“But who is that with him?” asked Julie.
Even from a distance, they could see that Galen was different. He stumbled as he ran, pausing as if he were tired, then continuing on.
“Galen?” cried Keeah.
As if he heard, the wizard stopped and stared down at Keeah for what seemed like a long time. At the sound of trumpets blaring above the palace walls, he turned again and made his way toward a higher roof.
“I will track him,” said Hoja. “Max, come with me. The rest of you, remember what the First Genie of the Dove once said. ‘Plicky-wicky-frum-thrum!’”
Keeah scratched her two noses. “What does that mean?”
Hoja laughed. “I haven’t the faintest idea. But the genie also said, ‘When in danger, protect what you love, for it will protect you!’ Now, go!”
With that, the genie and the spider troll scurried up to the nearest rooftop and were gone.
The ground shuddered again, sending a long crack across the face of the flower.
Eric breathed in. “Galen said that Ut was a mystery to solve. I think it’s getting deeper. And we have less and less time to figure it out. Come on.”
Trumpets blared again as the four children rushed to the giant palace.
Taking a deep breath, Neal pushed ahead of his friends. He stormed into the large, cheering throne room. He shouted at the top of his lungs. “Here comes the mighty one! And by that I mean — MEEEE!”
Pausing at the door, Julie glanced at Eric and Keeah, then sighed. “Oh, brother!”
Neal swished his robes as he pranced into the giant room with Julie. Keeah and Eric followed close behind.
“Snorfo!” woofed the dog-headed guards lining the walls on either side of the thrones.
Neal turned to Keeah as he plopped into his seat. “Oh, servant, use those big leaves to fan us, PLEASE!”
Keeah grumbled as she picked up a big palm leaf. “Just don’t get used to this, Neal….”
“A little less noise there!” snorted Julie.
Eric saw that next to the thrones was a big globe of Droon. It was the second one he’d seen that day. A large yellow star marked where the city of Ut stood on the Saladian Plains.
The trumpets sounded once more, and an archway at the far end of the room suddenly became filled by the shoulders of three big Ninn warriors.
Eric … whispered the voice.
“And now —” grunted the largest Ninn, “make way for Lord Sparr —”
The room seemed to darken when the sorcerer stepped in. The fins behind his ears burned bright red. So did the scar on his forehead, marking where he was stung by his own Golden Wasp.
His black cloak shone like a raven’s feathers.
As he strode forward, his cloak sweeping across the floor, the mysterious voice kept speaking silently in Eric’s head.
Eric … it’s nearly time! I’m … coming!
Shhhh! Eric hissed back.
Slowly, the sorcerer pulled up to the throne and stopped, his eyes narrowing at Neal.
“You look like someone … I know….”
Neal had a bored look on his face. He looked at his fingernails, then tapped the throne’s armrest with his metal glove. “Flub-de-dub-dub …”
The sorcerer’s lips rose in a cruel smile. “But you seem much more agreeable — Duke of Ut!” Sparr made a deep bow, then looked Eric and Keeah up and down.
“Oh, don’t mind these two,” Julie said to Sparr. “They’re just our servants … Lunko and Bombo!”
Thanks a lot for the names, Keeah said silently to Julie. Ask Sparr why he’s here. What does he want?
The floor shook slightly, and there were sudden cawing sounds from the flying groggles outside. Eric knew then that Sparr and his Ninns must have flown on them to Ut.
The sorcerer stepped closer to the thrones. “You are both probably wondering why I am here.”
Neal shrugged. “You heard what a NIFTY PLACE I have! And you wanted to VISIT?”
Neal! Keeah said silently. Don’t be funny!
Sparr lowered his gaze to the globe by the side of Julie’s throne. He put his hand on it and gave it a push. All the seas and mountains, cities and deserts blurred as it spun around and around.
Eric stared at it. He had been seeing maps of Droon all day long. His heart began to pound.
Sparr stopped the globe, holding his finger on the yellow star. “Ut is a most unusual place,” he said.
“Well, it’s kept inside a bottle,” said Julie. “That’s unusual.”
“And it is very important to me,” said Sparr. “I have been waiting for so very many days. A hundred and eighty-seven days, to be exact —”
Eric gasped.
A hundred and eighty-seven days!
It was the same number of days since Eric had gained powers. Since Keeah had zapped him in the Doom Gate and he became a wizard.
He glanced at Keeah. She frowned. He knew she was trying to figure it out, too.
A hundred and eighty-seven days ago, they were all in the Serpent Sea, battling to imprison the Red Eye of Dawn into the Doom Gate.
Eric’s heart kept thundering in his chest.
“I looked at my charts, consulted the sky, spun my own globe around on its axis,” Sparr went on, turning the globe again. “Of course, I heard the rumbling and quaking of the earth. I saw the storms roar into the Serpent Sea. Then I learned of the bottle and of Ut, and I knew. It would be here.”
What would be here? What?
The ground shook beneath the palace.
The sorcerer smiled. “My wait is over. I have come for what belongs to me. After one hundred and eighty-seven days, I shall have what I want, right from the center of your big blue flower.”
Eric tried to recall what Quill had written about the blue flower.
The flower that booms.
He thought of the cracks across the blue design in the square outside. The rumbling. The quaking. The flower that … booms.
“And Droon will be mine. Droon, and the Upper World, too! Ninns, our time has come!”
Eric’s blood ran cold. This is crazy, he spoke silently to Keeah. Why Ut? Why here —
We need to find Galen, replied Keeah. Now.
Eric tapped Neal and Julie lightly with the palm leaf. Do everything you can to stall Sparr. Keep him here as long as you can. Keeah and I will meet you outside in ten minutes!
Even as he bowed to Neal and edged away, Eric stared at the globe.
He thought of Hoja’s map and of the magic globe turning and turning in the museum.
They all seemed to be saying the same thing.
Sparr spun the orb around slowly. Each time it revolved, Eric saw the Serpent Sea, the deserts of Lumpland, Jaffa City, the Saladian Plains….
The Serpent Sea again … the Saladian Plains.
Keeah nudged Eric’s arm. “It’s time. Let’s go!”
As Eric and Keeah crept to the back of the room, Neal rose from his throne.
“Before you go and get all powerful and stuff, Lord Sparr,” he said, “how about WE PLAY A GAME?”
The fins behind Sparr’s ears flashed deep red, almost black.
“What my brother means to say is …” said Julie, suddenly grabbing the globe from Sparr, “would you like a quick game of basketball?”
“What?” sneered Sparr.
Julie tossed up the globe, caught it, then threw it to Neal.
He grinned. “Yeah! First ten points takes it! You’re not SCARED, are you, Sparr?”
Neal flung the ball to Sparr. It struck him in the chest.
Keeah slipped through the back curtain. “I can’t watch.”
“No,” said Eric as he slid out onto a small balcony. “Besides, I think the real show will be down there in the square —”
Booom! One after another, tiles exploded from the square below. They flew straight up in the air and crashed to the ground in thousands of pieces.
Eric yanked off his mustache. “Let’s find Galen.”
 
; Keeah tossed away her cloak and her mask. “If anyone can mix up Sparr, it’s Neal. I wouldn’t tangle with Julie, either. Come on, Bombo.”
He stopped. “I thought you were Bombo.”
“That makes you Lunko.”
Eric frowned. “Never mind. Let’s go!”
The two friends climbed over the balcony onto the palace roof, then down to the square.
As Keeah scanned the alleys for signs of Galen, Eric watched more and more tiles burst from the center of the square. Spirals of red flame shot up from the middle of the flower, while the whole ground shuddered.
Eric, I’m nearly here….
The voice was louder now. Closer.
“Oh, my gosh, Eric!” gasped Keeah. “Look!”
He whirled around to see the bent figure of a man, his robe tattered and soiled, shuffling toward them down a narrow alley.
Eric’s mouth dropped.
It was Galen, but as he’d never seen him before. The wizard was so very old. His hair was no more than wisps of white dangling from his head. His skin was deeply wrinkled and as pale as moonlight. His eyelids drooped over squinting eyes.
Galen looked as if he had aged a hundred years in a single day.
“How is this possible?” whispered Eric.
“There!” whispered Galen, pointing to a corner before them. “There … there!”
Eric turned.
And in the shadows he saw her.
It was a woman all in white. Eric couldn’t tell whether she was old or young, but she was beautiful. Her hair hung to her shoulders in a thousand braids, each strand sparkling with innumerable tiny jewels.
Looking back at Eric, she seemed to silently speak a name to him. It was a name he’d heard before. Gasping, he spoke it aloud.
“Anusa!”
Her eyes met his for a second, then, as if she were no more than a ghost, she drifted back into the shadows soundlessly, a thing of smoke.
She was gone.
“It is Anusa!” said Galen. “I must follow her.”
“Anusa? The genie?” said Keeah. “But, Galen, we need you now! You can’t follow anyone. Sparr is here!”
Galen gazed into the princess’s eyes. “Keeah, your great moment is nearly here. I will return for the battle to come. Until then, your love of Droon will guide you.” His eyes lifted to the city wall in the distance. “As for today, some mysteries are no mystery at all. Sometimes, the truth is right before your eyes. Or under your feet. Anusa!”
Eric and Keeah turned to see the vision in white leaping along the top of the city wall. Even as they watched, the wizard vanished from where he was standing. He reappeared moments later on the distant wall, rushing after Anusa.
“Galen!” yelled Keeah. “I can’t believe he’s leaving us here. What are we going to do without him?”
“I don’t know,” said Eric. “I wish I could —”
Neal and Julie came rushing from the palace.
“Sparr’s coming!” Neal yelled, out of breath.
“And he’s a lousy sport!” shouted Julie, hobbling in her tall shoes. “He tried to blow up our globe!”
She tossed the globe of Droon to Eric.
And in that moment, everything came together. It was as if all that had happened that day finally made sense.
“I can’t believe it,” Eric said. “Sometimes the truth is right before your eyes!”
“What do you mean?” asked Keeah.
Eric held up the globe of Droon. “I know why Sparr came here today. He’s gathering his three great Powers. He wants them all together.”
The ground quaked again. A wave of heat rushed up from the earth.
“But what does it have to do with Ut?” asked Julie. “Sparr already has the Golden Wasp and the Coiled Viper. The Red Eye of Dawn is in the Doom Gate halfway around the world —”
Eric remembered how the Red Eye of Dawn, the blazing hot jewel, could control the forces of sky and water and earth.
The Red Eye created huge storms and fires.
And earthquakes.
“The Doom Gate is halfway around the world,” said Eric. “Exactly halfway. It’s like Hoja’s note in the dungeon. If you can’t escape — you dig down. It couldn’t escape the Doom Gate by bursting out, so …”
Taking the globe, Eric held a finger on the Serpent Sea and another on the yellow star where Ut lay.
His fingers were pointing at each other.
“You mean the Eye isn’t in prison?” asked Neal.
Ninns burst into the courtyard, clacking over the tiles toward the children.
“Not anymore,” said Eric. “The Red Eye of Dawn burned all the way through the earth. It dug down from the Doom Gate and it’s coming out here. Today. Right in Ut. That’s why Sparr is here. He’ll have his three Powers — Wait! There’s Max!”
“Keeah, Eric!” The spider troll scurried to them from a nearby street. “I lost Hoja in the streets. But, I saw my master. Poor Galen, he was so old. Then he vanished!”
“We saw him, too,” said Keeah. “He said he had to follow the genie named Anusa —”
Booooom! More blue tiles shot up into the air, fell, and crashed at their feet.
Eric … get ready….
“Enough!” said Eric. “All day I’ve been hearing a voice whispering of doom. Until now, I didn’t know who it was. Now I do. It’s Om. The spirit in the Red Eye of Dawn. He’s … here —”
“So is he!” cried Neal. “Take a look. Here comes Sparr!”
As the ground heaved and quaked, Sparr marched into the square. “Ninns!” he yelled.
Pooom! The square rippled, sending more blue tiles buckling across the ground.
The earth shuddered. The palace shook. Tiles burst higher and higher, clattering to the street and crashing over the roofs of the city.
“My great plan!” cried Sparr. “Come to me, Om! Come, my Red Eye of Dawn! Come! Come!”
And it did come, bursting free from the earth, the great red jewel, the Red Eye of Dawn.
It blasted up with a terrific explosion, and the air filled with the whisperings of the dark spirit Om.
Free! it cried. I am — FREE!
Sparr’s eyes flashed bright red. The scar on his forehead deepened and looked almost fresh, just as it had when the Golden Wasp stung him.
“I have the Viper,” he shouted. “I have the Wasp. No one can stop me from taking the Red Eye of Dawn, too!”
The gleaming jewel rose out of the broken earth and into the air over the square, shooting off bolts of red lightning.
“You want everything!” shouted Eric. “Then — take this. Keeah!”
Together, Eric and Keeah sent a powerful blast of wizard light at Sparr, their silver and blue sparks mingling in a giant bolt.
Kla-bammmm! The force of it blew the sorcerer to the ground.
Eric! Om whispered, and the jewel’s flame leaped. Eric —
“Don’t even start with me, gem boy!” Eric snarled. In a flash, he grabbed the duke’s iron glove from Neal. Leaping up, he closed it around the blazing jewel.
Beams of light shot through the glove’s iron fingers.
“No!” cried Sparr, staggering to his feet. “It’s mine!”
“Everyone — let’s go!” cried Keeah.
The kids shot into a narrow alley, heading for the wall. The Ninns charged, squeezing into the alley after them. The dog-faced guards barked loudly, then followed, waving their black nets. The children rushed up one street after another.
“They’re closing in on us!” shouted Max.
“I have an idea,” said Julie. “Neal, let’s get rid of our stuff!”
She pulled off her tall pink shoes, while Neal clutched the Droon globe. At the count of three, they threw them at the first line of charging Ninns.
“Arghh!” Four red warriors tripped on the globe, while two others fell over the shoes. The troop of dog-headed guards couldn’t stop in time.
“Ooomph! Eeee! Ahhh! Woo-oof!”
The Ninns and
guards tumbled across the narrow alley.
“Yahoo! Traffic jam!” hooted Neal.
“Sparr is still coming!” cried Max. “Oh, I wish Galen were here!”
They raced around a corner into another street.
“Yikes!” said Eric. “Dead end. We’re trapped. Sparr will find us.”
“There’s Hoja!” said Keeah.
The genie was at the end of the tiny street, licking what looked like mustard from his fingers and leaning on an urn of Parthnoop.
Everyone rushed to him.
“Hoja!” said Neal. “Why aren’t you moving? Is that mustard? I mean, never mind! In a second we’ll be trapped in Ut and thrown in a dungeon with no windows and be stuck there for a hundred years! With no food at all!”
The sound of Sparr’s yelling grew louder.
Hoja twisted his turban slightly. “Yes, well, I just remembered what else these urns are good for,” he said.
Hoisting himself up, he hopped inside one of them.
“Ahem! Urn of Parthnoop, please fly!”
The urn lifted up from the street with Hoja standing in it. “Now, unless you want to be, well, what Neal said, I suggest you pick a pot and hop in!”
The kids jumped into the urns and politely asked them to fly. Whoosh! All the urns of Parthnoop suddenly lifted from the ground just as a very angry group of Ninns and guards charged into the alley.
With a quick wave from Hoja — voo-oo-oom! — the urns shot up toward the purple walls of the city.
“Ya-HOO!” yelled Julie. “We are out of here!”
As they roared over the streets, Duke Snorfo came running from the Museum of Magic.
“Ah, yes,” said Hoja, “that spell is over now.”
“Get back here!” cried the duke, shaking a soft, pink fist at Neal.
“Sorry!” said Neal, turning his urn. “Ut’s not big enough for both of us. You can have it. Bye!”
Dumpella poked her head out of a little window in the palace and waved. “Bye!”
Julie waved back. Then she noticed the Ninns mounting a group of groggles. “Uh-oh. Our problems aren’t over yet!”
The air filled with the sound of groggles flapping noisily. In the midst of the flying lizards flew a great black one. On its back was Sparr himself.