The dragon waved his hand, and the visions vanished. Gazing coldly at the children, he said, “Say nothing of what you have seen! Sparr, take them to Ko!”
Gethwing then turned and stalked out of the chamber with his guards.
Sparr waited another moment, then exhaled as if he had been holding his breath for hours. “You guys! I’m so glad to see you! But why did you say you’re the Blugs?”
“It was either that or be captured,” said Keeah.
“It doesn’t matter, anyway,” said Eric. “We needed to get in here to get you out.”
Sparr’s expression was halfway between a smile and a frown. “Thanks, but it won’t be that easy. No one’s ever seen the Blugs, not even Ko. They operate in secret. So that’s good. But now that everyone knows you’re here, you’ll have to see him. Otherwise, he’ll turn this whole place over looking for you —” He stopped. “Wait. Is Kem … nearby?”
Julie nodded. “With Galen and Shago.”
“I sense him,” said Sparr.
“But what’s so important about the Blugs?” asked Keeah.
Sparr went to the mouth of the chamber and looked down on the sea below. “The Blugs are all about secret missions. Ko sent them on one, and now he wants to know things. I hope you don’t actually know the information that he wants, because he’ll use the Coiled Viper to force it out of you.”
The Coiled Viper was a crown of great power. It was the Viper that had transformed Sparr into a boy when he used it to wake Emperor Ko from his age-old sleep.
Eric stood next to Sparr at the opening. “What do you know about this Shadowface guy? Have you seen him? Why is he helping Ko?”
“We even thought he cursed us,” said Julie. “He said a weird word. Nyora. But nothing happened. Who is he?”
Just then, a terrible shout came from the shore below. “Bring the Blugs! Now!”
“Too late,” said Sparr. “We have to go —”
But before they could move — whoomf! — purple flames leaped up from the cauldron. An image rose out of the smoke. But it wasn’t like the visions that Gethwing conjured. It was the form of a cloaked figure.
“That’s him!” said Julie. “Shadowface!”
Sparr gaped at the fire, and he began to quiver. The creature’s burning red eyes seemed to penetrate the boy’s. Then the rasping and whispering began.
“He’s going to speak again!” said Keeah.
“Nyora … peskah …” the creature said.
Eric braced himself for something else. But as before, nothing happened. Shadowface disappeared into nothing.
Sparr pulled away from the cauldron and stood wobbling on his feet. He rubbed his eyes over and over as if they hurt from being too close to the fire. “Who is that? And what are those words? I don’t know what they mean! Why is he here? What does he want?”
Eric thought that Sparr looked as helpless as he had ever seen him. “We don’t know yet. But we need you. Galen said there won’t be peace in Droon if you’re not part of it. We have to get you out of here. We have to stick together to get through this.”
“We all feel that way,” said Keeah.
“It’s called teamwork,” said Neal.
The boy stopped rubbing his eyes and looked at the children for a long time. Finally, he managed a little smile. “Sometimes I can’t believe I have any friends. For hundreds of years, I’ve been so totally alone. Now, for the first time, you guys …”
He turned away. “Anyway, let’s not get all mushy. We have work to do. Ko will be angry if we take too long. Believe me, I know.”
Sparr led them out of the chamber and began the steep climb down the stone face. Watching him move along the paths to the shore, Eric paused. He had the feeling that even though they were all together, Sparr was really in a place all by himself.
“Eric, come on,” called Sparr. “Teamwork, remember?”
“Coming,” he said, hurrying one foot after another after another down to the black shore behind his friend.
When they arrived at the water’s edge, the children were stunned by the massive size of the Skorth ships.
Altogether, nine black-planked vessels, eerie and frightening, had been raised. Their sails were ripped and sagging, their hulls shabby and crooked, but they bobbed in the water ready to sail into battle all the same. At the helm of each was a single Skorth warrior, dripping wet, draped with strings of seaweed.
“Where are Galen, Shago, and Kem?” whispered Julie. “We could sure use them now.”
Eric’s heart sank as he scanned the shore, trying to spot their three friends. “What could they do against a navy like this, anyway?”
Gethwing silently trod along the northern bank of the channel, inspecting the ships.
All at once, the call came — “Bring the Blugs to Emperor Ko!” — and a pair of dark-scaled lizards tramped along the shore toward the children.
Sparr shook his head. “From Gethwing’s fiery pot into Ko’s fire. Sorry, guys.”
The lizards hissed, turned, and ushered them down to the emperor’s ship, a terrifying vessel nearly twice the size of the others. Beasts of all shapes and sizes, including large bearlike creatures and spiky gray lions, were tugging the ghostly rigging into position. They hoisted moldy sails up the crooked mast. They loaded rusty cannons with gnarled chunks of iron.
On the rear deck, dressed in jet-black robes and seated like a pirate king, was the bull-headed beast ruler, Ko. The crown called the Coiled Viper sat low on his brow, its twin snake heads gleaming in the light of the torches ranged along the deck. But as bright as the crown was, Ko’s three red eyes blazed with an even stronger flame.
“Come forward, Blugs!” Ko boomed when he saw the children. He stared at them one by one with his terrifying eyes. Then he spoke.
“I do not know you. But when I was told that the Blugs possessed a certain talent, I commanded that you perform a single mission for the glory of Ko.”
The emperor rose from his seat. Towering over the children, he scanned their beastly disguises. “You see we are ready to sail. Tell me now! What have you learned?”
Eric began to tremble. What were the Blugs supposed to do for Ko? He wondered if anyone could see his shaggy fur quivering.
“Why are you silent?” roared the emperor. “I commanded you to sneak into Jaffa City and find its weakest point. My ships are ready. Where shall we attack?”
He glared at the four children. All of a sudden, a blue glow from the Coiled Viper fell over Keeah.
“Ah!” Ko roared. “The crown tells me that you know the answer. Tell me now!”
Bathed in the light from the emperor’s magic crown, Keeah took a wobbly step forward. “The … sea …” she said.
Sparr moved close behind her. Careful, Keeah. Don’t look at the Viper!
But the princess took another step, as if drawn forward into the magic light.
“The seawall …” she said, seeming to struggle against the power of the Coiled Viper, but failing. “The seawall to the west. It’s the oldest in the city. And … the weakest!”
“Well done, my spies! Sparr, take them below!” said Ko. He quickly turned to the Skorth warrior at the wheel. The moment he did, the light of the Viper subsided, and Keeah came out of her trance.
“What just happened?” she whispered. “What did I do? Oh, no. My Jaffa City!”
“We sail now!” bellowed Ko. “There is no stopping us! Skorth, take us to Jaffa City’s western seawall!”
All at once, the skeleton warriors on all the ships spun their great wooden wheels.
The torn sails filled magically with the black air of the Dark Lands. One after the other, the ships moved over the waves toward the Horns of Ko.
Then, suddenly, everything happened at once.
No sooner had the ships begun to move across the waves than a call came from the shore. “The Blugs have arrived!”
The children whirled around and saw four furry beasts standing on the shore, shouting up at the ship. “He
y! Who are them beasts?”
“Uh-oh!” gasped Neal.
But before the emperor could react, a strange rumbling sounded and a dense purple fog drifted over the deck, obscuring everything.
“Shadowface is back!” said Eric.
From the fog, the children heard three words.
“Nyora! Peskah! Toth!”
“Yeah, yeah,” mumbled Neal. “It still means nothing —”
All of a sudden, Sparr fell to his knees and clamped his hands over his ears, his face twisted in pain. Then he began shouting, “Nyora. Peskah. Toth. Nyora — peskah — toth. Toth! Toth!”
Screaming loudly, Sparr flew across the deck straight at Emperor Ko, his fingers blasting red sparks. Blam-blam-blam! Lightning sliced across the deck. Before the beasts could protect their ruler, Sparr leaped at him. He yanked the Coiled Viper from Ko’s forehead.
“What! Nooooo —” roared Ko.
Jumping away, Sparr blasted the emperor with his free hand. Ko toppled backward into a band of beasts and fell over the railing and into the water. Splash!
“Holy cow!” gasped Eric.
Sparr turned on the rest of the crew next, blasting them off the deck and into the black waves one by one, leaving only the Skorth captain at the helm. Finally, he stepped toward the children. His eyes glassy, his face blank, he fired blast upon blast at their feet and sent them all flying overboard after Ko.
Even before the children struck the icy water, the Skorth captain spun the ghostly wheel and turned the ship on the waves, crashing this way and that through the fleet.
“Sparr!” Eric yelled, shivering in the waves. “Stop! What are you doing?”
Sparr turned, his fins as black as night, his eyes red with rage. Seeming to struggle against the purple fog that wrapped around him, he spoke silently to Eric.
It’s Shadowface. He’s calling me!
The boy wrenched himself away as the emperor’s giant vessel plowed violently past the last ship and into the open waters of the ink-dark Serpent Sea.
“Sparr!” cried Ko, storming to the shore. “Stop the boy! Stop him —”
Then came a terrible call from the lookout at the top of the Horns of Ko.
“King Zello’s navy is approaching! Prepare to open the Horns! We are at war!”
Icy waves sloshed wildly over the children, but they managed to swim to the bank just as Ko roared a command.
“Beasts, we shall follow Sparr later! Prepare to open the Horns! Bring me a ship!”
“Let’s lose the beast disguises,” said Eric, breathlessly climbing onshore. “We need our powers back.”
“To help my father’s fleet!” said Keeah. “Hurry!”
Unrolling his scroll and shaking it as dry as he could, Neal reversed the charm with Julie’s help, and the kids were themselves again. But Ko was already at the helm of a second Skorth vessel, piloting his navy toward the Horns.
“We need to get up to the top of the Horns right now,” said Julie. “Let’s fly. Neal?”
“All aboard!” he said.
Taking their friends’ hands, Neal and Julie flew them all quickly and unseen to the top of the giant stone heads. From there, they could clearly see the approaching royal fleet.
“Everyone’s there on the Jaffa Wind,” said Keeah. “My parents and Max, too.”
They saw the spider troll working the great wooden wheel on the upper deck of the ship. Keeah’s father stood tall at the prow, looking through a long, golden spyglass, while her mother stood by his side, clutching a big blue book.
“She must have discovered something in Agrah-Voor’s library,” said Eric. “Something about Shadowface.”
There was a sudden flash of black and the flap of heavy wings in the distant sky. It was Gethwing. He dived toward the sea, circled once, then soared up again.
Almost instantly, the water began to bubble and churn off the left side of the royal fleet.
Zello yelled something to Max. The great vessel turned, and the Droon navy followed its lead.
“Our ships are going to battle the serpents,” said Keeah, her voice quivering. Eric’s eyes widened as he realized she was right.
At the same time, the Skorth ships jostled inside the closed gates, eager to burst out onto the open seas and attack the distracted navy. Several jagged-finned serpents had already begun to batter the king’s ships.
Ko bellowed, “Open the Horns! Open them! We attack now!”
Errrch! With a deep wrenching sound, the scraping of stone on stone, and a violent sloshing of waves, the enormous rocks of the Horns of Ko began to part.
“Noooo!” yelled Keeah. “The Skorth will ambush our navy while they’re battling the serpents. We have to help them — oh!”
Blam! A burst of violet sparks accidentally escaped from her fingertips, loosening some rocks at her feet. They skittered down the side of the stone head and landed on the deck of Ko’s ship with a loud crash.
The emperor looked up, scanning his own giant likeness.
“Uh-oh,” said Julie. “He’ll see us —”
“No, that’s it!” cried Keeah suddenly. “Let’s blast the ground and start a rock slide — right onto those creepy ships. We can delay their attack on the navy! Eric —”
At once, the two wizards sent bolt after bolt of sparks at the ground beneath their feet.
Blam! Blam! Loose rocks tumbled down the face of the stone head and smashed onto the decks of the Skorth vessels crowded below.
The beasts aimed their cannons at the top of the heads and fired. But the cannon blasts only sent more rocks toppling down at them.
“Stop firing, you fools!” Ko shouted. “Pull away from the cliffs!”
The ships began to retreat from the Horns, slamming into one another in their haste to clear the falling rocks.
“Traffic jam!” said Neal. “That’s what we like to see!”
Meanwhile, cannons shot from Zello’s ships at the sea creatures. Relna blasted the waves with a thin stream of blue sparks.
“Now, Eric,” yelled Keeah. “Let’s blast the water. Make it too hot for the serpents!”
“You got it!” said Eric. “One, two, three —”
Whoom! Blam! Both wizards sent powerful bolts at the sea from their position atop the Horns. Squealing and shrieking, the attacking sea serpents dived away to the cooler depths, leaving Zello’s royal navy free to sail straight to the open Horns.
“Yahoo!” cried Julie. “Teamwork does it again!”
“Close the Horns!” sputtered Ko, and the channel filled with the sound of iron wheels turning and stones coming together. “Draw back from the gates —”
“That’s not so easy when you reverse the steering!” boomed a familiar voice.
The kids turned to see Galen racing along the top of the stone head, his curved staff blazing with light. He was completely soaked.
“Galen!” said Keeah. “Where have you been?”
“Sabotaging the ships!” chirped Shago, who scampered up behind the wizard, with Kem, both shaking themselves dry. “Now, everyone, watch this —”
Crash! Plonk! Crunchhhh!
As the Skorth ships drew away from the Horns, they began sailing in circles, crashing into one another.
Seeing his chance, Zello gave out a loud whoop, and Max piloted the Jaffa Wind neatly between the Horns of Ko. Booom! It rammed right into the emperor’s floundering ship.
“Now, back to the shore and into the ship!” said Galen. No sooner had Neal and Julie flown the little group back down than Max steered the Jaffa Wind right to them.
“Come aboard, everyone!” said the queen as a landing plank splashed to the shore. “We have a Sparr to catch!”
As the seven friends raced onto the ship, a dozen small sails shot up, and a pair of massive steam engines groaned to life.
“Speed ahead, Max!” Keeah urged. “With everything we have.”
“And we have a lot!” said Max.
Whoomf-whoomf! White steam shot up from the smokestack
s in the stern. With a roar and a shout from its crew, the Jaffa Wind crashed through the enemy fleet. It sped after Sparr’s vessel, now nearly out of sight on the icy black water of the Serpent Sea.
A storm was rising over the black sea. Wind blew in widening circles, churning the waves. One second, the sea surged and launched the Jaffa Wind high. The next second, great hollows of water pulled the hull back down with an angry thud.
“Faster now! Hoist every sail, use all steam power, and … forward!” cried Zello.
Galen stood next to the king, rain lashing his face, the light of his rainbow staff piercing the gloom. “Eric, Keeah, everyone, come here, please,” he said.
The two wizards scrambled across the deck and joined their friends.
“We had some fun at the Horns of Ko,” said Galen. “But our journey now is a dark one. Relna, please tell us what you know.”
The queen opened the large blue book the children had seen earlier.
“Hazad and I found something,” she said. “Something, but not everything. The language you heard is more of a mystery than ever.”
“What can you tell us?” asked Shago.
“‘Nyora peskah toth’ is a phrase in a secret language unlike all other Droon languages,” Relna said. “As you have noticed, the first two words mean little until the final word is uttered. The last word acts like a key, unlocking the meaning — and the power — of all the words before it.”
“But what do the words mean?” asked Keeah.
Relna breathed deeply. “It is a command. As near as we can tell, it means ‘steal the crown.’ The words are from a language as old as Droon, but one that died out completely when the Goll empire rose to power. According to the elders of Agrah-Voor, however, the language was revived by Lord Sparr and used by him alone to cloak his own darkest magic.”
“By him alone?” said Eric, peering out at the black sea. “But that’s impossible. That hooded sorcerer knows it, too.”
Shago made a noise. “And we still don’t know who this mysterious Shadowboots is!”
Neal opened his mouth, then shook his head. “No. I’m not going to say it.”