by Tony Abbott
“On these stones were written a story called the Legend of the Five Treasures,” said Vasa. “When Saba stole the treasures, this story vanished from our history. The Legend of the Five Treasures disappeared.”
The children looked at one another. “So it’s simple,” said Eric finally. “We need to get those treasures back.”
“That’s exactly what you must do,” said Vasa. He stepped onto the stairs and began to climb to the top. “But it’s not so simple.”
“No,” said Bodo, climbing after his fellow Guardian, “for the Legend of the Five Treasures is set in the land of Eshku.”
Max hastened after the Guardians. “Eshku? Excuse me. I’ve been over all of Droon, and I never once heard of a place called Eshku!”
Vasa chuckled. “That’s because Eshku is not so much a place … as it is a time.”
“A time!” Neal laughed. Then he stopped. “Wait. Am I the only one getting a headache?”
“In fact, Eshku is five times,” said Vasa. “It is a desert land five centuries long. It is what’s known in Droon as … a country of the past!”
The children followed the two tall lizards up the steps without speaking.
“Simply put, you must travel back into the history of Droon,” said Bodo. They were nearing the top of the Tower. “Only there will you find the treasures. If you find them and bring them back, the old legend will be rewritten, and the stairs will return. If not, Ko will control the stairs forever.”
“But beware,” added Vasa, “for so surely as you enter Eshku, Saba himself will be there to make sure you fail.”
“Already I don’t like this Saba guy,” said Neal. “Who is he?”
“Ah, yes, I knew someone would ask,” said Bodo, his face grim. “Saba is Ko’s phantom, an exact double of the emperor in every way, except that he bears no shadow. Being a phantom, Saba can travel in space and time to wherever and whenever he is sent. With Saba doing Ko’s dirty work, the emperor can be in two places at once!”
Eric shivered. Gethwing had said in his vision that Eric couldn’t be in two places at once. But Ko could be. Great. So now the beast emperor was suddenly twice as dangerous.
Max frowned. “Neal, I think your headache is catching.”
“There’s enough to go around,” said Neal.
“Of course, you won’t be completely on your own,” said Vasa. “None other than Galen himself appears in each and every story!”
“My master?” chirped Max. “Well, that changes things. You mean we could meet Galen at five different ages? He’s been gone so long. It would be wonderful to see him again. Princess, can we go?”
The children looked at one another for a long time. Finally, they nodded together.
“I think we’re going to Eshku!” said Keeah.
Bodo smiled. “Excellent! And there is someone else to help you. Since you must rewrite these stories, who better to go with you than our magical feather pen himself? He will be your guide into the past —”
Suddenly, ear-piercing shrieks shattered the air. Eeeeee!
“Wingsnakes!” said Max, looking up. “At the top of the Tower.”
“And they’re attacking Quill!” cried Eric. “To the top — now!”
Eric, Keeah, Julie, Neal, and Max shot past the Guardians and raced up the Tower. But when they got to the top, they found three wingsnakes flailing wildly and dripping ink from their faces. Quill, the silvery-white feather pen, stood firmly on the wall.
“That’ll teach you to fight me!” he snapped. “Now, be gone, or I’ll squirt you again!”
Eeeee! the wingsnakes wailed. Their eyes blazed and their wings flamed, but they fled quickly from the Tower and into the clouds.
“Humf!” squeaked the pen. “So there!”
Keeah blinked. “Quill! You’re safe? And … you talk!”
The feather wiggled and bowed. “Talk. Recite poems. Sing. And apparently, I can fight, too!”
Vasa smiled and held out his hand. Quill hopped into his palm. “May I present your chronicler and your guide? Quill will write the new stories you make. Bodo and I found a charm to give Quill a voice —”
“A squeaky little voice,” whispered Bodo.
“I heard that,” snapped the feather pen. “So I must have ears, too —”
Suddenly, the city began to tilt.
“We’re speeding up,” said Neal.
“Which means that Ko’s floating palace is in sight,” said Bodo, starting quickly back down the steps. “Time is growing short. Eshku is a desert country, so you must travel by caravan, the ancient way of traveling across Droon’s deserts.”
“Caravan,” sang Quill. “Ah, the romance of a great land voyage. A long ribbon of travelers, weaving its way across the sands.”
Neal broke into a smile. “Sounds cool.”
“Actually, not so cool,” chirped the pen. “It’s rather hot in the desert. But not for me, of course. I have a built-in fan!” He waved himself back and forth.
At the bottom of the Tower, Vasa entered a hallway. “And since you will be going into the past, you must have very special rides. Enchanted rides. They will take you wherever — and whenever — you need to go. But beware. Saba can travel in time, too. He will find you and try to stop you.”
Eric didn’t like that idea. “But Galen will be there to help us. It’ll be just like the old days.”
“The very old days,” said Bodo.
“And I shall write it all down!” said Quill.
As the city tilted again, they hurried from one chamber to another until they came out into a large courtyard. There they found five blue-haired pilkas with long wavy manes. Larger than the usual white pilkas, they held their heads high and stamped their many feet on the cobblestones. Each had a decorated saddle and bulging saddlebags.
“They’re magnificent,” said Julie.
Quill hopped from Bodo’s hand to the back of one pilka and flicked open its saddlebag. “When in Eshku … dress like Eshkuians!”
Keeah looked into one saddlebag and pulled out a bundle of marvelously colored scarves. She laughed. “Caravan clothes!”
The riders found clothes packed just for them. Taking only a moment, they all wrapped themselves in lightweight robes and wound scarves around their heads to protect themselves from the desert’s sun and heat.
Eric pulled on a pair of black boots and wound a turban around his head, leaving part of it to dangle down his neck. “I feel like an adventure hero,” he said.
Neal laughed. “You look like one, too!” He pulled on a long hooded robe the color of grass. Then he donned a pair of slippers with curved tips. When he wiggled his toes, Julie smiled.
“They look like genie shoes,” she said.
“Call me Zabilac the Magnificent!” Neal said with a laugh. “A genie with no powers!”
Max draped his head in purple cloth. “Vasa, you knew we would go, didn’t you?”
“We hoped!” said Vasa, smiling. “Now, if your fashion show is quite over, maybe this would be a good time to tell you that … you have only one day in Eshku.”
Eric nearly choked. “One day? We only have twenty-four hours to travel five hundred years in the past and back to the present?”
“Oh,” said Bodo. “Twenty-four hours?” He glanced up at the clock on the courtyard wall. “Actually, fifteen hours and … thirty-eight minutes. Until midnight, to be exact.”
“I think I’m going to freak out,” mumbled Neal.
“Uh, me first!” said Julie.
Eric’s heart thumped hard. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I’ll be the one telling everybody when to freak out. Until midnight?”
“Collect the five treasures before our diamonds run out at midnight,” said Bodo, “or our city will be lost, the stories will be lost, the staircase will be lost, and Droon will be lost. Not to mention the Upper World, too.”
Keeah glanced at her friends. “I’m noticing a theme. We’d better get those treasures!”
Eeeeee! The calls of more
wingsnakes shattered the air once again. Then came the low rumble of Ko’s floating palace.
“Time’s up!” said Quill, hopping up to Keeah’s saddle with a tiny pack looped around his waist. “I’ve got my ink. I’ve got my scroll. Let’s go!”
“Good luck in Eshku,” said Bodo.
“Bon voyage, you voyagers!” added Vasa. “I hear the weather in Eshku is … changeable!”
As the slithering shadows darkened over the city, the five friends mounted the blue pilkas. At once — wumpeta-wumpeta! — the creatures charged down the narrow street and headed straight for the distant wall.
“To Eshku, pilkas!” cried Eric. “As fast as you can. Faster!”
As if on command, the pilkas did run faster. When the swarms of wingsnakes dived at them, the pilkas leaped right at the city wall.
“Oh, no, no!” cried Max, covering his eyes.
But Eric felt the pilkas lifting, lifting, until they cleared the wall altogether — whooooosh!
When he looked down, he saw the Kalahar Valley glittering beneath them and fiery snakes circling far below.
“Holy cow!” he gasped. “We’re flying!”
The pilkas were flying. They sailed higher and higher until the air around them suddenly crackled with blue lightning. Then the pilkas began to fall.
“I’m gonna freak out now!” shouted Neal.
“No, me —” cried Julie.
A moment later, the pilkas burst through the lightning and galloped onto solid ground, spraying waves of sand high in the air.
“We landed!” cried Keeah. “We made it!”
The pilkas rode as fast as the wind, then slowed and finally stopped on the crest of a dune streaked with pale violet light. Sand hills rolled away as far as the eye could see.
“Oh! The legendary dunes of Eshku,” said Quill. “I remember some of the first story!” Bending to his tiny scroll, he sang as he wrote.
The morning sands are violet,
Yet blaze a golden hue at noon.
Blue seas of sand at each sunset
Turn silver from the midnight moon!
“Quill, that’s beautiful,” said Julie.
“Let’s hope I remember more,” he said.
“Holy cow,” said Eric. “Look at that.”
Peering toward the sun, the six friends saw a giant domed creature loping slowly over the distant horizon.
“I can’t believe it,” said Max. “Is that Tortu? The magical city on the turtle’s back?”
They all remembered Tortu as a giant city of many inhabitants built on the back of an enormous turtle. It was said to have roamed across the wastes of Droon for as long as people could recall. But the turtle they saw now had only two or three small buildings on it, and nothing of the high wall they knew would later encircle the city.
“We really must be in the past,” said Keeah. “There’s hardly anything built there.”
As Eric watched the turtle move below the horizon and out of sight, he knew he would never forget the mysterious moving city. His very first adventures with magic had occurred there.
In the beginning, his powers had been wild and uncontrollable. He had even tried to give them back. But Galen had told him he had gained powers “for a greater purpose.”
A greater purpose, he thought now, looking at his fingertips. Well, what’s greater than getting the staircase back and saving both worlds?
“Come on,” said Julie. “Caravan, ho!”
“Hey,” said Neal. “Next time I get to say that.”
Sometimes in single file, sometimes riding abreast, the five friends and one feather pen wove over the hot dunes as the violet hue of the morning slowly turned the sands golden. The soft thud of the pilkas’ hooves kept up a steady beat for nearly an hour until they stopped at the base of a massive dune. Near the crest of the dune, the golden sand was streaked with rivers of black.
“I don’t like this place,” whispered Neal. “Quill, do you know what’s on the other side?”
The pen made a sound like a gulp. “I only recall a little. It goes something like … this.”
Claws will rip and fangs will bite
Within the dragon’s dune of night.
“Nice,” Neal grumbled. “I had to ask.”
“The dragon’s dune of night?” said Eric, shivering suddenly. “Do you mean the moon dragon? Is Gethwing here, so long ago? Is this where the first treasure is?”
Keeah looked at him, then at the black sand. “I think there’s only one way to find out.”
Dismounting, the five friends began to climb the giant wall of streaked sand. What looked at first like a dark bird hovering over the dune turned out to be a ragged banner, waving in the desert wind.
“Bad guys love to advertise,” said Julie.
When they peeked over the top, they saw a big black palace shaped like a dragon’s head.
“It’s got to be Gethwing’s palace,” said Eric.
The palace’s long snout ended in a gate hung with rows of rusted fangs two feet wide.
“Boy, do I wanna go in there,” said Neal.
Max grumbled. “That makes none of us —”
“Hush!” said Julie. “Everybody down!”
Two bearlike beasts with shaggy gray fur and blazing eyes came hustling over the far side of the dune and marched right into the dragon’s mouth.
Held tight between them was a boy struggling to get free. He seemed only a few years older than the children themselves.
Max squinted at the boy. Then he jumped.
“Oh, my gosh! I can’t believe it! That boy! It’s … Galen!”
It was Galen. His long brown hair was pushed back behind his ears. He wore a blue tunic and boots and had a short staff tucked into his belt. He squirmed wildly, but the bear-beasts held him fast in their massive paws. When they shouted, the rusty fangs of the gate rose, and the beasts pushed Galen inside.
“Poor Galen,” whispered Keeah.
“To see my master after so long,” whimpered Max. “And to see him caught!”
“I guess it’s good we’re here,” said Julie.
The young wizard disappeared into the darkness, and the gate slammed shut with a puff of sand and a resounding thud.
“Shall we break down the gate now?” asked Max excitedly. “Or now?”
Keeah shook her head. “We’ll help him. But we have to be smart about it.”
Eric scanned the walls. Two large orbs of red glass gleamed like eyes from what must have been fires inside. The rest of the palace appeared as solid as iron.
“It looks pretty impossible,” he mumbled.
“I have one idea,” said Neal.
Julie blinked. “Quick, call the newspapers!”
“No, really,” said Neal. “Maybe it’s the wiggly genie shoes, but I know how we can get right in. Ten minutes, tops.”
Keeah narrowed her eyes at him. “Neal?”
“No, listen,” he said. “If we try to get inside, the beasts will try to keep us out. Instead … we could do what Galen did!”
Max frowned. “Get captured by beasts?”
“Get pretend captured by pretend beasts,” said Neal. He turned to Julie and smiled. “Because one of us can turn herself into a beast just by thinking about it. Isn’t that right … Julie?”
She backed down the dune. “Oh, no. No, no, no, no. I was a beast before. I didn’t like it much. Huh-uh. No. And by the way? No.”
“Julie,” said Keeah, “it is a good plan….”
“I like Plan B better,” said Julie.
Neal frowned. “Wait. There is no Plan B.”
Julie slumped her shoulders. “But a beast? My hair! The smell! My hair … ohhh …”
Five minutes later, a very round beast covered with gray fuzz stood wobbling just below the crest of the dune. It had one big eye in the center of its face. It had no feet, only two pairs of fuzzy flippers.
Julie grunted, turning her single red eye on her friends. “I guess I’m not very good at changing shap
e.”
“Look at it this way,” said Eric. “You’re both beauty and the beast rolled into one. And I do mean rolled.”
“Very funny,” she said. “Somehow, I’m not amused. But come on. We’d better get going.”
As Julie rolled up the dune, Quill hopped like a plume into Eric’s turban. “Good. I can see everything from here. Come on, people!”
The small band descended the dune, the children marching, Julie rolling herself along the sand behind them with her fuzzy flippers.
When they approached the fanged gate, she growled to the guards. “More humans!”
Errch! The gate rose, and they went inside.
“See what I mean?” Neal whispered as they passed the guards. “We got into the zoo for free!”
“You hope it’s for free,” Keeah whispered. “We still don’t know what we’ll find in here.”
Julie herded the children past the guards. After a few yards, they entered a dark hallway and found themselves alone.
“What I do for Droon!” said Julie, rolling to a stop. “You guys hunt for the first treasure. I suppose it’s easier to find Galen like this.”
“Good call,” said Eric. “If all goes well, you can get us and Galen out the same way. Julie, you’re the best beast ever!”
“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbled as she rolled away, bounced into a wall, then turned right.
The kids crept left into a narrow passage, dashed to the next corner, and flattened themselves against the wall.
“Wait,” said Quill. “I remember something.” He peeked around the corner from Eric’s turban, then jumped back. “I knew it. Gethwing. The dragon. He’s coming!”
“Yikes!” said Neal. “In here —”
They rushed into the nearest opening and found themselves in a large candlelit room with a gallery running around the top. At the far end of the room stood a big throne with cutouts on the back as if it was made for a creature with wings.
“Good one,” groaned Eric. “Gethwing’s living room.”
“Everyone, upstairs!” said Keeah. “Hurry!”
They raced up a narrow set of stairs to the gallery and crouched behind a railing just as Gethwing entered. The dragon strode quietly to the center of the room. He glanced around quickly, then turned to the door, his long spiky tail swaying slowly across the floor.