In the City of Dreams

  It was Neal. He was rushing down the street to his friend. “It is you! Yay, Eric!”

  Julie and Pasha were right behind him.

  Eric smiled to see his friends. But his time had already run out.

  There came a great flapping of wings, but it was not Gondra the fire dragon this time.

  It was Gethwing himself.

  His four massive wings thundered in a storm of dust as he dropped from the sky.

  Riding on his back was Prince Ungast.

  “What a surprise!” said Ungast, jumping to the ground and adjusting his collar. “Is it my birthday or something?”

  “The opposite maybe,” Eric said.

  “And he’s funny, too,” Ungast snarled.

  “You won’t be laughing long,” said Neal.

  The moon dragon stretched his wings to the sky. “Perhaps not,” said Gethwing, “but I will be. Wingwolves?”

  “Let her go, boys!” called Captain Talon.

  A heavy net of chains dropped right over Keeah, Neal, Julie, and Pasha. It flattened them to the ground and trapped them helplessly beneath it.

  “My idea of a good time!” said Gethwing.

  Ungast sneered as he slowly circled around Eric. “Why, there’s barely any of you left to fight. I won’t even break a sweat!”

  Eric felt sure he would fail. He bit his lip to keep from fainting. “Don’t be so sure,” he said. “I know what to do with this blade. A friend gave it to me. Oh, sorry. Did I say ‘friend’? Friends are something you don’t know anything about —”

  Ungast’s smile dropped from his face. “I don’t care about your saber or your friends. Let’s see what you’re made of. Not much, I bet!” He tossed his cloak back and thrust his hand high.

  Voooomp! A sword of shimmering black steel rose from his jeweled glove.

  “Blade to blade, little boy, let’s see who’s got the stuff!”

  Flang! Clomp! Bam!

  As everyone watched, mesmerized, Eric managed to duck and dodge the first of Ungast’s thrusts. He spun around on his heels as Sparr had taught him. He chopped and hacked with all his strength.

  But it was clear he couldn’t keep it up. Ungast was far stronger and faster.

  Finally, Ungast leveled a blow against Eric’s saber, knocking the blade out of his hand. Eric fell to the ground.

  “Oops!” said Ungast. “Did I win so soon?”

  Gethwing grinned. “Finish him —”

  “No!” cried Keeah, twisting herself around and burning through the iron chains with two concentrated blasts. Blam! Blam! She freed the others in a flash.

  “Neal, give the wolves a bath!” said Pasha.

  Neal laughed. “Great idea!”

  “What? No. No!” cried Captain Talon. “We hate water —”

  Unwrapping his turban, Neal whipped the cloth through the air. It became a wave of water that doused and scattered Captain Talon and his shrieking wingwolves.

  “Eric, the carpet, quickly!” shouted Pasha. Even as the air flamed with sparks, Pasha flung the carpet across the ground, and Eric clambered onto it.

  “No fair!” shouted Ungast. “Gethie!”

  In a single move, the dark prince leaped onto the dragon’s back and aimed blast after blast at Eric. Blam! Blam!

  Eric dipped and swooped, trying to escape. The carpet was fast, but not as fast as Gethwing. The dragon followed close enough for Ungast to score a flaming hit.

  Blam! Eric felt the sting of sparks on his wounded shoulder. He paled even more.

  “Ungast gains power with every blast,” cried Julie. “We need to help Eric!”

  “I’m on it!” said Keeah. She conjured up fireballs and hurled them at Gethwing. The dragon howled in surprise.

  Eric turned the carpet abruptly around and flew it straight at Gethwing. Whump! He rammed him right between the wings.

  In anger, Gethwing thrust out his claws and caught Eric’s carpet with a talon. The carpet ripped. Eric clutched the air and caught the hem of Ungast’s cloak. The two enemies screamed and dropped twenty feet onto the streets below.

  Dazed, Ungast struggled to his feet. He looked for Eric and saw him pulling himself up from the ground. He raised his gleaming sword. “Now — to end it!”

  Then came a shriek from above. As Gethwing circled behind the black palace, one of Keeah’s fireballs sizzled at him.

  “Enough of you!” the princess shouted.

  The moon dragon batted the fireball away with his giant tail. But the tip of his tail struck the tallest horn of the palace with a fierce impact, and Gethwing faltered.

  Ungast raged against Eric. “Enough of you!”

  Eric remembered what Sparr had taught him and faked left, then twirled to his right, sticking his foot out. Ungast slid past him and tumbled flat on his face.

  Ungast groaned and went still.

  Eric fell to his knees. “I win! I win —”

  WHOOOOM!

  The impact of Gethwing’s tail sent black stones flying everywhere, knocking the Dream Crown from his forehead and tangling his wings. He crashed into the tower, and the entire palace began to crumble.

  Julie screamed. “Eric — watch out!”

  Exhausted, Eric pushed his glasses up his nose and saw Duke Boola and his daughters escaping the palace. He tried to get to his feet but could not.

  With a tremendous crash, the entire palace — and Gethwing himself — collapsed in a rush of tumbling stones and showering dust.

  Directly onto Eric and Prince Ungast.

  “No!” screamed Keeah. “Eric!”

  The air thundered, and the ground quaked for what seemed like an eternity.

  Finally, all was still once more.

  Out of the debris came a flutter of tiny wings. Isha swooped around the wreckage over and over until she hovered over a single spot.

  “There!” cried Pasha. “Dig there!”

  Not waiting for the dust to clear, everyone climbed into the rubble and began digging.

  “Eric!” Julie called. “Eric, can you hear us?”

  “Where are you? Answer us!” yelled Neal, tossing smoking chunks of black stone behind him. “Eric —”

  “Hush!” said Keeah, holding up her hand. “I hear something!”

  The friends went silent.

  Tap … tap …

  Sounds of life came from deep under the wreckage. The children listened.

  “Help … me …”

  “Dig!” cried Keeah.

  With all their strength, the friends picked away at the stones. Keeah blasted where she could, lifted stones gently when she could not.

  When at last they could dig no farther, Julie yelled, “Eric! Are you there? Eric?”

  Seconds passed. No sound.

  Then a stone shifted. Dust stirred. Out of the rubble, a small figure emerged. It was a boy in rags. His brown hair stuck out every which way. He staggered from the wreckage, then fell to his knees. In his hand was a crumpled pair of glasses. He was no longer faded.

  He was completely whole.

  “Eric!” Keeah yelled. She ran and threw her arms around him, overjoyed. “You made it! You made it!”

  Neal, Julie, Pasha, and the twin princesses surrounded him.

  “Eric!” Neal said, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “You’re back!

  “I am?” Eric said, blinking his eyes. He managed a weak smile. “That was … amazing. Do … do you think he’s really … gone?”

  The children turned to the rubble. The remains of Ungast’s cloak smoked among the rocks like a pile of burning leaves.

  “I think so,” Keeah said, wiping away her tears. “Gethwing, too. We thought we lost you, Eric. But you defeated him. You won!”

  “Gethwing has been defeated,” said Duke Boola. “The wingwolves have fled. The fire dragons have vanished. Our city is restored. Samarindo rises from its ashes. Look!”

  Below the ruins of Gethwing’s palace lay the multicolored stones of Boola’s original castle. Setting the dented crown on h
is head for the first time in days, the duke dreamed of colorful streets, and Gethwing’s dark dream became the enchanted city again. The sun shone as at noon, and the streets filled with townspeople who set right to work clearing the rubble away.

  At the same time — whoosh! — the rainbow stairs appeared, glittering in the blazing light of Boola’s colorful palace.

  “Such a dark day ends happily and full of light!” said Pasha. “Hooray!”

  Keeah held on to Eric’s hand. “Gethwing is defeated. I can’t believe you did it. Eric, you won against your darkest self.”

  “Are you sure?” he said.

  “I am sure,” she said. “You are amazing.”

  “Could this mean that Droon will be at peace?” asked Pasha, gazing at the wreckage. “Ko and Gethwing, both gone? How wonderful it would be!”

  Eric lifted his glasses and chuckled. The frames were bent like a pretzel.

  “My glasses,” he said.

  “You can always get them fixed,” said Julie.

  “I can,” said Eric. “But why would I want to?”

  With that, the smile dropped from Eric’s lips, his eyes went gray and cold, and he dropped the glasses to the ground. “I don’t wear glasses.”

  “You’ll need them at home,” said Neal.

  “Home?” said the boy, glaring at the children. “My home is in the Dark Lands.”

  “What?” said Julie. “Eric —”

  “Eric doesn’t live here anymore,” he snapped. “My name is Ungast. Prince Ungast. Remember it. You’ll be hearing the name a lot. I need to go now. Gethwing?”

  The rubble exploded, and the air thundered with the flapping of giant wings. The moon dragon rose up from the remaining wreckage, larger and stronger than ever.

  “Come, Gethie,” Ungast said. “A new day awaits us. And a new Droon!”

  “My dream come true!” said Gethwing.

  “No!” cried Keeah. “No! No! No! No!” She fell to her knees. “Eric!”

  “Oh, boo-hoo!” said Ungast.

  With a laugh, the dark prince jumped onto Gethwing’s back. He gave the dragon a sharp nudge, and together they flew up into the sky, winging their way straight to the heart of the Dark Lands.

  Crunch … crunch … slurp … crunch …

  “Try to be quiet, Neal,” whispered Julie. “You’ll wake the Hinkles.”

  “Sorry,” said Neal, licking his lips. “It’s hard to resist free food.”

  Crunch … slurp …

  Neal had plucked a ripe apple off the tree outside their friend Eric’s bedroom window.

  It was an hour before dawn, and Julie and Neal were high in the branches of the tree. Once they’d sneaked in Eric’s window, they hoped to slip down to his basement without his parents seeing them.

  Neal had woken Julie earlier to say that he’d dreamed of giant drifts of green snow. Green snow could mean only one thing.

  They were being called back to Droon.

  “Tell me again,” whispered Neal. “Why aren’t we using the door?”

  “Because I unlocked the window yesterday when I pretended to be Eric,” Julie said.

  Julie had the power to change shape. She’d pretended to be Eric because he was trapped in Droon — and because she didn’t want his parents to worry.

  “The door would have been so much easier,” Neal sighed.

  “The Hinkles lock the door at night,” said Julie, reaching for another branch. “Now, hush!”

  As she drew closer to the window, Julie thought about how much she loved that tree. It was the same tree they had all gotten stuck in way back in kindergarten. Eric’s mother had had to come rescue them.

  If it hadn’t been for the hour spent in those branches, Julie might not have become Eric’s close friend. If she hadn’t become his friend, she might not have been in his basement when the magical staircase to Droon was discovered. And if she’d never discovered Droon, she would certainly not have gained magical powers.

  Magical powers!

  That also happened in a tree.

  But not this one.

  It was high in the treetops of the Bangledorn Forest that Julie was scratched on the hand by a wicked creature called a wingwolf. The scratch had hurt at the time, but Julie later discovered that it had passed both wingwolf powers to her: She could fly and change her shape.

  Crunch … crunch …

  “It’s a little sour,” Neal said.

  “And a little loud,” said Julie. “Shhh!”

  Pausing just below Eric’s window, Julie wondered what she always wondered: Would her powers help them in Droon that day?

  She hoped so, because Droon certainly needed help.

  In a fierce attack directed at Galen the wizard, Eric had been poisoned by an ice dagger. That was bad enough. But the terrible moon dragon, Gethwing, had used Eric’s illness to transform him into Prince Ungast, a wicked boy sorcerer who joined Gethwing’s Crown of Wizards, the greatest alliance of evil in the history of Droon.

  Eric was still alive, deep inside Prince Ungast, but he was fading fast. Even worse was the fact that Gethwing’s armies were gathering for a massive attack on Jaffa City.

  Five days, Eric had told their friend Princess Keeah. I can hold them off for five days. Bring me the Moon Medallion. It’s the only way to save Droon. If you can’t … then it’s over.

  The Moon Medallion was a device of unspeakable power. Julie knew that plans were under way to bring it to Eric.

  Pausing to steady herself, she looked out at their sleeping neighborhood. I can hold them off. Eric’s words were brave, but she knew that he was locked in the greatest struggle of his life.

  But there was something else preying on Julie’s mind as she scanned the houses and streets. Only hours before, a trio of strange, silent creatures known as the Hunters had ascended the magic stairs. Now they were out there somewhere.

  What were they hunting for? Or whom?

  “Okay, one more branch,” she whispered.

  Reaching up to the top limb, Julie felt her fingers slip. “Owww!”

  A twig flicked her hand, scratching it.

  All at once, her breath caught in her throat. Her ears burned. Her heart thumped. Her head swam. “Neal, I —”

  To stop everything spinning around her, she closed her eyes.

  And she was no longer outside Eric’s house. She was in a place filled with swirling purple smoke, a fog of violet so thick she could barely see.

  A shape moved in the smoke. It was large and cloaked and stepped toward her awkwardly. The smoke parted, and she saw the figure’s face.

  It was Galen! His old features were dark. He seemed troubled, uncertain, and afraid.

  He spoke in a whisper. “… stolen … no one … for a hundred years!”

  “Galen?” Julie whispered.

  A second shape now hovered behind him in the swirling smoke. “Wizard, come,” it said. “It is time….”

  The wizard shook his head over and over. “Nooooooo —”

  Was this the journey the wizard had told them he would soon be taking? Could the other figure be Anusa, Galen’s genie friend, his guide on the journey? And if it was Anusa, then why was he so troubled?

  A moment later, the purple smoke enshrouded both figures, and they were gone.

  “Galen?” said Julie. “Galen —”

  “The name is Neal!” said Neal. “And you’re in my way!”

  Suddenly, Julie was back in the apple tree.

  “Oh, my gosh!” she said. “I just had a vision. I think Galen might be in danger. Neal, I have to warn him —”

  “Ahem!” said a voice.

  Julie looked up. Five feet away, leaning out the bedroom window, was Eric’s mother, Mrs. Hinkle. “Just what do you two think you’re doing out there?”

  Neal sighed. “We are so busted.”

  Mrs. Hinkle frowned. “Get in here before you break your necks!”

  She helped them through the window and into Eric’s room. Then she searched their f
aces and breathed out a long, slow breath. Her eyes pooled with tears.

  “The forgetting spell,” said Julie. “You remember, don’t you?”

  Mrs. Hinkle nodded slowly. “When I saw Eric’s empty bed this morning, everything came back to me. I know your friend Keeah put a spell on me, but it faded. I know about Prince Ungast and that … dragon.”

  “Keeah said the power of love can break even the strongest spell,” said Julie.

  Mrs. Hinkle sat on the bed and buried her face in her hands. “Oh, my Eric!”

  “Mrs. H, we need to get to the basement right away,” said Neal. “Eric said Droon would fall in five days if we didn’t act fast.”

  Eric’s mother wiped her cheeks and stood. “Then I’m going with you.”

  “What?” said Neal. “Very funny, Mrs. H.”

  “It’s not a joke. I’m going,” the woman said. “He’s my son. I’m his mother. I’m going.”

  “Yeah, but …” Neal murmured.

  “I can help Eric,” his mother said. “I’m certain of it.”

  When she saw the determination in Mrs. Hinkle’s face, Julie realized they couldn’t stop her from trying to help her son. She knew how she would feel if someone tried to stop her from helping her friend. Whatever Mrs. Hinkle was feeling must be ten times that. “Well, maybe just you can go —” she said.

  The bedroom door opened, and in walked Mr. Hinkle. “Go? Go where?” he said. “Where are we going? Wait. Where’s Eric? Eric —”

  “Dear, there’s no time to waste,” said Mrs. Hinkle. “Our son is a wizard. He’s trying to keep the land of Droon free, but he’s in trouble. Serious trouble.”

  As they explained everything, Mr. Hinkle’s face went through a dozen expressions in rapid succession — disbelief, anger, concern, sorrow, and bewilderment.

  Finally, he turned to the children.

  “Eric is a wizard?” he asked.

  “He is,” said Julie.

  “I wonder if he gets that from me,” Mr. Hinkle said. “People say I’m kind of a wizard with the hedge clippers.”

  Julie smiled. Of course, it was really a blast from Keeah that had given Eric his powers, just as it was the wingwolf scratch that gave her her abilities. But it was just like Mr. Hinkle to find the funny in a terrible situation.