“Very handy in a sandstorm!” said Max, huddling close to Keeah.
Eric wondered how strange it might look if anyone could see them. A many-scarfed little man with a long mustache leading six beasts through a sandstorm.
Suddenly, Sparr’s ears twitched. He turned his head back. “I keep hearing the roar of the beasts. They’re nearly through the forest now. We need to go faster.”
“Keep going!” said Julie. “Keep going!”
They hurried through the storm for another twenty minutes or so, then finally stepped out of the whirlwind and onto a vast calm desert of gray sand.
“Oh, no,” whispered Keeah, staring ahead.
“I’ll say,” said Neal. “Is that —?”
“I think so,” said Eric. “Ko’s magic forge.”
Standing on the sands, surrounded by wisps of burnt grass and the stumps of broken, gnarled trees, was a giant black building. Its dark walls, reaching nearly to the gray clouds above it, glistened as if they were dripping with oil. Two huge smokestacks coiled up out of its insides, each one pouring out thick swirling smoke and spurts of blue and orange flames.
Thoom! Thoom! Even from far away, the kids could feel the ground thundering with what Eric guessed were giant hammers striking metal.
“The forge,” repeated Sparr. “Where the beasts’ magic armor is being made.”
“And will be destroyed,” said Julie.
“We have to make sure of that,” said Keeah.
As they approached the giant forge, the smell of burning wood and the sharp odor of hot metal filled the air.
“There must be some beasts working there already,” said Pasha, adjusting his glasses. “Luckily, they may not expect anyone but other beasts to have come this far. With your disguises, you can probably get us in. Then the fun starts.”
Neal made a sound. “And by fun, you probably mean not fun?”
Pasha grinned. “I believe so, yes!”
Minutes later, they were standing before a giant open archway of iron. Peering in, they saw that the space inside the forge was nearly filled by a great black dome. It reached almost to the ceiling. From the top of the dome jutted pipes and tubes of all sizes. But over everything stood the enormous smokestacks, belching out flames and black smoke to the skies above.
Using the eyes in the back of his head, Eric could see the beasts entering the far side of the sandstorm. “We don’t have a lot of time left,” he said. “Maybe twenty minutes …”
“Then let’s get moving,” said Keeah.
Inside, they all ducked behind an anvil the size of a small car. Peering over and around it, they saw three very large beasts stomp out from behind the dome. They had huge red eyes and rough, leathery skin the color of dirt. Opening a hatch on the front of the dome, they dragged out a smoking piece of iron, set it on another anvil, and began pounding it with giant hammers.
Thooom! Thooom! With massive arms, the beasts battered the iron until it began to take the shape of a shield. They pounded out a center ridge as sharp as a blade, and curved spikes around the edges.
“Those beasts sure look fearsome,” said Max.
“We’re pretty fearsome, too, don’t forget,” said Julie.
“Except when you wiggle your snout like that,” said Pasha with a giggle.
“I’m not wiggling my —” Julie raised a claw to her face. “Oh, no! My snout! Where is it going?”
Sparr’s eyes widened. “Neal, your third foot. Keeah, your antlers —”
Max gasped. “The beast spell is ending! Oh, no!”
Eric’s green fur shrank away and he was himself again. Sparr’s body lost its wolflike shape, and his large ears dwindled into two regular ears and two small fins, while Max’s four legs became eight once more.
In a matter of moments, the children and the spider troll were back to themselves.
“I can’t believe it!” said Sparr. “The spell faded! It would take hours to do again. We don’t have time. I’m sorry —”
“It’s okay, Sparr,” said Keeah. “You got us this far.”
Pasha slipped off his green glasses and folded them into a pocket. “Well, I, for one, am relieved. You were actually quite terrible to look at!”
“But now what do we do?” whispered Neal. “We’re trapped in Ko’s forge with three huge beasts, no magic, and lots more beasts on their way. How do we escape and live happily ever after?”
Eric watched the beasts heave the shield onto a pile of cooling armor and start on what looked like a helmet. “Guys, we might escape. But we won’t live happily ever after — none of us will — unless we do what we planned to do. We need to find the ring and destroy this forge.”
“But we’re just ourselves now,” said Julie.
Keeah looked at her, then at the beasts hammering faster and faster. She began to smile. “Just because we’ve lost our beast powers doesn’t mean we can’t outsmart them. If we work together the way we always have, we should be able to find the ring, destroy this place, and get out safely.”
“That’s the spirit!” said Pasha. “The stolen magical objects must be piled on the far side of the dome. If the Ring of Midnight hasn’t been melted yet, you may find it there. Now, as for destroying —”
From a leather pouch on his belt, he pulled a little green box. Wires, tubes, and switches stuck out from its sides. “I call it my Blower-Upper. When it goes off, the whole forge will go kaboom!”
Keeah smiled. “I like that sound. Sparr, Pasha, Eric, Max — you’re in charge of kaboom. Julie, Neal, come with me! We don’t have much time to find that ring. Let’s move!”
Keeping to the shadows, Keeah, Neal, and Julie darted away to the far side of the dome.
Thoom-thoom-thoom! The beasts were now busy hammering a double-pointed spear into shape.
Pasha unwound two small pouches from his belt and gave one each to Sparr and Eric. “When I say so, toss these into the furnace. They’ll make a bit of a flash, which will distract the beasts and cool the flames enough for me to get to the dome. Max, here —”
He slipped a small red disk from a pocket, tapped it, and gave it to the spider troll.
Max looked at it, then blinked. “A clock!”
“When I set the Blower-Upper,” said Pasha, “start the clock running at thirty minutes. We’ll need to know how much time we have before the kaboom.”
“Galen would be proud of us!” said Max, holding the clock firmly. “And of me!”
“Now, before I set this,” said Pasha, “how many pieces do we want the forge to blow up into? A hundred or a thousand?”
Eric turned to Sparr. They both grinned.
“A million!” they chimed.
Pasha smiled, too. “Great minds work alike. Now the distraction. Go, boys!”
Eric and Sparr carefully worked their way along the walls until they were near the furnace opening. A moment later, Pasha gave the signal.
The boys tossed the pouches into the furnace.
Tzzzzz! Fssssshh! Whoooom!
A fountain of sparks sprayed out of the furnace ten, fifteen feet in the air.
“Arrrghh!” The beasts at the anvil howled. They staggered back from the fire.
Without being seen, Pasha dashed to the dome and set the Blower-Upper. When he raced back, Max started the clock ticking. “Thirty minutes!”
Eric waved across the dome at Keeah, but the princess didn’t move.
“Something’s wrong,” said Sparr. “Let’s get over there —”
Making their way carefully to the far side of the dome, they found Keeah, Julie, and Neal hunched behind a third anvil, even larger than the first two.
“This place will go kaboom in minutes,” said Eric. “Did you find the ring? What’s the matter?”
“We found all the magical objects,” said the princess. “Look.”
Not far away was another, much larger opening into the furnace. Just outside it was a mound of crumpled metal goblets, gold chests, crowns, bracelets, wands, jewels, and other magical objects.
Next to it were three more red-eyed, dirt-colored beasts. Every few seconds, they shoveled more objects into the furnace.
And there, sitting on top of the pile of magical things, was a large silver ring. In the light of the fire, it gleamed brighter than anything else in the heap.
Eric knew instantly that it was unlike the other objects. His heart began to pound as if he were in the presence of some of the most powerful magic he had ever known.
“Oh, my goodness!” gasped Pasha. “It’s the Ring of Midnight!”
The very next instant, one of the beasts dug his shovel into the pile.
Then, with a quick heave, he hurled the ring into the fire.
“Oh, no!” whispered Neal. “I can’t believe it! After all this!”
The small group stared into the furnace, watching the silver ring glisten in the flame far more brightly than anything around it.
As the beasts shoveled more objects into the fire, Pasha’s eyes gleamed in the firelight. “Oh, dear, dear. The legends were true. It is a ring of fabulous beauty. I know magic, and I can tell you, that harbors some great power.”
“All the more reason we can’t let it be melted into Ko’s armor!” whispered Keeah.
“But how do we get it?” asked Julie.
“With only … twenty-four minutes left!” added Max.
Eric turned to Pasha. “The dust we threw into the furnace. You said it cooled the flames. For how long?”
Sparr blinked. “Eric, are you saying … wait, what are you saying?”
Eric stared at the fire, then up at the smokestacks. “I don’t know what I’m saying, except that the voice called us to find the ring, and we can’t leave here without it! —”
“Rrrr-grrr!” There came a sudden sound of roaring and grunting outside the forge. A second later, the giant arched doorway was filled with grumbling beasts. The dirt-colored forge workers stomped over to them.
“I didn’t think things could get much more dangerous,” said Julie. “But they just did. How can we get that ring back —”
“In twenty-one minutes!” whispered Max, holding up the little clock.
Neal grinned suddenly. “Noodles! Pasha’s magical noodles. What if we ride them all the way up to the top of the smokestacks and down inside? If the fire is still cool, we can get the ring and get back out again, and the beasts will never know!”
“Ride … the noodles?” said Pasha. “I say, Neal, what a brilliant idea. I’ll stay here, and you help one another into the smokestack!”
Careful to keep hidden from the beasts, Pasha quickly pulled a steaming bowl of soup out of a pouch, set it on the floor, and seasoned it. In seconds, noodles began to grow and twist up from it. While Pasha stayed below, the kids and Max clung to the noodles as they rose like magical ropes up the shadowy inside wall of the forge.
More and more beasts entered the forge. Their roaring and cawing and chattering became louder and louder.
Reaching the top of one smokestack, Eric swung his noodle back and forth until he was able to swing it into the top of the smokestack. Neal, Julie, Keeah, and Sparr followed right behind. Still clutching tight, they rode the noodles down into the furnace.
“Good thing Pasha cooled the fire,” said Neal. “I don’t want to be roasted!”
Finally, the six friends dropped to the floor of the furnace amid piles of flaming coals, half-heated armor, and shining magical objects. The fire was cool, but it was rapidly getting hotter.
“I see the ring!” murmured Sparr. Leaping into the cool flames, he grabbed the ring from the coals. As he did, his eyes went wide. His face twisted in an expression of pain. “Ahhh!”
“What is it?” asked Keeah, hurrying to him. “Is the ring hot?”
“No!” Sparr staggered to his knees. “But … take it!”
Keeah took it from him, then blinked. “What’s wrong? I don’t feel anything —”
“Talk later,” said Max. “Sixteen minutes!”
Eric helped Sparr up. He still didn’t know the truth about the Ring of Midnight. No one knew whose voice had urged them to find the ring. No one understood what powers it possessed.
Could the ring’s magic be something special only to Sparr? Eric looked at the boy. Sparr was staring at Keeah as she looped the silver ring onto her belt, the fins behind his ears as red as the coals themselves.
What was the Ring of Midnight, after all? he wondered.
But now the flames were building higher. Heat rose from the pile of coals and metal.
“Getting hot!” said Julie tugging the noodles. “Pasha! Back up!”
Almost at once, the noodles began to draw them back up the smokestack. Very soon they heard the sounds of little explosions, popping and crackling, and the sounds of yelling.
“Uh-oh,” said Neal. “I think the beasts know we’re here!”
“Hurry! Keep going!” urged Max.
When they were outside the smokestack again, they saw Pasha tossing fireworks, trying to keep the beasts away from the noodles. By the time the kids were down on the forge floor, the beasts were massing together, growling and shaking their claws and fists.
Pasha ran to the children. “The beasts aren’t too happy with us, I’m afraid!”
“We got the ring,” said Keeah. “Let’s get out of here now —”
“Sooner than now!” chirped Max. “We have only … eleven minutes!”
“This should give us the time we need to escape,” Pasha said.
He tossed a tiny, pea-sized object at the beasts. It whistled loudly, then — poomf! — a shower of sparks exploded, throwing the beasts back to the walls.
“Okay, Pasha, unfold your famous magic carpet,” said Eric. “We need to fly!”
“Fly?” said Pasha with a weak smile. “Ah, yes. About that. Well, you see, that is to say, I mean … I never fly!”
“Groooo!” The beasts began staggering up from the floor.
“Whaaaat!” cried Keeah, backing up to the forge wall. “But you’re Pasha! Of Pasha’s flying carpets!”
The magic maker nodded. “Some with very nice designs on them! But it’s the flying part of the flying carpet I don’t care for. I’m rather afraid of heights, you see —”
Some of the beasts were now pulling weapons from the pile of forged armor.
“But you just set a bomb in the beastie forge in the Bleakwold section of the Dark Lands!” said Julie. “Pasha, you’re fearless!”
He shrugged. “Apparently not so much.”
Quivering, Max held up the clock. “Excuse me, but we only have ten and a half minutes. We must turn the bomb off, or we’ll all go kaboom!”
“Can’t,” said Pasha. “The Blower-Upper doesn’t turn off. So the beasts can’t stop it, you know.”
The armed beasts formed a line and began to stomp closer to the children.
“It looks like they want to stop us,” said Neal.
Pasha tossed another pea-sized ball. Pooomf! The beasts were pushed back, but this time, their shields protected them. They kept coming.
“We’ll never get out of here in time,” said Julie, backing up until she hit the wall. “Pasha, don’t you have anything that can help?”
The man frowned. “Nothing I can think of. Well, except this.” He opened a pouch and tugged out what looked like a miniature comb.
Neal stared at it. “Uh-huh. So when the beasts get us, we can look our best?”
Pasha chuckled. “Oh, dear, no. It gets bigger.”
As the beasts stomped closer, Pasha tugged one end of the comb. A little wheel came out. He spun it, and it became as large as a small bicycle wheel. Pulling on the other end, Pasha made a set of handlebars and another wheel emerge. With his long fingers stretching and flipping and turning with amazing speed, a seat appeared, then five more seats, then a sidecar, then a small sail, a pair of skis, two propellers, and a balloon.
By the time he was done, the thing sitting on the ground in front of them looked like a flying, skiing, rolling bicycle.
&n
bsp; With a motor.
“I call it the Pashamobile,” he said.
“I call it our way out of here,” Eric said with a laugh. “All aboard. Now!”
Putt-putt-vroooom! The little machine blew out a cloud of steam and shot away from the furnace. It drove straight into the beasts.
“Groooo!” cried the beasts, dodging left and right. “Arrrrgh!”
Those that didn’t scatter out of the way were knocked back into one another as the Pashamobile burst through them. It raced away from the dome, swerved to the door, and roared out onto the plains.
“Yes! We made it!” cried Julie.
“Doobesh, here we come!” yelled Keeah.
It took just moments for the kids to master the controls. Max pedaled furiously from his seat, his eight legs a blur of speed. Neal spun a set of giant gears that ran the large propeller, while Julie powered the smaller one with a set of twisted levers. Eric steered with the handlebars next to them, while Sparr raised and lowered the skis and Keeah worked a set of small sails on the rear.
And as they roared across the countryside, Pasha sat cross-legged in his cushy sidecar, pointing. “That way. Around that tree. Over those rocks. Faster, please. We have —”
“Only seven minutes!” cried the spider troll.
“Roooaaarrrrr!” The beasts charged angrily from the forge.
Mounting Pasha’s staff on the front of the machine, the children plowed through the sandstorm and shot toward the ravine. They were going so fast, they drove straight across the ravine and were on the far side before the vehicle had a chance to fall.
“Wait! Slow down,” said Pasha. “I have an idea!”
Neal and Eric together slowed the vehicle. Pasha sprinkled a light blue dust across the ground behind them. Then he tapped the dust with the tip of his staff.
Splash …
“Excellent,” he said. “Invisible water. Now go!”
Vrrrm! They took off into the foggy forest. As they raced between the trees, they heard splashing, then roaring, and finally the sound of slurping.
“They crossed the ravine, but stopped to drink!” said Eric. “They won’t catch us!”
“We’ll see,” said Max. “Five and a half minutes to go.”