Flight of the Blue Serpent

  Baggle nodded grimly. “You saw Nesh. Yucky icemen. We call them Yugs.”

  “Yugs?” said Neal. “I like the name.”

  “They attack. To find,” said the man.

  “To find?” asked Keeah. “To find what?”

  “Serpent,” said Baggle.

  “The serpent!” said Mudji, his eyes wide with wonder. “I told you!”

  “We have come because of the legend,” said Max. “Have you seen the serpent? Is it quite blue?”

  “Never seen,” said Baggle, wrinkling his brow.

  “No, no, never,” said another little snowperson.

  “Legend tells of blue color,” said Baggle.

  “Quite blue,” said the other.

  “And we hear it,” said Baggle.

  “Yes, yes, always,” said the other. “Calling from below. From icy room. Enchanted room. Filled with music. Music!”

  The friends looked at one another.

  “Are you saying that you hear the serpent? Is it living below your city?” asked Keeah.

  “And serpent master, too,” said Baggle. “Speaks words. Have never seen.”

  “A voice?” said Galen. “What does it say?”

  “ ‘Help blue serpent. Find what is lost,’ ” said Baggle.

  “Lost?” said Eric. “Could he mean the treasure? Baggle, we brought a treasure with us. It was lost for many years. We think it came from the serpent.”

  Baggle’s eyes grew wide when he saw the snowflake. “Blue. Like serpent —”

  All of a sudden, a giant snowball hurtled down the street directly at the children.

  “Out of the way!” shouted Neal. He dived to the side of the path, pushing Eric into a drift, completely burying him.

  “Dude,” said Neal. “That could have hurt.”

  “It did,” said Eric, brushing snow from his coat collar and sleeves.

  The giant snowball stopped and unwrapped itself. It was another of the little people, with a shorter beard than Baggle’s.

  “Reporting!” he said with a salute.

  “What is?” asked Baggle.

  “Snowfolk in trouble!” said the man.

  “Not caravan?” asked Baggle.

  “Yes caravan!” said the other. “Trapped on frozen lake. Yugs will find. Yugs will hurt!”

  Baggle stroked his beard, then nodded. “Friends need help. We go. We help. Now!”

  “We’ll help, too,” said Julie.

  “You bet,” said Neal. “I’d love a chance to stop those bony icicle throwers.”

  “Good,” said Baggle. “We plan now.”

  While the friends and the snowfolk huddled together, trying to find a way to help the trapped caravan, Max nudged Eric.

  “Look at our friend,” he said, pointing to Galen. The wizard was moving slowly away from them and into one of the ice caves, as if drawn toward a sound the others could not hear.

  “Let’s see where he goes,” said Max.

  Eric and Max entered the cave. They turned one corner, two corners, until they found the wizard mumbling softly to himself. “Left five steps … turn …”

  “Uh … Galen?” said Eric.

  “The wall, you say?” Galen whispered. He turned to a solid wall and put his ear to it.

  “Is everything quite all right?” said Max.

  Galen did not respond, but instead placed one hand firmly against the wall.

  “Knock, knock. You guys in there?” Neal called from outside the cave. He, Keeah, and Julie approached the others.

  “We’ve decided how to free the trapped snowfolk,” said Keeah. “With some magic.”

  “What is Galen doing?” asked Julie.

  Galen was now moving his hand back and forth across the wall, as if clearing a window of fog.

  “It looks like he’s waving at someone,” whispered Neal. “But it’s only a blank wall.”

  Just then, the wizard set his staff down, placed his other hand next to the first, and pushed at the wall with all his might.

  “Oh! Light!” Galen gasped. He looked at Eric. Then, right before their eyes, he fell forward.

  He fell forward — against the wall, into the wall, and through the wall. And then, he was gone!

  “Galen!” cried Eric, pushing on the rock, but finding it completely solid. “Galen!”

  As if in response to its owner’s name, the staff flared, then flickered and went out.

  “He vanished,” said Julie. “He’s — gone!”

  “Galen?” squealed Max, pushing on the cave wall from top to bottom. “Galen!”

  “Where did he go?” asked Keeah.

  Eric ran his fingers over the rock, but found nothing to tell him where Galen had gone. “There’s no opening at all. How did he do it?”

  “No time.” A voice sniffled.

  Baggle waddled into the passage breathlessly, followed by the two Orkins. “Must hurry,” Baggle said. “Help friends now. Need them back here. Krone cannot defend itself.”

  Djambo and Mudji exchanged looks.

  “I can help secure Krone while you rescue them,” said Djambo. “There is enough Ninn in me to know how to defend a city.”

  Mudji nodded. “In me, too! Being a red warrior was long ago, but I forget nothing!”

  The two blue-faced Orkins slapped their hands together and hustled outside to prepare for the city’s defense.

  “Come now,” Baggle said. “Snowfolk help snowfolk. Must hurry to caravan!”

  “Eric, take Galen’s staff,” said Max. “We may not know where he has gone, but our duty is clear. We must help the snowfolk and find Galen later.”

  “Right.” Eric took the curved staff, and — as every time before — he felt the wizard’s magic flow through it. He was grateful for its strength now more than ever.

  Together the little band hurried down ice paths and snowpacked trails until they found themselves at a low row of stables. Baggle opened the gates of each stall.

  Instead of groggles or pilkas or any other kind of animal, the children saw … sleds.

  Every sled had silver wings rising off the back. And on the front, there were long pipes arching out of an odd arrangement of pots and cones and tubes.

  “Where are the pilkas?” asked Julie.

  Baggle grinned. “Pilkas don’t like north. Not many like north!”

  With a touch of his hand, Baggle started one of the devices. A terrible coughing noise was followed by a low, steady hum.

  “Sleds,” he said. “To find friends.”

  “Power sleds to find friends!” said Neal.

  The children climbed on board four sleek iron sleds. Max jumped up with Neal.

  “How do we steer them?” asked Keeah.

  Baggle chuckled. “Lean!” he said. “Lean there. Sled goes there! Follow me.”

  He mounted his own sled and leaned forward. The rails slid across the snow.

  “Awesome!” said Neal. “Sleds, ho!”

  The children followed Baggle. Picking up speed the farther forward they leaned, the small band raced over the ground. Wings of ice sprayed high behind them.

  “Did you build the sleds?” asked Max.

  Baggle shook his head. “Awoke one day. Sleds were in stables. Gifts for us.”

  Eric turned to him. “From whom?”

  “I will tell,” said Baggle. “Big storm came. Big storm went. Then sounds started.”

  “Sounds?” said Keeah. “From the serpent?”

  “Serpent injured,” said Baggle. “Hurt in the storm.” He raised his hand, and the crew gradually slowed to a stop. His keen eyes gazed into the snowy distance. To the children, the landscape was all the same, white against white, with barely a line or a shape to tell near from far.

  But Baggle nodded, satisfied, and pointed to the left. “Caravan. In canyon. There.”

  He set off, making a wide arc to the left, and was soon speeding across the icy wastes faster than before.

  “Then one night — boom! — tall tower appeared!” he said, contin
uing his story. “Straight from snow! Then more. Boom-boom! Krone was born. Home for us!”

  “You mean Krone was built by someone you never saw?” asked Keeah. “Was it the serpent master? Did he build the city for you?”

  Baggle nodded. “Voice came. ‘Here is home. Protect my serpent! Find what is lost.’ We said, ‘Okay.’ Have searched. Have not found what is lost.”

  Eric wondered if Galen had heard this same voice. Had it led him to the enchanted room? Had the serpent master called Galen to him?

  “What does he sound like?” Eric asked.

  “Like music,” said Baggle. “Sad music from below. Hush. We are near.”

  The team of sleds soon came over a high ridge of ice and entered a break in the hills that marked the opening of an ice canyon. In the center they saw the caravan stranded on an island of ice surrounded by dark moving water.

  “Trapped on ice,” said Baggle. “We go!”

  The friends raced their sleds through the pass and onto the floor of the canyon toward the lakeshore. Then, suddenly, Neal slowed down.

  “Wait,” he said, turning his turbaned head this way and that. “My genie sense tells me something isn’t right. I don’t like it.”

  Baggle frowned. “Nor me.”

  Eric felt something, too. With one hand on the treasure pouch and the other on Galen’s staff, he looked around in every direction.

  At first, he saw nothing but snow. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spied a glimmer of light above the canyon entrance behind him.

  “Guys … the Yugs …” he said.

  All at once, a thunderous avalanche barreled down the canyon walls, sealing the entrance the children had just come through.

  “We’ve been tricked!” cried Keeah. “The Yugs lured us into the canyon.”

  “Then shut the door on us,” said Neal.

  “Yugs trap us!” gasped Baggle, scowling at the sealed pass. “To attack Krone!”

  “And not only Krone,” said Max. “The Yugs are attacking us, too!”

  A terrible shriek — “Ayeee-iiii!” — echoed from the far side of the canyon. It sounded like the squeal of ice shattering. The next moment, a great troop of skeleton warriors sped across the snowy wastes on icicle skis. Half were heading toward the trapped snowfolk, and the other half toward the kids.

  “They sure are ugly,” said Neal.

  “And they sure are coming!” cried Keeah.

  “We need to help the snowfolk,” said Eric.

  “I know a spell,” said Keeah.

  While the Yugs came ever closer, Keeah uttered a charm, and the moving water hardened from the shore to the stranded snowfolk. Together, the children, Max, and Baggle drove their sleds across the frozen water and joined the caravan.

  Baggle hugged his friends. “Together now. But not safe. Must battle Yugs!”

  “My turn,” said Neal. Pulling his turban low, he twirled on one heel while mumbling a genie charm. A ring of snow ten feet high descended around the Yugs, trapping them inside. The creatures shrieked in rage.

  “And we get out the way we came,” said Julie.

  “I’ll blast the pass clear with Galen’s staff,” said Eric.

  But before they could move, they saw dozens of gangly ice warriors climbing on one another’s backs behind the snow wall. More and more joined them until together they formed a single giant pyramid of Yugs.

  “Are they going to cheer?” asked Neal.

  “Somehow I doubt it,” said Julie.

  As the children watched, the Yugs melted into one another, creating one enormous iceman. It towered above them and stepped easily over Neal’s snow wall.

  “I never saw that coming,” said Neal.

  “Big Yug!” said Baggle.

  The giant Yug stood there, scanning the children and the snowfolk. Then all at once it pointed at Eric and shrieked. “Ayieee-iiii!”

  Eric gulped. “Me? Why me? I —”

  Then he knew. He had the treasure!

  “That’s what this is about,” he gasped. “They want the treasure!”

  “Snowfolk, onto the sleds. Let’s go!” Keeah said. “We need to get out of here — fast!”

  The little people scrambled onto the sleds as quickly as they could.

  Eric glanced around and realized that the only way to escape was to slide between the giant’s huge feet.

  “To the pass!” he said. “Follow me!”

  Together the sleds raced right toward the giant. At first the great Yug seemed confused, then it simply crouched and jumped up into the air.

  “Is it doing exercises?” said Neal. “I guess even giant Yugs have to keep in shape —”

  Then the giant landed.

  Crackkkkkk!

  When it struck the ground, the big Yug shattered into many parts, and the troop of Yug warriors was back.

  “Yugs everywhere!” cried Baggle.

  “We’re completely surrounded,” said Neal.

  “On every side!” said Julie.

  “That’s what I’m talking about!” said Neal.

  The Yugs hurled ice daggers through the air — fwit! fwit! fwit! — but no sooner had they cracked off bits of themselves than — slurch! — the icicles grew back and the warriors were whole again.

  Driving first one way then another, the kids’ sleds retreated from the ice warriors. But they were soon backed against the canyon wall with nowhere to go.

  “There are too many of them,” said Julie.

  Keeah shot a spray of sparks that acted like a shield. The warriors’ daggers shattered against it as long as she held it up.

  “Yugs attack us. Yugs attack Krone. Cannot let serpent master down,” said Baggle, his jaw set tight. “Children take treasure. Return to Krone. Bring to serpent. We will fight.”

  It was amazing to Eric that Baggle’s first thoughts were for the well-being of the serpent and its master. He admired how the little people — even while fending off an attack — always thought of others first.

  “You can’t stay here alone,” said Eric.

  “They won’t,” said Max. “I’ll help them.”

  “And I will, too,” said Keeah, still spraying her shield of sparks. “Eric and Neal, you escape with the treasure. Take it to Krone. We’ll hold them off.”

  “We can do it,” Julie agreed.

  “But —” Eric started.

  “No buts,” said Max. “If Galen isn’t here, we must imagine what he would do. I think he would say that victory lies in cleverness. We’ll create a cover while you sneak away.”

  Eric looked at Neal. “Well,” he said, “the genie hat makes you sort of clever.”

  Neal grinned. “And you’ve always been pretty good at sneaking. Let’s do it!”

  The Yugs kept up their attack on Keeah’s wall. With a word, she paused her spell, and the shield vanished.

  “Ready — go!” she yelled.

  Even as the Yugs tumbled toward them, Eric and Neal hopped onto one sled and drove it straight past the creatures and up over a snowdrift.

  “Now we zigzag!” Neal yelped. He leaned from side to side, while Eric, using Galen’s staff like an engine, shot a powerful spray behind the sled. It skittered over the ground toward the snow-filled pass.

  Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! The sledders confused the Yugs. At least at first.

  Before they knew it, a half-dozen ice warriors, pointing at Eric and his treasure pouch, were diving across the ice like rockets. With a swiftness Eric could not believe, the Yugs charged the sled, pelting Neal with chunks of ice — and forcing him to change course swiftly.

  Too swiftly. The sled spun up over a drift and tumbled onto its side. The force of the collision tore the treasure pouch from Eric’s belt. It flew across the ground.

  “No!” he yelled.

  With blurring speed, all six Yugs dived across the snow. They scooped the pouch out of the drift. They raised their arms in victory and howled — Ahhh-yeeee-ahhh! — then slid speedily away across the snow.

  “Af
ter them!” said Eric. He scrambled to the sled and pushed it upright, then Neal leaped on and leaned far forward.

  When Eric blasted the snow with Galen’s staff, the silver-winged sled took off after the Yugs as fast as it could go.

  Flying over the snow, the two friends soon found themselves on a narrow trail between steep snow hills.

  They spotted the Yug thieves. Eric extinguished Galen’s staff and joined Neal at the sled’s handles.

  “Careful, the ground is way slippery,” said Neal as they gained on the six treasure thieves.

  “But don’t slow down,” said Eric. He wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t thinking of his own safety as much as his promise to Galen. To keep the treasure safe, he had to get it back. Nothing would stop him.

  As they raced along, Eric became aware of a strange, repeating sound.

  Tap … slish … tap … slish …

  “Do you hear that?” he asked Neal.

  Neal listened for a moment. “No. But I see that rock. Watch out —”

  Suddenly, their sled struck a rock and flew off the path. It slammed into the ice and began to spin around and around like a top. It took both boys’ strength not to be thrown off. The sled finally stopped in a snowdrift.

  “I guess it was a little icy,” Eric said.

  “You think?” said Neal. Then he grew quiet. “Holy cow. Take a look!”

  Eric saw something glimmer slowly among the nearby rocks. The Yugs were no longer running. They had stopped.

  Eric tapped Neal’s arm. “Come. Sneak.”

  “You sound like Baggle,” Neal whispered.

  Eric smiled. He did sound like Baggle, and that was just fine with him. Baggle was as noble as anyone he’d ever met.

  The two friends crept through the drifts until they heard the ice warriors mumbling and hissing among themselves. The treasure pouch was sitting on the ground before them.

  Then, amid the ice warriors’ babble, one word was spoken that they both understood.

  “Pess-pah-met-nee-ala-Ko —”

  “Whoa, dude,” whispered Neal. “Ko!”

  Ko, thought Eric. Ko, whose prophecy about the snowflake had never left his mind.

  One of the Yugs grunted when Ko’s name was mentioned. The others growled fearfully, then stepped back from the pouch. They closed it without looking in.