“Tell me where the Key of Mokarto is!” demanded Ming. “You must tell me the truth. Speak, silfs, or I’ll deal harshly with my prisoner!”
“Our prisoner,” said Ving.
The hissing that started then was soft, but it soon grew to a great noise, until Ming snapped the box shut and shouted with joy.
“I know where it is! We shall be invincible! Ving, alert my ships. We sail at once!”
“What am I, your servant?” snapped Ving.
His sister grinned. “For this part of our plan, you are. For only I can get the key now!”
“Whatever. Just watch your tone,” he muttered.
While the bandit prince flew off, Icthos remained at Keeah’s cage.
“Shall I take the princess to the dungeon with the others?” he asked.
Ming glared at Keeah. “No. Let her watch Mokarto’s towers rise taller than those of Jaffa City! I’m going sailing!”
With that, the pirate princess cackled and stormed away to her waiting ships.
With only Icthos as guard, Eric moved closer to the cage. He spied the lever that turned the light beams on and off. If he could get to that, he thought, he’d switch it off and Keeah could jump free.
But Icthos was too close for comfort.
“I’ll distract him,” Eric said to himself. Looking down at his feet, he saw a stone the size of a softball and smiled. “Perfect!”
Keeping his eyes fixed on Icthos, Eric grabbed the stone and hurled it past the bandit’s head.
Nothing happened. Icthos scratched his nose and began to sing a little tune. “Brum-dum-de-dum … a bandit’s life for me!”
Grumbling, Eric searched for another stone to throw, when he saw the first one still lying on the roof between his feet.
“Hey, I threw you!” This time, he used both hands to pick it up, only to watch his fingers come together and the stone remain where it was. He swiped at it again and again but couldn’t grab it. When he tried other stones, the same thing happened.
He sat back, bewildered, until it came to him. “Of course! I’m not just a phantom. I must be a kind of ultra phantom. The dungeon walls were so thick, the only way I could get out was to make myself almost a nothing. A ghost! I can be seen and I can talk, but I have no powers. I can’t lift anything or touch anything or” — he looked over at the cage of light —“or free Keeah!”
The giant grinding wheel began to turn faster. A roar went up from the bandits on the ground, and the terrible city of thieving thieves rose higher.
“This is perfect!” Eric whispered.
He knew he had to do something. If he didn’t have powers of his own just then, he needed someone who did. Keeah was their only chance to stop Ming.
He took a deep breath and scampered the rest of the way across the roof until he was directly behind Keeah’s cage of light.
“Psst!” he said.
Keeah glanced back over her shoulder. “Eric?” she whispered. “Is that you?”
“Sort of,” he said.
“Finally, I can get out of here. Switch the lever off while Icthos isn’t looking.”
“Uh, yeah, about that,” he whispered. “The only reason I escaped is because I became a phantom. I mean, I look regular, but I can’t move the lever. In fact, I couldn’t even pick up a potato chip —”
“Did you say ‘potato chip’?” asked Neal from the dungeon. “Are there some where you are?”
“Neal, please,” said Eric. “Keeah, wait. I think I can get Icthos to turn the cage off. I’m going to try something …”
Hoping he wouldn’t just get zapped to death, Eric held his breath and stepped through the bars of sizzling light and into the cage. Nothing happened.
“Whoa!” he breathed. “That could have gone so wrong. Okay, Keeah, pretend to hold my hand and let me do the talking.”
She made a face at him. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Eric shrugged. “I have to try. Now, shhh. Hey, Icky! Your cage doesn’t work so well!”
The bandit turned, and his eyes grew huge. “What are you doing in there?”
“Nothing, anymore,” said Eric. “We’re leaving.” Giving a little wave, he pretended to pull Keeah’s hand with him as he stepped through the bars of light and onto the roof.
“The cage looks like it’s on,” whispered Eric, “but I’m pretty sure the lever’s off. Come on, Kee-Kee, we’re out of here!”
“Wait!” shouted the bandit, pulling a nasty-looking club from his belt. “That cage ain’t working right. You get back in there!”
While Eric stepped politely back into the cage, Icthos bent to the lever. Using both hands, he turned it the other way.
The instant the light faded, Eric yelled “Now!” And he and Keeah jumped out of the cage and onto the roof.
“Thanks for letting us go!” said Keeah. “Oh, and one more thing!” She snatched the box of silfs and tripped lightly across the roof. “Who says all bandits are bad?!”
“You tricked me!” Icthos yelled. “Come back!”
“Let me think about that. Umm, no!” said Eric.
In seconds, Keeah had conjured a spinning circle of blue light. “Eric, hold tight. Or something. We’re going to the pilkas and we’re going to find that key!”
Eric couldn’t really hold Keeah’s hand, but it didn’t matter. His phantom self was swept into her tube of spinning blue, and they were off the roof in a twinkling.
They soared high over Feshu and alighted behind the ridge where their pilkas were waiting. Eric wondered if he would be able to ride one. While he struggled to grip the creature’s fur and pull himself onto its back, Keeah opened the box.
The silfs began hissing immediately.
“We told Ming everything!” said the first.
“It’s-s-s s-somewhere in the Doom Gate of Queen Demither!” said the second.
“Somewhere?” said Keeah. “But the Doom Gate has hundreds of rooms!”
“Only you know where the key is-s-s,” said the third. “Demither told you long ago. This-s-s is-s-s all we know!”
Keeah stood perfectly still for a moment, then nodded firmly. “Okay, then. We’ll have to search room by room. But we need some help.”
“I need some help, too,” said Eric, sitting on the ground under his pilka. “I can’t stay on.”
“We’ll help,” said the silfs together.
Keeah spoke under her breath, and a twinkly light appeared in the sky overhead.
It was Flink.
“Yes-s-s, Princess-s-s!” she sang.
“Flink, find Gryndal as quickly as you can,” said Keeah. “Tell him what’s happening at Feshu. The king of the hog elves knows the stone mills better than anyone. We’ll meet him as soon as we can. Fly, Flink, fly!”
The tiny messenger sizzled across the air and was gone.
By now, Eric was on his pilka’s back, but he knew he would fall if not for the silfs holding him. “I’m ready,” he said. “I think.”
“That’ll have to do,” said Keeah. “Now let’s go! We have a pirate ship to stop!”
“Okay —” Clinging for dear life, Eric and his pilka rose into the air after Keeah. Together, the two friends soared high over the black waters of the vast Serpent Sea.
Mile after mile of black water churned below the two pilkas as the children flew toward Demither’s sea palace.
“If we don’t find the key first, Ming will wreck my aunt’s palace looking for it,” said Keeah.
“She might not have to do much wrecking,” said Eric. “Take a look.”
The Sea Witch’s once-splendid underwater city was floating derelict on the waves. Demither had been in the Upper World for some time, but the children were still shocked to see the palace now. Only the cracked top of its green dome stood above the water.
“Ohh!” gasped one of the silfs. “It’s worse than before! And here comes Ming!”
The pirate ships appeared over the horizon and sailed swiftly toward them.
&n
bsp; “Let’s get down there now,” said Keeah.
Before the pilkas could land, however, the air turned red with flame.
Boom! Boom! The pirates shot the Ninn cannons, hurling fiery blasts right at the diving pilkas. They dodged the first blast. The children clung tight as the pilkas soared up, but a second and third round of cannon fire were already on the way.
“I have to save the pilkas!” cried Keeah.
“But what about us?”
“Sorry! Hold your breath!” Keeah whispered a phrase and — poof! — the pilkas vanished just before the shots struck.
Splash! Splash! The children fell straight into the water, with the silfs by their side. They swam to the dome and climbed up on the far side of it.
When Eric stood on the dome, he realized he wasn’t wet. Except for his hand.
“I wonder if that means my real self is coming back.”
“We could sure use your powers,” said Keeah.
Eric closed his eyes for a second. He couldn’t see the dungeon as clearly as before, but he could make out Neal trying to shake hands with his phantom hand.
“This is sooo weird!” Neal was saying.
“Leave Eric alone!” said Julie.
“This-s-s way!” said the silfs.
Together, Eric and Keeah followed the silvery sea snakes through the cracked dome and dropped into Demither’s empty throne room. It was half flooded. Watery light quivered on the walls.
The silfs led them quickly across the great room.
“The poor palace,” said Keeah. “It’s dying.”
“Demither will be back,” said Eric. “I know it.”
Keeah tried to smile. “I hope so —”
A sudden crash of glass hushed them.
“What was that?” Eric whispered.
“The pirates-s-s have broken in,” said one silf. “We’ll s-stay and try to s-slow them down. You hurry!”
“The Doom Gate is at the bottom of the palace,” said Keeah. “Eric, swim down. If you can!” She dived beneath the water and wiggled away under it like a fish.
“I’m coming!” Eric said. Holding his breath, he followed her down through the passages. His hair was wet now, too, and so were his shoulders. I’m coming back! he thought. Soon my powers will return!
From one floor to another, gasping for air where they could, the two friends made their way to a grotto of coral beneath the palace. It was filled with air.
On the far side of the grotto was a great slab of stone that arched up to the ceiling like a door. A lock carved in the shape of Keeah’s hand stood in the center. Long ago, Demither had made her niece the only one who could open the fortified vault.
“The Doom Gate,” said Eric. He remembered that he had first received powers there. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
Keeah placed her hand on the imprint. The giant door slid open noiselessly. Water rushed around their feet as the two friends entered.
Together they went from treasure room to treasure room. Keeah stopped here and there and murmured softly to herself.
“Demither shared her secrets with me, but I don’t remember. Everyone says the key is here. I just don’t know where….”
While the sounds of pirates yelling and splashing echoed into the Doom Gate from above, Keeah and Eric moved as swiftly as they could. They searched room after room, looking through wands and masks, shiny jewelry and odd weapons, but found no key. They came finally to a single empty room.
Eric glanced in and was about to turn away, when his left leg suddenly became solid. He lost his balance and fell. “Owww!”
Keeah rushed into the room to help him.
“No, don’t!” cried Eric. “You’ll crush it!”
She stopped cold. “Crush what?”
“That!” He pointed to an object on the floor.
Keeah stepped back and looked down. Nearly invisible in the center of the floor was a tiny white object no bigger than the cap from a soda bottle.
Squinting at it, Eric realized that it was a miniature palace. He tried to pick it up. He couldn’t.
“Because you’re a phantom,” said Keeah, bending to the floor.
“No,” he said. “Because … it’s heavy!”
She tried to move the building, too. “I remember this. Only it was bigger!”
As if her words were charmed, the tiny palace began to grow and grow. It filled the room until it stood there, an enormous play palace built for a princess.
The stale, watery air in the Doom Gate suddenly smelled like a garden.
The palace was completely white with several rooms draped in blue and green and yellow curtains. Keeah walked under the front arch and pulled aside the curtains. Eric followed her. There, among pearl bracelets and necklaces of sea jewels, lay a small golden key with a blue ribbon on it.
Eric felt his heart beat against his chest. “The Key of Mokarto?”
Keeah stared at it for a while, then said, “Long ago, before Demither took me with her to the Upper World, I lived with her in her palace. I remember now. These were my toys. Eric, we found it —”
The stone door shuddered behind them.
“They’re right outside!” said Eric.
“They won’t get the key,” said Keeah, snatching it up. “All we need to do is stay here two hours until sunset. Then it will be too late. Mokarto will never open, and we’ll have stopped them —”
There was a soft, hissing sound from outside the Gate. The children put their ears to the door and listened.
“Help us-s-s! The pirate princess-s-s has captured us-s-s!”
Eric felt his heart sink. “She has them. Ming has the silfs.”
“S-s-save us-s-s!”
Keeah looked at the key and sighed. “We have no choice,” she said. She placed her hand on the inside of the stone door, and it slid aside.
Ming’s red feathers glimmered in the watery light. When she snapped her claws, dozens of growling pirates seized the children.
But the silfs were nowhere in sight.
The pirate princess grinned. “S-s-sorry to dec-c-ceive you. The s-silfs escaped long ago into the s-s-sea. But you won’t. Unless you give me that key now. Besides, outnumbered much?”
They were outnumbered, at least thirty to one. And Eric still didn’t have his full powers back. Keeah alone couldn’t stop Ming.
The pirate princess snatched the key from her, then gazed around the treasure room. “Pirates, find some chains and bind these troublemakers.”
“Arrrh!” The pirates bound the children with silver chains from the first treasure room.
“Now, stay put until we return,” said Ming. “I’m going to furnish Mokarto with some of these trinkets. Pirates, come. We sail!”
“Arrrh!” they roared again, and followed their princess from Demither’s palace.
But the moment the pirates left, Eric felt the chains binding him slip away. “Hey!”
“S-s-surprise!” said the silfs. “It was the leas-s-st we could do! Now, go. Hurry!”
The two friends raced through the passages, up the floors of the palace from the grotto to the very top of the dome.
The pirate ships were already sailing back to Feshu, their terrible purple banners flying high.
“Should we conjure up those pilkas again?” asked Eric. “We need speed.”
Keeah raised her hands, then lowered them again. “I don’t think we need them. Look!”
There was a great flash of white in the air above them. Looking up, the children saw Gryndal, the elf king, riding atop a giant four-winged bird called a soarwing. Flink was perched on his shoulder.
Eric jumped. “Powers or no powers, sometimes we’re just plain lucky!”
“Jump on,” shouted Gryndal.
Laughing, the two friends skittered across the great dome and leaped onto the bird’s shimmering back.
“We came as soon as we could!” said Gryndal, banking the bird high over the sea.
“We?” said Keeah.
“Me
and my … army!”
With a second flash of white, another soarwing flew up next to them. On its back sat dozens and dozens of hog elves. They didn’t carry weapons, but they were armored from head to toe. They waved to the children.
“When we saw the pirates’ ships, we knew where you were,” said Gryndal.
“We have no time to waste,” said Eric. “To Feshu! To save our friends! And Droon!”
The two friends and a small army of hog elves swept across the sea and down toward the gloomy stone mills. There, a dreadful sight greeted them. For Mokarto — the terrible city of thieving thieves — was finished!
Seeing the white birds circling the city, Ving clacked his beak and gave out a shrill whistle.
“Welcome them the bandit way!”
With a flash of feathers and a roar of wings, the hawk army took to the skies.
Diving to avoid the hawk creatures, the children swept over the vast, dark city below.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Gloom surrounded the fliers as they dipped among Mokarto’s towers and turrets. All at once, Eric felt the hair on the back of his neck tingle. He glanced down into a large plaza and yelped.
“Whoa, look. Look at them!”
Hawk creatures stood silently in formation as far as the eye could see. Eyes closed, wings folded, shrouded in the long purple shadows of afternoon, they were nothing less than an army waiting to awake.
Gryndal quivered. “Oh, dear me!”
“I can’t believe that tiny golden key will bring all this to life,” said Keeah.
“Permanent life,” said Gryndal.
“Magically invincible life!” said Eric.
“That door can’t be opened!” said Keeah firmly. “There’s just no way. No way!”
On Gryndal’s command, the birds climbed again and soared over Feshu, prepared to battle the bandits once more.
But it was not to be.
Galen was nowhere to be seen, but Max, Neal, and Julie were trapped in front of the Mokarto gate, surrounded by hundreds of bandits and pirates, Icthos, and the hawk twins themselves.
Ming marched up from the shore with her army of pirates. She raised her claws to the flying friends. “The bandits will soon find Galen,” she yelled, “but having these three creatures is enough to make you do what we want. Come down, or else.”