by Tony Abbott
“Oh, no!” cried Julie. “Hold on tight!”
The friends clung to one another as the boat dropped through the air like a stone.
THWUMP! The boat struck the earth with a terrifying shudder. It skidded across the ground, bounced, flipped five times, rolled over, crunched, cracked, broke apart, and finally plunged hundreds of feet down a bottomless chasm, vanishing out of sight.
“Good thing we weren’t in that boat,” said Julie, peering into the black chasm.
“I’ve been thinking that, too,” said Eric.
“We’re all agreed, then,” said Keeah.
Seconds before the boat fell apart, its five passengers were thrown onto a patch of tall, soft grass. They now stood at the chasm’s edge, staring down.
“Good-bye, pretzels,” whispered Neal.
Together, they stepped away from the edge and faced the most enormous forest they had ever seen. Dark and dense, drifting with mist as thick as night, the forest loomed over them like a living presence.
Eric remembered Mrs. Khan’s words.
Few travelers find Jabar-Loo. Fewer enter. But almost none return.
Yet, what if there was a secret inside meant only for him? He knew he had to keep going, no matter what.
Just then a sound fell over them that was neither wind in the trees, nor the chirping of birds, nor their own breathing.
Ooo-la-looooo!
“What is that?” whispered Julie as the sound coiled and echoed about the trees.
“Someone is singing,” said Keeah. “And I think the song is coming from up there.” She pointed at a gnarly tower growing on the edge of the forest like a tree of stone.
But if it were stone, that was not its strangest feature, for the tower’s summit looked like nothing so much as the top of a huge muffin.
“I suddenly feel hungry,” said Neal.
Ooo-la-looo-looo! Ooo-looo! The song went on for a minute or two, then seemed to cease. But before its echoes faded, the tune began again in the distance. Minutes later, it sounded from still farther away.
“I know what this is,” whispered Keeah. “It’s a song tower. A droomar elf is singing from the top.”
The droomar were an ancient race of elves that had long worked for the peace of Droon.
“A magical charm is sung in one tower,” Keeah said. “It’s heard in a nearby tower, whose singer then takes up the song, and so on. The song is passed along for miles without ceasing. Since it never stops, the charm has the power to prevent terrible things from happening.”
Eric glanced up at the sides of the tower but saw no openings except at the top. “Maybe if we get inside, the singer can tell us if he saw our friends.”
“I’ll fly us all up,” said Julie. “Everyone take my hands and hold tight.”
They did as she said, and Julie leaped from the ground, tugging her friends with her, and flew them all to the tower’s top.
Alighting on a windowsill, they looked inside to see an old furry elf. His large cloak trailed to the floor, and he wore a wide, slouchy hat. He stood near a music stand, mumbling to himself. “Me, me, me … oh!”
He jumped when he saw the children. “The princess of Droon and her companions! You’ve come to find the king and queen! Galen and Max, too! Come in!”
The children entered the muffin-shaped chamber and quickly told the little old elf everything that had happened.
“Lost in Jabar-Loo. Yes, yes,” he said. “Long ago, it was an outpost of Goll, Emperor Ko’s dark land of magic, you know.”
“We have a map to prove its darkness,” said Khan, tapping his rolled-up scroll.
“Indeed,” said the elf. “When Galen defeated Ko, Jabar-Loo’s temples fell asleep with the rest of Goll. But lately …”
“What?” asked Keeah.
The droomar sighed. “For some time, my brothers and I have suspected that something new has woken in Jabar-Loo’s enchanted old temples. We believe that, if not for our songs, the dark forest would overrun Droon like a jungle gone wild. Excuse me!”
For a full five minutes the elf sang his part again, then the melody moved on once more.
Eric smiled. “It’s beautiful. Ooo-la-looo!”
The droomar blinked. “Beautifully sung, my boy. You’re quite a natural musician. If you ever need a job, do stop by!”
Keeah had been looking out the window at the forest below. She turned. “That old dark magic has somehow trapped my parents and friends inside. We must enter Jabar-Loo now.”
The elf nodded. “Then I shall help make your journey a bit easier!”
While he hustled about, the children gazed down at the forest.
“I don’t like this at all,” said Eric. “No one can tell us exactly what’s going on in there, but everyone seems to think it’s something scary. It’s like …”
“Fearing the unknown?” said Khan. “I know I do. Those evil enchantments we have heard of await our arrival.”
“And my tuskadons await your arrival, also!” said the droomar. “They’ll help you travel quickly. Let’s go down below. Come.”
Five enormous beasts were huffing loudly outside the tower when the children and Khan reached the bottom. They had furry trunks and coiled tusks of blazing scarlet. Each ear was as large as a sail and bore three points, like a bat wing.
“Tuskadons,” said Julie. “I like them.”
The elf held out an object to them. “Since music helps against dark spells, take this, too. It is the only splangle in all of Droon!”
Eric guessed why. He suspected a splangle was a musical instrument, but it was unlike any he had ever seen. It had twin horns winding around like serpents and a long neck with strings stretched tightly across it.
“This belonged to a minstrel,” said the elf. “I’m told he wandered into Jabar-Loo, but he never wandered out. Traders sold it to me, but I can’t get it to make a sound. Perhaps you can play it and keep the evil away.”
“Play it?” said Neal, looking the splangle up and down. “It looks like you drive it!”
Eric wondered how it would help them if it were so hard to play, but he took it and slung its strap over his shoulder, anyway. “Thank you.”
“Good luck to you all!” said the elf. Then he dashed back into his tower so that the droomar charm would remain unbroken. “Ooo-ooo-la-looo!” he sang.
Ooo-ooo-la-looo! Eric repeated silently.
He wanted to stay and listen.
But Keeah spoke softly in her beast’s giant ear, and the tuskadons set off.
The moment the five friends journeyed under the high trees, the forest of Jabar-Loo seemed to envelop them, and the comforting song of the droomar towers grew distant and faded away.
Daylight ebbed as the tuskadons loped into the forest. At the same time, a thick mist rose, shrouding everything. It clung to the branches and the old temple ruins that scattered the forest floor. It moved like a ghostly serpent across the ground.
They hadn’t journeyed twenty minutes before Neal asked, “Are we there yet?”
“It’s so foggy, who can tell?” said Julie.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” said Khan.
Here and there a flicker of light fell through the tangled trees, and Eric watched their shadows lengthen across the ground as they rode.
“Time is passing quickly,” he said. “A day in Jabar-Loo must last only a few hours.”
“I fear we’ll soon be spending the night here,” said Khan.
“Hold up. What’s that?” asked Julie.
Keeah halted her beast, and they all stopped. Just past a field of crumbled stones stood a grassy hill as wide and tall as a building. Narrow poles of wood poked out of it, all hung with cloth.
“They look like sails,” said Eric. “And masts. What is this … ?”
“Oh, dear! The royal ships!” cried Khan, leaping from his beast and running to the hill.
Keeah stared at the sails. “Those ships were marooned only days ago. They look as if they’ve been here for
years!”
“The Jaffa Wind!” said Khan, spying a broken mast with the remains of a blue sail clinging to it. “This must be one of the enchantments the droomar told us about. Princess, we may fear for your parents, but at least we know they came this way.”
“Then we need to keep going,” said Keeah. “They are close. I can sense it.”
Without delay, the tuskadons edged around the hill of ships and lumbered deeper through the trees. The day faded quickly. When evening fell again, the beasts halted. Their giant ears shot up like wings, and their heads tilted.
“They hear something,” said Neal.
Just ahead, barely visible in the dying light, were the glinting waves of a river so wide its opposite bank was out of sight.
“How will we get across?” asked Julie.
“I don’t think our rides will float across,” said Neal, petting his tuskadon.
Eric dismounted and tried to see across the river. The waves churned and tore along swiftly. “The river’s too wild, anyway. We’d never get halfway —”
“This is Jabar-Loo,” a voice cackled from the darkness. “Appearances can fool you!”
The children turned and saw a little woman hobble over to them from the shadows. She looked like a barrel with feet.
“People call me Dora!” said the woman. “The city of Jabar-Loo is across this river. I can take you over.” She dug into the pockets of her ragged little coat until she pulled out a tiny twig. “Come aboard my floating palace, and see what real magic is!”
She tossed the twig into the river. At once, it grew both long and wide until it resembled a small canoe. “Come, Pillow Man, you first!”
“Floating palace, eh?” Khan said. He gulped loudly, then stepped into the little boat. The instant he did, the canoe stretched and grew larger. “Oh, my! Oh, my!”
Keeah climbed into the canoe next, and both sides unfurled to form a deep hull. When Julie boarded, she found herself stepping onto a long deck.
With each new passenger, the vessel grew and grew until, when Dora herself came aboard, it was a great long boat with plenty of room, even for the tuskadons.
“A palace indeed!” said Khan.
“Let’s just hope it really is a floating one,” whispered Neal.
Dora pushed her foot against the bank and — slooosh! — the boat sped over the waves as swiftly as a motorboat.
“Excellent!” said Khan. “I like this craft.”
“One adventure ends, another begins,” said Dora. “But some adventures have no end.”
“I guess that’s true,” said Eric.
“Help a friend, and he’ll help you,” the old woman went on. “When a door closes, climb a tree!”
Khan glanced sideways at the others. “Quite, I’m sure.”
“The eyes are windows to the soul!”
Julie frowned. “Okay …”
“Not everything is how it appears! The right choice means everything! Music soothes the wild beast! You only succeed by trying! Some people don’t like heights! Rope is useful!”
Dora stopped talking to catch her breath and mop her brow. Meanwhile, the boat bounced over the waves.
“Thanks for the cool advice, Mrs. Dora,” said Neal. “You should totally make fortune cookies.” He nudged Eric and whispered, “This lady may be old and look like a barrel, but she really knows her stuff!”
By the time the boat nestled in an inlet on the far bank, night had fallen. The air was as black and impenetrable as oil.
“You’ve been so kind,” said Keeah.
“Well, kindness is a virtue,” said Dora.
“Another good one!” said Neal.
All of a sudden, the little woman’s eyes darted toward a great wall of trees that loomed nearby. She listened, then sniffed. “I smell them. I must go. And you must hide!”
With that, she leaped into her boat, pushed off again, and was gone in the mist.
“What did she mean … hide?” asked Khan, sniffing the air. “I have a magnificent nose, and I don’t smell anything —”
That was when they heard the sound of hooves thundering through the trees.
“Never mind!” said Khan. “Attackers!”
“Tuskadons, form a circle,” said Keeah.
The creatures quickly obeyed her. Everyone jumped inside the ring of tuskadons just as a terrifying wail cut through the air. “Auurrroo — eeee!”
Eric dropped to the ground and aimed at the trees, his fingers sparking at the darkness. “Ready to blast!”
Branches snapped, and the sound of thumping hooves exploded from the forest. Six horned beasts, armored like rhinoceroses, bounded into the clearing. It was so dark that they would have been invisible but for the glow of golden medallions that dangled from their necks like cowbells.
“Beasts with jewelry!” yelled Neal. “Run!”
But he couldn’t run. None of them could. There was no place to go. Two beasts leaped over the tuskadons at Khan and Keeah. They knocked them together and tossed them head over heels into Julie. All three friends sprawled in a heap.
“I’ve got it!” said Eric. He sent a sizzling blast of silver sparks and struck the beasts’ horns. They howled and dispersed. “Ha! I don’t think you’ll come back for more!”
But they did come back. For more and with more. When the frightening creatures returned, there were twenty of them.
“Let’s take it up a notch — Keeah!” said Eric. The princess joined him, and together they sent blast after blast at the beasts. The creatures thrashed about, scattering the tuskadons.
A shaft of light tumbled down through the trees, and the air brightened suddenly.
“It’s morning already!” said Julie. “We’ll be able to see our attackers —”
But no sooner had the light come than the beasts wailed wildly. In the blink of an eye they galloped away through the trees and were gone.
For a few moments, the little band stood in shock, saying nothing. In those same moments, dawn rolled across the forest clearing.
“Not that I’m complaining,” said Neal, his turban drooping, “but where did those ugly things go? And where are our tuskadons?”
“Gone,” said Khan. “They left us with nothing.”
Eric picked up the splangle from the ground, where it had fallen. “Nearly nothing. We still have this. It seems nobody wants it.”
Now that daylight had come, where before they had seen only the impenetrable forest, they now saw a wall looming over them from behind the trees.
Two giant rat heads, fanged and glaring at them, surmounted a gate in the wall.
“Those rats are images from Goll,” said Keeah softly. “Their temples and cities all had rat gates. To warn visitors to stay away.”
Towering up into the mist beyond the wall was a great stone pyramid.
“Oh, dear,” gasped Khan. “They liked to build things big in old Goll, didn’t they?”
A pack of blue-furred rodents scrambling under the wall saw the children, chattered, then scurried through a tiny hole in the gate.
“They have real rats, too,” said Julie.
“Jabar-Loo may be full of rats and enchantments,” said Keeah, “but this is the gate, and we need to enter.”
Together the five friends approached the wall, then halted. An inscription was carved in the stone over the massive gate.
Everyone turned to Eric.
“Not that we really want to know,” said Julie, “but I don’t suppose you can read that?”
Eric liked knowing old Droon languages, but he didn’t like knowing what these words meant. He read them aloud.
“Alanath-ka-Jabar-Loo. Pres-ka-fesh!”
“Which means?” asked Khan.
“Behold Jabar-Loo. Enter if you dare!”
Staring up at the inscription, Neal took a step back. “Maybe we should think about this. Do we really dare to enter here? I mean, a Goll hangout with tons of blue rats? Let’s discuss.”
“We have to get inside,” said Keeah
. “But we sure can’t fit through the rodent hole, and I don’t suppose we can just stroll in.”
“Whatever we do, splitting up is dangerous,” said Julie. “We need to stick together.”
“I agree,” said Khan. “Splitting is a bad idea for someone who looks like a pillow —”
“You there! Keep it down!” said a voice.
“We’re trying to think,” said another.
The kids spun around to see two pint-size creatures in brown cloaks and hats camping in a hollow under a tree.
“Sorry,” said Keeah, with a little bow.
“Wait!” the first one said, jumping to his feet. “Is you a princess?” He smoothed his whiskers and hustled over, extending his paw to them. “My name’s Mr. Duppy. Me and Mr. Beffle here buy and sell things. Anything. Everything.”
“And all that’s in between,” his friend said, extending his paw, too.
Eric wondered if they were the same traders who had sold the splangle to the droomar.
“Nice to meet you,” he said.
Keeah pointed to the walled city. “By any chance do you trade … in there?”
“All the time,” said Mr. Beffle. “Prince Umberto runs the place, you see. It pays to be on his, er, friendly side.”
“No matter how tiny that side is!” said Mr. Duppy with a laugh like a gargle.
“Prince Umberto?” said Julie.
“He’s the man,” said Mr. Duppy. “In fact, we’ve got an appointment with him now. So if you’ll excuse us!”
The traders waddled back to their ditch.
Keeah looked up at the wall. “How much do you want to bet that Prince Umberto is the one who has my parents locked up?”
“And Galen and Max, too,” said Neal.
“No bets,” grumbled Khan. “I can sniff him already. He’s why no one returns from Jabar-Loo. It must have been his beasts that attacked us. That pretty droomar song is trying to stop his enchantments, I just know it!”
Eric glanced back at the traders. They had already packed up their little camp and were heading for the gate. “If only we had something to trade. But we lost everything to those creepy beasts by the river.”