by Tony Abbott
“Much worse!” added Kem. “I’ve seen him in action. I know. He does terrible stuff.”
The troll gasped at Kem. “Did your dog just say something? It sounded almost like … words!”
Kem grumbled. “Oh, let him hear me, Sparr. It’s so boring talking only to you.”
I chuckled, then snapped my fingers with a brief whisper. When Kem spoke this time, repeating what he had first said, the troll understood every word.
Beffo’s eyes went wide. “Well, you’re certainly both very strange. And magical! Perhaps if I offer you soup you won’t put a spell on us? Besides, with this storm, there’s no getting off the island until nightfall, so you might as well share our meal with us!”
I narrowed my eyes at the troll. “How do you know how long the storm will last?”
He took the ladle from the monkey and stirred his giant pot so vigorously that it hissed. “I study the clouds, you know. That’s my thing. So, now, tell me. What is your name?”
“Lord Sparr,” I said. “Sorcerer! Magician!”
“Magician!” he yelped. “I love magic! In fact, I like to imagine I’m a great and powerful wizard who can change shape and travel around in time! But, hee-hee, I’m simply a troll!”
At that moment, the doors creaked open and four more green monkeys trotted in. They chirped and chattered to one another when they saw Kem and me, then settled by the fire next to Beffo.
“You know,” I said, observing the monkeys closely, “if we weren’t almost halfway across the world, I’d say your friends are monkeys from the Bangledorn Forest.”
Beffo chuckled knowingly as he stirred. “The Bangledorn Forest is exactly halfway across the world, in fact —”
A sudden wind moved over the jungle outside and, as before, it sang with the sound of chimes. What caused me to clutch the stone in my pocket then, I cannot say. But as I did, the troll’s fire leaped up around the pot, licking its sides with tongues of gold.
Whether the flames suddenly affected me, or I was influencing them, or it was the bump on my head, or the strange and beautiful island itself, I do not know. But I could not take my eyes from the fire. And it seemed to me that the tighter I held that black stone, the more I began to see shapes appearing among the hearth’s dancing wisps of flame.
At once, I began to remember things from when I was a boy. I was overcome with recollections of times gone by. A long-forgotten story surfaced from the depths of my memory. My eyes stung, and I closed them.
“What is it?” said the troll, sipping from his ladle, then continuing to stir.
“You want to travel in time, old fellow? Well, I’ll take you back. I’m beginning to remember something … about myself….”
“Oh, wonderful,” snorted Kem. “This is all he needs. An audience to listen to him talk about himself. You’ll never stop him now.”
The more the flames flitted up the sides of the pot, the more I seemed to see a figure. No … two figures. They were running….
“Excuse me, Sparr?” said Kem, waving a paw in front of me. “You still here?”
“Behold!” I said, raising my hands to the fire. “The veil of the past is drawn aside! I see a boy four centuries ago. He is running. With” — I turned to Kem — “his dog!”
“Wait!” cried Beffo. He whirled around, grabbed several pillows from the corner of the hut, and stuffed them behind his back.
“Go ahead, then,” he said. “I’ll stir the pot. You stir your memory. Speak … speak …”
As if the little troll’s words were a command, I did stir my memory.
The fire crackled and sparks spat up to the ceiling. I stared into the coiling flames, and I was no longer in the troll’s tiny hut. I was running down a narrow stone passage. My puppy, Kem, was scampering at my heels.
“It is four hundred years ago, on one of my last days … without … these!”
I stroked the serpent fins behind my ears.
An instant later, I was there.
“Kem, hurry!” I whispered, glancing back into the dim passage behind us.
It was four centuries ago in Emperor Ko’s palace in the Valley of Pits, at the very center of the ancient Empire of Goll.
“I hear footsteps,” I hissed. “We’re being followed. We can’t fail on our mission. Be quick about it!”
“I’m being quick!” said Kem, galloping at my heels, one head watching over his shoulder. “But there really isn’t any mission.”
“If I say we’re on a mission, we’re on one! Now, shhh!” I skittered breathlessly down a long hallway, screeched to a halt at the corner, and peeked around. “Wait — this courtyard again? I can’t believe this crazy palace. Kem, we’re back where we started!”
My little friend whimpered, “You mean your ‘mission’ to get away from Old Four Wings has led us right back to him?”
“Sorry,” I said.
Old Four Wings was the dreaded moon dragon, Gethwing. And our mission was to skip my morning magic lesson.
Gethwing was my teacher, and he was mad at me. While trying to peel a banana using just my thoughts, I had accidentally melted his favorite sword and broken a chair, a vase, two bottles, and his war helmet.
I also set fire to his tail. And his breakfast.
I knew he didn’t expect me to have such power. I also knew he’d take total revenge on me today with some impossible task.
As the footsteps grew closer behind us, the sudden scent of moon dragon wafted across the opening to the courtyard.
“Gethwing’s in his room … above us,” whispered Kem. “We’ll never cross the yard without him spotting us. We’re trapped.”
“Oh?” I said with a grin. “Did you forget my latest charm? The Foggy Cloud of Mist?”
Kem shook his heads nervously. “I thought it was the Misty Cloud of Fog. And it doesn’t work, anyway, does it? Besides, Gethwing doesn’t like you using your own magic —”
“He won’t see us!” I said. “Come on.”
While Kem muttered to himself, I spoke the charm I had made up. “Selat hemp na-na fo.”
Hoooo! A haze of air surrounded us, hiding us from each other and from everyone else.
“Here we go,” I said. “Wish us luck!”
He squeaked. “Why do we need luck?”
“I haven’t been able to figure out how to keep the charm going, so it might fade a bit early,” I said. “No big deal. Just be quick. And quiet!”
My heart nearly burst with excitement as we crept into the courtyard. It was stark and spare, but shafts of green light from the torches lining the upper terraces danced across the stones. They made a wild pattern in front of my feet.
Suddenly, the shadow of a giant wing fell over the mist. We froze where we stood and looked up. The moon dragon was pacing the terrace outside his chamber. Every few moments, he paused and stared down.
Kem trembled, trying to hide under me. “Some mission. Right under Gethwing’s snout. He’ll see us for sure!”
The dragon began pacing again, and I realized that not only did he not see us, he wasn’t looking for us, either. Then he whispered something, and I heard someone reply.
It was the voice of a young girl.
“Kem, he’s not alone up there!” I said.
As I watched, a girl with long dark hair and a strange wild look in her eyes came forward. She spoke as if she were in some kind of trance. I couldn’t make out all her words.
“… boy … future … secret stone … lord … home …”
I nudged Kem. “Secret stone? What stone? What is Gethwing up to? Lord? Home? Who is that girl? I’ve never seen her before.”
“All very good questions,” he said, “but can we please get out of here? Please?”
Glancing both ways, Kem and I sprinted across the open space, careful to stay under the mist. I looked back, but Gethwing had already retreated into his chamber. The girl was gone.
It was a good thing, because a moment later — fzzzz! — the Cloudy Fog of Mist vanished. We were i
n plain sight again.
Thomp! Thomp!
“I hear guards!” Kem winced. “You and your missions. Hide!”
“I wish we were on a real mission!” I said as we dashed into the shadows. “I had a dream that I was in battle —”
Making my way forward in the darkness, my hands discovered a door. It was barred shut. Without thinking, I flicked my finger at the door and — clink-clank! — the bars fell away.
“Whoa!” I whispered. “That’s new!”
I pushed. The door creaked open.
“But, Master, wait!” Kem grumbled. “Not this room. It’s forbidden —”
Too late. A troop of hustling guards stormed through the passage, and Kem and I tumbled into the dim room. Closing the door behind us, we flattened against the wall and held our breath. In the near silence of the room, I heard the soft jangle of chimes.
Chimes!
Kem kept his ears to the door. “They’re gone. The hall is clear now. Let’s go.” When I didn’t move, Kem nudged my knees with one head and tugged my cloak with the other. “Sparr! Out —”
But I was frozen where I stood.
We were alone in a chamber filled with magnificent furniture, golden and bejeweled. In its center stood a large empty bed covered in tapestries. It all shone dimly from a single torch flickering on the wall near the ceiling.
“Sparr, let’s go. Please!” Kem urged.
“Kem, no.” I pushed him away. The whole back wall behind the empty bed was painted to look like the room itself. Only in the wall painting, the bed was not empty.
In it lay the figure of a dead woman.
Her face was as still and white as the robe she wore. Circling her head was a crown shimmering with its own silver glow. It was Zara, the Queen of Light. It was my mother.
I breathed deeply, feeling suddenly weak, as if I wanted to cry. “Mother …”
At my word, the torch’s flame seemed to leap up and fall back.
Emperor Ko was also in the picture. Even painted, he was a frightening figure, with his enormous bull head and his twin horns smoldering. His three red eyes glared down at the lifeless form of my mother.
“Time to go,” Kem murmured. “I hear more guards coming. This time, they might find us!”
With a single step, I was at the empty bed. I touched its sunken pillow.
“Kem, my mother died in this room,” I said.
“I know,” he murmured, softening a little. “I was here, remember?”
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.
Being in her room, I felt my mother’s absence like a fresh wound. Yet I also felt closer to her than I had in a very long time.
Another troop of guards rushed down the passages outside the chamber, and Kem tugged on my cloak again.
“Wipe your face, Sparr,” he said.
“What’s done is done. Queen Zara … your mother … is not here anymore. She is —”
“Where is she, Kem?” I snapped. “Where? If she’s … dead, where is her tomb? Why can’t I visit her? See her?”
A third rush of heavy feet thundered down the hall, more quickly this time. Then an unearthly wail shrieked through the palace, echoing in every passage.
“The arena,” said Kem. “Ko is calling everyone to the arena. Sparr, something’s really happening. Forget skipping your lesson. This is big. We have to go, too —”
He pulled me from my mother’s room and into the hall, where we were nearly run over by a troop of lion-shaped beasts carrying four-bladed spears.
“To the arena!” the lion’s leader announced. “We are going to war!” They tore off again through the passage toward the great stadium, pulling us along with them.
The farther I moved from my mother’s room, the more thoughts of her faded like my own faulty charm. With each step, my sorrow seemed to drain away and be replaced by anger and revenge. My blood began to boil.
“The Destroyer!” I growled, my heart beating like a gong. “For years now, Ko has told me that my mother was poisoned by someone called the Destroyer. If there is war, maybe I can go on a real mission. Maybe I’ll find this Destroyer, whoever he is. I have magic. I’ll fight him. I’ll have my revenge!”
“Oh, no more missions!” Kem sighed.
Five minutes later, we emerged from the palace into a vast outdoor stadium. A large iron throne sat nearby. Ko himself stood in front of it. Gethwing was by his side, along with a ferocious-looking woolly beast that was armed all over with plates of thick metal.
The arena’s stands were already filled with thousands upon thousands of cheering beasts.
“Silence!” boomed the emperor, and the arena went quiet. He scanned the crowd. “Sparr, my boy. I see you. Come. Join me!”
I trembled, but dared not — could not — disobey.
As we made our way to the throne, Kem whimpered, “I don’t like the way Ko looks at me. As if I’m …”
“A tiny puppy?” I said.
“A great big snack!” he said with a gulp.
I knew what he meant. My heart shivered just thinking about the emperor’s fiery gaze. And yet as I approached Ko, I felt drawn to his awesome power.
Ko was the great leader of millions of beasts across half of Droon. He wanted to extend his empire of Goll across the rest of the world, too. Ko even called me the Prince of Goll.
Rising to the throne, I bowed before the emperor. He was dressed from head to foot in black armor, all spiked and bladed. He turned to the woolly beast. “Tell us what you saw!”
The beast bowed, unrolled a scroll, and began to read from it. “The northern wall of Goll was breached in the dead of night. The enemy has sailed into the port of Nerona. Our empire is under attack!”
The crowd began to stomp and shout.
“There is more!” shouted the beast. “The Destroyer is with them. He commands the enemy fleet!”
I nearly exploded. The Destroyer? The person who killed my mother?
“War!” shouted the beasts in the arena.
Ko raised his four hands high, his horns spraying fire ten feet into the air. “There shall be war! Gethwing, my commander?”
The emperor’s lieutenant stepped forward.
If I was in awe of Ko, I distrusted Gethwing. From the moment he became my tutor, I knew he didn’t really like me. I was Zara’s son. I might develop my own great powers. He knew that sooner or later I could challenge him. I think I knew it, too.
The arena went silent when the moon dragon spoke. “Beasts, we are at war, and we shall crush the attackers with our invincible army,” he said calmly, his eyes flicking toward me. “But there is something to try first, before an all-out attack. A … mission. A secret mission. Before dawn tomorrow, we can sink the enemy fleet to the bottom of Nerona’s bay. The Destroyer can be defeated —”
Almost despite my fear, I jumped up.
“Ko, send me! Send me! Let me help destroy the enemy fleet! Let me face this Destroyer, killer of my mother!”
A long moment of silence followed. My words hung in the air.
Gethwing leaned over to Ko and whispered in his ear. A smile moved across the emperor’s face.
“Perhaps it may take a boy, after all, to slip through the enemy’s defenses and stop the Destroyer. Your anger will drive you to victory. So, my young Prince of Goll, let this be your first true mission!”
“Yes!” I cried, my heart soaring. “Emperor, you won’t be sorry!”
Ko looked at me with his three eyes, then reached behind his throne. “I give you two weapons,” he said. “With this sword you will battle the Destroyer. This helmet will protect you, help you see in the dark, and breathe and speak underwater. Wear it always when you are out of my sight. In it, you shall hear my words and see through my eyes.”
The sword was curved and had a fine handle encrusted with jewels and red stones. The helmet was black and shaped like Ko’s own bull head, a pair of horns arching from the top.
“This mission is the first that shall take you beyond the limi
ts of my palace,” he said. “I hope it will not be the last.”
My heart swelled as I reached to take the weapons. “Thank you.”
“A third weapon is needed, too!” said Gethwing. From nowhere, he produced a dull green orb and handed it to me. It was heavy.
“Place the orb inside the Destroyer’s ship,” the moon dragon said. “When you spin it, you have five minutes to leave before it explodes.”
Ko placed his massive hands on my little shoulders. “Remember, do not remove my helmet, for it will keep you safe. Return in victory, and you shall truly be my Prince of Goll!”
The whole arena of beasts erupted in a cheer. “Hail, Prince of Goll!”
Ko hushed the crowd. “I go now to the Iron Gate to raise the Seven Giants. Together we’ll strike the enemy and crush them at Nerona!”
The emperor stormed from the arena amid the cheers from thousands of bellowing beasts.
I stood there, trembling to think about what I had agreed to do. Kem trembled, too.
Gethwing stepped over to me, his eyes burning into mine. “I can tell that you have been in your mother’s chamber. It is not wise to visit that room. Think not of the past, Sparr. That time is over.”
Kem grumbled under his breath.
“But never mind!” the dragon said brightly. “Guards, the boy will need tools to enter the Destroyer’s ship. Take him to the armory. He and the dog must be outfitted for their mission!”
Before I knew it, Gethwing was gone, and Kem and I were being hurried through the passages of the palace.
“Uh, guards?” Kem asked. “Is there such a thing as puppy armor? Something with two helmets in matching colors, maybe?”
Gethwing’s guards did not answer. They hurried on.
Errrr!
The moment the palace gates squealed open, I rushed out, my heart leaping as high as the horns of my helmet.
Looking out through the helmet’s eyeholes, I needed no torchlight to see the two long rows of armored beasts on either side of a road curving away from the Valley of Pits.
“Come, our Prince of Goll!” called Gethwing. “March with me at the army’s head!”
“Amazing!” I whispered. “Kem, come on.”