“I got a new jacket for a trip to California,” said Neal. “Then I got ice cream on the front —”
Eric gasped. “A trip! A journey! Sparr needs the cloak because he’s going somewhere. Somewhere special!”
“Not California, I hope,” said Neal.
Julie stopped suddenly. “I don’t know about Sparr, but we just got somewhere. Look.”
Before them, on top of the hill, stood a very large house. It was made of wood and had big yellow lamps hanging by the front door.
“Big house,” said Eric.
“Big door, too,” said Neal, stepping up to it. He pushed slightly on it, and it swung open.
“Big room,” said Julie. The single room inside went from the front door to the back. It was almost as big as their school gym.
“Um … big table and chairs,” Neal mumbled. “Guys, I think we found the house of a …”
Thump! Thump!
Eric grabbed Julie and Neal and dived under the table, in the shadows of its long black tablecloth. They watched as a man stomped in.
A big man. A huge man. A big, huge man.
“Boat, ship, whatever,” whispered Neal. “I’m sure we’ll agree that this guy’s a … a … giant!”
He was a giant. He stood at least thirty feet tall. He wore strange animal skins, colorful furs, and an enormous beard. And he was rubbing his forehead over and over.
“Strange little pea-sized thing,” he groaned. “Fell from the sky right on old Num’s head!”
The giant held up a small blue ball. “If the thing wasn’t so pretty, I’d crush it under my foot, I would!”
“He’s got the Star!” whispered Eric. “Yay!”
“Yay?” said Neal. “He’s a giant! He’ll crush us under his foot. His very, very huge foot!”
“You stay there,” Num said, setting the Star on the table and starting for the door again. “I’ve got to light the lamps for you-know-who!”
With that, the giant stomped out of the house.
“Quick, let’s grab the Star and go,” said Eric.
Neal gave him a look. “You must have drunk some silly water while you were drowning, Eric. The table is, like, a thousand feet high.”
Eric grinned. “Teamwork. You boost me up, then Julie can get on my shoulders. All of us together should be able to get high enough. We’ll brace ourselves against a table leg, then Julie can climb the tablecloth the rest of the way.”
She shrugged. “I guess it’s worth a try.”
In a flash, Eric was up on Neal’s shoulders. Julie climbed up from Neal’s knees to his shoulders, then to Eric’s, clutching the table leg for support.
“I still can’t reach it,” said Julie.
“Try pulling the tablecloth,” said Neal. “The Orb might come to you. I used to do that when I was little and my mom hid candy on the table. But I always got it. ”
“That explains so much,” said Julie. She tugged on the tablecloth. The Orb rolled closer. “It’s coming … yes! … I got it!”
Thump! Num stomped back into the room.
“Oh!” Julie gasped, nearly losing her balance. She clutched the thick black tablecloth and it slid off the table and fell completely over her head.
“Hey, it’s dark in here!” Neal gasped.
“Ahhhh!” boomed the giant. “A ghost! There in the shadows! Come out where I can see you!”
Eric spoke silently to his friends. Guys, don’t make a move. Stay in the shadows. Stay still.
The floor rumbled as Num took a step closer. “Wait, is it you in the dark there? Is it … you?”
Who does he think we are? asked Eric.
“Is it really you … Lord Sparr?” Num asked. “In your long black cloak?”
Eric began to sweat. Oh, man, I wish I knew a spell that would … wait … huh?
At that moment, a strange word popped into Eric’s head.
Seku-ta-moto!
“What?” said Julie, her voice suddenly loud and low and sounding exactly like …
“Lord Sparr!” cried Num. “It is you! Please come into the light.”
“Um … NO!” said Julie, her voice booming loudly. “I like the shadows!”
This is awesome, said Eric silently. You sound just like Sparr —
“Oh, great king of badfulness! Oh, your most low nastiness! You’ve come to visit poor Num again! Are you checking on me so soon?”
So soon? said Eric. Sparr must be nearby.
“You see I have lit the lamps as you wanted, to show your Ninns the way to the mountain,” the giant said.
Julie, ask him stuff, said Eric. We need to find out everything we can about what Sparr’s up to.
“Ah, yes!” snarled Julie. “The mountain. Ha! And what is this mountain again?”
“Why, it’s the Mountain of … of … Kahfoo.”
“Bless you!” boomed Julie.
Num scratched his head. “No, I mean it’s Kahfoo’s mountain, you know the place….”
“Of course I know!” Julie shouted. “I am testing you! What’s in this mountain of Kahfoo?”
“The Room of Kahfoo,” said Num.
“Very good. And in the Room of Kahfoo?”
“Why, Kahfoo himself, of course.”
“Excellent!” boomed Julie. “And now the bonus question. Who is Kahfoo —”
“Oh, Lord Sparr!” Num said. “I’m just so overcome with joy! I can’t believe you are in Num’s house. And you are talking to me. Just let me just touch the hem of your cloak —”
“No! No!” said Julie.
Neal, back up! cried Eric.
But when Neal stepped back, Num tugged on the tablecloth and — flooop! — it slid completely off the kids and onto the floor.
And there was Num’s huge face, looking from the cloth to the kids, then to the cloth again.
Then Num’s face got red. “You’re not Sparr. You’re … pixies! You tricked me! And you’ve got my blue ball!”
In a flash, Eric and Julie leaped off Neal and onto the floor.
“Run!” cried Eric. “Julie, the Star!”
She tossed it to him, and then he tossed it to Neal, and Neal tossed it back to Julie.
“Give it back!” Num yelled. He stomped all over the room as the kids kept tossing the Star away from him.
“Out the door!” said Neal. And the three friends jumped for the door, slid out, and charged down through the woods to the beach.
Num shouted and growled and finally started throwing rocks at the kids. Boom! Crash! Thud!
“Hurry!” said Julie. “Num wants to crush us!”
Eric clutched the Sapphire Star and began mumbling words that popped into his head. “Septo-reema-flimbo … septo-reema-flimbo —”
Zzzzzt! The Star shot up from his hand and spun high over his head. It followed the kids down to the beach.
“There it is!” yelled a distant voice. Then came the sound of waves splashing against wood.
“That’s Batamogi’s voice!” said Julie. “It’s the Jaffa Wind!”
Thomp! Thomp! Num was getting closer.
“Somebody, help us!” Eric called out.
The ship sailed toward the beach and Keeah, leaning over the side, sent a spray of blue sparks across the water to the island.
It was like a path of blue light. The kids raced across it and plopped down to the deck.
Friddle gunned the engines and the Jaffa Wind soared over the waves from Num’s island. Num stood on the shore shaking his giant fists at the crew, but there was nothing he could do.
Suddenly — zip-zip-zip-zip! — the Sapphire Star soared over the ship, spun around it three times, then shot into the darkening skies of the east.
Friddle jumped when he saw it. “Setting course!” he shouted. “Max is not far away now!”
The wizard nodded, his eyes brightening with hope. “And once again … we’re off!”
The sea foamed behind the great ship as it plowed over the waves.
As soon as he caught
his breath, Eric told Galen and Keeah everything that happened. “I think Sparr needs Max to weave him a magic cloak.”
“He wants to go someplace,” Julie added.
“And it probably has to do with some dude named Kazoo or Tofu or something,” said Neal. “Num said he lives in a mountain near here.”
Galen brooded silently, standing at the bow overlooking the rushing sea. When he turned toward the children, his face was pale.
“The Mountain of Kahfoo?” he asked.
“That’s it!” said Neal. “You’ve heard of him?”
The wizard breathed in deeply and nodded. “Oh, that I had never heard his name again! I should have guessed long ago, at the treasure fortress. Why, I asked myself, would the Ninns steal a hammer? You have just told me why.”
“Tell us,” said Keeah. “We need to know.”
The ship rolled back and forth over the waves.
Galen nodded. “Kahfoo the Great was, no … is a snake.”
“A snake?” said Khan. “Let me guess. A large snake? If he has his own mountain …”
“Very large and very powerful,” said the wizard. “He is a beast born centuries ago.”
“But we’ve fought beasts before,” said Keeah. “With Eric helping us, there are three wizards right here.”
“Sparr seeks Kahfoo not to fight us,” said Galen. “He seeks to ride Kahfoo into the very heart of Droon. Into the very underworld of ancient Goll, empire of evil.”
Keeah shook her head. “But you destroyed Goll. You wrote about it in your Chronicles.”
The wizard breathed deeply. He opened his lips, then closed them without speaking. His eyes searched the dark, starless sky, then the rolling sea ahead. No one spoke. Finally, he turned to the children.
“Some things can never be destroyed, only locked away,” he said. “In the underworld of Goll lie unimaginable dangers and powers and secrets that Sparr needs to complete his plans.”
“But if I remember my nursery rhymes,” said Batamogi, “you sealed the giant stone gates to Goll and they could never be reopened.”
Galen turned. “Never say never, my friend. There was one device, as old as Goll itself, that had the power to unseal those rocks —”
“The hammer!” said Julie.
“More precisely, the Hammer of Kahfoo,” said Galen. “And Kahfoo himself, giant snake, lies behind his gate, waiting to take Sparr to the heart of Goll. Now you see what we’re up against.”
No one said a word.
Batamogi broke the silence. “As dark as things seem now, I must direct your attention upward.”
Three large swarms of Ninns riding groggles met in the sky overhead. After joining, they flew across the water into the darkness.
“They are bringing the hammer to Sparr,” said the wizard. “Let us waste no time.”
“We shall be there as soon as we can!” chirped Friddle. He turned the wheel, the engine gave a strong blast of steam, and the ship raced across the open sea.
For one hour, two hours, five hours, they followed the Sapphire Star. Near morning, the Star began to slow.
“It senses its twin nearby,” said Khan. “The Ruby Orb is not far away. The Orb … and Max!”
A short time later, the Sapphire Star stopped, hovering over a spot off the bow of the ship. Friddle cut the engines. Batamogi, Khan, and Shago tied up the sails.
The Jaffa Wind drifted to a stop.
Keeah turned to Eric. “I don’t like this. The Star isn’t moving, but there isn’t land for miles.”
“I fear there is,” said Galen, his forehead a mass of wrinkles. “Four hundred years ago, when the land of Goll was in flames, the earth trembled and rocked. What wasn’t buried fell under the sea.”
Neal raised his hand. “You mean … this sea?”
“Exactly.”
“You wrote that earthquakes and floods changed the face of Goll forever,” said Keeah.
“Changed the face,” said the wizard, “but not the heart. I had hoped Goll would be lost forever under the tumbled ground, under the sea —”
The water bubbled and hissed under the Star.
“Something is happening!” said Khan.
“It begins,” said Galen. “It begins….”
Before their eyes the water beneath the Star parted with a great splash. The stony crown of a mountain thrust itself up from below the waves.
Its summit was carved to look like the head of a snake with a broad, flat head and fangs that dripped black water.
“The Mountain of Kahfoo!” said Batamogi.
The peak rose higher and higher, until it was an entire island of gray stone, glistening in the dawn’s light.
Slowly, the Jaffa Wind rounded the new island, its crew searching for a way in. The jagged cliffs were dark, eerie, even as the sky brightened.
Then — kaww! kaww! — the giant swarm of groggles massed over the island’s carved peak.
“Quickly, Keeah,” said Galen. “You and me, a trick borrowed from the fog pirates!”
Together the princess and the wizard blew out a long breath and a thick mist covered the ship, hiding it from the Ninns.
“Ha-ha!” Shago whooped. “Is there nothing our fantastic wizards cannot do?”
Eric wondered about that. Sparr was growing in power. And what about Eric himself? Would he really be able to help Keeah and Galen? Would the three of them together be enough to stop Sparr’s plans? Whatever those plans were?
“A cave,” whispered Khan. “I see it, there!”
In the side of Kahfoo’s mountain was a large, black opening. Seawater splashed and thundered into the opening, then rushed from it, leaving a narrow river of water flowing into the depths of the mountain.
In a final flourish of blue light, the Sapphire Star circled the mountain three times, then shot into the black hole of the cave and vanished.
“Max must be in there!” said Julie. “We’ve found him.”
“We’ve found Lord Sparr, too,” said Shago.
The Ninns prodded their groggles and the whole army of them swarmed into the mouth of the cave.
“The Ninns go to greet their master,” said Galen.
Neal gulped loudly. “So I suppose we’ll go in there soon, too?”
“Sooner than soon,” said the wizard.
Neal sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
The Jaffa Wind drifted quietly into the cave until the river became too narrow. Friddle pulled close to the bank and docked the ship.
“Let us proceed on foot,” Galen whispered.
Lighting a wand, he jumped from the ship onto a rock. Keeah lit one and showed Eric how to, also. The rest of the crew followed behind.
Together they tramped down a crooked path alongside the river. For a while, the path remained level, then it twisted downward into a damp tunnel beneath the mountain.
After a while, they noticed a flickering light ahead. Creeping closer, they spied a small cave cut into the side of the passage. There were voices coming from it, but not the deep, growly voices of Ninns.
They were chirping and squeaking.
“Oh, my!” said Keeah, hurrying ahead.
Rushing into the cave, they found three spider trolls crouched on the wet floor. Their legs, eight on each of them, were tied with ropes.
“Max!” cried Galen.
A quick burst of light from his fingertips freed the trolls and Max leaped up.
“Master, my master!” he chirped.
Galen flew to him. “Dear friend!”
The two hugged for a long time.
Finally, the wizard drew back, wiping a tear from his cheek. “Well, quite an adventure you’ve had, eh, my old chum?”
“Yes, indeed!” said the spider troll, his own eyes moist with tears of joy. “I was trapped in that Orb for a long time before it came here. After that it captured more of my troll friends.”
“We were forced to weave a cloak of midnight threads, using the terrible runes of Goll as its pattern,” said
an old troll with bristly gray hair.
“Sparr says its magic will protect him on a long journey,” chirped the smallest of the three.
“We know about that,” said Neal. “He wants to ride some big snake to the middle of Goll.”
Max’s eyes bulged. “Oh, dear! But I thought a journey to Goll was impossible!”
Pooooom. The mountain around them shook.
“Sparr is trying to prove otherwise, my friend,” said Galen. “That sound is nothing less than the ancient hammer Sparr is using to blast into the Room of Kahfoo! Come, we must go.”
“Khan, your nose, please?” said Keeah.
“At your service,” said the Lumpy king. He sniffed and pointed. “I smell snake. This way.”
As they scrabbled through a series of tunnels, Max told how the mountain surfaced seven times a day, at each of the seven tides.
“I shall calculate the next time,” said Friddle. He immediately began scratching on his pad.
Without warning, Shago halted. “I may not have a Lumpy nose, but even I can smell that.”
“Ninns,” said Julie. “And, phew. It smells like a lot of them. Real close by, too.”
Soon the passage opened into a large cavern that was filled with Ninns. Silently, the crew crept into the shadows and watched.
A voice boomed out.
“Ninns, behold! I shall make history, right before your squinting little eyes!”
Wearing a dazzling cloak of midnight blue woven all over with odd designs of bloodred thread, Sparr stepped up to a high wall of rock.
He moved his hands over the rough surface. “Yes, it begins to crack. The Room of Kahfoo is behind this wall. Ninns, this is a great moment in the history of Goll!”
“And a terrible moment in the history of Droon,” said Galen, his keen eyes scanning the room. “There are fifty Ninns, at least. My friends, we have a battle before us. Be ready —”
Clasping the thick handle of the hammer, Sparr whirled it over his head once, twice, three times. Then he heaved it at the wall of rock.
Pooooom-oooom! The whole mountain quaked from the force of the blow. And from ceiling to floor, the wall split apart. Its two ragged halves slid away.
Immediately, a fiery light blazed out.
Sparr shielded his face. “At last, at last, I have found you, O terrifying realm of Goll!”