City in the Clouds

by Tony Abbott

  Just then, a white shaft of moonlight suddenly fell into the Tower from the opening above. Eric pressed himself back against the stones, but the shaft of light moved across the floor to him.

  Sparr turned instantly. His eyes flashed red.

  He saw Eric. He stared right at him!

  Clomp! Clomp! A troop of Ninns tramped into the tower. “It is time, Lord Sparr,” one said.

  The moonlight dimmed behind a cloud and Eric was in shadow once more.

  Sparr nodded. “I have seen what I came here for.”

  Sparr was still staring at Eric. He could destroy Eric in a second!

  Then why?

  Why?

  Why did Sparr simply wrap his long black cloak around him and walk out of the Tower?

  Clomp! Clomp! The Ninns tramped through the halls and out of the palace.

  Sparr went with them.

  “Eric!” Keeah ran back into the tower. “I was so scared when you didn’t follow me.”

  Eric nodded slowly. “I couldn’t move,” he said. “Sparr saw me, but … he let me go.”

  Keeah’s eyes widened. “Eric, we need to get back to the Guardians. Ro will disappear soon, and we’ll disappear with it.”

  They rushed back to the Guardians’ room. The Ninns had gone. Vasa and Bodo were free.

  “Neal and Julie have gone to see where Sparr is taking the diamonds,” Vasa said quickly. “What did you find in the Tower?”

  Trembling, Keeah handed her paper to them.

  “Ah, the secrets of Droon’s past,” Bodo said.

  Vasa peered over his shoulder and began to translate what Keeah had written. “At the city of Plud, Lord Sparr nearly killed Queen Relna.”

  “But, you see,” Bodo went on, “the witch Demither put a curse on Relna. Instead of suffering death, the queen assumed an animal form.”

  Keeah gasped. “An animal? Is it …”

  “Yes,” Bodo said, squinting at the words. “A white bird. A falcon.”

  “I knew it!” Keeah cried, jumping for joy. “That’s why the falcon is always there! It’s my mother following me, watching over us!”

  “But Demither told us the queen was in prison,” Eric said.

  “True,” Vasa went on. “Such a curse is a kind of prison. But now the queen needs your help if she is ever to be human again. Hers is a dangerous journey, filled with many trials.”

  Keeah wiped away a tear. “I will help her.”

  “So will we,” said Eric, smiling at the princess.

  Vasa turned to Eric, “And what did you discover?”

  Eric gulped as he handed the paper to Vasa. “Sparr saw me, but he just … walked away.”

  Bodo glanced at Vasa, then peered through his spectacles at Eric. “And you have a question.”

  Eric nodded. “Does what Quill writes have to happen? I mean, can the future be changed?”

  “We won’t know that until the future becomes the present,” said Bodo.

  Eric frowned. “But …”

  Suddenly, Julie and Neal rushed into the chamber.

  “The diamonds are being loaded into Sparr’s airship!” Julie said breathlessly. “He looks like he’s leaving the city.”

  “And look at me,” Neal said. “I’m getting way worse!” He held up his hands. They were both claws now.

  “Quickly, Neal, stand here,” said Vasa, holding Eric’s writing up to the light. Together with Keeah, the Guardians began to mumble strange words. “Timbo … limbo … koo-kimbo!”

  Poomff! A huge ball of smoke appeared in the chamber. A moment later, Neal walked out.

  He looked normal. He held up two normal hands. His sneakers were still ripped, but human toes were sticking out. He broke into a smile.

  “Yes!” he cried. “I am back!”

  “Me, too!” cried another voice.

  Everyone turned to see a second Neal emerge from the smoke.

  “Uh-oh,” said Keeah.

  Two Neals walked around the room.

  Twins!

  “Ah, yes,” Vasa said. “This is a normal side effect of the spell. Only temporary. Don’t worry.”

  The first Neal smiled. “I always thought two Neals were better than one!”

  “Slap me five, brother!” said the second.

  Rrrrr! The walls began to shake.

  “Ro is turning invisible again,” Bodo said. “Go. This way is quickest!” He pointed to a secret door in the chamber.

  “It leads to the square outside,” Vasa added. “Good luck to you all! May you find your mother, Princess. And farewell to you, Neal.”

  “Thanks!” said Neal.

  “Same here!” said the other.

  Eric, Keeah, Julie, and the two Neals rushed through the door and outside the palace.

  Clomp! Clomp! The square was crawling with Ninns. They were loading the diamonds into the cargo area of Sparr’s silver ship.

  “We’ve got to get those back!” Keeah said.

  “And I’ve got to find out why Sparr let me go,” Eric whispered.

  “Does anybody have a plan?” Julie asked.

  “I’ve got a plan!” boomed a strange, loud voice from the shadows nearby. “How about we form a human wall and blast our way in!”

  “Wh-wh-who is that?” Keeah whispered.

  The shadows stirred and out stepped a large man with bright green armor. He had a helmet with horns on it. He carried two wooden clubs.

  “Whoa!” one Neal mumbled.

  “A Viking!” said the other.

  “No, that’s my daddy!” Keeah exclaimed, running to the man and giving him a hug. She twirled around. “Meet my father — King Zello!”

  The king smiled a huge grin. “Khan found me. Galen and Max are here, too.”

  The old wizard stepped from the shadows. He was dressed in long blue robes. “I am pleased that you children are safe.” He looked at the Neals. “All of you!”

  Galen’s spidery helper, Max, clambered along the wall to them. “The magic stairs have appeared in the Kalahar Valley. We must hurry.”

  Just then, the air around them became all wavy. The stones in the square seemed to wiggle and turn clear.

  Max scrambled in a circle around the children. “It’s happening!” he chittered nervously. “The flying city of Ro — is disappearing!”

  King Zello hoisted his wooden clubs, one in each hand. “You kids get to the ship. Galen and I will distract the Ninns. Yee-haw!”

  The Ninns turned from the ship. They grunted. They charged across the square.

  Eric looked at his friends. “Everyone to Sparr’s ship! Now!”

  The four friends ran for the cargo door.

  They leaped in.

  Clang! The giant door on Sparr’s airship slammed shut behind them.

  They jumped to their feet and looked around.

  “Holy cow!” Julie muttered.

  All around them were piles, mounds, mountains of shimmering, glittering diamonds.

  “With these Sparr could make his whole Ninn army invisible,” Keeah said.

  “He’d be unstoppable!” Neal exclaimed.

  “That’s why we have to stop him now,” said Eric.

  One Neal started shaking his head. “I don’t like being locked in Sparr’s personal ship. A few hours ago, we were trying to get out of here!”

  “Yeah, shouldn’t we try to keep the ship from flying away?” the other Neal asked.

  Suddenly, the walls rumbled around them.

  “We’re taking off,” Keeah said.

  “I have an idea!” the first Neal said. He entered a corridor of the ship.

  “Where are you going?” the second asked.

  No answer.

  “Man, he never listens!” Neal grumbled.

  Then, just as in the Tower of Memory, Eric sensed that they were not alone. He turned.

  “Looking for me?” said a voice.

  Lord Sparr stepped into the cargo bay.

  Slowly, Eric made his way toward him. The fins behind Sparr’s ea
rs went from purple to black. His face was full of anger.

  “Princess Keeah,” he said. “Say good-bye to your beloved world. I have read the future. Droon shall soon be mine!” He raised his hand to her. Red light leaked from his fingertips.

  Keeah tried to jump away, but she slipped on the floor. Without thinking, Eric leaped in front of her.

  “Watch out!” Neal cried out, jumping in front of both of them.

  At the same moment, the other Neal raced in. “What? Old fish fins hurting my friends? As if!”

  And he jumped in front of the other Neal.

  Sparr shot a blast at them all.

  Zzzz! Poomf! The air went red.

  Eric pushed Keeah out of the way at the same time as both Neals crashed into each other.

  Sparr bolted away into the depths of the ship.

  “I’ll get you!” yelled Eric. In a flash, he was on his feet and down a corridor after the sorcerer. He chased Sparr into the main control cabin.

  Eric screeched to a stop. Cold air was rushing into the cabin. Sparr stood near an open hatch.

  “Stay where you are!” The sorcerer’s eyes burned with rage. But he did not try to hurt Eric.

  “You’re keeping me alive, aren’t you?” Eric said. “Why? For what? Tell me!”

  Sparr grinned. “Because of what will happen. Because of how you will … help me!”

  “What?” Eric cried. “I’ll never help you!”

  “Time … will tell!” the sorcerer said. Then he lifted his cloak behind him and leaped from the hatch.

  Eric crawled to the opening in time to see Sparr spread his cloak and swoop to the ground.

  “I’ll never help you!” Eric yelled to the wind.

  When he ran back to the cargo bay, everyone was shaking their heads.

  “Oh, man!” Neal groaned. “This is the worst!”

  “Neal?” Eric said. “Where’s the other you?”

  “When Sparr blasted us we came together,” he said. “Poof! There’s only me now. I’m normal.”

  Eric jumped up. “Yahoo! Just you? You’re just you! This is terrific! Boy, are we happy!”

  Neal frowned. “We would be except for …”

  “Except for what?” Eric asked.

  “Except for what he told me …”

  “What who told you?”

  “The other Neal. Right before we became me.”

  “What did he tell you?” Eric cried.

  “That he did something to the ship —”

  KA-BOOOOM! The walls shook with a tremendous blast, throwing the kids to the floor. Flames leaped up the outside of the ship. Smoke began to fill the cargo bay.

  “That!” Neal yelled, grasping for something to hold onto. “The other Neal did that! So Sparr wouldn’t get away.”

  “But his plan sort of backfired,” Julie said.

  The ship rocked again, then started to dip.

  “Uh-oh,” Eric said, “I think we’re going down.”

  “We are definitely going down,” said Keeah.

  Neal frowned. “Splat, anyone?”

  The nose of Sparr’s giant silver airship tipped forward sharply.

  “We’re going to crash!” cried Neal.

  “We’re not going to crash,” said Eric. “Sparr could have hurt us but he didn’t. He read the future in the Tower of Memory and he let us live. We’ll get out of this somehow. I promise.”

  The ship dived even faster.

  “Um … how?” Julie asked.

  Vrrr! Vrrr! Outside the cargo bay windows a small purple wingship pulled up.

  “Daddy and Khan and Max and Galen!” Keeah shouted. “They followed us!”

  Eric grinned. “Told you we’d be okay.”

  Julie clambered over the mounds of diamonds and hit a button on the wall.

  Whoosh! A door opened.

  “The tossing platform!” she said.

  They all climbed out. The Droon night was deep blue. Flames licked up the sides of the big ship as Khan pulled his small purple ship closer.

  “It’s now or never, folks!” Neal said.

  Clutching one another’s hands tightly, the four friends jumped from the flaming platform. They landed right in the cockpit of Khan’s wingship.

  “Now you are safe!” King Zello said, hugging his daughter tightly to him.

  Vrrr! Khan roared up and away as the giant flaming hulk dived to the earth.

  In the sky nearby, the last traces of Ro were fading. The tall, lizard-like people of the city were gathered in the square to wave at the purple ship.

  “Good-bye, Guardians,” Neal said. “Good-bye people of Ro. Thank you!”

  Suddenly — ka-whoom! — Sparr’s silver airship slammed into a snow-covered mountain. It exploded with a tremendous fiery blast. A cloud of black smoke rose from the wreckage.

  At that instant, too, a white light shone down from the fading city. The light rippled once and diamonds — millions of diamonds — flowed up from Sparr’s burning ship.

  “They did it!” Julie gasped. “They got the diamonds!”

  A moment later, Ro drifted into the glowing white moonlight and vanished.

  “Hey, I almost forgot!” Eric said. “When Sparr was in the Tower of Memory, he read something at the very top. Then he said the word ‘ice.’”

  Galen frowned. “Some new evil that Sparr is planning against our world. You have done well, Eric. You have all done well. Time will tell what this clue means. But one thing is certain. Sparr’s power is growing. Be watchful, be careful….”

  “Look! Look!” Max chirped from the backseat. “The rainbow-colored stairs are ahead!”

  Khan swooped the ship into the Kalahar Valley. He pulled up to the shimmering staircase.

  Eric, Julie, and Neal climbed out and onto the bottom step. They turned to Keeah.

  “We’ll be back,” Eric told her. “Definitely.”

  Keeah looked into their eyes. “Droon is lucky to have friends like you. I am lucky to have such friends.”

  “Any day,” said Neal. “Anytime.”

  “Anywhere the stairs lead us,” Julie added.

  Keeah smiled. “The magic is with us all!”

  The kids waved good-bye as Khan’s purple wingship circled the rainbow stairs and flew up into the clouds.

  The three friends ran up the steps and into the small room at the top. Then they turned once more to the midnight sky of Droon.

  The fierce wind had died down.

  Droon was at peace for a little while.

  At least it seemed so.

  Eric flicked the light switch on the wall.

  Whoosh! The magic stairs vanished, and the gray cement floor was beneath them again.

  Neal opened the door and they stepped out into the basement. The clock on the workbench had hardly moved at all. They had been gone only a few minutes.

  “It seems like we’ve been in Droon for years,” Eric said. He glanced back at the small door under the basement steps.

  “I’m really tired,” Neal said, yawning. “But I can’t wait to go back. You might even say I’m itching to go back!”

  Julie chuckled. “Me, too. I hope it will be soon. Maybe we’ll actually stop Sparr. Maybe we’ll help Keeah find her mother. That would be so cool!”

  “Maybe,” said Eric as they headed upstairs to the kitchen. Then he remembered Galen’s words.

  Be watchful, be careful….

  Eric shivered when he thought of all the bad things that might happen.

  He felt cold somehow.

  As cold as … ice.

  As cold as ice.

  That’s how Eric Hinkle felt as he jumped from his bed.

  “Brrr!” he said to himself, shivering. He pulled on his thick socks. He got into his warmest winter pants. He shivered again. Eric was having bad thoughts of an evil sorcerer. And that’s what was giving him the creeps — but not why he was so cold.

  Ever since Eric and his best friends, Julie and Neal, had discovered the entrance to the amazing, se
cret world of Droon, they had been afraid of Lord Sparr.

  “Who ­wouldn’t be afraid?” Eric said aloud.

  With those creepy purple fins growing up behind his ears. And the long black cloak. And his ugly red-faced warriors called Ninns.

  Sparr was the reason Eric felt so cold.

  The evil sorcerer wanted only one thing.

  To take over all of Droon.

  “But now, things in Droon are different,” Eric said as he dug in his closet for his winter coat.

  On their last adventure in Droon, Sparr had had a chance to hurt Eric. But he ­hadn’t done it.

  He had let him live. He’d said Eric would help him.

  “I’ll never help you!” Eric said with a shudder.

  “Why won’t you help me?”

  “Because you’re evil!” Eric snapped back.

  “Eric!”

  He blinked. His father was standing in the doorway to his room. He was frowning.

  “Dad!” Eric said. “I’m sorry. You’re not evil. I guess I was daydreaming or something.”

  His father sighed. “Well, you can help me later. Neal and Julie are waiting for you outside.”

  “Thanks!” Eric threw on his coat and ran downstairs to the back door. Still shivering, he grabbed his cap, pulled it low over his eyes, and wrapped his scarf tight around his neck.

  He flung open the door. “Whoa!” he gasped.

  Warm air and bright sunshine poured in.

  Julie and Neal were dressed in T-shirts and shorts. They had a softball, mitts, and a bat.

  “It’s not hockey season!” Neal said, chuckling.

  Julie made a face. “Are you okay, Eric?”

  He stared at his friends. Then he tore off his coat and scarf. “This is sooooo weird! I was cold. I was freezing! I must have daydreamed that it was winter! Sorry.”

  Julie tossed the ball up. “So, who’s pitching?”

  “Me first!” Neal grabbed the ball from Julie.

  “No, me!” said Eric.

  “Sorry, pal. I called it,” said Neal. “Besides, I’ve got this new throw to show you! I just twist my fingers and shoot the ball. It’s fast!”

  Eric took the bat, but in his mind he kept seeing Lord Sparr.

  “Why don’t we use ice today?” Sparr was saying.