the party.
Rub! Scrub! Splash!
Eric Hinkle bent over the sink in the bathroom at school. He swished his hands in the soapy water, trying to clean up after gym.
“You’re lousy at climbing ropes,” he said to his friend Neal. “Did you have to fall on me?”
“I’m better at watching things than doing them,” Neal said as he scrubbed dirt from his shirt, his nose, and his shoes. “I think it’s a sign of smartness.”
“That’s not what the coach said,” said Eric. Then he sighed. “Man, we need to go back.”
“To class?” said Neal. “Mrs. Michaels promised us a math quiz. Can’t we be a little late?”
Eric turned to face him. “No, I mean to Droon! I can’t think about anything else.”
It was true. Droon was always on Eric’s mind.
It had
all begun one day when he and Neal and their friend Julie were cleaning up his basement. Well, they were supposed to be cleaning up. Mostly they were playing around.
Then, behind some boxes, they had discovered a small closet. Inside the closet was a rainbow-colored staircase. It led to another world.
A magical world called Droon.
Neal splashed water on his nose. “I know what you mean. It’s kind of boring here. Julie wants to go back, too. I just hope Keeah is okay.”
Keeah was one of the first people the kids had met in Droon. She was a young princess learning to be a junior wizard. An old and very powerful wizard named Galen Longbeard was teaching her all the magic she needed to know.
But what Keeah wanted to know most was when her mother would be free of an evil spell.
For years, Keeah’s mother, Queen Relna, had been changing into one animal after another. She had to go through many shapes until she could be human again.
At the end of their last adventure, Keeah had learned that the queen was now in the form of a red tiger.
To find her, Keeah had flown away on the back of a giant bird. The kids didn’t know what had happened next.
“I wish we could go back whenever we want,” said Eric. “I don’t like waiting.”
Usually, the kids dreamed about Droon. Sometimes Keeah sent them a message through an enchanted soccer ball. But until one of those things happened, Eric and his friends just had to wait.
Tap! Tap! There was a knock at the lavatory door. “Guys?”
It was Julie’s voice. “Mrs. Michaels wants you back right now,” she said. “It’s quiz time.”
Neal looked at his shirt in the mirror. It was soaking wet. “Well, my work here is done. See you in class.” He left Eric alone at the sink.
Eric was about to drain the water when he glanced down. The soapsuds swirling in the sink suddenly stopped … in the shape of a face.
A sad old face. With a long white beard.
“Galen?” Eric mumbled to himself. “Galen!”
A moment later, the face in the sink was gone.
The water was just water.
Eric dashed back to class and slid into his seat between Julie and Neal. “I just saw Galen floating in the bathroom sink!” he whispered.
“How did he fit in there?” Julie asked.
“No! I mean, his face was in the soap!”
“Eric,” said Mrs. Michaels, giving him a stern look. “We’ll start our math quiz now.” She passed out the papers and stood in front of the room. “You will have ten minutes to finish. Starting … now.”
Eric looked at the paper but all he could think about was the wizard’s face.
Why had Galen appeared to him? Why had he looked so sad? Was something wrong?
Eric felt a tug on his sleeve. It was Julie. She was staring at the chalkboard.
He looked up. He nearly fell out of his seat.
A piece of yellow chalk was floating up behind the teacher’s back. Silently, it pressed against the green board and began to write.
Eric glanced around. Everyone else was busy working on the quiz. Their heads were down.
The chalk began to spell out letters.
S … h … e …
Eric slid his foot out and tapped Neal’s sneaker. Neal looked up. His mouth dropped open.
… i … s …
The chalk hesitated as Mrs. Michaels glanced at the clock. “Five more minutes,” she said.
The chalk continued writing.
… l … o … s … t …
She is lost. Eric’s eyes widened. She? Keeah!
Mrs. Michaels started to turn around.
Then the eraser flashed up from the bottom of the board and — swish! — wiped away what the chalk had written. Eric and his friends were the only ones to see the message.
They were the only ones meant to see it.
They were so excited they could hardly finish the quiz. When the final bell rang, they burst from the classroom and rushed out to their bus.
“Galen must have sent the message!” Eric whispered. “I think it’s about Keeah.”
Julie nodded. “She must have gotten lost trying to find her mother. And now we need to find her!”
“It’s like homework,” said Neal. “Only from Droon!”
Ten minutes later, the bus stopped at their corner. They raced into Eric’s house and were down in his basement in no time.
Neal and Julie pulled aside some heavy boxes. Behind the boxes was the door to a small closet nestled under the basement steps.
The kids piled into the closet and shut the door behind them. Eric looked at Julie and Neal.
“Everybody ready?” he asked.
They nodded.
Julie turned off the light. Click.
For an instant, the small room was dark. Then — whoosh! — the floor vanished beneath them, and they stood at the top of a long, shimmering staircase.
They never knew where the stairs would lead, only that one of their Droon friends would meet them at the bottom.
A warm wind blew as the three friends began to descend the stairs.
The sky around them was glowing pink.
“There’s a coastline below,” said Julie. “Some sand. Lots of sharp rocks. There’s a big sea on one side and a forest on the other. It looks okay.”
“I don’t see anybody down there,” said Neal. “Where’s our welcome committee?”
“Let’s just be careful,” said Eric cautiously. “We can’t be sure of anything.”
That was true. There were lots of friendly creatures and people in Droon, but there were other types, too.
An evil sorcerer named Lord Sparr had long been trying to take over Droon. He was in hiding now, but the kids knew he - could pop up at any moment.
As Eric looked out across the crashing waves, he also remembered the mysterious witch named Demither, who ruled under the sea.
The last time they saw her, Demither had transformed herself into a giant sea serpent.
Ka-splursh! Waves splashed over the rocks below.
“I see a boat!” said Julie, pointing to a small shape bobbing on the waters. “I bet it’s Galen coming to welcome us.”
“Yes, a friendly face,” said Neal. “Let’s hurry down and meet him.”
They dropped onto the beach just as the staircase faded. They knew it would appear again when it was time to go home.
The boat headed toward them.
“He’s trying to land,” said Neal.
Ka-whoom! The sea thundered loudly, and a large wave rose up like a hand.
It seemed to grab the tiny boat and hurl it right at the shore.
Right at the jagged rocks.
“Oh, no! Galen’s going to hit the rocks! He’s going to crash!”
Copyright © 2000 by Robert T. Abbott
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.
SCHOLASTIC, APPLE PAPERBACKS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First Scholastic printing, August 2000
e-ISBN 978-0-545-41857-7
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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