The Moon Dragon Read online

  Eric’s heart leaped into his throat. He watched his mother look up at the dragon, quivering under his gaze, but saying nothing.

  Gethwing raised himself to his full height. “Have you ever heard … of the Pearl Sea?”

  “The Pearl … the Pearl Sea …” she said, as if in a trance. “I have heard of it….”

  Eric stared at his mother, his heart throbbing faster and faster. “Mom?” he whispered under his breath, “My gosh. Whatever you know, don’t tell him!”

  “Yesssss!” hissed Gethwing, lowering his giant head down to her. His evil grin reached from ear to ear. “Tell me where it is —”

  She met the dragon’s fiery gaze and said firmly, “It’s the Japanese restaurant behind the library, isn’t it?”

  “Yes!” whispered Neal. “You tell him, Mrs. H!”

  Gethwing roared with rage. “No! You are his mother! Don’t tell me you don’t know! Your son, Eric Hinkle, is … a wizard!”

  “Uh-oh,” Eric murmured.

  Mrs. Hinkle stepped back suddenly. Her mouth hung open. She quivered from head to foot. Once more she raised her eyes to meet Gethwing’s.

  “Eric … is a … wizard?” she asked.

  “He is!” said the dragon.

  She trembled for a moment, then breathed deeply. “So why can’t he clean his room?”

  “Oh, snap!” whispered Julie. “She is awesome!”

  When Gethwing roared, raising the sword over Mrs. Hinkle, Eric felt his blood boil. “You hurt her, you big scaly creep, and I swear, I’ll —”

  “I’ll do it,” said Sparr softly. He turned toward the chimney. “I’ll go down there.”

  “What? You can’t go down there,” said Keeah. “Gethwing is looking for you. Let’s just blast him from here —”

  But the boy was already crawling back into the chimney. “No, look. I have a better idea. I’m the one he wants. He thinks I know where this Pearl Sea is? Well, I’ll trick him. I’ll take him on a wild ride. You guys free the people and get them ready for a battle like you’ve never seen. And Eric, don’t leave without those swords. There’s something about them —”

  “Sparr!” chirped Max. “You can’t go!”

  “I have to,” said Sparr. “But I’ll send you a signal when Gethwing’s coming —”

  “What kind of signal?” asked Neal.

  “A signal! ” snapped Sparr. “Now go. Save your parents. Go!” He vanished into the shaft.

  As the kids, Max, and Khan watched from above, Gethwing moved closer and closer to Mrs. Hinkle with the sword. Just then, Sparr made a sudden, loud noise in the chimney.

  “Owww!” he cried. “That’s hot!”

  He crashed down onto the burning logs in an explosion of sparks and smoke, then tumbled out of the chimney and into the room, rolling across the floor to Gethwing’s feet.

  “Sparr!” the moon dragon gasped.

  The boy coughed and blinked and waved away the smoke. “Uh-oh. Wrong room! Just pretend I’m not here. Excuse me —”

  “Seize him!” Gethwing shrieked.

  Before the boy could move, thirty dark knights closed in around him. The moon dragon advanced on Sparr, his eyes blazing like fire.

  Sparr struggled against the knights for a moment, then stopped. Trying to sound as if he had no choice but to tell, he said, “All right, all right. I know where the Pearl Sea is.” He motioned to Mrs. Hinkle. “That lady doesn’t know anything. Let her go back to the others. Forget the sword, too. Its power is nothing compared to the Pearl Sea. I’ll show you. But you’d better wear your boots. The Pearl Sea is down by the coast. I hid it under the water behind a big rock.”

  Gethwing stared at Sparr, then howled with laughter. He slid the sword back onto the wall and flicked his claw at Eric’s mother. “Take this prisoner back to the others,” he boomed. “She’s of no use to me.”

  As two knights took away Mrs. Hinkle, Gethwing stormed from the room, saying, “Bring the boy. We go to the coast!”

  Eric couldn’t take his eyes off Sparr as the remaining knights pulled him roughly after the dragon.

  “I can’t believe it,” said Julie. “Sparr was incredible. He let Gethwing catch him in order to save our parents!”

  “Incredible,” said Eric, still staring down.

  Keeah pulled his arm lightly. “There’s going to be a battle before this is all over. We need our parents. Come on.”

  Finally tearing himself away, Eric scrambled out of the room and followed his friends.

  After Gethwing and the knights marched Sparr away, the kids, Max, and Khan snuck down into the great empty room.

  Eric pulled the two swords from the wall. After slicing them both around in the air, he tucked one in his belt. “For Sparr, when we see him again. And we will see him.”

  Keeah nodded. “We’ve gone too far to let Gethwing have him for good. But first, our parents. Let’s go.”

  “This way,” said Khan, moving quickly into the passages. The wall torches grew fewer and fewer as the friends went deeper into the castle. Shadows and darkness surrounded them more with every step.

  “Again, I’m thinking Gethwing chose the perfect name for his creepy little place,” said Neal. “Blackdark? Oh, yeah.”

  The group moved through the passages until they came to a long tunnel that ended at a tall black door. Four giant knights were standing guard in front of it. Each one was holding a seven-foot-long spear.

  The friends all looked at one another.

  “Together?” said Khan.

  “Together,” everyone replied at once.

  The six friends crept down the tunnel as carefully as possible. When they were a few feet from the black door, they all whispered for a second, nodded, and jumped out of hiding.

  “Ayeeee!” they screamed.

  The knights lunged forward instantly, but Eric and Keeah had already flattened themselves to the floor. They blasted silver and violet sparks at the knights’ feet.

  “Owww!” the four knights cried. When they tumbled to the floor, Neal, Khan, and Julie jumped on top of their backs while Max sprayed a thick, sticky web of spider silk over them. The struggle was over in a moment. The knights were wrapped like mummies.

  Wasting no time, Eric and Keeah blasted the black door off its hinges and charged through. They stopped instantly. Before them was a room that seemed to go on forever. In it stood thousands of townspeople, crowded together in the dark.

  “Uh, excuse me,” said Keeah, “but I think we’re here to save you?”

  At once, the crowd erupted in cheers whose echoes filled the passages of the castle.

  Eric rushed to his parents. Julie’s and Neal’s came running to them. The king and queen hugged Keeah tightly.

  “We have no time to waste,” said Max. “Everyone out. Two at a time, please!”

  “What happened to the old knights?” asked Julie’s mother as they pushed into the outer passage. “They seemed nice.”

  “They changed,” said Julie. “And not just their armor. Gethwing cursed them.”

  “This way!” said Khan as he and Max led everyone into the passage. “That’s right, ma’am. I’m a talking pillow —”

  “Khan, can you sniff our way back through the castle and out again?” asked Keeah.

  The lumpy king nodded firmly. “I can. People, look sharp and follow me. Max?”

  “Here, as always!” said the spider troll.

  The townspeople followed Khan and Max through the passages. Halfway back in the crowd were Julie and Neal, while Eric and Keeah stayed at the dungeon to make sure no one was left behind.

  Once the last person exited the dungeon, the two friends followed. But when they came to a place where the passage split, Eric stopped. The crowd hustled down one tunnel. But he saw wet footprints across the floor of the other.

  “Keeah, wait,” he said. “It’s that girl, Meredith. She’s been spying on us all day. I’m sure of it. And now she’s here —”

  “Yes, I’m here,” said a voic
e. Suddenly, Meredith moved out of the shadows. She was soaking wet, as if she had just come in from the rain.

  Eric gasped. “I knew it. It was you at the pond, wasn’t it?”

  “And on the school roof,” she said.

  “But how did you get on this side of the veil?” he asked. “Where did you come from? I’ve never seen your parents, even though you live right down the street from me. Who even are you?”

  Meredith fixed her dark eyes on him. “Eric, if this is a quiz, maybe I could take it later. There’s no time now. More knights are coming. Lots of them. Sparr was right — the real battle hasn’t begun yet.”

  “Sparr?” said Keeah. “You know about him?”

  The girl turned away. “Just come on. I need to show you something.” She darted down the second tunnel and was gone.

  Eric stared after her, then turned to Keeah. “This is really weird, you know.”

  “No kidding,” said the princess, listening for sounds behind them. “But maybe she’s right. We should get out of here.”

  “Excuse me? Tick-tock?” Meredith’s voice came from down the tunnel.

  “Coming!” called Eric.

  Together, the two wizards raced from one passage to another, just behind Meredith, until they were finally outside. The great crowd of townspeople, with Khan and Max in the lead, was safely heading toward the main veil.

  Eric couldn’t stop staring at the dark-haired girl. He cleared his throat. “At the pond before, you were underwater for a long time. How did you do that? How is that even possible?”

  “Never mind what’s possible and what’s not,” Meredith said, looking around before moving on. “I can’t explain everything yet, so don’t ask me. What I do know is that when Gethwing turned those old knights into his Blackdark Knights, he somehow woke all their friends from across the shadow land. Look —”

  In the far-off mountains were dark masses of knights moving slowly toward them.

  “Knights are coming,” said Meredith. “A million of them. Maybe more.”

  Eric began shaking his head. “Oh, no.”

  “Oh, yes,” said the girl. “Gethwing called them to this one spot. There are five veils here. Your town is the only place where beings from the shadow world can enter your world.”

  “Your world, too,” said Keeah.

  “Sure, my world, too,” said the girl.

  Eric’s heart thudded in his chest. “So how can we stop them?”

  Meredith didn’t answer. She stooped to a narrow stream that wound across the path. “This stream leads to one of the veils. Eric, wait here. I need to check something. Kee …”

  “Keeah,” said the princess.

  “Right,” said the girl. “Come with me. Eric, you stay here. Try to figure out how long we have before the knights arrive.”

  Keeah looked at Eric, made a face, then followed the girl away among the rocks.

  Eric stood next to a cluster of trees and stared at the distant mountains. The massive army of dark knights was marching closer with each passing minute.

  Eric’s heart sank. “There are millions of them. There will be a battle —”

  Just then, his eye happened to glance at the tree he was standing next to. He knew that Calibaz was a mere shadow of his own world, but he recognized the tree as a duplicate of one that stood right outside his house.

  Laying his hand on the lowermost branch, Eric was overcome with a sudden surge of energy. He staggered but did not let go of the tree. His knees felt weak, and his mind was seized with a powerful image.

  Closing his eyes, he saw himself as a very small boy, sitting on that same tree branch. He was looking back at his house, humming idly to himself, when he had a sudden sense of a figure moving behind him. Turning slowly, he made out the shape of someone standing in a gleam of light. Then he felt something small drop into his open hand. He held up his palm and looked into it. “Wow!” he said in his young voice. “Thanks!”

  “Eric,” said Keeah, suddenly close by. “Are you all right?”

  “Huh?” He popped open his eyes and let go of the tree. Keeah was standing next to him.

  He looked in his palm.

  It was empty.

  “The strange girl is gone,” said the princess. “One minute she’s here, the next she’s not. It’s very weird. But she did show me a way out. Everyone is through the veil and heading for the school. The girl said again that there would be a battle. We need to be there —”

  Eric looked into Keeah’s face, and he began shaking his head. “No. No, Keeah, we need to go to my house. It’s where the Pearl Sea is. Don’t ask me how I know — I just do. We need to go there. Now!”

  The veil was nearly closed when — whoosh! — the two friends ran through, only to find thousands of people gathering with the king, queen, Neal, Julie, Khan, and Max at the school.

  “Let’s drive our cars around the school!” shouted Julie’s father. “We’ll form a wall!”

  “Rakes!” yelled Neal’s mother. “We can fight them with rakes. Brooms, too!”

  “Our army,” whispered Eric, seeing his mother and father among the crowd. He wanted to go to them, to make sure they were okay. But his mind still reeled with a vision he didn’t understand.

  “They’re all getting ready,” said Keeah.

  “And we’ll help,” said Eric. “But first I need you to come with me. Hurry, before my mom sees me and asks me about the wizard thing.”

  “I’m right with you!” Keeah said, running down Main Street next to him. “Do you know yet what the Pearl Sea is?”

  Gripping both swords firmly as he ran, Eric shook his head. “Every minute I think I remember more, the vision begins to fade. Sorry, I just don’t know.”

  Eric passed into his yard, looking along the left side of the house. Yes, the tallest tree was the same one he saw in Calibaz. Inside, his house was eerily empty. Wandering through the kitchen, living room, dining room, even bathroom, he found himself again and again at the base of the steps leading to the second floor.

  “Eric?” said Keeah, searching his face.

  He raised his eyes to the top step. “It’s up there,” he said. Sliding both swords into his belt and taking a deep breath, he climbed the stairs steadily. Turning right, he stood in the doorway of his bedroom. Dresser, bed, desk. His clothes were strewn across the rug.

  “Your mom was right,” said Keeah.

  “I know it’s a mess,” he said. “But what we’re looking for isn’t in here.”

  Over the sound of his own heart beating, he heard the townspeople outside preparing for the coming battle. Soon the dark army would be there. Soon the terrible fight would begin.

  “Keeah, this is nuts,” he said, turning back to the stairs. “They need us —”

  “No!” she said. “Eric, this is important. If the Pearl Sea is here, you need to find it.”

  He shut his eyes again but opened them just as quickly. “I can’t concentrate.”

  Keeah looked at him. “Maybe you need … I mean … I could put you into a trance —”

  “Yes!” said Eric. “Yes, do it! Just don’t make me do anything dumb. I don’t want to jump around like a monkey or anything.”

  Keeah smiled. “Oh, no. I’m saving that spell for another time.”

  “What?”

  “Eric, just close your eyes. This won’t hurt.”

  “I hope not,” he said with a laugh. When he closed his eyes, Keeah began to murmur under her breath. “Mai-no … pareeth-lah … chaylee-sol …”

  At once, the sounds from outside began to drift away from Eric. The clattering of sticks, the yelling, the sound of cars surrounding the school — all grew quiet.

  And there in the darkness behind his eyelids shone a pale silvery light. Was it the sun in his eyes? No. It was moonlight.

  Again, the moon, he thought. What’s with the moon? Moon Medallion. Moon dragon. Always the moon!

  And there he was, small again, sitting in that same tree by the side of his house. It
was … what? Eight years ago? Nine? He was very small. He sat perfectly still on the branch, humming softly to himself when, all of a sudden, something moved near him. Someone moved. Above Keeah’s whispering came the person’s quiet words.

  Eric … here …

  The voice … it made him feel … what was it? The voice made him feel … safe.

  Then he felt something drop into his hand.

  He saw it lying there.

  And he knew.

  Suddenly, his eyes popped open. He left the trance completely.

  “What is it?” asked Keeah.

  Without answering, Eric walked down the hall to his parents’ room. He opened his mother’s closet and set his foot on the lowest shelf to boost himself to the top. There, he found a small wooden chest. He couldn’t remember ever seeing it before, but he knew exactly what it was. He grabbed it and jumped back to the floor.

  “Keeah,” he said, “I’m afraid.”

  “I guess that makes two of us,” she said. “But it’s okay. We’re in this together, Eric.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly. “Thanks.”

  He opened the chest slowly. Inside it was a small blue velvet box. Tilting the tiny box open, Eric saw a white gem the size of a marble.

  “Oh my gosh!” whispered Keeah. “That’s it. It actually is a pearl. It’s beautiful!”

  The Pearl really is beautiful, thought Eric. It was milky white, with swirls of brighter white across its surface. No, not across its surface. The closer he looked, the more Eric realized that the swirls were coming from inside the Pearl. Staring closer still, he saw that the swirls were moving around inside the gem, like whitecapped waves rising and crashing in a great ocean.

  “The Pearl Sea!” he murmured softly.

  Keeah looked at him. “Eric, the old legend was about you. You were the boy to find it. Not Sparr.”

  Eric thought about the prophecy that Gethwing was following. “I guess that’s true. But I don’t have a clue about what the Pearl Sea is. I think I got it when I was little. Really little. But I don’t know what it means. My mom might —”