by Tony Abbott
“To the balloon,” said Neal. “It’s the fastest way.” They ran to the edge of the palace, grabbed thick vines, and swung to the ground, plopping down next to Sparr’s mangled balloon.
But before they could escape, Saba jumped off the top of the palace and landed next to them. He lunged at Keeah, ripping at her belt. The musical stick Theesha had given her tumbled to the ground.
“Saba’s after Theesha’s stick,” said Eric. “That must be the treasure!”
Saba reached for the stick, but Max dived, grabbed it, and ran back to the princess.
“He wants a stick?” snapped Galen. “I’ll give him a stick!”
He whirled his staff in the air. It shed jagged sparks over the phantom. Saba howled.
“Get going!” cried the wizard. “I’ll keep him busy while you escape. See you soon!”
“Count on it!” said Keeah.
Scrambling into Sparr’s black balloon, the five friends and Quill lifted off.
With a powerful wind, they were swept up once again into the storm of blue lightning.
The children clung tightly to the balloon ropes as lightning zigzagged all around them.
Then, just as the storm was about to clear, a last jagged bolt of light struck the balloon and sent it sinking fast to the earth.
“We’ve sprung a leak!” chattered Max. “We’re — doomed!”
As they plummeted like stones, a voice boomed suddenly outside the balloon. “Ho-ho there! Do you folks need a lift?”
An instant later, a large shallow bowl shot up next to them. Sitting in it was a giant man in giant armor. He had a big red nose and a craggy beard. Next to him were two other armored men floating in their own big bowls.
“Old Rolf!” shouted Julie. “Smee? Lunk? The Knights of Silversnow!”
“Humf! If anyone else rides their shields around, I’d like to know about it!” boomed the knight named Rolf.
“Get on board,” said the one called Lunk, squinting through the eyeholes in his helmet. “You can land safely, or you can land fast!”
“Out of the basket and into the soup bowl!” added Smee.
Without another word, the kids and Max leaped from the crashing balloon to the knights’ shields just as the balloon collapsed completely.
Crash! It fell to earth like a wet dish towel.
“Sparr’s going to be mad about this,” said Neal.
Rolf laughed heartily. “Add it to the list!”
The knights were a trio of ancient, oversized battlers who lived in a castle high atop the Ice Hills of Tarabat. They slept a lot, but whenever Galen needed them, they always came to help.
“We’re off to find Galen,” said Smee with a yawn. He leaned right, banking his shield in a wide circle. Max and Neal leaned with him. “But tell me. We sleep so much that sometimes we don’t remember. Have we met before?”
“Sort of,” said Keeah. “We meet in the future. But I don’t know if you remember us then. Right now, we’re traveling back in time.”
Rolf laughed again. “Why not? This is Droon, isn’t it? Anything is possible!”
“Galen just called us,” said Lunk, shifting to make more room for Julie and Eric. “We don’t mind. Knights are supposed to help.”
“We need to find him, too,” said Eric as the shields dipped lower over the blue-hued sand. “The magical staircase disappeared, and to bring it back we have to find some treasures that were stolen in our time.”
“And wherever Galen is,” said Julie, “is the next treasure.”
“Then, let’s make tracks,” said Old Rolf. “To the Rat-faced Snitchers of Zoop!”
Quill squeaked. “I remember them. They gave their name to this very story!”
Whooosh! The knights drove their shields faster into the late afternoon sky, skimming the desert sands. The pilkas raced below.
It wasn’t long before Rolf slowed at an oasis of palm trees waving around a glittering pool.
The knights silently steered the shields into the tallest tree and stopped, completely hidden in its bushy cluster of leaves.
“Well, look at that,” said Lunk, squinting down. “If it isn’t sand ponies. And Snitchers!”
The children carefully parted the leaves and looked down. A herd of small horses trotted over a nearby dune and into the oasis. Sitting on the ponies were little creatures with big heads. They had narrow, whiskered snouts and puffy purple pants.
“They look like eggplants,” Julie said softly.
“I like eggplants,” said Lunk, getting a faraway look in his eyes.
“Nobody likes them, though,” said Smee. “Sneaking Snitchers. They love to steal.”
“So does Saba,” said Keeah.
The purple-panted creatures dismounted and gathered at the blue pool. One of them, who had bright yellow hair and seemed to be their leader, dug into his saddlebag and pulled out something hidden under a cloth.
“Snitchers!” he announced. “Long and hard have we ridden. Our prize have we snitched!”
He removed the cloth.
The creatures cheered. “Snitch! Snitch!”
“Is it the treasure?” asked Julie, squinting between the large palm leaves. “I can’t see.”
Neal craned his neck. “I don’t think so. It looks like a cheese Danish —”
Max gasped. “No … it can’t be….”
He dangled from the tree for a closer look. “It is!” he hissed, scrambling back up again. “Robbers! Thieves! Stealers! Takers!”
“Snitchers?” whispered Lunk.
“Snitchers!” Max growled. “They must bury that back in the ground where they found it!”
Eric turned to Max. “Back in the ground? What do you mean?”
The spider troll trembled. “They have stolen the one and only gizzleberry seed! It’s the most precious possession of my people!”
Placing his hands on his hips, the chief Snitcher yelled, “Bring Smash, son of Thud!”
When he saw another baggy-panted Snitcher bring a giant hammer from his saddlebag, Max nearly jumped out of the tree. “A hammer! They’ll kill the seed!”
“Is it a special seed?” asked Neal.
“Special?” gasped Max. “It is said that this seed contains the secret of life itself! If you plant the gizzleberry seed — zip! — trees with every variety of berry grow instantly. The purple, of course, but also the rose and the yellow and the ruby and the pungent green. Not to mention the sapphire-blue berries so often used as breakfast toppings!”
“In short,” said Rolf, “if they destroy that seed, Droon as we know it shall come to a very bitter end!”
“Then that’s the treasure,” said Eric.
Neal blew out a slow breath. “So the future of Droon isn’t only in the deserts of the past, it’s also in the desserts of the past!”
Quill scribbled that down. “Tastily put, Neal.”
“We have to get the seed,” said Max firmly.
As the chief Snitcher placed the seed squarely on a rock, Rolf pointed. “It looks like someone already tried and failed.”
Draped over the saddle of one small pony was someone nearly completely hidden in a sack. Only a pair of blue boots stuck out.
“Galen!” said Julie.
“Huh,” mumbled Neal. “Did you ever notice that he seems to get caught a lot?”
“I guess that’s why we’re here,” said Lunk.
“Luckily, Galen gave us a spell,” said Rolf. “It’ll free him instantly. Smee, if you please!”
As the Snitchers huddled around the hammer below, Smee produced a tiny scroll. It unrolled to a length of about three feet.
“I don’t know about instantly,” he said. “There’s awfully small writing here….”
“Oh, please hurry!” urged Max.
While the Snitchers giggled and danced around the seed, the knights began to read.
“Punky … lunky … floo …”
“A little for each of us!” said the chief, as his fellow Snitcher raised the big ham
mer called Smash higher and higher.
“… mello … padooba … kemlem …”
“We don’t have much time,” said Julie. “Company is coming. Nasty company.”
The speck of a bull-horned figure came hurrying across the sand toward the oasis.
“Saba just doesn’t give up!” said Quill. “Knights, hurry!”
“… bumpy … wumpy … woo-woo …”
“This is taking too long!” said Max suddenly. “I’m saving that seed!”
In a flash, he coiled one end of a length of spider silk around the tree trunk and clutched the other tightly.
“Max,” whispered Keeah. “Max, wait —”
“Wish me luck!” he chirped. Then he leaped from the branches and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Ah-yeeee!”
In a flash, he swung down, grabbed the seed, released the rope, and landed in the sand.
The Snitchers squealed. “Attack! Attack!”
“Hey!” said Rolf. “Nobody attacks anybody without us! Forget the spell. Everyone, let’s ah-yeeee!”
“Ah-yeeee!” they all yelled, leaping from the tree.
As soon as the Snitchers saw the giant knights, they screamed and wailed. Then the little puffy-panted creatures fell over one another trying to escape.
“Run away! Run away!” they cried. Before the knights could do a thing, the whole Snitcher band had scurried to their ponies and fled over the dunes in a cloud of dust.
The oasis battle was over in an instant.
Clutching the gizzleberry seed tightly, Max jumped to the squirming bag. When he opened it, Galen tumbled out, bound in chains from head to foot. He smiled when he saw Max.
“Somehow I knew you would save me!”
“Inky … tinky … snoo!” said Smee finally.
Plink! The chains fell to Galen’s feet.
“Sir,” said Rolf, “you need shorter spells!”
A cry echoed loudly in the distance, and everyone turned. Saba was charging toward the oasis.
At the same time, hooves thundered across the desert, and the enchanted blue pilkas leaped over a dune to the children.
“Max, take the seed,” said Galen. “Children, time is running out. Your caravan must continue. Go —”
As Saba ran faster and faster, lightning began to flash overhead. Soon, a storm of whirling sand and spinning wind swirled up around them.
“Hurry!” said Keeah. “To our next stop. Now!” The kids jumped on the pilkas and galloped straight into the storm.
As Galen and the knights formed a line between Saba and the kids, the phantom Saba slowed to a stop and shook his four fists violently. “I will — I will —”
But whatever Saba said was drowned out by the roaring winds. The children wrapped their robes around their faces to protect themselves from the blowing sand.
When the pilkas finally broke through the storm and raced onto the sand once more, the sun was low in the sky.
Evening was falling over the desert.
The travelers sped over dunes and into valleys for nearly an hour before stopping at a large wall of sand.
Keeah urged her pilka up the side, but it wouldn’t go. None of the pilkas moved.
“Why aren’t they going?” asked Eric.
Neal looked in every direction “This isn’t right. There’s nothing here but … nothing.”
“Oh, dear,” said Max. “What if the pilkas are lost? What if we aren’t in the right place? The Talos, the ripple stick, and the gizzleberry seed aren’t enough to save the stairs —”
Suddenly, the ground thundered beneath their feet. A moment later, it happened again.
It felt as if something was moving toward them. Something heavy and huge.
Keeah sat bolt upright in her saddle. Turning in every direction, she gasped. “I can’t believe it. We are in the right place. Only the right place isn’t here yet!”
Thoom … The sand shook again and again.
Suddenly, a giant tower wobbled up over the dune in front of them. Another tower followed the first, then another and another.
Then the massive gray foot of an enormous turtle slammed down over the top of a dune, shaking the ground like an earthquake.
“Tortu!” shouted Julie. “We’ve been seeing it all day! It’s been wandering over Droon for centuries, until it reached this place, this time. Tortu is where we need to go!”
Thoom! Thooom! The turtle’s big feet fell one after another.
“All aboard!” cried Max. He shot a sticky rope up at the turtle, and it clung fast to the massive shell.
As the great turtle’s dome moved overhead, the kids leaped up from their pilkas and began to climb the silky rope. And the Magic City of Tortu, crawling for ages over Droon’s vast deserts, pulled the children up and away.
“Wheeee!” cried Quill as they flew up toward the city.
With the help of Max’s strong silk, it took the voyagers only minutes to climb Tortu’s high walls. Once over the top, they dropped from roof to roof until they were safely huddled together in a narrow alley. The streets beyond them teemed with a strange assortment of creatures and people.
“Just like I remember it,” whispered Neal, peering ahead into the crowd. “Galen called this place a den of magic and mystery.”
Keeah smiled. “No wonder Galen’s here. When we find him, we’ll probably find the fourth treasure, too. Let’s get going.”
“Carefully,” whispered Max.
Night was falling as they crept into the shadows. Strange spices scented the air, and the moist smell of gardens floated into the streets from hidden courtyards.
As they made their way through the streets, Eric remembered that Galen had also called Tortu a city of evil and danger. Three-legged hoolifans stomped around, growling like pirates. Magic traders barked out from their shadowy shops. Spell casters, snake charmers, jugglers, conjurors — some human, others not so human — all crowded the narrow passageways.
Mostly, there were the green-hooded guards who haunted every street, and who always seemed to be searching just for them.
“This is just as scary as the last time we were here,” whispered Keeah.
“Scary?” said Quill. “I remember a song —”
“Sing later, hide now!” said Neal. “Here come the guards! Get into the shadows!”
They dashed into a side alley while a troop of very tall figures in green hoods stormed down the street, pushing everyone aside.
“Those guards work for Prince Maliban,” whispered Keeah.
“Who later turns out to be Sparr himself!” added Max with a quiver. “I remember that.”
They all remembered their first time in the strange city.
The guards stomped by, inches from the children, staring out from under their hoods.
“The children are close by,” growled one guard. “I sense them very near.”
As soon as they passed, Eric saw someone dart down an alley on the far side of the street. He felt his fingers began to tingle.
“Holy cow!” he said. “Those guards aren’t looking for us, they’re looking for … us!”
Neal placed his palm on Eric’s forehead. “Is your turban wound too tight or something?”
Eric smiled. “No, listen. We said that Tortu looks just like the last time we were here. I think that’s because it is the last time we were here. Take a look —”
They all peered across the street and saw five figures — themselves! — creep from one building to the next, climb to the roof of one low shop, and hop down to the next street.
“It is us!” whispered Julie. “I remember. We were searching for Hob the mask maker.”
Eric watched himself slip away from his friends and disappear into a tangle of shops.
He remembered that, too. The first time he was in Tortu, he had just gained his powers. They were wild and uncontrollable. They made him feel different, and he wasn’t sure he really wanted them. It was then that Galen had told Eric he was getting powers for a purpose.
>
“You know what this means,” said Max, staring at his earlier self. “This means that the Galen we need to find —”
“Is right here,” said a voice behind them.
They turned, and there he was.
Galen was his old familiar self now, dressed in his full wizard’s robe and cone hat. His bushy white beard hung nearly to his waist.
“Master!” said Max, hugging him tightly.
Galen hugged him back. “Max, friends, many years have passed since you all foiled the Snitchers. I know where the treasure you seek is. Then, more pressing business awaits me. Your other selves will need help in … twelve minutes. Hush —”
The hooded guards swept through the narrow streets again. Their eyes peered everywhere. The moment they passed, Galen glanced both ways. Then, holding a finger to his lips, he crept to the next corner. “Come —”
Everyone followed him in single file. Everyone except Eric. When he tried to follow his friends, he felt a hand holding him back. He turned, and the wizard was still there, looking at him.
Eric gasped. “What?” He looked at the corner, and Galen was there, too. “Wait … what —”
“Don’t be afraid,” said the wizard. “I sent a phantom with the others. I need to speak to you.”
Eric’s eyes bugged out. “A phantom? You know how to do that? That’s a beast trick!”
The wizard shook his head. “It is not a trick, nor did it start with the beasts. It is — was — my mother’s power. After Zara was kidnapped and failing in health, Ko stole it from her. But her sons, all of them, have this ability, if they only know how to use it.”
“Sparr has it?” said Eric. “Does Urik have it, too?”
Galen nodded. “The whole line of wizards of which my mother Zara was queen.”
“That’s awesome —”
The wizard pulled Eric gently into a shadowed doorway. “I can tell your wizard powers have grown much since your first days here in this city.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But Droon needs a lot.”
“Droon needs what you have, Eric,” said Galen. “It needs all the help it can get. Since time is running out, I will speak plainly. When trouble is at its worst, close your eyes and see yourself do wonderful things. Then open your eyes, and do them. It’s that simple. Do not lose faith. So much depends on you.”