by Tony Abbott
Everyone screamed and ducked.
But it wasn’t water, it was glitter. It showered gently over the crowd.
“Now watch this!” said Tarok as he began to juggle three glass balls while standing on one foot. “Isn’t this amazing?”
“I wish I could juggle,” Neal whispered.
Julie gave him a look as the kids crept forward. “Neal, we think he’s the bad guy.”
Neal shrugged. “But juggling is so cool.”
Tarok caught the balls and stuffed them in a pocket. “And now for something mystical and mysterious!” he boomed.
He raised his hands and — poof!
A cloud of red smoke exploded on the stage.
When the smoke cleared, Slag was standing there. All seven feet of him. The crowd cheered.
“Mr. Invisible, live and in person!” Neal said.
Eric snorted. “Mystical and mysterious, huh? It looks like magic to me.”
Keeah frowned. “So it was Slag who tried to knock me off the vine? And it was him chasing my mother?”
Tarok waved his hands at the crowd. “I am pleased to present Slag, the mightiest man in Droon. Slag, show them — especially the little ones — just how strong you are….”
Slag squinted out over the crowd, then fixed his eyes on the kids. As he did, he began to bend a long iron bar. He groaned, he growled, he snarled, he grunted. When he was done, the bar was twisted into a giant knot.
Neal nudged Eric. “Do you get the feeling he wants to do that to us?”
“He’s trying to scare us,” said Keeah. “Because we suspect them of … of … oh, my gosh! She’s here…. My mother is here!”
Eric whirled on his heels. “Where? Do you see her?”
“No,” Keeah whispered, closing her eyes. “She’s … trapped. She’s hurt. I feel it….”
Julie slapped her forehead. “Of course!”
“Of course what?” said Neal.
“It all makes sense now,” Julie whispered. “That big net Slag had. Tarok saying they were going fishing. This weird wagon of theirs. Mr. Invisible. Don’t you see?”
“Yes!” said Neal. Then he shook his head. “Well, not really.”
Julie pulled the kids close. “Tarok and Slag are the ones who trapped Queen Relna! Not only that, they have her in their wagon!”
Keeah’s eyes grew wide. “I’m going in there.”
Eric saw blue sparks shoot suddenly from the tips of Keeah’s fingers. “We’re all going in,” he said. “Together.”
“Yeah, we’ll bust them good,” Neal added.
They started edging away from the crowd.
“Stop!” Tarok snapped, pointing a sharp finger at the kids. “Don’t go. The fun is just beginning. I need a volunteer. You there with the silly grin. I need you!”
The crowd turned to Neal.
“Who, me?” Neal pointed to himself. “No, sorry. I don’t volunteer. It always gets me in trouble. Like the time I cleaned the erasers for Mrs. Michaels and got chalk dust all over her clothes? I nearly got detention. Or the time I —”
Eric pulled him close. “Neal, this is the perfect plan! Tarok will probably just pretend to pull eggs from your ear or something.”
“I don’t want eggs in my ear!” Neal cried.
“But you can keep an eye on Tarok and Slag, while we snoop inside their mystery wagon,” Julie pleaded. “It’s the only way.”
“Maybe he’ll teach you to juggle,” whispered Eric.
“Really? Juggle?” Neal blinked. “Okay.” He jumped onto the stage.
“Right this way,” Tarok said as Neal stumbled up next to him. “We’ll do a bit of simple illusion. Simple and fun.”
“It’s magic, make no mistake,” Keeah whispered to her friends. “Come on.”
As they began to circle around the crowd, Tarok brought out the three glass balls again.
“Cool,” Neal mumbled. He seemed entranced when Tarok started to juggle them once more.
“Keep your eye on the balls,” said Tarok. “And one … and two … and —”
POOF! A great puff of red smoke exploded on the stage. And the three of them were gone.
Tarok, Slag, and Neal.
Gone in a puff of smoke!
Julie gasped. “Where’s Neal? Wait a second. I don’t like this after all.”
Eric watched the smoke rise then begin to fall over the amazed crowd. He didn’t like it, either. “Keeah,” he said, “is Neal okay? Keeah?”
But the princess had already crept around to the back of Tarok’s wagon.
The door creaked once, and she was inside.
When Eric and Julie pulled open the wagon door, they found the inside room empty.
Julie frowned. “Where did Keeah go?”
There was a small door on the opposite wall.
“Did she go back out?” asked Eric. “Oh, man. First Neal, now Keeah. We keep losing people. Let’s stick close.”
Julie nodded. She crossed to the small door and pulled it open slowly. As she did, the air seemed to hum and sparkle.
“Holy cow!” she exclaimed.
Eric peeked over her shoulder. He gulped.
The door didn’t lead back outside.
It led … to another room. And what a room!
It was at least twice the size of their school classroom. And the ceiling was three times as high as the wagon itself!
“No wonder they could fit a pilka in here,” Julie whispered when they stepped in. “They could fit a whole herd of them!”
But it sure didn’t look like a stable.
The place was magnificently decorated, as if it were a room in the richest palace. Candles on the walls lit an area of couches, tables, and chairs sitting on a fancy carpet.
Piled along the walls were big traveling chests. They overflowed with gold and jewels and leather bags filled with glittering coins.
Eric shook his head slowly. “Okay, this is plain crazy. How can you have a wagon that’s bigger on the inside than the outside?”
“Keeah was right,” said Julie. “This is no simple illusion. This is magic. Look, there’s another door at the far end. Keeah? Keeah!”
Julie ran for the door, but Eric’s eye was caught by one chest with jewels tumbling out.
He leaned over. Among the jewels in the chest was a shiny black gem. It was flat and perfectly round.
He picked it up. It glimmered in the candlelight. Then it flickered suddenly in his hand.
“Check this out!” he said. “It looks like a story stone from Keeah’s harp. Julie?” He glanced up.
Julie was staring through the far door. “Eric,” she whispered. “Get over here. Now!”
He pushed the stone into his pocket and went to her. He stared past her through the doorway.
“Okay, well, um, this is different,” he said.
“Different?” said Julie. “It’s weirder than weird.”
They were standing at the top of a set of steps that curved down a long way into darkness. The steps seemed to go far below the ground that the wagon was sitting on.
“I guess we have to go down?” Julie asked.
“I guess we do,” said Eric.
Quietly, the two friends tramped down the steps. The stairs were covered with a kind of thick slime. They kept curving downward.
“I wish Neal were here —” said Julie.
“Me, too.”
“— so he could go first!” Julie finished.
Eric tried to laugh. He couldn’t. He was scared.
What had happened to Neal? And where were they going? And who were Tarok and Slag, anyway?
Finally, the steps ended. Eric and Julie came out into a stone chamber. The floor was wet. And it smelled like the beach.
Like seawater.
It was much darker and colder than the other rooms. But Eric breathed a sigh of relief.
Keeah was there.
And she was not alone.
“Mother … Mother …” she murmured.
Kee
ah was standing next to a cage. The red tiger lay inside, almost still, breathing very slowly.
“I feel so helpless!” she said. “Look at her. She’s sick. She can hardly breathe.”
“Maybe it’s because she needs to change into another shape,” said Eric. “And she can’t because of the cage.”
“She needs to be set free,” said Julie.
Keeah reached her hand toward the cage.
Kkkkk! A bolt of red light shot out from the bars and struck Keeah’s hand. She snatched it back. “This is a sorcerer’s magic! Red light is always a sign of dark magic.”
“You should know….” said a cold voice.
Tarok strode from the shadows. Gone was his clown’s nose. His wild blue hair. His silly horn.
He tossed up a glass ball and caught it. “So you’ve found our little secret. Quite a catch, isn’t she? The Queen of Droon. In my little wagon.”
“Let her go!” demanded Keeah.
“Mmm … no,” Tarok replied.
“You know,” snarled Eric, “for a funny man, you’re not very funny.”
Tarok’s face twisted into a dark scowl. “No, the fun is over. Now the games begin. Want to play catch?”
Tarok held the ball up in front of Eric.
That’s when the kids noticed a tiny shape inside the ball. A shape they all knew.
It was waving at them.
“Oh, my gosh,” said Eric. “It’s Neal!”
Julie gasped. “You let him out of there! Right now!”
“No,” said Tarok, backing away. “Slag, come forward!”
The giant stepped out of the shadows behind Tarok. He held his pretzel-shaped iron bar.
“I bend you like a bar,” Slag grunted.
Eric glanced at Keeah and Julie. “I was right. This is definitely not funny!”
Tarok stepped over to the cage and waved his hand over it.
Kkkkk! In a violent burst of light, the cage was empty, and Tarok was holding a second ball.
In the ball was the red tiger.
“How did you do that?” demanded Keeah. “Where did you get that power?”
“Yeah!” Eric growled. “Just who are you?”
Tarok stepped back toward the shadows. “We’re just two fellows with a job to finish ….”
“That’s right,” said Slag. “She’d be mad at us if we failed.”
“She?” said Julie. “She who?”
Keeah’s eyes widened. She began to tremble.
“Witch Demither!” she hissed. “She’s where they get their power!”
“How very clever of you, Princess,” Tarok said, bowing slightly. “We do odd jobs for the witch, it’s true. We’re her legs, I guess you could say. Demither told us to catch the tiger, so …”
“I caught her,” grunted Slag. “Me and my net. In the woods.”
“Of course!” said Eric. “You came straight out of the water. That’s where Demither rules. And this magic wagon … it even smells like fish!”
“Ha!” Tarok laughed. “Using Demither’s magic, we’ll have more than fish. We’ll win the Quest and the prize, a fabulous treasure of gold and jewels! It’s our reward for catching the queen.”
“You’re evil!” Julie cried. “You’re not allowed to use magic here. Especially witch magic!”
Then — bong! — Ortha’s gong sounded outside, signaling that the Quest was about to begin.
“I’d love to stay and chat,” Tarok said, “but Demither wants the queen and we want that prize! Oh, I almost forgot … catch —”
Taking the ball with Neal inside, he tossed it up to the high ceiling.
“Don’t break Neal!” cried Julie. She jumped for the ball. But somewhere near the ceiling it burst. Neal popped out — full size — and collapsed to the floor.
Tarok and Slag leaped away into the shadows.
“They’re escaping!” said Keeah. “After them!”
Suddenly, the walls around the kids began to collapse. Flonk! Clang! The room got smaller.
“Let’s get out before it traps us!” cried Eric.
He helped Neal up and they all jumped after Tarok but — splat! — they found themselves facedown in the mud outside the wagon.
Flap! Blonk! Plink! The wagon kept changing.
“It’s becoming … a chariot!” cried Julie.
The great gong sounded once more.
“The Quest is starting!” yelled Neal.
Tarok laughed icily. He snapped the reins hard and his pilka charged into the arena.
Keeah’s fingers sparked. “I’ll stop them!”
“No, Keeah, don’t do it,” said Eric, rushing to her. “We’ll stop them the regular way.”
“Yeah,” said Neal, running over to her chariot. “We’ll chase them!”
Keeah stared at the chariot, then at her friends. Then she gave them a smile. “Let’s go!”
The kids hopped into the chariot. Galen’s pilka, Leep, was already hitched up to it. Keeah snapped the reins and the chariot thundered onto the race course.
Whoosh! A cloud of dust blossomed up from the starting line as a dozen other chariots raced around the arena.
But Tarok and Slag were far in the lead. Their chariot charged ahead, rounded the arena, and shot into the forest.
Already the sun was falling behind the trees.
“We have to catch him soon,” Julie said, “or we’ll be too late. The island will be gone.”
“Faster, Leep!” Keeah said, and the pilka jumped ahead with a burst of speed.
Eric gripped the sides of the chariot tighter. “It’s okay to go fast, but please drive safely!”
Leaves and vines flapped and whizzed by as they drove deeper into the forest. Right, left, right. The course twisted and turned sharply.
The path grew narrow. Then something loomed ahead of them.
It was the first of the obstacles.
“Uh-oh. Flame walls ahead!” Neal called out. “Prepare to be charcoal broiled!”
A wall of orange flame rose up on each side of the narrowing path. The fire lashed out like fingers trying to claw whatever passed through.
But Tarok didn’t slow down.
He shot a handful of silver dust into the path, and — k-k-k-zing! — the flames froze instantly.
“Thank you for your magic, Demither!” he said as he drove his chariot swiftly between the frozen flames.
As soon as he passed through, the fire crackled angrily to life again.
Hrrr! Leep reared up, nearly tipping the chariot over. She wouldn’t go on. She stamped her feet on the ground and began backing up.
“She won’t ride into the flames!” Keeah said.
Julie looked around. “I have an idea. I saw it in a movie once. Wish me luck —”
“Luck!” said Eric.
Julie pulled two leaves from a nearby bush, jumped up onto Leep’s back, and slapped the leaves over the pilka’s head so it couldn’t see sideways.
“Try it now!” Julie called back.
Keeah urged Leep to move forward.
Hrrr! Leep whinnied loudly, then raced between the fiery walls and out the other side.
“Yes!” Julie whipped the leaves off.
Eric helped her back into the chariot and slapped her a high five. “Nice work, Julie!”
“The next one’s up to you guys,” she said.
Keeah drove the chariot hard over the path.
Eric looked ahead even as he clutched the sides of the chariot more tightly.
He knew — they all knew — that they needed to do more than stop Tarok and Slag. They had to win the prize. Eric remembered Galen’s words. For the one meant to win, the prize was what he or she wanted most.
Eric knew what Keeah wanted. It’s what they all wanted. A cure for Queen Relna.
But it sure wasn’t going to be easy!
Clank! Plonk! Slag began tossing iron bars out the back of their speeding chariot. The bars struck the path and bounced up at the kids.
Keeah tried to dr
ive the chariot around the bars, but one of them hit a wheel. The chariot bounced. So did Eric and Neal. They shot out of the chariot like cannonballs from a cannon.
“Whoooa!” cried Eric as they went hurtling toward a tree. “We’re gonna get smushed!”
Suddenly — fwing! — a thick net of vines flashed down from above. Eric tumbled into the net unhurt. Neal shot in next to him. They looked up. A handful of green Bangledorn monkeys waved from the high trees. “Yee-yee!”
“Thanks!” Eric yelled up.
“It’s nice to have friends in high places!” Neal added.
Eric and Neal leaped down from the net just as their chariot passed underneath. Plop! Plop! They dropped down right next to Julie and Keeah.
“Glad to have you back!” said Keeah, laughing.
Then another laugh broke through the forest.
“This will stop you!” Tarok yelled back as he sped into the next turn in the course.
“What will stop us?” asked Julie.
Then they heard it.
Sploosh! Crash! Splash!
“Oh, no!” cried Keeah. “The raging river!”
A wild river crashed and surged across the course, sending cold white spray high in the air.
Tarok slowed his wagon only long enough to shoot more sparkly dust across the water.
K-k-k-zing! The river turned as smooth as glass. It froze into a flat road of ice.
“Aha!” Slag cheered, snapping hard on the reins and driving their pilka across the ice.
“Hurry,” said Julie. “Maybe we can get across before he changes it back —”
Too late. Splursh! The river exploded again into whitecapped rapids the instant Tarok and Slag reached the far side.
Keeah pulled Leep to a stop on the near bank and jumped out of the chariot. “We can’t fail at this. We need to get the prize. We need to!”
“We won’t fail,” said Julie. “We’ll just have to get across the old-fashioned way.”
Neal stepped back from the churning river bank. “You want us to swim across that?”
Julie smiled. “Not if we can help it!” She pointed up. Above their heads were dozens of long, thick vines hanging down from the tall trees.
“We swing across to the far side,” she said.
“Oh, man,” sighed Neal. “It’s like I never left gym class.” Then he shrugged. “But, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.”