Final Quest

by Tony Abbott

  The giant gates were flung wide, and the streets of Agrah-Voor emptied of centuries and thousands of its fallen heroes.

  At the same time, its walls were filled to overflowing with every manner of evil beast known in Droon. All the attacking armies, the lion-headed beasts, the snakelings, the wingwolves, the wraiths — all of them were impelled through the ancient city’s gates.

  Gethwing and Ko squabbled and bickered when they were thrown inside the impenetrable walls with their innumerable yet powerless forces. Princess Neffu, newly captured in Doobesh, was tossed kicking and screaming and ranting among the rest.

  “Just wait!” she snarled.

  “We will,” said Sparr. “And so will you!”

  “Unable to leave, you will live together below the surface of our land,” said Galen. “And that may prove punishment enough.”

  Once all the beasts were inside, Zara, Galen, Urik, and Sparr clasped their hands together, and stone arches shot up over the city walls, joining one another and crisscrossing the city, sealing it forever from the outside.

  “Ghosts, follow me,” Queen Hazad said, “and enter the long-awaited daylight.”

  The moment the ghosts streamed into Droon’s daylight, daylight entered them, too. With every step, Droon’s fallen heroes took substantial form and walked among the living, with them, like them, and fallen no more.

  And not only did daylight shine on them. For the moon still beamed, its silver rays blending with the golden streams of dawn.

  Two shall rise together! The sun and moon.

  A moment of quiet seemed to settle everything in its place, and Eric turned to the thorn queen, who had been watching silently with Jabbo at her side.

  “Salamandra,” he said, “you helped Galen, then betrayed us, then you betrayed Ko. Are you good or not?”

  The thorn queen’s thin lips grew into a broad smile. She pointed to her head. “Do you think I wear my hair this tangled because it looks good? My thoughts are as split as these ends. And as snarled.”

  “The ancient prophecy?” said Keeah.

  “That thing?” The thorn queen laughed. “It’s as ancient as last Tuesday. I just went back in time and delivered it to Gethwing’s folks the day he was born. Simple. But fun.”

  “But what does it really mean?” asked Max.

  Salamandra turned to Queen Zara. “Ask her. She’s the one who sent it to me in a dream.”

  Queen Zara bowed. When she raised her head, her face seemed as youthful as it had been on that night so long ago on the outskirts of Pesh, when Eric had first seen her.

  “In its words is one last secret, whose time has not yet come.”

  Eric breathed in. “And Reki-ur-set? It was the word that led me to Urik. Because of you, Salamandra, I found my family.”

  The thorn queen smiled at him. “Then my work here is done. By the way, Galen, I hope I get a mention in your Chronicles of Droon.”

  Galen laughed, too. “You are one of its main characters!”

  “You see?” Salamandra said. “That’s all I’m asking. Catch you later. Or maybe before!”

  With that, a little storm of thorns grew up around her, and she was gone, leaving Jabbo to return to Doobesh in victory.

  “Salamandra has done much mischief in her time, and performed many dark works,” said Queen Zara. “But perhaps she has made amends. After all, she was as close to the beginning of our Droon adventure as anyone.”

  When they all returned to Droon’s surface, Zara, true to her name as Queen of Light, lit a single tiny candle. Even under the combined sunlight and moonlight, the candle flared with a strong silvery light.

  “And there it is,” said Neal. “The last image from my vision of the future.”

  The candle’s glow bathed the friends for a silent moment, then Zara tossed the candle high with a loud whoop.

  Instantly, whatever black skies lingered across Droon brightened. The heavy clouds over the Dark Lands diminished until they were no more than a frail vapor. Together golden sunlight and silver moonlight shone over every inch of the land.

  “Peace,” said Galen softly. “Droon is finally at peace.”

  And another light flashed and twinkled on the far horizon.

  “The rainbow staircase,” said Neal, choking up. “Somehow I feel this is … this is …”

  “Over?” whispered Julie, her eyes moist.

  “The end?” said Keeah, turning to Eric.

  Eric felt too full to speak. It was a great ending, and it had happened the way he had always hoped it would. Peace and light covered the land from sea to sea.

  But it was an ending.

  And his heart was breaking.

  “Droon,” he said. And then again. “Droon … Droon …”

  There was nothing more to say. In that single word, life seemed to have come full circle for him. He expected to wake up any moment and run down the stairs to welcome Neal.

  He would head through the kitchen, but this time his mother would not give him garbage bags to clean the basement. Or if she did, the basement would be just that. A basement. Not an entrance to the most amazing experience in his life.

  Every moment of their time in Droon came back, memory rushing upon memory, until he could barely breathe. He knew that all too soon the image of Keeah, her long blond hair, her blue tunic, the light in her eyes, would fade like a dream upon waking.

  “I guess we should go,” he said. “Our parents will want us back.”

  “Funny,” said Neal. “The more I look? That light over there doesn’t look much like the rainbow staircase.”

  Eric started to turn toward the distant east, but the three birds were suddenly there again, flying frantically overhead.

  “What is it, friends?” Urik asked.

  “Jaffa City!” said Otli.

  “The battle smoke has cleared!” Motli said.

  “The tower stands!” said Jotli.

  “Droon’s wheel of life rolls on!” cried Keeah.

  “And that light still doesn’t look like the staircase,” said Neal.

  Eric squinted, trying to get a better view of the light flickering over the far hills. Neal was right. It was unlike any he had seen. It was both distant and constant. It was less like a rainbow than a glimmer of gold.

  “Then what exactly is it?” asked Julie, tugging the silver telescope from Neal’s turban and scanning the horizon.

  A gasp of breath came from the three sons of Zara at the same time.

  “You can’t be serious!” said Galen.

  Sparr laughed brightly. “A joke perhaps?”

  “The first of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold!” said Urik. “In my wanderings in Droon I learned of them. I even drew a map!”

  Eric jumped. “You drew that map? The map Thog found in the Castle of Zorfendorf?”

  Urik burst into laughter. “Zorfendorf! That’s one of the funny names I made up to call myself!”

  Galen laughed. “Well, Prince Urik Zorfendorf of Stars! The Seven Cities of Gold is a legend that goes back to the very beginnings of Droon. Once light returns to the Dark Lands, the golden cities will finally appear. Traveling there is said to be the greatest of all adventures!”

  The horizon glowed more brightly with each passing moment.

  “Even in the Upper World, we heard about the Seven Cities,” said Zara. “They are supposed to be more beautiful than one can ever imagine.”

  “I want to go to there,” said Neal.

  “Oh, you will, my genie friend,” said Sparr. “You will —”

  “You mean it’s not over?” asked Eric. “We haven’t just ended the final quest?”

  “Quest? Over?!” said Max, jumping up. “Anywhere else, perhaps. But this is Droon, and Droon is an endless voyage of discovery! And we need no prophecy to tell us that!”

  Smiling, Zara placed her hand on Eric’s shoulder. “The final secret of Gethwing’s prophecy. I was talking about Droon when I said that one shall rise from the ashes and never see the end of day
s. Besides, Eric, you had a vision of this, did you not?”

  Eric felt his heart leap into his throat. “I did. I sure did!”

  “And now we see how visions become real,” Urik said. “Pilkas, anyone?”

  “Quill, finish up your scribbles and come!” said Galen. “There are more stories to write.”

  The magic feather pen scratched a word on a long scroll he was working on. “That should do it for now,” he said in a squeaky voice. He leaped into Galen’s saddlebag.

  Eric picked up Quill’s scroll, unrolled it, and read its very first words. At first, tears came to his eyes. Then he couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t believe it!”

  “Read it,” said Keeah, mounting Leep, her shaggy white steed.

  “It’s a long story,” said Eric.

  Neal laughed. “That’s the best kind,” he said. “Besides, we have time. All the time in the world.”

  “In both worlds,” said Queen Zara.

  The friends jumped onto their pilkas and turned to the east, where the first of the Seven Cities of Gold glimmered under the rising sun.

  Eric unrolled the scroll, cleared his throat, and began to read.

  “‘Eric Hinkle ran past his mother on the way through the kitchen …’”

  Bagpipes and drums and the birdlike tweeting of flutes started up. They were soon joined by a trio of real songbirds, Urik’s feathered friends, as they circled overhead.

  “And we’re off!” chittered Max.

  And so, true to Eric’s vision at last, the friends set off together toward the rising sun and Droon’s ever-beckoning horizon.

  Text copyright © 2010 by Tony Abbott.

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

  SCHOLASTIC, LITTLE APPLE, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First printing, October 2010

  Cover art by Tim Jessell

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-41865-2

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