The Chariot of Queen Zara Read online

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1: Over the Volcano

  2: A Fruit by Any Other Name

  3: O Plud, My Plud!

  4: Across a Clouded Room

  5: Where the Black Snow Flies

  6: The Dark Genie

  7: As the Doorknob Turns

  8: A Roof with a View

  9: You Call This a Battle?

  10: The Neal Factor

  The Adventure Continues …

  Also Available

  Copyright

  Eric Hinkle looked down into the fiery volcano and knew he was falling too fast.

  “We’re supposed to be flying,” he said. “You said you would fly us down here.”

  “I know that,” said his friend Julie Rubin, clutching him tightly by the hand and trying to slow down.

  “But we’re not flying,” yelled Eric, starting to feel the volcano’s heat. “We’re falling!”

  “I know that, too!” said Julie.

  Eric and Julie, along with their friends Neal Kroger; Princess Keeah; King Zello; Queen Relna; Khan, the king of the Lumpies; and Max, the spider troll, had just jumped through an opening in Calibaz, the strange shadowland next to Eric’s town in the Upper World. They were descending into the magical world of Droon, where Julie had agreed to fly them.

  “Are we going to crash?” cried Khan, holding on to Relna and Keeah for dear life. “Because it feels like we’re going to crash!”

  “Not if I can help it!” said Max, busily spinning a web of spider silk.

  Eric really hoped they wouldn’t crash.

  Just minutes before, he had found the mysterious Pearl Sea, a part of Queen Zara’s awesome Moon Medallion. From the Pearl Sea they had learned that their long-lost wizard friend Galen was trapped on the far side of Droon’s moon.

  Eric and his friends were all determined to rescue the great wizard.

  If only they survived their fall.

  “Are you even trying to slow down?” asked Neal.

  “I am!” said Julie, struggling. “But I’ve never flown so many people before!”

  “We’re in the Dark Lands,” said Relna. “Remember that your powers may turn against you. Maybe we can help. Keeah—”

  Together, Relna and her daughter aimed their fingertips at the ground, showering the air with sparks in an effort to slow their fall.

  Right, thought Eric as they began to tumble even faster. There’s the whole power thing.

  Since he, Julie, and Neal had found a magic staircase in Eric’s basement that led them to Droon, powers had come to them, too. For instance, Julie had gained the ability to fly, which she was usually really good at. And even though Neal didn’t seem to have any powers, he had been transformed into several different creatures, including a bug and a goblin.

  Best of all, Eric himself was becoming a major wizard. He could shoot silver sparks from his fingertips. He had visions of the future, and he could read weird old languages without even trying. He even suspected that the strange Sword of Zara he found in Calibaz was magically keeping him safe.

  But the oddest thing was finding the mysterious and wonderful Pearl Sea in his house. His own house!

  Eric couldn’t understand that at all.

  In fact, he hardly understood any of it.

  Why me? he thought. I mean, really! Why me?

  But looking down, he realized he never would understand, unless they slowed down very soon.

  “Eric, we need your help!” cried Keeah, her long blond hair flying across her face. “Blast the air. Try to slow our fall —”

  But when he added his own sparks to hers, the friends only seemed to fall faster.

  “Noooooo!” he screamed.

  All of a sudden — flooop! — a vast wispy canopy of spider silk billowed above them, slowing them immediately. In an instant, the eight friends were drifting gently to the ground.

  “So much for wizard tricks!” said Max. “Good old spider silk comes to the rescue!”

  “Thank you, Max,” said King Zello as they floated softly to the base of the great volcano.

  The children shivered to remember the first time they had seen the eerie black mountain called Kano. It had long been the palace of the once very powerful — and very evil — sorcerer known as Lord Sparr.

  Recently, however, Sparr had been transformed into a boy, and he was helping the kids battle two even worse enemies — Emperor Ko, ruler of the beasts, and the wicked moon dragon Gethwing. In fact, Sparr was with the beasts right then, secretly hoping to defeat their armies from within.

  Like the sorcerer’s other former lairs left behind when he became young, the volcano palace lay deep in Droon’s Dark Lands, surrounded by thousands of square miles of black earth, charred trees, smoky air, and evil.

  “The Dark Lands always remind me of Calibaz and the hoobahs who live there,” said Neal, gazing back up toward the cloudy world they had just come from.

  Everyone remembered the froglike hoobahs. A legend said that they were doomed to wander the shadowland until a hero led them into the light. “Someday,” Neal added, “their dream will come true.”

  “Yes, and our dream to find Galen can only come true if we hide,” said Max, pointing with one of his eight legs. “Look who’s coming!”

  Eeee! Eeee! Three snakelike beasts with wings of fire soared over the distant black hills and swooped quickly toward them.

  “Wingsnakes,” said Relna. “Probably spies for Emperor Ko. Everyone, hide. In the volcano!”

  “In the volcano?” said Neal. “Oh, man!”

  The eight friends scrambled over broken rocks to an entrance at the base of the fiery mountain. They dived in just before the wingsnakes were close enough to see them.

  The walls inside the volcano were charred black. Plumes of smoke rose into clouds that were lit with flickering flames and the glow of molten lava. Beyond the smoke, the children could make out ominous dark passages twisting deep into the mountain.

  “Very nice place,” grumbled Khan.

  Kano had always been home to the Ninns, Sparr’s former army of large red warriors. But looking around, the friends saw bent and broken Ninn weapons strewn across the volcano floor, along with cracked pots and the remains of hastily abandoned cooking fires.

  Zello shared a look with Relna. “Perhaps the Ninns were forced to leave. Maybe the beasts took over and live here now.”

  Eeee! Eeee! The wingsnakes called to one another, circling the volcano.

  Neal groaned as they all moved away from the entrance. “I knew this was a bad idea. We’re trapped in here.”

  “Trapped, but not caught yet,” said Julie.

  Khan frowned suddenly. “Don’t speak too soon,” he whispered. “Look there —”

  As an odd-shaped shadow slid along the wall, they realized that something else was inside the volcano, moving in one of the passages. Lit from behind by the flames, the thing — whatever it was — drew closer, and its shadow grew larger until it dwarfed the friends.

  King Zello raised his club. Eric drew the Sword of Zara from his belt and held it aloft.

  “Point your fingers, Mom,” said Keeah as she and Relna aimed at the silhouette of a big head moving across the wall.

  “Please make it go away,” whispered Neal.

  A second head moved next to the first.

  “Please make them go away!” said Neal.

  “Maybe there are a hundred of them!” cried Julie.

  Eric’s sword quivered in his hands. “All in all,” he said, “I think I’d rather be falling —”

  Then came an inhuman wail and a sudden rush of feet, and the beasts charged into the cave.

  “Ahh!” Max screamed. “Ahhhhh!”

  T
hen he stopped. “Wait. What?”

  There weren’t a hundred beasts. There weren’t even two beasts. There was only one. It had two cute heads, was small and furry, drooled a lot, and they had seen it before.

  “It’s Kem!” said Eric, lowering his sword. “It’s Sparr’s little puppy!”

  “Come here, boy!” called Neal. He bent down, and the dog ran right into his arms.

  “Are you lost, Kem? Huh?” said Neal. “Are you looking for your master?”

  Kem had been a wild, vicious, adult dog before he, too, had been transformed along with Sparr and had become a puppy.

  “Sorry, boy,” said Julie. “But Sparr’s not here.”

  At the mention of his master’s name, Kem howled — “Roooo!” — leaped out of Neal’s arms, and scampered away. He returned in a flash, rolling a fruit the size of a coconut across the volcano floor.

  Keeah blinked. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “It’s a tangfruit,” said her mother.

  Everyone backed away from the dog. They all knew what a tangfruit was. If you removed its hard shell, it smelled like a combination of garbage and an old moldy cellar. Tangfruit smelled rotten. It smelled worse than rotten.

  But tangfruit wasn’t all bad. As foul as its smell was, its flavor was actually sweet. And anyone who ate it could understand the speech of animals.

  “Rrrrr,” Kem snuffled, pushing the tangfruit around with his paws.

  “Wait,” said Eric suddenly. “What if he’s not looking for Sparr? What if … Kem, do you have a message from Sparr?”

  “Roooo!” Kem howled expectantly.

  “I think he wants one of us to eat it,” said Zello, taking a further step back.

  “Of course, I can’t,” said Khan, joining the king. “Not with my sensitive nose.”

  “I vote for Neal,” said Julie. “He loves to eat.”

  “Yes,” said Relna. “Neal, you eat it.”

  Neal gave his friends a look. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Why me?”

  “Kem likes you, don’t you, boy?” said Max.

  The puppy appeared to nod. “Roo-ooo!”

  “Uh-huh, and I like Kem,” said Neal. “But I haven’t had lunch yet. And if I spoil my appetite, my mom gets really mad. Besides, although it doesn’t always seem like it, I eat food. Tangfruit is not food. It’s … it’s …”

  Kem leaped back into Neal’s arms and licked him with both tongues. “Rooo?”

  “Oh, man! Are you serious?” said Neal. “Unbelievable. What I do for Droon! Okay, someone crack it open while I hold my nose —”

  Heaving his club, Zello smashed the fruit’s shell, and a terrible smell filled the cave.

  “Oh, not a good moment for me!” Khan sniffed, swallowing a big breath and holding it.

  Picking up a piece of the fruit, Neal pushed it into his mouth. “Uck, uck … oh … whoa!” He smiled suddenly and licked his lips and fingers. “This is good. This is really good!”

  As Neal gobbled it up, and the smell finally faded, Kem snuffled and grunted softly. After about five minutes, the dog finally went quiet.

  “Wow, that’s some story!” said Neal.

  “Tell us,” said Queen Relna.

  “Okay,” said Neal. “Sparr was able to stop in Kano for only a couple of minutes before Gethwing flew him away. But he told Kem three things while he was here. First, Emperor Ko is planning something really big in the Serpent Sea, involving a lot of sea beasts —”

  “Oh, this is not good,” said King Zello, pacing back and forth and slapping his giant club into his palm. “No, not good at all.”

  “What’s the second thing?” asked Julie.

  “Sparr’s not quite sure,” said Neal, “but he thinks that Agrah-Voor is in trouble, and it has something to do with Ko’s big plans.”

  The kids remembered their brief time in Agrah-Voor. That haven of Droon’s slain heroes was known as “the land of the lost.” Those who had died fighting against evil in Droon waited in Agrah-Voor for the day when they could return to a world at peace.

  “And the third thing?” asked Queen Relna.

  Neal bent to the dog. “Did you say what I think you said?” Kem’s heads murmured in unison. Neal sighed. “You did say that.”

  “What is it?” asked Keeah. “What did Kem say? Something about Galen?”

  Neal nodded. “Kem said that there is a secret hidden in Sparr’s old castle at Plud. Finding the secret will help us rescue Galen from the far side of the moon.”

  “Plud?” said Eric. “The Forbidden City of Plud? The evilest of evil fortresses?”

  “That’s the place,” said Neal.

  The children looked at one another.

  Max grunted softly. “So be it. We must go there if we hope to free my master.”

  “So be it, indeed,” said King Zello. “But we must go different ways, my friends. We to Agrah-Voor and you to Plud. If what Kem says is true, I fear we must go as soon as we can —”

  “Except the wingsnakes are still out there,” said Khan, his nose twitching. “I can smell them.”

  Kem grumbled suddenly, and Neal laughed. “They won’t be there for long. Kem has a trick.”

  The dog crept carefully to the entrance, braced himself, then roared loudly — “Grooo-oooo!” The sound echoed throughout the cave as if it had come from a hundred beasts a hundred times Kem’s size.

  Eeeee! The wingsnakes shrieked in terror. Next came a wild flap of wings. The flapping and shrieking grew softer and softer until, in a few seconds, everything was quiet outside.

  Zello poked his head out of the volcano entrance, then pulled it back in, laughing. “Nice work, Kem. Those snakes are long gone!”

  The band of friends hurried out of hiding and stood together on the black land.

  “I’ll go with you, my king and queen,” said Khan. “If there is trouble, I must protect my family and the rest of the Lumpies.”

  “A good king and a good man,” said Zello, patting Khan on his tasseled shoulder.

  “Keeah, take the Moon Medallion,” said Relna, removing the magical object from around her neck. “I’m sure you’ll need this to find Galen. But remember, the darker the Dark Lands, the weaker our power.”

  “I’ll remember,” said Keeah, hugging both parents tightly. “You be safe, too!”

  “Wait a second,” said Neal. “Can anyone tell me how long the tangfruit’s magic lasts?”

  “Until you eat again,” said Relna. “You must be careful not to eat as long as you wish to understand Kem.”

  Neal blinked. “Me? Not eat? Oh, this is going to be a long adventure!”

  Finally, when there was no more to say, Zello, Relna, and Khan raced away across the Dark Lands toward the city of Agrah-Voor.

  “We must get started, too!” said Max impatiently. “To the east. To the city of Plud!”

  Kem yipped happily, then scampered over a rise in the land and down the other side, howling all the while. “Ree-ooo-eeew!”

  “Well, you heard the dog,” said Neal.

  Julie grumbled. “We heard him, Neal, but we didn’t exactly understand him.”

  Neal laughed. “Sorry. He’s telling us we need to go now. It won’t be long before those wingsnakes come back. With reinforcements. Follow that dog!”

  And they did.

  But as the kids raced into the east after Kem, the earth grew ever blacker, and the smoky air surrounded them like a cloud.

  Not long after the friends left the volcano valley, the earth rose in a series of sharp hills. Steep passes wound narrowly between them.

  “Careful, friends,” said Max. “The Forbidden City of Plud is on the other side of these hills. There could be Ninns lurking nearby.”

  “Stay on guard,” said Keeah, “and be alert.”

  As the little group trekked into the hills, they lost sight of the western lands entirely. The closer to Plud they pressed, the more they began to hear things. First, there was the sound of metal clashing on metal.

 
Cling! Clank! Clong!

  Next came hissing — ssss! — and the distant squeaking of iron wheels — errr! errr!

  “Whatever they’re doing, the Ninns sound like they’re up to no good,” whispered Julie.

  Half an hour later, the children emerged from the passes onto a ridge that overlooked a black plain. Beyond the gnarled and burned trees of a long-dead forest rose the terrible dark fortress of Plud. Its tallest tower was wrapped in the deep orange of endless flames, ever burning, ever coiling upward.

  “The Forbidden City,” said Eric, clasping his sword again. “Not a friendly place.”

  Kem whimpered quietly, and Neal nodded. “I know, boy. Plud is a very sad place —”

  Just then, another sound broke on their ears. This time it was the jangle of armor and belt buckles. And it was coming from behind them.

  “Get down!” said Julie, pulling her friends below an outcropping of rock on the ridge.

  Thomp-thomp-thomp! A thudding band of armored red warriors rushed up the pass behind the kids. Reaching the end, their leader held up his hand, and the others stopped. He lifted a stubby finger to his lips and motioned to the left of the valley below. The Ninn troops nodded, drew their swords, and crept quietly down the hill to the fortress.

  “What’s going on?” whispered Keeah. “I counted a hundred Ninns there, armed for battle —”

  “So then who’s in Plud?” asked Max.

  Creeping forward to the top of the ridge, they now saw who was in Plud.

  Emerging all along the walls of the fortress was every kind of beast imaginable — scaled, winged, furred. Some looked like lions with spikes running down their backs. Others were giant wolves with extra-long claws. Still others were frightening combinations of serpents and bears, thickly hided, with thorny tails.

  “Ko’s beasts!” said Julie. “They’ve … they’ve taken over Plud. Just like they took over Sparr’s volcano palace!”

  “They’ve spotted those Ninns, too,” said Eric. The beasts on the walls were clearly watching the little band of Ninns make their way toward the fortress. They wheeled a great ugly catapult to the very brink of the top tower and were aiming it carefully at the red warriors.

  “They’re going to ambush the Ninns,” said Keeah. “It’s not fair. We have to warn them!”