by Tony Abbott
The three winged sisters grinned wide, toothless grins. Then they nodded their gray heads.
I finally understood what was going on. The haggons followed us because … I was their leader.
I could command them to do anything.
The sisters clustered together. Then they flapped their wings and leaped away into the air. A moment later, they were gone.
“That was awesome!” said Neal, running to me. “They didn’t eat us. Not even a single bite!”
“Keeah, you saved us again!” said Twee.
I shook my head. “I only sent them away. I —”
My heart fluttered to see something appear three feet above the water.
It was a wrinkled brown hat.
“Thum!” I said, running to the hat. “It’s Thum, everybody! Show yourself. Do you have a message for me?”
“Oooo, I do!” The droomar’s little face appeared under the hat. “And here it is. Oooo!”
“Thum, please!” said Julie. “What’s the rest?”
“… bja,” he said, dangling his toes in the water. “Oooo first, bja second. Oooo … bja!”
Eric blinked. “Oobja? You mean the Oobja mole people ruled by Batamogi?”
“Who live in the Dust Hills of Panjibarrh?” asked Neal.
“Exactly!” said Thum. “The Panjibarrh of Batamogi ruled by the Dust Hills of Oobja. Or, rather, what you said. You need to go there.”
“Why must Keeah go to Panjibarrh?” asked Ortha.
“Are more of Sparr’s creatures attacking there?” I asked.
Thum splashed his toes and grinned. “This time I know the answer. You must go there because the Oobja know what you need to know. Only, they don’t know that they know what you need to know. Do you know what I mean?”
Julie frowned. “No.”
Thum shrugged. “Then let me be as clear as possible. Like this —” Pooomf! He vanished in a big spray of water that splashed into the cave.
And right onto Neal.
He stared at the empty spot and grumbled.
“Even so, he told us where to go,” said Ortha.
“And we only have a little time left,” I said. “The halting spell is half over.”
“Then let’s go to Panjibarrh to see what the Oobja know,” said Woot.
“And when you say us,” added Khan, “I certainly hope you mean me, too. For I am coming!”
“The pillow king will come!” said Woot.
“It will probably be dangerous,” said Eric.
Khan fluffed his tassels. “I expected no less!”
I gave Khan a hug. “Thank you.”
Moments later, the eight of us drove Sparr’s even longer car out of the tunnel, splashing water high on both sides. Twee and Woot sat in the driver’s seat with Ortha as we raced over the plains to Panjibarrh.
Panjibarrh. The Land of the Dust Hills.
The country that gets its name from the giant dust storms that rise suddenly out of nowhere.
Like the one that just then began to spin around our car.
And lift us off the ground.
Whoosh-sh-sh! A giant funnel of dust whirled around us, lifting the car high in the air.
“Hold on tight!” shouted Ortha. “We’re going up!”
Blam! Blam! I blasted the air with red sparks, but the dust storm just whirled faster and faster.
Eric sent a bright shower of silver light from his hands. The wind only swept it away.
“We’re doomed!” yelled Khan.
A moment later, the car jerked upside down. The glass dome flipped open, and we were thrown out while the car kept rising.
And we fell.
“Now we’re really doomed!” Neal shouted.
“Grab one another!” cried Ortha. “Stay together!”
Julie clutched Eric’s feet while Neal whirled upside down in the dust, clinging to Twee and Woot. Ortha, Khan, and I held one another tight.
“Brace yourselves!” I yelled.
A moment later — plop! plop! plop! — Eric, Julie, and I went slamming down into a hedge of brown bushes. Ortha, Khan, Twee, and Woot landed in a soft mound of dust.
Neal missed the bushes and the dust.
He landed in a fountain.
Splash! Neal was drenched — again.
Jumping up, he shook himself, then looked at us.
“Don’t even say it.”
The storm whirled away as quickly as it had come. When it did, we could see that we were in a village of small mud homes. They were stacked one on top of another up the sides of big brown hills.
“Well, we’re in Panjibarrh,” Julie whispered. “I remember this village from the last time.”
In the center of the village was a giant wheel made of thick planks of wood and lying flat on the ground like a big plate. A long wooden lever stuck up from its middle. The Oobja mole people used the wheel to make dust storms to protect against enemies.
Looking at my red sparks, I wondered if they would think I was an enemy.
“My princess!” called a voice.
We turned to see a small head with a large crown on it pop out from one of the huts.
“Batamogi?” I asked.
A short creature jumped from the door and ran to us. He had curling whiskers and pointy ears. He wore a green cape and a gold crown.
“Princess Keeah!” he shouted. Instantly, doors in the other mud huts opened and the village square filled with the furry folk called Oobja.
“We were so afraid,” said Batamogi. “We sent the dust storm because of the yellow car. We thought you were the evil one, Lord Sparr himself!”
“We just borrowed his car,” said Neal, looking up in the clouds. “It’s still spinning around up there somewhere.”
Batamogi took us into his small hut. Huddling by a fire, we told him everything that had happened since morning. Even about my powers.
“A droomar told you to come here?” said Batamogi, his eyes wide. “But I don’t know anything. All I’ve seen are black clouds moving over the plains and getting thicker all the time!”
“The droomar said you know something,” I said. “But you don’t know that you know.”
Batamogi frowned. “Not knowing there is a secret is the most secret kind of secret. Let me see…. Sometimes I get tired of all the dust. No one knows that…. I broke my brother’s wagon when I was three…. And then there’s — what’s that?”
A glow shone from the pouch on my belt.
“My Wizardbook!” I said, taking it out to show him.
In the glowing stone, we made out a stretch of brown dusty earth. Crowding around the book, we watched a tiny figure running down a hill, a plume of red dust billowing up behind him.
“It’s Max again!” cried Eric. “He’s okay. I knew he would be —”
Batamogi gasped. “That red dust means he’s in Panjibarrh. He must be nearby!”
As Max ran, we could see a band of Ninns charge over the top of the hill behind him.
“We catch you, furry thing!” cried the lead Ninn, shaking his fist at Max. All the Ninns’ ears were droopy. The warriors were drenched.
“Get over it!” Max yelled. “It was just a boat!”
Then he giggled. “Well, a boat that led a bunch of other boats. All of which are … sunk!”
“Way to go, Max,” said Neal. “He stopped the Ninns from invading Jaffa City!”
Max scurried to the top of the next hill, slipping and sliding on the dust, then climbed over the ridge. We saw him stop and gasp. “Oh, yes. Ha-ha! Come on, Ninns. Try to follow me — there!”
He ran with all his might to an enormous rock sticking up in the center of the dusty foothills.
Batamogi jumped suddenly. “Bumpalump!”
“Excuse you,” said Neal.
“No,” he said. “Bumpalump, the big rock that Max is running to. It’s been here forever. I can lead you there!”
My heart began to race. “Of course. That’s why Thum told us to come here. To find Max!”<
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“We must get there now,” said Ortha.
Batamogi nodded. “Bumpalump is just two hills away. Our dust wheel can take us.”
“We’d better hurry,” said Eric. “Those Ninns look really mad — as usual!”
As the scene in the Wizardbook stone faded, we ran to the giant wheel in the village center. Everyone crowded around, and we clasped hands as Batamogi and Julie pulled the lever together.
Whrrrr! The giant wheel began to turn faster and faster. A funnel of dust spun up from the ground. It lifted us into the air.
“Here we go again,” shouted Neal. “I hope we don’t meet Sparr’s car flying around up here —”
Whoo-ooo-osh! The dust storm whirled us around and around, up and over one hill, then another. Finally, we were set down on the very top of the giant rock called Bumpalump.
As the dust storm faded away, we saw that the surface was rough and uneven.
Twee looked around. “Max is not here!”
“But the Ninns are,” said Julie, peering down. “They’re coming fast. If only we had some banana peels.”
“We have something better,” I said. “Look!”
Near my feet was a hole in the rock. Below it, a narrow passage carved its way underground.
“I bet that’s where Max went,” said Eric. “There’s something down there. Let’s go!”
“Something down there …” I whispered.
Seeing my friends jump one by one into the rock, I remembered my mother’s words again. Khan, Eric, Ortha, Neal, Woot, Julie, Twee, and Batamogi were with me. So many friends!
But as they slid away inside the rock, I remembered other words.
I was tempted by the darker ways.
I turned and saw the Ninns charge over the top. I watched them slow down when they saw me. I began to speak.
“Kleth … nara … toom …”
They put down their swords and started to bow.
“Nooooo!” I cried as I leaped into the darkness.
I shot quickly into a smooth narrow passage.
Everything went dark. The tunnel looped around and up and over, tumbling me down faster and faster. Finally, it leveled out.
Plunk! Oooof! Ayeee! Whoa! Plooop!
I was thrown from the end and landed in a heap. When I stumbled to my feet, I was surprised to find that the floor was flat. “Hello?”
“Everyone’s here,” Khan said with a cough.
“Except Max,” said Batamogi. “He’s not here.”
“And neither are my sneakers,” moaned Neal. “I think I left them about halfway up the passage.”
The Ninns were grunting and shouting as they tried to jam themselves into the narrow entrance.
“They’ll have a hard time getting down here,” said Ortha.
“Somehow, I don’t think the Ninns are our biggest worry right now,” said Eric. “This Bumpalump is not just any rock. It’s sort of …”
“Sort of … unbelievable!” whispered Julie.
Our eyes had finally gotten used to the bright light twinkling in from above. And as we looked around, we couldn’t believe what we saw.
We were in a room.
High walls. Doorways along one side. A staircase curving down. Tiles on the floor. And in the center of the room, two dark thrones.
“Oh, my gosh —” I whispered.
“Keeah, this is impossible!” said Ortha.
I stared at every part of the room — walls, ceiling, floor, thrones — and I knew.
I had seen this room before.
“It’s your parents’ throne room in Jaffa City,” said Eric. “It’s an exact duplicate, except —”
“Except that it’s exactly wrong,” I said. “Those stairs should be on the wall behind me. At home they lead up, not down. And the thrones —”
The two thrones — the seats of the king and queen — were made of rough black stone instead of glistening white pearl.
“It’s like Jaffa City in reverse,” said Khan.
The walls were even draped with banners, but not like the bright silver and green ones at home. Black cloths, tattered, torn, and ragged, waved slowly in the damp air.
“But this isn’t possible!” said Batamogi. “Bumpalump has been here forever. How did all this get inside the rock?”
“I think someone is living here,” I said, moving ahead. “Let’s stay close. With all of us together, maybe we’ll be okay. Maybe I’ll be okay —”
I wanted to tell them about what the Ninns did just before I jumped into the rock.
But the moment I opened my mouth — vrrrt-vrrrt! — the floor beneath us began to move. The black tiles shifted, leaving open spaces right under our feet.
“Julie!” said Ortha, trying to pull her away from a moving tile. “Watch out — oh!”
In an instant, the floor opened up under them. When the tiles slid back into place, Julie and Ortha were gone.
Eric jumped. “Where are they? Julie — hey!”
The floor opened up beneath him next. Eric clutched the air wildly, and Batamogi grabbed for him. Together they flew down a tilted shaft.
Fooom! The floor closed back over them.
“Twee!” I shouted. “Woot, look behind you!”
“Help!” the two monkeys screamed together.
They leaped to Khan but all three fell down through the floor in the center of the room. Tiles moved back over them, leaving only Neal and me together on the floor.
“I hear them yelling,” said Neal. He stamped on the tiles. “They’re down below. Eric! Julie!”
“Stay close,” I said. “Give me your hand —”
Wrong move. Neal reached for me, but when he stepped on the tile between us, it slid away and he fell.
“Noooo!” he cried, clutching at the floor.
I jumped to grab him, but he was gone. My Wizardbook went sliding across the stone floor.
“Neal!” I cried. “Neal? Don’t leave me here!”
The only sound I heard was a distant splash.
I remembered that in Droon, all waters connect. Lakes, pools, rivers, and streams are joined with one another and with the sea.
I also remembered something else my mother had said about her journey.
Finally, I was alone.
I got to my feet. For a second, everything was still, except my heart. It was thundering loudly.
Then — fwoosh! — the torches flared up suddenly and gave off a weak orange glow.
“This place does look like Jaffa City,” I said. “Just much uglier!”
“What? Don’t you like it?” whispered a voice from the shadows. “I call it … Princesstown.”
So I wasn’t alone.
Sparks shot from my hands. “Who’s there?”
From the distant corner, lit by a drooping torch’s flame, I saw the face of a young girl.
My blood ran cold.
On her head was a crown encircling her long blond hair. When she stepped toward me, I saw that she was dressed in a red tunic and leggings. Around her waist she wore a thick leather belt with a golden buckle.
My mouth opened. “You look like …”
“I know,” she said. “I look like you. My name is Neffu.”
I gasped. “Neffu —”
I remembered the words of my dream.
Krooth-ka … meshti … pah-la … Neffu!
My red sparks sprinkled into the darkness.
“Neffu,” I said. The girl looked so much like me. Too much like me. “But are you even … real?”
“Real enough,” she said in a sharp voice. “I am you … as a witch.”
I felt my knees go weak. Her face was exactly like the one I saw each day in the mirror.
A witch.
“You probably want to know all about me,” she said. “I know everything about you.”
“No, you don’t,” I said.
I listened for the sound of my friends. I could barely hear them somewhere in the rock below me. I felt lucky to have so many of them with me.
They would help me. They would. If I could find them.
Neffu moved closer, laughing. “Demither gave you dark powers as a child. I know that.”
My heart jumped. The girl took another step.
“I was born the day she gave you those powers,” she said. “Right here in this rock. In a little room. I guess you could say those powers made me. Over the years, I’ve been building myself a little palace —”
I looked around. “Playing princess?”
“Practicing my powers,” she said sharply.
“I think maybe you’ve been in this rock a little too long,” I said.
She gave a cold laugh. “I agree! Now that your wizard powers have grown, your witch ones have, too. So I’m ready to come out. Actually, I already started. This morning. With you.”
My breath caught in my throat. “You made me open the gates for Sparr?”
She smiled.
“You made me turn the guards into toads! You made me steal the Red Eye —”
“Me, me, and, I guess, me!” she said. “I whispered words to you magically. You heard me.”
“The wingwolves,” I said. “And the haggons. The Ninns! Every single word that came to me came from you —”
She grinned. “You’re welcome! I whispered the old magic of Goll and you used it. There’s only one more thing I need to take you over completely.”
She reached her hand out to me. It was the color of ice. “Touch me. And I’ll be really real!”
“So, you’re getting stronger, huh?” I said.
“Every minute!”
Then my wizard powers must be getting stronger, too.
Neffu stood before one of the thrones. “The moment we join hands, I’ll take your place. The dark powers will win. Droon will be mine! You know, all that good stuff. So, come on.”
I noticed the Wizardbook on the floor. The stone was glowing. In it, I could see Max again. He was climbing up the wall in a small stone room, trying to escape.
But he wasn’t alone.
My heart leaped to see everyone else there, too. Neal, Julie, and Batamogi were with him. Ortha, Twee, Woot, Eric, and Khan, too.
“Oh, yes, your little friends,” said Neffu, glancing at the book. “It was nice that Sparr got your parents out of the way. With your friends gone, it will just be us. Thep-na … fo-koosh —”
As she spoke, the walls rumbled. I could hear Neal and Batamogi call out. The sudden smell of damp air filled my nose. It rose from under the floor. It was the smell of water.