by Tony Abbott
Not far beyond the passage, a band of knights in armor stood side by side. They were tall, thin, and bearded, and they seemed very old. Their armor, including helmets and shields, was worn and rusty.
Max’s large troll eyes grew even larger. “Are they who we heard marching?”
“Probably,” said Sparr.
“Are they … ghosts?” asked Neal.
Sparr laughed softly. “Not yet. They’re all that remain of the Ancient Knights of Pim.”
“They’re ancient, all right,” said Julie. “They can barely stand!”
Sparr nodded. “Long ago, they were a fierce and evil army in your — our — world. They numbered in the millions. My mother, Zara, heard about the knights. There were too many to defeat, but she charmed them to obey only her. She ordered them to leave our world and live happily. I think they did, until now. How Gethwing discovered them, I can’t say. But he must have learned my mother’s charm. He commanded the remaining knights to help him. Even though they don’t want to, they have to.”
The knights wobbled on their feet as they tried to stand at attention.
Keeah shook her head in disbelief. “It looks like they’ve aged a lot since then. Where are they? Under the school?”
“Not under the school,” said Neal, sitting up suddenly. “Next to the school. I know that place. It’s the shadow world. It’s Calibaz!”
“Score one for Neal,” said Sparr. “It is Calibaz. Or what used to be Calibaz.”
Calibaz was the mysterious city that the kids had once discovered next to their world. It was separated from the real world and kept invisible by a strange and magical veil. Calibaz was a gray, unhappy place. It was like a gloomy shadow of the real world. The hills, valleys, trees, even the ocean in Calibaz were like those in the rest of the Upper World, but without the light, the towns, or the people.
As Eric gazed into the passage, he remembered that Calibaz was where he had first seen the Moon Medallion. Little did he know then just how important it would turn out to be.
All of a sudden, there came the rumbling and squeaking of giant wheels. A moment later a long train of wagons rolled into view, and men, women, children, friends, parents, teachers — everyone from the town — was crammed inside.
“My gosh!” murmured Julie. “I see my parents! Neal, your parents! They’re— prisoners!”
The squeaky wagons were being rolled across the black ground and into the distance by a second troop of knights.
Before too long—fwap-fwap-fwap!— Gethwing swooped down from the rainy sky and landed in the midst of the knights. Tossing a large, heavy bag to the ground, he growled, “Two more to add to the rest!”
The bag wriggled and twisted and finally tore open, and two figures jumped out. One held a club and wore a flannel shirt. The other had long blond hair.
Keeah gasped. “Mother! Father!”
“You won’t get away with this!” yelled Zello as the knights chained him and Relna to the others in the last wagon.
“The children will fight you!” said Relna.
Gethwing laughed menacingly. “Silence, prisoners! Knights, take them to Blackdark Castle and put them in the dungeon with everyone else. Now!”
“To Blackdark Castle!” repeated a wiry old knight with a long gray beard. He pointed a wobbly hand into the distance.
“Blackdark Castle?” said Neal as the last wagon rolled noisily away. “Is that lame, or what?”
“Maybe it’s lame,” said Sparr, “but for the last two days they’ve been rounding up people and taking them there. And now they’ve got almost everyone.”
“Except us,” said Julie. “And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to keep it that way.”
“Moon dragon,” the old knight said. “You summoned us from the mountains to help you. The town is now empty. We are old and tired. Let us go home.”
“Trust me, I will let you leave,” said Gethwing, holding his claw over the knights as if he were controlling them. “As soon as I have what I came to find. Do one more thing, then you may go.”
“Tell us, and we must obey,” said the old knight, bowing. When he tried to rise, he couldn’t straighten out his back, so several other knights helped him up.
Gethwing glared at the little troop, muttering under his breath. “The legend says, ‘A boy will find it.’ I have opened this veil so that you may return to the town. Go find the boy, and bring him to me!”
The knight grumbled, “Knights of Pim, we must obey! To town once more!”
The troop of old armored men turned to the passage and moved toward it in a slow march. Stomp … stomp …
Gethwing growled, “March faster!”
The tall knight turned. “This is fast for us. We’re a thousand years old, you know!”
“We’d better hide,” said Eric. “The knights’ eyesight may not be good, but we can’t risk them seeing us.”
Together the children, Max, and Khan ducked behind a long cafeteria table.
The knights moved slowly past the tables, out the doors, and through the halls to the front of the school.
A moment later, the veil blurred and the passage to Calibaz vanished, leaving a normal kitchen wall in its place.
Max gulped. “Now what?”
“Well,” said Neal, “I don’t know how many veils there are, but I know at least one other one. And I know how to open it.”
Julie smiled. “Of course! Pikoo’s horn!”
Pikoo’s horn. On the kids’ last visit to Calibaz, they had met a mysterious and friendly tribe of froglike creatures called hoobahs. Among them was the kids’ special friend Pikoo. When the right tune was played on Pikoo’s strange horn, the veil between the worlds lifted away, allowing the kids to enter and leave Calibaz whenever they wanted. Pikoo had left his horn in the real world, and Neal had it.
“I say we use the horn to find our families and free them,” said Neal, “and then send those retired knights back to Pim. Wherever that is.”
“Good plan,” said Sparr.
Khan beamed. “That gets my vote!”
“And mine,” chirped Max.
Keeah smiled. “Sounds like it’s time for a little veil music!”
“Follow me!” said Neal.
In moments the little group worked its way out of the school and into the streets, careful to stay clear of the old knights.
A few minutes later, they arrived at Neal’s house. Since it was empty, Neal rushed upstairs and was down in a second with the strange little horn. It was large at one end and small at the other, with tiny finger holes down the length of it.
“Do you remember the tune, Neal?” asked Eric.
Neal looked at the horn and smiled. “Not a day goes by when I don’t hear it playing in my head. I’ve wanted to go back to Calibaz a thousand times. Now there’s a reason. Come on.”
The friends ran quickly to the center of town, where they entered a narrow alley between the pizza place and the dry cleaners. At the end of the alley stood a solid brick wall.
“The knights are coming,” said Khan, sniffing over his shoulder. “I sense them shuffling down the street. We need to hurry.”
Closing his eyes, Neal put the little horn to his mouth and blew softly into it. Weee-ooo-e-o-e-o-e-ooo! The tune sounded half like a breeze blowing through the leaves and half like the gurgle of water in a stream.
“So strange,” said Sparr.
“And beautiful!” said Max.
All at once, the air quivered in front of them. It reminded Eric of waves moving slowly across the surface of the pond. “I still can’t believe a whole shadow world exists right next to ours,” he said.
“Here it comes,” whispered Julie.
A moment later, the rough wall that closed off the alley wasn’t there. In its place, the kids saw a strange but familiar world of dark hills and trees, jagged rocks, and steady, pelting rain.
“Calibaz!” said Khan.
Without another word, the little band pushed their way through the quivering
air and into the shadow world.
As bright as the day had been in town, the sky over Calibaz was nearly black.
“It reminds me of the Dark Lands,” said Sparr under his breath. “What a place …”
“And our parents are in here somewhere,” said Keeah. “Prisoners.”
Eric looked at her. “We’ll find them. All of them.”
“Excuse me, I’m getting a bit soggy here,” said Khan, squinting up into the rain. “Let’s keep moving.”
“He’s right,” said Sparr, tightening his cloak as he turned. “One thing I know how to find is a castle with a dungeon. I practically invented them.” Then, leaping over the puddles and streams that crisscrossed the rutted ground, he moved off stealthily into the darkness.
The rest of the group followed Sparr, until, a little while later, he stopped.
“Well, that was easy,” said Sparr, pointing straight ahead. “Blackdark Castle. It has Gethwing written all over it.”
Barely visible in the darkness stood the shadow of a castle with a giant dragon’s head peering down from its highest tower.
Neal grumbled, “Blackdark Castle may be a lame name, but I guess Gethwing got it right. Here come our parents.”
A line of wagons was being wheeled through a gate and into the castle.
“And here he comes,” said Keeah at the sound of flapping wings echoing through the air.
The kids ducked behind a craggy rock as Gethwing swooped down toward the gate. When the wagon disappeared inside the castle, the dragon followed it in, and the gate shut with a tremendous boom.
“Guess where we’re going,” said Max.
“Guess who’s not first,” added Neal.
“Come on, everyone,” said Sparr.
The friends paused for a second, then rushed together through the rain toward the very black, very dark Blackdark Castle.
The closer the kids, Max, and Khan got to Blackdark Castle, the more it loomed up before them, a terrifying shadow against the dark sky.
“Look,” said Julie, pointing up at a thin coil of dark air near the castle’s dragon head. “Smoke.”
“Julie, I like the way you think,” said Neal. “You think that where there’s smoke, there’s food, and where there’s food —”
“No, Neal,” said Julie. “I think that where there’s smoke, there’s a chimney, and where there’s a chimney, there’s a way in. We can’t just walk in the front door, you know.”
Neal shrugged. “I knew that.”
Eric glanced up the side of the castle. The walls were jagged in places, and extremely dangerous-looking. “I don’t know….”
“Don’t worry,” said Julie. “I can fly us to the top. Once we’re there, we can climb down inside the shaft.”
“Good idea,” said Sparr. “But I hope the fire is low. I may shoot sparks, but I really don’t want to land in any!”
Everyone held hands, and Julie flew them carefully up the side of the castle.
Once at the top, the children paused for a moment to catch their breath. Far below, the black sea was churning with whitecaps. In the opposite direction, where they knew their town was in reality, were ranges of bare black hills.
To Eric, the view was frightening and sad. “This is what our world would look like if you took away the things that make it our world.”
“Everybody, look. The other veils,” said Julie, pointing to five shimmering veils at different points in the distance. “Our two worlds really do connect. A lot.”
“Three worlds,” said Sparr. “Remember the pit?” He looked down at where the ground was dug away in an open and raw pit. “At the bottom of that is a hole that leads from Calibaz right down to the Dark Lands of Droon.”
Eric remembered the pit. Back when Sparr was evil, he had forced the poor hoobahs of Calibaz to dig a hole through the earth that opened right over his terrible volcano palace.
“Okay, that’s enough sightseeing, everyone,” said Keeah. “Into the castle. To the dungeon. We have people to rescue!”
The seven friends scurried together across the dragon-headed castle roof. In the center was the large round opening of a chimney. Only a very thin wisp of smoke drifted up from it now.
“Good thing it’s not lunchtime,” said Max.
“What?” said Neal, alarmed. “Oh, right. I see what you mean.”
Peering down, they saw openings all the way down the shaft, where the castle’s many hearths joined the main chimney. From the very bottom came the dull glow of embers and the echo of voices.
In no time, Max spun several ropes from spider silk. Using them, the friends began the careful climb down the chimney. They were ten feet down, then twenty feet, when a raspy voice echoed up the shaft.
“Light! Gethwing needs more light!”
Then the children heard the tread of slow footsteps and what sounded like wood being dragged across a floor. Finally, they saw logs heaved into the hearth and sparks and flakes of black ash flying.
“Guys!” hissed Keeah. “I think we need to get out of this chimney — right now!”
An instant later — whoomf! — flames began roaring straight up the shaft.
“We’ll be fried!” cried Eric.
“Toasted, actually!” said Max. “Back up!”
“Into a side passage,” said Sparr. “Here!”
The kids scrambled after Sparr into the nearest opening they could find.
“Akkk!” squeaked Neal. “Could we have picked a smaller place to hide? Whose foot is in my back?”
“It’s not one of mine!” cried Max.
“It’s your own!” snapped Julie.
“No wonder it hurts!” said Neal.
“Shhh!” hissed Eric. “Those knights may be old, but they still have ears!”
“Hey, look what I found,” said Sparr.
Neal squirmed to look. “More cake?”
“Better!” said Sparr. “Right … here …”
There was a squeak and a thud, and suddenly, Sparr slid out of the chimney and into the fireplace of a small room. Everyone tumbled after him just as the shaft filled with black smoke.
“Nice work, Sparr,” said Julie.
The boy grinned. “Only the best for my friends. And look, a room with a view!”
When they stood up, the friends found themselves in a small, empty room with an opening that looked over the hall below.
“We can find out what Gethwing is up to!” said Keeah. “Let’s listen.”
Crouching by the opening, they peered down into a giant black room lit with wall torches. Directly below them stood the great fireplace, now blazing with flames.
Hanging on the wall opposite were two swords, one crossed over the other.
“Those swords,” said Sparr. “They look so familiar….”
“They look familiar, too,” said Khan, pointing. “Here come the knights. Slowly, as usual.”
A long line of ancient knights filed into the room. A minute, two minutes, ten minutes later, they stopped. One knight stepped forward, tried to bow, then gave up.
“All hail Gethwing!” he said sullenly.
Moments later, the moon dragon strode into the room. He looked angry, thrashing his tail across the floor as he paced.
“You have taken all the people,” he said. “All the houses are empty, everything is there for the taking, and still you didn’t find the boy. There’s no sign of what I seek! My time is running out. I need the Pearl Sea!”
Sparr gasped. “The Pearl Sea …”
The children turned to him.
“Is that what Gethwing wants you to find?” asked Keeah. “What is it?”
The boy stood very still, not breathing. “I see … I see …” Finally, he shook his head. “I don’t know. All I see is … little bits of black ash flying around, like in the chimney. Sorry.”
“I must have the Pearl!” snarled the moon dragon below. “If it’s in the town, someone must know. Bring me the prisoners. I’ll question them one by one if I have to. Q
uickly!”
The old knight blinked. “Quickly? We can’t do anything quickly, you know.”
Gethwing roared, “Enough! I should have done this from the beginning.” He narrowed his eyes and glanced around at the knights. “When you were young, you were a great fighting force. And there were so many of you. So … how would you like to be young again?”
The dragon spun around and grabbed one of the swords crossed on the wall.
“Those swords,” whispered Sparr. “He’s going to reverse my mother’s charm!”
Gethwing raised the sword high over the knights and began to utter strange, low words. At once, the blade flashed with light, the hearth fire blazed, and the knights’ armor began to change color.
Eric felt almost dizzy watching it.
From rusty red, the armor turned muddy brown, then gray, and finally black. At the same time, the knights grew larger, their faces became hard and dark, and their eyes turned bright red.
“This is so not good,” said Sparr.
“You are now the Blackdark Knights of Blackdark Castle!” boomed Gethwing. “You are finally fit to be my army. Go, call your fellow knights from every part of the shadow land. We shall need a huge army for what I have planned!”
The chief knight stepped forward. He slapped his breastplate loudly. “Knights!” he shouted in a deep voice. “We shall conquer this world! Now — bring in the prisoners as Gethwing commands. Go! Double time!”
As the knights trotted from the room, Eric knew as he never had before that Gethwing possessed the power to turn good to evil. Would he — could he — do the same to Sparr?
Moments later, the chief knight was back. “Your majesty! The first prisoner!”
Pinned in an iron grasp between two large knights was a woman with brown hair, wriggling to free herself. The knights pushed her in front of the moon dragon.
Gethwing held his claw out to her.
“Raise your head,” he said.
The woman trembled as she lifted her face to the dragon.
Eric nearly choked in shock. “Mom!”
The knights stood at attention around Mrs. Hinkle. Gethwing strode back and forth, glaring down at her with his smoldering red eyes. “So … I know things about people. You are the mother of that boy Eric. Do you know about him? Do you know who your son is?”