Max disguised himself in two sets of football padding, an extra-large jersey, and a football helmet. Following Neal into Mr. Hinkle’s closet, King Zello emerged a few minutes later nearly bursting out of a faded, flannel work shirt.
“That’s my dad’s lucky shirt!” said Eric.
“I know,” said Neal. “We’ll need luck to get away with this.”
Before long, Julie, Keeah, and Relna were back, dressed like any modern mother and daughters. The two crowns and other royal finery were stuffed in Julie’s bulging backpack.
“Okay,” said Keeah. “Let’s find Sparr.”
“The Fifth River brought him and Gethwing here,” said Eric, opening the back door. “It ends at the town pond. Let’s start there.”
“To the pond!” said Khan firmly.
Glancing both ways, the whole group darted across Eric’s backyard to the side street. They headed quickly past Neal’s garage and down the next street.
“I hope Sparr’s okay,” said Julie as they turned left, then crossed two more blocks. “We’ve been through a lot together.”
“Right,” said Max. “Except that he and Gethwing have been through a lot, too. After all, it was the moon dragon who raised Sparr the first time around.”
Eric was worried about that, too. He trusted Sparr now. The boy had saved his life more than once. It was Gethwing he didn’t trust. The moon dragon had great powers. If he found Sparr, could he use those powers to turn him to the dark side again?
Eric stopped suddenly.
“What’s the matter?” asked Zello, clutching his battle club.
“I don’t know,” Eric whispered. “But if it is Saturday, where is everyone? Why isn’t anybody outside? There are no cars on the roads. I don’t see anyone anywhere.”
Max grumbled from under his helmet, “You mean I’m wearing this for nothing?”
“You may not need it yet, my spidery friend,” said Khan. “But something’s not right. Listen.” The lumpy king tilted his head to the side. A moment later, everyone heard what he was listening to.
Stomp … stomp … It was the sound of slow steps dragging themselves one after another across the nearby street. Next came a terrible squeaking noise. Errch! Errch!
The little group looked around in every direction but saw no one.
“Uh, okay,” said Neal. “I thought ghosts only came out at night.”
Stomp … stomp … errch! The footsteps and the squeaking soon moved on, and the street was quiet once more.
Eric’s heart began to pound wildly. He looked back at his neighborhood, suddenly wondering where his parents were. “I don’t like this. Time must have passed since we were here. Something’s definitely going on.”
The group listened for a while longer, but heard nothing else. They continued down two more streets before finding the path to the pond. When they arrived at the little beach, the small strip of sand was fully drenched in sun — but completely deserted.
“I don’t like it at all,” said Khan, frowning as he sniffed the air. “There is definitely something fishy happening in your town.”
“Find out what you can,” said Julie. “I think I’ll take a Julie’s-eye view.”
“Be careful,” said Relna. “Gethwing could be lurking anywhere.”
Julie nodded. Ever since she had been scratched by an ancient creature called a wingwolf, Julie had gained the power to fly. Glancing around quickly to make sure no one was watching, she leaped into the air and soared up over the beach.
“It’s very handy having our own personal Julie Bird,” said Keeah.
As Julie flitted first to a tree, then over town to the library roof, Eric stared out across the pond. For the longest time, it was perfectly calm. All of a sudden, a head bobbed up from under the water. “Hey, everybody, look.” Eric whispered. “Some-one’s out there!”
The head turned, glided for a short distance, then vanished under the surface.
“And they’re spying on us!” said Neal.
When a small splash surfaced hundreds of feet from the first one, the shape was there again, still watching them.
Eric blinked. “Whoa. That was a long way to swim underwater!”
Suddenly — blam! — the air blazed with red light, they heard a scream, and Julie tumbled from the sky, fell into Khan, and rolled over in the sand.
“Yikes!” she cried, scrambling up. “The whole town is empty — except for them!”
Blam! Blam! The air flashed red again.
“It’s Gethwing!” cried Relna. “Hide!”
In an instant, the terrifying moon dragon swept over the beach, his four black wings flapping noisily. Sparr was running across the sand, his black cloak flying, the small fins behind his ears glowing purple.
“Sparr, give it to me!” boomed Gethwing. “Give it to me now!”
“No way!” the boy yelled. “I wouldn’t give you a stick of gum, even if I knew what you wanted! Go back to the Dark Lands! I’ll light the way for you!”
“We’ll light the way!” said Eric, joining Sparr. “Fire!”
The two boys joined their blasts and — ka-blam! — drove the dragon away, while Sparr fled the beach in a flash.
Gethwing hovered over the sand, glaring down at Eric. “You, you, always you!”
“Eric, run!” yelled Keeah, leaping to him.
But it was too late. Gethwing aimed a fiery bolt right at Eric. Before the boy could move — wham! — the air blazed red once more.
Text copyright © 2005 by Robert T. Abbott.
Illustrations copyright © 2005 by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.
SCHOLASTIC, LITTLE APPLE, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, April 2005
Cover art by Tim Jessell
e-ISBN 978-0-545-41838-6
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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