Thomp, Thomp! A giant shovel-nosed beast came lumbering down the narrow street toward him. Without thinking, Eric sprang up to one of its giant saddle baskets and crouched down inside it.
The green creatures rushed along the street toward the beast but did not look in the baskets.
Carefully, Eric peeked over the top to see what was happening. The crowd filled the street on every side. “Oh, great. I’m trapped. In Calibaz!”
Eric! Are you okay? a voice spoke in his head.
“Huh?” He peered over the sea of green faces and saw a flash of blue cloth.
Keeah? he answered back silently. Communicating without actually talking was one of the cool powers Eric and Keeah shared.
A small hand waved from beneath the cloth. Neal stood next to Keeah, completely covered in a long purple cape. Next to him was Julie, wearing a swirl of yellow-and-red stripes.
I guess I’m okay for now, Eric said to his friends. Keep going. Try to find Sparr. I’ll blast my way back to you if I have to. I promise!
“You’d better, or I’ll freak out!” yelled Neal.
Meet us at the gates, said Keeah. If you don’t, we’ll turn this place upside down!
Some joke. It’s already upside down, Eric thought as the crowd drove the big beast farther along what should have been Main Street.
Finally, the green creatures heard a noise and rushed off in another direction, leaving the beast to lumber away alone.
“Now’s my chance,” said Eric. He stood up and prepared to make his escape, then froze.
At the bottom of the other basket, he spied two large yellow eyes blinking up at him.
And he heard that word again.
“Glemf!”
Eric stared at the green face.
“You!” he said. “You’re the cause of all this trouble. Come out. Let me see you!”
Trembling, the creature stood, then clambered into Eric’s basket. It crouched at his feet, turning its big eyes up at him.
“Well,” said Eric, “who and what are you?”
“I’m just a hoobah,” it said in a squeaky whisper. “Pikoo is my name. Don’t — glemf! — hurt me.”
Eric frowned. “Me, hurt you? It’s like you’re trying to hurt me! Why is everyone chasing me?”
Pikoo swallowed. “Lord Sparr told us to.”
Eric drew in a breath. “So it’s true? Sparr is here? Now?”
Spreading his mouth wide as if to smile but not quite making it, Pikoo nodded. “Sparr visited Calibaz once a long time ago. He told our great-great-great-grandfathers about the boy who would help him one day. I was so excited when I saw you in the library!”
Eric groaned. “I won’t help him! And neither should you. He’s bad. Very bad.”
“He said you might say that.”
Eric looked out from the basket. The beast tramped into a narrow alley, fluttering the tent curtains on either side.
“Okay,” he said, “let me get this straight. Sparr came to Calibaz in the past and told you to watch out for me. Well, I’m here now, and he’s here now. But where is here? What is Calibaz?”
Pikoo’s eyes seemed to twinkle. “Calibaz is the City of Tents! Where bells chime and flutes play and my people dream of hope! It lies on the other side of the veil from your world.”
“I didn’t even know there was a veil!” said Eric. “Has Calibaz always been here?”
Pikoo giggled. “Calibaz has always been, but never here. We live in tents because our city is always moving.”
“What do you mean, moving?” asked Eric.
Pikoo turned his face to the dark sky. “A legend says that Calibaz must move each day and night, until a stranger leads us into the world of light. Your world is the world of light.”
Eric shook his head. “This is unbelievable. A city that travels around — next to our world?”
The tents were thinning out, and more blue beasts seemed to be moving along the street.
“Where are we going?” asked Eric.
“To the pit Sparr told us to dig,” said Pikoo. “If we dig it, he said he will lead us into your world of light. He says he came here just for us. And that you will help him.”
Eric looked at the hoobah’s huge eyes. They were full of hope. He knew the truth would hurt, but he had to say it. “I — I — I’m sorry, Pikoo, but I don’t think Sparr really came to Calibaz to help you. He came because he’s searching for something called the Coiled Viper. It’s hidden on our side. Once he finds it, we’ll all be in real trouble.”
Pikoo’s eyes grew large. “But our legend —”
Thomp, thomp! The large blue beast stopped walking.
Eric poked his head over the basket and saw a giant pit, dug deep into the earth. Dozens of blue beasts were circling down a narrow pathway to the very center of the pit, while others were circling back up another road.
“The beasts’ noses are good for shoveling,” Pikoo said as their animal started tramping into the pit.
Shoveling? thought Eric. What is Sparr up to?
When their beast reached the bottom, Eric and Pikoo jumped out of the basket.
The creature then stooped to the earth and drove its nose into the ground, pulling up a big snoutful of dirt. It tilted its head back, and the dirt slid off into the saddle baskets, filling them.
As it did, a stream of black smoke drifted up from the center of the hole, adding to the darkness in the air.
“This is crazy,” Eric said. “What is all this?”
He edged toward the hole. Waving aside the smoke, he peered down. Below the hole was a mass of black rock, glowing red in the center with smoke pouring up from it in thick black plumes.
Pikoo leaned over. “What do you see?”
It finally struck Eric what he was looking at.
The smoldering tip of a volcano.
“It can’t be,” he gasped. “Is that Kano? That’s — that’s Droon down there! I can’t believe it. Sparr made you dig all the way to Droon!”
Eric jumped back. Something small and red poked up from the hole. It wiggled around. Soon, the one red thing was joined by five others just like it.
Claws.
Six claws on a hand.
The hand of a Ninn.
“Holy cow!” Eric gasped. He grabbed Pikoo and jumped behind a mound of dirt. First one, then another, then a third Ninn climbed out of the hole, shook themselves, looked around, and growled at the sound of music in the air.
Moments later, Eric heard clanging weapons and thumping war drums as more and more Ninns jammed themselves up through the hole.
“Now we find Sparr!” cried one of the Ninns. Together, they trudged up the pit, drumming loudly to drown out the hoobah music.
“Sparr’s army of Ninns is here!” said Eric. “That’s why they traveled to Kano. To get up here. To help Sparr steal the Viper!”
“So he doesn’t plan to help us?” Pikoo said.
Eric’s heart was racing. “Sorry, Pikoo. Sparr only helps himself — to Droon, to our world, and now he’s helped himself to Calibaz, too. I need to find my friends and stop Sparr from finding the Viper.”
Pikoo scowled as more Ninns drummed their way up the pit and into the city of tents.
“Even if our legend doesn’t come true today,” he said, “it isn’t the end of our world. There is still hope for tomorrow. I will call the hoobahs and tell them to help you!”
“You would do that?”
Pikoo smiled and started up the pit. “Of course! Find your friends. Then follow the smell of burning wood. It will lead you to the tent of Sparr. You can’t miss it. Ours are colorful. His is very big, very black, and very ugly. Good luck!”
Then Pikoo took a little horn from his cape and began to play. A moment later, hoobahs from around the city answered on their flutes.
His heart pounding, Eric darted off into the city of tents to search for his friends.
While Ninns stormed along the narrow streets as if they owned the city, Eric dashed from tent to t
ent, careful to keep from being seen.
Five minutes later, he saw three figures huddled near the wooden gate. One of them had a silly purple cape pulled over his head.
“Neal!” he said, laughing as he ran over.
Neal turned. “Eric! Boy, are we glad to see you. I almost freaked out!”
“What happened to you?” asked Keeah, quickly wrapping Eric in an orange robe and hood.
“We were looking and looking,” said Julie. “Then, suddenly, there were Ninns everywhere!”
“Um, yeah, about that.” As quickly as he could, Eric told them everything he had learned, including Pikoo’s description of Sparr’s tent.
“We passed a big black tent,” said Keeah.
“And it was ugly and scary,” said Julie.
“Sounds like the place,” said Eric. “Let’s go.”
They twisted through the streets until they found the tent of black cloth. The air was thicker and smokier than anywhere else in the city.
“Sparr’s got a great sense of style,” whispered Neal. “Somewhere between icky and yucky.”
Looking both ways, the four friends slipped into a twisting maze of curtained alleys until only a single thin curtain remained between them and the innermost chamber of the tent.
Suddenly — whoomf! — a dazzling green-and-blue flame shot up from a cauldron inside the chamber, lighting it for an instant.
And they saw him.
In a chair against the back wall sat the great sorcerer himself, silent and unmoving.
“He’s — different,” Keeah whispered.
Sparr’s famous black cloak was in shreds. His left arm was held close to his body, as if it were hurt. And the V-shaped scar on his head blazed more brightly and seemed deeper than ever.
“I guess his ride through time was a bit bumpy,” said Neal.
“Not bumpy enough,” whispered Julie. “He made it this far.”
“Arise,” said Sparr, lifting his hand.
Whoomf! A second rush of flames shot up from the cauldron, rustling the curtains.
“You have called me again?” asked a deep, eerie voice.
Keeah trembled, even as she tugged the curtain aside and looked in. “That voice …”
Sparr rose from the chair, wincing in pain as he hobbled to the cauldron. The moment he came near, white smoke rose from the fire.
And out of the smoke a face began to form.
It was a woman with wild green hair. Her skin was pale white, her lips were black. The flames leaped around her, then settled down again.
Keeah began to shake. “Oh, my gosh! It’s Witch Demither!”
Unaware of the four friends behind the curtain, Sparr stared directly at the face of smoke. “I have journeyed five centuries to find the Viper. From one time portal to the next. I was hurt.”
“Not enough,” hissed Neal.
“I have arrived at the right time and place,” Sparr said. “You hid the Viper here.”
“You may have power over me, Sparr,” she said, “but I will not tell you where.”
Sparr grinned coldly. “It doesn’t matter. Om predicted that it will be mine anyway. But that is just the beginning. There is another problem.”
Wincing in pain, Sparr pulled up a chain that hung around his neck. On it was a pale white stone, carved all over with strange markings.
Eric felt his heart skip a beat. “Is that — that’s not the medallion Galen was telling us about?”
“Where did you find that?” asked Demither.
“In the past,” said the sorcerer. “Here in the Upper World. I fought someone. I took it. I must know what the markings mean.”
The white stone flashed in the flame’s light. Eric staggered, as if he had been struck. “It is the Moon Medallion! He stole it from Urik!”
Her face floating in the smoke, her eyes glistening like black jewels, Demither began to read the carvings on the stone.
“ ‘One rides swiftly through an ancient forest. He seeks a dark goal.’ ”
“I am the rider,” said Sparr. “I seek the Viper, and much beyond that.”
“‘The rider strays from the path. A branch of the tree strikes him down. He falls —’”
“A branch of the tree strikes me down?” cried Sparr. “Galen! I knew it.”
Demither held up a scaly hand. “‘He falls — unless that branch is broken before he enters the forest. Unless … that branch is broken now!’”
Sparr drew in a long breath, saying nothing for a long while. Finally, he spoke.
“And can this medallion help me?”
Demither was silent for a time, too. “It holds great power over the sons of Zara. Power for good or evil. How will you use it?”
“I know how,” hissed Keeah. “Against Galen.”
Even in his pain, Sparr managed a smile. He tucked the medallion back into his robes. “Very well, then. If I must break the branch, I shall. Go back to Droon. Await my —”
Whoomf! Demither was gone before he finished. Sparr glared at the flames. Then he turned. “Ninns!” he called out. “Ninns!”
The kids ducked between two curtains as several Ninns entered the innermost room.
“Is my army ready?” Sparr asked.
The Ninns bowed. “Yes, Lord Sparr!”
“And the Viper’s Eye. Do you have it?”
The Ninns hung their heads. “The old one with the beard and the spider followed us to Kano. They stole it back.”
“What?” cried Sparr.
“YESSS!” Eric shouted, punching his fist into the air and accidentally pulling down the curtain he and his friends were hiding behind.
Sparr whirled around and stared at them, his eyes huge.
“Y-y-y-you!” he sputtered.
Eric gulped. “We’ll just be leaving now.”
“Get them!” Sparr howled.
Blam, blam! Keeah grabbed her friends and was already blasting a path through the tent.
The Ninns shot after them, tearing through the tent and on to the street.
Only seconds ahead of them, the kids zigzagged from one alley to another until they screeched to a stop in front of the Calibaz gate.
“Play it, Neal!” said Julie. “Play it now!”
Neal tore the little flute out of his pocket.
As the Ninns stormed around the corner toward them, he lifted it to his lips.
“Hurry,” Keeah urged him.
Neal put his fingers over the holes. He took a deep breath. He paused. He let out his breath.
“I forget the tune.”
Eric jumped. “You — what?”
The Ninns were speeding toward them.
“You know how sometimes you have a song in your head and you can’t get rid of it and it keeps playing over and over in your mind and nothing you do will get it out of your head?”
The Ninns drew their bows.
Eric nodded frantically. “Yeah, so?”
“Well, this isn’t like that,” said Neal. “Not a bit. My mind just went totally blank.”
“You said you’d never forget that tune!” said Julie.
With their arrows loaded, the Ninns charged.
“Apparently,” said Neal, “I was wrong.”
“NEEEEEEAL!” cried Keeah. “PLAY IT!”
“Okay, now you’re just freaking me out!”
Fwing-ing-ing! The Ninns loosed their flaming arrows at the kids.
Neal closed his eyes. “Oh, wait a second.”
“A second!” cried Eric. “In a second we’ll —”
Neal blew into the flute.
The strange melody filled the air, then made it wobble and ripple and — s-s-s-l-o-r-p! — the kids fell through to the other side. The instant Neal stopped playing, the air sealed up again.
Clank! Clonk! Blimf! The Ninns’ arrows struck the wall of air on the other side, and a moment later, so did they. “Ooof! Argh! Yeow!”
“Neal!” cried Julie. “Way to keep us waiting until the last second!”
H
e grinned. “Yeah, I am pretty awesome, when you think about it. You’re welcome!”
Eric looked down Main Street in both directions. People were everywhere. “Look, we only have a few minutes before Sparr busts his way out of Calibaz for the Viper. Keeah —”
The princess was trembling. Her eyes were closed. “I see … seven trees in a circle … a ring of trees … and a fountain.”
Eric looked at Neal, then at Julie. “I still can’t think of any place like that.”
“I can!” said Julie. “I saw it this morning. In a picture of the old library. It showed a little garden of peach trees with a fountain just like that.”
“There’s no fountain at the library,” said Eric.
Neal gasped. “Not anymore. But there was. It was right behind the library. They took it away when they built the children’s library.”
Keeah’s eyes popped open. “Then the Viper must be hidden behind the new building. I remember Demither digging.”
“Come on. We’re wasting time!” said Eric.
They raced up Main Street and across the park, then stopped. A huge crowd of parents and children was lined up around the library.
Eric moaned. “Of course. It’s noon. Sparr’s army will attack with the whole town here!”
“Maybe we should just force our way through and say we’re sorry later?” asked Keeah.
Neal shook his head. “Only my mom could get us in, but she won’t. She and the library volunteers are as tough as Ninns. No special treatment, she always says. And she’s the boss.”
Julie’s eyes twinkled. “The boss, huh? I have an idea. We’ve been doing disguises all day. Time for a real disguise. Turn around, everyone. This may not be pretty.”
When they turned around they heard the sound of rushing wind, two high-pitched squeaks, and a ploink! Finally, a voice said, “Follow me, children. And remember, be quiet!”
Neal turned. Julie was now a tall woman in a blue dress. He staggered back. “Mom?”
“Not quite,” Julie said with a giggle.
“But you look just like her!” said Eric.
“I don’t know for how long,” she said. “Come on, everyone. And Neal, tuck in your shirt!”