When they came to the fiery river, the flames were leaping as high as ever.
“Makes you wish I still had icy beast breath, doesn’t it?” said Julie.
“This is better!” said Pasha. He touched a button in the sidecar and all of a sudden two large springs jerked down from the front of the Pashamobile like a giant pair of legs. They slammed the ground and — boing! — the vehicle bounced up and over the flaming river. Wump! Wump! They thudded down on the far side, bounced high, then landed right onto the lowered land skis and took off again.
Mile after mile, they tore across the plains, racing over the charred earth until they finally blasted through the Bleakwold gate, and spotted the twisting towers of Doobesh in the far distance.
“Ah, Doobesh,” sang Pasha. “How long has it been since I’ve seen you? Oh, your towers. Your blue walls. Your — watch for that ditch!”
“Don’t slow down!” cried Max. “Four minutes and counting!”
Eric puffed and puffed. “Keep going!”
Sparr worked the skis over every bump. Neal and Julie spun their propellers wildly. Doobesh loomed closer.
“Oh, man … oh, man!” cried Sparr. “Faster … faster —”
“Forty seconds,” said Max.
The beasts thundered across the countryside behind them, getting closer by the second. The Pashamobile practically flew into Doobesh, covering the last few yards and blasting through the giant blue gate when all of a sudden —
Wham!
They crashed into something hard, tumbled out of the Pashamobile, and spilled to the ground in a heap.
The something hard they crashed into was a pair of knees.
Only they weren’t the puffy brown knees of Jabbo the pie maker.
They were the black, stone-hard knees of a moon dragon.
“Gethwing!” gasped Sparr, scrambling away from him.
Gethwing raised himself up as high as he could go. His four wings, ragged and spiked, arched up behind him. His large domed head with its massive drooling jaw turned down to the children. His eyes burned like two fiery coals. Flames sizzled between his long, curved fangs. Lifting his mighty clawed hands over the children, he prepared to strike.
All of a sudden, Max jumped up and held Pasha’s clock high. “Excuse me, Mr. Gethwing — just a moment. Five, four, three …”
Two seconds later, they saw it, heard it, and felt it.
KAAAA —
— BOOOOOOOM!
The whole dark sky erupted in a blaze of yellow flame.
Far away, giant chunks of iron flew straight up, then slammed back to earth with the sound of thunder. The blast rolled across Bleakwold, across the lands between, and shook the towers and walls of Doobesh itself.
The force knocked Gethwing flat on his back, while the kids were thrown into a tangle of arms and legs.
“Yahoo!” yelped Neal. “That forge is history! Blown to a thousand little bits!”
“A million!” cried Pasha, bouncing with glee. “My Blower-Upper really works!”
In the far distance, an enormous plume of orange flames and black smoke poured up to the sky.
Gethwing staggered to his feet and roared, fire bursting from his mouth. At the same time, the beasts from the forge crawled into the city, hissing and steaming from the blast. They gathered around Gethwing, staring at the children.
In that moment, time seemed to stop.
“Do you think Gethwing’s mad?” asked Keeah, huddling with her friends near the wreckage of the Pashamobile. “I think he’s mad —”
“Kallo-tem-na-toof! Nembo-sama-fah!” shrieked Gethwing.
As one, the dark beasts raised their claws. They took a step toward the children.
Suddenly, a cry came down from the rooftops. “Doobesh for the Doobeshians!”
Before anyone could make a move, a thick black net dropped over the children, Max, and Pasha, and — fwing! — swept them up to a rooftop filled with furry little Doobeshians and big burly pirates. And in the middle of the pirates stood a small dragon wearing a chef’s hat.
“Jabbo!” cried Keeah.
“And friends!” said the little dragon. “Everyone — now!”
At Jabbo’s cry, the rooftops across the city suddenly came alive with pirates and Doobeshians hurling bricks down on the beasts.
Gethwing and the others shrieked and bellowed. They flew up at their attackers, but the pirates dropped more nets on them, and the Doobeshians hurled brick after brick in their direction. Every new advance of the beasts was met with squirts of hot pie filling, and they fell back to the gates of the city again and again.
“Jabbo, are we glad to see you!” said Eric, tossing bricks one after another.
“And Jabbo to see you!” said the pie maker. “No sooner had you and the beasts entered Bleakwold than the real Gethwing came. Luckily, the Doobeshians and the pirates hid poor Jabbo. Until now! More bricks here! More pie filling there! Attack!”
With loud calls from both Jabbo and Yoho, the pirates and Doobeshians leaped down from the roofs and raced through alleys, flashing their swords and sticks, whooping and cheering.
The beasts charged back, but the fog pirates — as good as their name — vanished in a cloud of fog. The beasts, with Gethwing at their head, tried to battle the fog, but more bricks and more pie filling rained down on them, and invisible sticks whacked at them.
Shielding himself, Gethwing gave out a long shriek. “Path-na-ta-Ko!”
The beasts gathered around him. A moment later, Gethwing led the beast army crashing out through the blue gates and back toward the Dark Lands. Into the smoky air they went, drawing the dark skies with them as they retreated.
Sparr whooped. “Yes! They’re going! All the way back to Ko!”
With the smoke and clouds gone, the sun blazed once again on Doobesh’s streets.
The battle was over.
“Yahoo, Yoho!” cried the pirates, turning visible again. They shook their fists and waved their swords in the air, crying, “Doobesh is free!”
“Yes, free!” echoed the Doobeshians.
“We did it,” said Eric. “I can’t believe it. The beasts are gone.”
“Good riddance,” snarled Jabbo, adjusting his chef’s hat.
“The beasts are gone,” said Yoho, moving his eye patch from one eye to the other. “But if they come back, I think we’ll be ready for them. That is, if …”
The pirate captain now turned to Jabbo and slapped the dragon’s shoulder. “We’ll be ready for them if … you, Jabbo, will be our leader in Doobesh? After all, we like your pies!”
“Pies!” shouted the Doobeshians.
The little dragon smiled from ear to ear, even as he blushed. “Jabbo? Your leader?”
“Jabbo, our king!” cheered the Doobeshians.
The pie maker drew in a deep breath. “Jabbo accepts!” he said. “If Princess Keeah approves, that is.”
Keeah adjusted her crown, straightened her tunic, and smiled at the little dragon. “Jabbo, you helped us today like a true friend. You are officially free. Now, if you and the pirates can agree to stop stealing magic …”
“Stop stealing!” said Yoho. He frowned. Then he grumbled. Finally, he nodded. “Mostly,” he said.
Keeah looked sternly at the pirate captain, then smiled. “We’ll work on that. In the meantime, Jabbo, I pronounce you King of Doobesh. Bake pies. Be a just and fair ruler. And try to be good!”
“King Jabbo!” cried the furry Doobeshians.
As Yoho and his mates broke into song, the pirates hoisted Jabbo on their shoulders and carried the new king through the cheering crowds.
Soon, the children, Max, and Pasha were standing alone in the sunny streets in front of the palace.
“Ah! I like to see things end so happily,” said Pasha.
“We owe much of it to you,” said Max, shaking the little man’s hand.
“And I to you,” returned the magic maker. “Princess, Max, may I join you in Jaffa City? It is, after all, the
most magical place of all. And perfect for a magic maker.”
Keeah smiled. “That would be wonderful.”
“Let’s go there now,” said Sparr. “I think our work in Doobesh is done!”
In a swirl of spinning blue light, the seven friends left the strange, sun-filled city of Doobesh and whirled through the air to Jaffa City.
By the time they were all back in Galen’s tower, night was beginning to fall. Through the tower window Eric could see the moon as he remembered it in his world, sitting just above the horizon like a silver globe.
Julie smiled suddenly. “Every adventure is a journey and every journey is an adventure. This was sure both.”
“It took just two days,” said Eric. “But it seems like a lifetime.”
“Galen would love hearing about our adventure,” said Max. “We destroyed the forge. We found the magic ring. He would be quite proud of us.”
Keeah unlooped the ring from her belt and held it up. “The voice told us step by step how to find the ring,” she said. “But we still don’t know who wanted us to find it.”
“Or why,” said Sparr. “When I touched it, I felt …” He looked as if he were searching for a word. Finally, he shook his head. “It has some kind of power, that’s all I know.”
Eric wondered about that. What kind of power did the ring have exactly? And whose voice kept pushing them to find it?
“Can I see it?” asked Neal. Taking it from Keeah, he slipped it on his wrist.
“Not your style,” said Julie.
“You don’t think it’s for a giant, do you?” asked Pasha as Neal gave it to Eric.
Still looking at Sparr, Eric took the ring. The moment he did, his heart thudded in his chest. The ring felt burning hot, then as cold as ice. It felt as if it weighed a ton. His legs gave out beneath him and he staggered to the floor under its weight.
“Eric!” said Keeah, rushing to him.
Struggling to hold it up to her, he gasped suddenly. “No — wait!”
In the center of the silver ring, framed by the silver circle, he saw the moon.
But an instant later, it wasn’t the moon he saw in the center of the ring.
It was the face of a man.
“I see him!” said Eric.
Everyone bent down to look. They saw it, too.
“Oh!” said Max. “It’s … it’s … Galen!”
It was Galen’s face.
But, amazingly, he was not the old white-haired man they had last seen. His beard was darker and shorter, his face rosier, his eyes sparkling. Galen was younger.
He was wearing a green turban studded with bright red rubies.
And he was smiling.
“Galen!” gasped Max. “You are well. Better than well. You look younger!”
When Galen spoke, they all heard his voice, no longer in a whisper, but clear and strong and loud.
I am proud of you! Galen said. Your journey was a long one, and difficult. But you found the dragon, the gate, the cave, and the ring. There remains but one thing more. Using the ring, you must now … find me!
A moment later, the wizard’s face, still smiling, faded, and the ring was a ring once more.
Keeah whooped. “Yes! Galen’s coming back!” She took the ring from Eric and set it in a bowl on a table.
Still weak from holding the ring, Eric breathed deeply. He knew Sparr was looking at him. Their eyes met. What the power of the Ring of Midnight was—and why it affected only them—was a story for another day.
All of a sudden, the round room lit up with a rainbow-colored light. The magic stairs hovered outside the tower window.
“Time to go,” said Julie.
“But we’ll be back soon,” said Neal.
“To help us find Galen,” added Max.
“And help us stop Ko once and for all,” said Sparr.
Eric nodded. “Yeah. We have a lot to do.”
“A lot to do,” Keeah repeated with a smile.
The three friends climbed out the window and onto the stairs. The last thing Eric saw as they entered the pink clouds was the large silver moon.
It was shining more brightly than ever.
“I’m glad we’re not beasts anymore,” said Neal as they reached the upper stairs. “My mom always says I grow out of my sneakers too fast. Just think if I had three feet!”
Julie laughed and checked her watch. “Speaking of moms, my mom’s waiting for us. We’re just in time for supper.”
They rushed into the closet at the top of the stairs. The moment they turned on the light, the staircase vanished, and —
Dingdong! The front doorbell rang.
Eric froze. “Holy cow! I bet there really was someone watching us at the movies! And they followed us here….”
Slipping carefully from the closet, the three friends turned off the light, closed the door, and pushed the two cartons in front of it. Quietly, they made their way upstairs to the front door.
“My heart is pounding like those beastie hammers,” said Julie.
“Everybody just try to be cool,” said Eric.
“I’ll try … to try,” whispered Neal.
Eric went to the front door. Slowly, he opened it.
He blinked. Standing there was a girl just about their age. She was tall and had long, black hair. Her eyes were the darkest Eric had ever seen.
“Hi,” she said. “I just moved into the house at the end of the street. I’m Meredith.”
“Uh … hi,” said Eric, trying to sound calm.
The girl tucked some loose strands of hair behind one ear and held out her hand. “I just wanted to say that you dropped these on the street. You were all running kind of crazy.”
In her hand were Neal’s sunglasses.
“Wow, thanks,” he said, taking them. “I really thought I lost them.”
“No problem,” she said. “I also wanted to say thanks for the cookies you left at my house the other day. That was nice. Well, see you later. I know you have a lot to do.”
The three friends watched the girl walk back up the street and go into the big house at the corner.
“A lot to do?” said Eric. “That’s what we said in Droon….”
“I remember,” said Julie. “But she seems okay. Not a beast or anything. Just normal. What did she say her name was? Meredith?”
Eric nodded slowly. “Still, Droon has to stay a secret. We have to be prepared for anything. We have to be really careful.”
“Even sneaky,” said Neal, sliding on his dark glasses. “I know I’m ready.”
It was noon on a warm Saturday when Eric Hinkle sat down on a sunny beach with his friends Neal and Julie.
He looked around and smiled. “Guys, this is the life.”
“I know,” agreed Neal. “This beach has all my favorite stuff. Sun and fun and … what’s the third thing? Oh, yeah. Cheeseburgers, hot dogs, onion rings, curly fries, potato chips, and vanilla shakes —”
Eric laughed. “That’s like … six things!”
“Not the way Neal eats,” said Julie. “He’s the original human blender!”
Neal looked thoughtful for a moment. “Blender Boy. I like it!”
The beach near Eric’s house was a narrow strip of sand at the edge of a small pond. On one side was a tiny concession stand. On the other was a parking lot. In between were kids and parents from his neighborhood, sunning and playing and having fun.
“The water is so beautiful,” said Julie, gazing out at the far side of the pond, where their gym teacher, Mr. Frando, was tossing a large net into the water. “It’s kind of like the color of sapphires.”
“It’s kind of like the Sea of Droon,” Neal whispered. “Only in our world.”
Eric smiled again. Droon was the mysterious and magical world he and his friends had discovered under his house one day. Droon was where they had met Princess Keeah, a powerful young wizard. It was where they helped her battle an evil sorcerer known as Lord Sparr.
And it was where Eric and Julie had got
ten magical powers. Julie had gained the ability to fly and sometimes to change shape. Once, she had pretended to be the spider troll Max. Another time, she changed into Neal’s mother, the town librarian. Eric himself was fast becoming an actual wizard with a full range of awesome powers.
Each time the friends descended the rainbow-colored staircase in his basement — and they had gone down those steps many times — things in Droon had gotten more fabulous, more exciting, and more dangerous.
Julie sighed. “Keeah would love this. Too bad she doesn’t have much time to just hang out. Especially now that things are a little weird —”
“A lot weird,” said Neal. He looked at the concession stand and frowned.
Eric felt the same way.
Things in Droon really had gotten strange.
First of all, Sparr had recently woken a four-armed, three-eyed, bull-headed beast named Ko from a four-century nap. Now, Ko ruled over an empire of fearsome beasts.
Stranger still, in waking Ko up, Sparr himself had been transformed into a boy. He was now on their side, helping them stop Ko from turning Droon into his smelly Dark Lands.
But there was more.
The great wizard Galen, who had helped Keeah and her friends keep Droon free since the very beginning, was now gone. He had disappeared months before in a city called Ut.
“I can’t wait for Galen to come back,” said Eric. “We sure need him now.”
“The Ring of Midnight will help us find him,” said Julie.
Right. The amazing Ring of Midnight.
That was another weird thing.
The kids had recently discovered a large silver ring. They had no idea what the Ring was for, but when an image of Galen himself had appeared in the middle of it, everyone realized that the Ring might be the key to finding him.
Eric expected to be called back to Droon at any minute to start the search. “I packed the magic soccer ball in case Keeah sends for us.”
“At least some things haven’t changed,” said Julie. “The ball still calls us to Droon. And the staircase still takes us. I can’t wait to go —”
“Maybe I’ll get in line now,” said Neal.
“Get in line? For the staircase?” asked Eric.