“Or how long before the real Gethwing arrives,” added Sparr.
The dragon’s jaw dropped. “Now Jabbo is very afraid. Go, before it’s too late!”
As quickly as they could, the kids waddled, stomped, and slithered through the halls of the palace and down into a narrow passage through the city walls.
When they finally slipped out onto the plains outside Doobesh, each of the kids could see the giant wooden gate to Bleakwold in the distance. Turning one last time, they saw Jabbo standing on the palace terrace, his back to them. Just inside the city gate, they knew, were the beasts, anxious to begin their journey to Bleakwold.
“Ahem!” shouted Jabbo, clearing his throat and flapping his wings. “As the great and all-powerful b-b-beast known as G-G-G —”
The beasts all over the city roared, “Gethwing!”
“— I will send you to the Bleakwold gate!”
“Gethwing!” they shouted again.
“But before G-G-Gethwing gives you all the command to go,” Jabbo added quickly, “you must hear about a night long, long ago. Well, it wasn’t a night, actually, it was more like late afternoon. Jabbo was flapping his wings — and when I say Jabbo, I mean Gethwing, who is me. And when I say I was flapping my wings, I really mean a friend and I were flapping our wings. My wings, his wings, several wings … which rhymes with sings and reminds me of another story….”
“CAN’T LISTEN,” shouted Neal. “TOO PAINFUL.”
“I hope Jabbo has lots of stories,” said Sparr.
Keeah shook her antlers. “Come on, beasties.”
As quickly and carefully as they could, the children and Max sneaked away from the Doobesh walls and across the plains toward the great wooden gate of Bleakwold.
Every minute, the sky above them grew smokier. The sun that shone over Doobesh was nearly hidden by thick air drifting in from the Dark Lands.
“This is what happens when beasts go somewhere,” said Sparr. “Everything turns dark, smoky, and hopeless.”
“Let’s hope it’s temporary,” said Eric.
“Glup!” added Julie.
After nearly an hour of quick traveling, the band of beasts arrived at the Bleakwold gate.
It was far larger than it had looked from Doobesh. It stretched very wide and very high into the smoky sky. As Keeah walked up to it, Sparr stopped suddenly in the shadow of the gate. “Wait. I hear it! That voice again. I hear it —”
“WHAT?” shouted Neal. “IS THERE MORE STUFF TO FIND?”
Sparr shut his eyes tight and cupped his hands behind his huge ears, listening. “The voice is coming from inside the gate. It’s saying, ‘Find … the … cave —’”
All of a sudden, Eric discovered that the eyes in the back of his head were extremely strong. He squinted back across the distance and saw the gates of Doobesh opening and the army of beasts charging out. “Jabbo must have run out of stories, because the beasts are on their way.”
“We need to get into Bleakwold now,” said Keeah. She sent a powerful blast of violet sparks at the wooden gate, but it fizzled and vanished into nothing. “Uh …”
“The Dark Lands,” said Sparr. “Wizard powers don’t work here.”
“BUT MAYBE JUST BEING A BEAST WILL WORK!” shouted Neal. “GATES — OPPPENNNN!”
Neal roared so loudly that the ground shuddered and shook, quivered and quaked, until finally — errrrr! — the Bleakwold gate creaked open before them.
“Oh, dear me!” said Max.
“Glup!” added Julie.
Even as he stared ahead through the open gate, Eric kept two eyes on Doobesh. And there, just above the dust pluming up over the charging beasts, he spied the pale silvery moon. It was now full and reminded him of the moon he had noticed at home. Remembering the movie he and his friends had seen that afternoon, Eric smiled. They were on a real adventure now.
“Come on, beasties,” said Keeah. “We haven’t got much time.”
As soon as everyone marched through the gate, they knew right away they were in a different kind of place. The entire sky was covered with dark low clouds. Smoke and fog drifted everywhere. And the air was hot and steamy. But that wasn’t all.
“Oh!” said Max, standing on two feet. “Someone mentioned obstacles?”
A river of flames wove this way and that across the charred black earth. It started from far in the distance and wove all the way across the plain ahead of them. Flames leaped and curled twenty feet high as far as they could see.
“WE HAVE TO CROSS THAT?” Neal yelled. “WHY DID KO MAKE THIS SO HARD? I’M PRETTY SURE YELLING WILL NOT GET US THROUGH THAT!”
Sparr stared at the flaming river. “Beasts travel in groups. If one doesn’t have the powers, another will —”
All at once, Julie jumped. “Glup!”
“WHAT IS IT?” shouted Neal.
“Glu-uu-uu-up!” She wiggled her snout once, twice, then — aaa-chooo! — her freezing sneeze sent a bridge of ice shooting across the flaming river.
“Yahoo!” cried Eric. “Julie, that’s awesome. We can get through!”
“Hurry, before it melts!” said Keeah.
The little band of beasts raced over the frozen path and made it to the other side just as the bridge dissolved from the heat, and the fire leaped up once more.
Charging ahead, they soon came to the edge of a great wide forest, thick with trees and deep in shadow. It stretched as far as they could see in either direction.
“Another obstacle,” said Sparr. “But it looks as if we can go right in. Let’s just be on our guard.”
“It’s very dim here,” said Max as they crept into the forest. “But not too bad —”
The deeper they went, the more the shadows surrounded them.
“I hear … scratching,” said Keeah. “Does anyone else —”
Suddenly, a tree moved, thrusting a limb in front of the travelers. A branch behind them sprang alive. Long vines unwound from a third tree trunk and whipped wildly at the children.
“THE VEGETABLES ARE AFTER US!” Neal shouted.
Finally, one vine coiled around Max and tugged him off the ground.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” cried Keeah. Lowering her antlers, she charged into the trees, crashing first one way, then the other, and freed Max. Julie sneezed icy breaths at the clutching branches, sending them shrieking and shriveling back to the treetops.
“Hurry out of here!” said Sparr, grabbing Julie and Max with his long, wolfen arms and pulling them away.
While the kids ran through the forest as quickly as they could, the air turned foggier and smokier until it was as thick and dark as night.
“Keep going,” urged Keeah. “Forward —”
“No! Stop!” said Eric, his red eyes piercing the gloom. “I can see through this!”
Everyone stopped short. Moving slowly, Eric came to the edge of a deep chasm at the end of the forest. Looking down through heavy mist, he spied jagged rocks strewn across the bottom.
“I don’t like having red eyes,” he said, “but they helped me see the ravine. Without them, we would have fallen. Carefully, now. Follow me.”
He led everyone along the edge of the ravine until they came to a narrow crossing.
“There’s a desert on the far side,” said Eric, staring ahead. “Let’s go. One at a time now …”
One by one, the six friends made their way over the ravine, then up a tall sand dune. When they got to the top, they stopped short. In front of them, and as far to the left and right as they could see, was a wall of sand swirling fifty feet high.
“The forge is probably beyond the sandstorm,” said Sparr.
Blinking his rear eyes, Eric saw the plume of dust rising behind them over the black forest. “The beasts are coming closer every minute. Into the sandstorm, people.”
As soon as they climbed down the dune — whoosh! — sand whipped up around them and biting winds tore at them.
“Hold together!” cried Keeah, one claw in Julie’s short furry paw,
the other clutching Max.
“Glup!” cried Julie. “Glup-glup-glup!”
“I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING!” Neal howled.
“I can’t, either!” shouted Sparr. “But I guess I know what my beastie talent is. These ears were made for hearing. I hear … someone … munching crackers —”
“CRACKERS? IS THERE CHEESE, TOO?”
“No, but there’s … an echo!” said Sparr, still cupping his ears. “An echo way out here means … we found a cave!”
Led by Sparr, the small band struggled forward until they found themselves at the mouth of a deep cave, half buried in the spinning sand.
As they stared into the darkness, a voice spoke from inside the cave.
“I say!” it said. “The weather is quite nasty out there. Do come in!”
Even though the sandstorm was whirling and spinning around them, the children hesitated before the cave’s entrance. They looked at one another, then back into the dark.
“Oh, don’t be shy!” said the voice. “It’s been ages since I’ve had visitors. Shake the sand from your paws and come in!”
Max turned to Keeah. “This is Bleakwold,” he whispered. “It could be a trick. Who would want to invite beasts in, anyway?”
“Glu-up!” said Julie, nodding her furry blue head.
“But the voice told us to find the cave,” said Eric.
“And that probably means to go in,” whispered Keeah. “So let’s go in. Carefully.”
With a nod, Sparr folded back his ears and squeezed through the cave entrance.
Eric, Julie, and Keeah followed him in. Max and Neal brought up the rear.
The deeper into the cave passages they crept, the lighter it grew, until they came to a round, stony room beaming with light.
What they saw amazed them.
A large carpet hovered magically over the sandy floor. And just beneath it sat a thin man with a very long nose, a thick black mustache, a single eyebrow, and a tall floppy hat tipped with dozens of tiny bells.
Crisscrossing his chest was an array of colorful shawls and scarves. Several plump pouches and little bottles of liquid hung on a belt at his waist. And as the children stomped, slid, and staggered in, he adjusted a pair of green spectacles with lenses shaped like half-moons, blinked suddenly, jumped to his feet, and bowed.
“Princess Keeah!” he chirped. “Welcome!”
Keeah stared. “Wait. You can see the real us?”
“Yes, Princess!” he said. “These glasses show me that you’re not really beasts.”
“I hope the beasts don’t have glasses like that,” murmured Max.
“Oh, they couldn’t,” said the man with a little chuckle. “These are the only pair. I should know. I invented them. In fact, I invented everything you see here —”
Keeah gasped. “Oh, my gosh! You must be Pasha! The maker of my magic carpet! The maker of lots of magical things!”
“Guilty as charged!” the man said brightly. “Pasha is my name. Welcome to my little home away from home!”
Pasha’s cave was filled with strange contraptions. The light beaming everywhere came from two small yellow blocks on the floor at his feet. Moving near them, Eric found that they shed warmth, too. Floating next to the hovering carpet was a slowly spinning globe. On it were moving images of Jaffa City, showing people everywhere, some even shopping in the market square. On the other side of the carpet was a little musical clock plinking away the seconds and minutes. Finally, leaning against the back wall was a staff of gnarled wood. On its tip was a life-size golden hand with its finger pointed straight out.
“Glup!” said Julie, her eyes wide in amazement.
“SHE MEANS — WOW!” shouted Neal.
“Ah, yes!” Pasha dug into two different pouches on his belt. “Here, a bracelet and a mint. Try them!”
Julie slipped the bracelet onto her wrist. “Glup you,” she said. “Wait. I mean, thank you! I can talk again!”
Neal put the mint in his mouth. “Wow. I’m not shouting. I can talk in a regular voice. Awesome!”
Pasha bowed again. “And I love to hear you talk. I’m so glad you found me —”
Sparr’s eyes widened. “Are you the mysterious voice who’s been telling us to find the gate and find the cave? Giving us clues so that we’d find you?”
Pasha frowned, then shook his head. “Sorry. I do a lot of things, but I don’t do voices. In fact, I can’t do magic myself. I simply make it. But what does that matter, when I can make this?”
Whoosh! From one of his pouches, he pulled an entire bowl of steaming noodles.
“Noodles,” said Neal. “I love noodles —”
“Ah, but watch this,” said Pasha. After he sprinkled a few grains of white dust into the soup as if he were seasoning it, the noodles began to unwind from the bowl, sticking straight up in the air and thickening until they formed long, stout ropes. “You can climb them. And nibble the noodles on the way up!”
Without thinking, Neal reached for the bowl. All at once — splash!
His three feet were suddenly wet. But when he looked down, the cave floor was perfectly dry.
“Invisible water,” said Pasha. “I invented it. I have no idea what it’s good for yet. Here —”
He pulled a pinch of glittering orange dust from one of his many pouches and sprinkled it on the floor.
Sparr tapped his wolfen feet on the spot, and the floor was dry again.
“Awesome,” said Julie. “I love how you make magic.”
Pasha sighed. “Yes, well. Magic is what trapped me here, don’t you know —”
“Oh!” said Keeah. She staggered once, then shut her eyes. “The voice … !”
Eric looked at her. “A new clue. What is he saying?”
Keeah’s eyes opened. “He said … find … the … ring —”
Pasha jumped. “I was searching for a ring when I got trapped here!”
“Tell us all about it,” said Sparr.
Pasha took a deep breath. “For ages, I’d heard about a fabulous ring of the purest, whitest silver. In the old legends, it was known as the Ring of Midnight. Its power has something to do with the moon. Of course, I wanted to find the ring and study it.”
Eric thought of the silver moon he had been seeing all day. “What does the Ring of Midnight do?”
“I never found out,” Pasha told the children. “But it’s not meant to be worn on a finger. No, no, it’s about this big….” He curved his thumb and middle finger into a half circle.
Neal nodded. “About the size of an English muffin pizza. Go on.”
“When I’d heard that pirates had stolen the ring, along with lots of other magic, and hid it all here in this old pirate cave, I came to find it,” said Pasha. “My magic helped get me this far —”
Eric gasped. “Pirate cave? Of course! This must be the hideout the fog pirates told us about. The beasts raided it and stole everything.”
“Just so,” said the magic maker. “The ring was already gone when I arrived. But whenever I tried to leave, the storm kept leading me right back here. I was trapped! I used the time well, though. I made things. Like this, for instance!”
He grabbed the strange wooden staff from the wall.
“I finished it this morning and was just going to try it when you arrived. Come, then. And cross your fingers — or claws!”
He ran through the passage to the cave entrance. Then, pressing a flat jewel mounted into the staff, he aimed its pointed finger out of the cave toward the sandstorm.
Suddenly, the winds parted in front of the finger and a path opened through the swirling sand.
Pasha laughed. “It works! Now we can all go back to Doobesh together —”
“Wait!” said Sparr, touching his ears suddenly. “Out here, I can hear the beasts. They’re already through the fire. They’re getting closer.”
Keeah turned to the little man. “Pasha,” she said, “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go back to Doobesh without us. We really can’t return un
til we destroy the magic forge.”
Pasha wrinkled his eyebrow. “Did you say the … magic forge?”
Together the children told him why they were there, about Emperor Ko’s forge, and how it used stolen magical objects to make armor for the beasts.
“A voice has been guiding us every inch of the way,” said Eric. “First we had to find the dragon. When we found Jabbo, he said the voice had told him to find the gate. After going through the gate, Sparr helped us find the cave. Now the voice is telling us to find the ring —”
Keeah nodded at the little man. “Pasha, we have to go on. We have to find the ring. Then we have to destroy the forge.”
“And then escape and live happily ever after,” added Neal.
The magic maker listened to the children, pulling the ends of his mustache in deep thought. Finally, he said, “Five children and a spider troll out to save the world from a giant army of ferocious beasts? Sounds like all you need is a skinny little man to join you. Can I come?”
“Can you come?” said Keeah with a laugh. “Pasha, you’re the best!”
“I’ll settle for pretty good,” Pasha said with a wink. “But some of my gadgets may be useful when we get to the forge. I must pack!” In a flash, he scampered back into the depths of the cave. Pulling down the carpet, he folded it to the size of a playing card and popped it into a pocket. He spun the globe to the size of a marble and collapsed the blocks of light until they were no larger than a pair of dice. In just moments, he took all the things in the cave, no matter how big, and bent, spun, and folded them into his pockets and pouches.
Then, leading the small group to the mouth of the cave, he lowered his staff. The finger pointed straight ahead, and a beam of golden light pressed into the storm, parting the sands before it.
Pasha grinned. “And now, as Neal would say, FOLLOW ME!”
The howl of the storm was deafening as Pasha led the group slowly forward. As quickly as the sand parted before the children, it swirled closed behind them.
“Because I’m not a wizard,” said the magic maker, “my inventions work in the Dark Lands.”