The Fortress of the Treasure Queen Page 3

  “Good luck?” whispered Eric. “You can’t leave us here! Sparr!”

  But the boy slipped down a side hallway. As he did, his white cloak faded away, and his familiar black cape reappeared around him. An instant later, he was gone.

  The black bird began to flutter in Eric’s pocket.

  Right, thought Eric. I don’t trust him. I’m sorry, but I don’t!

  “Follow!” snarled the guard. He turned a last corner then stopped before a large door. Opening it, he led the children into a vast room.

  The room was blazing with light. Green and red banners hung from the walls. Garlands of ivy were draped from the ceiling and lit with miniature candles. The Ninns they had seen outside were clustered on one side of the room, straightening their costumes. On the other was a long table set with mounds of every kind of food and drink. In the center stood an empty throne made of black marble and topped with long, pointed antlers.

  Behind the throne was a huge window that looked out on a large, lighted, inner courtyard of the fortress.

  “This place is awesome!” whispered Julie.

  “No kidding!” agreed Neal, his eyes scanning the table. “I hope we get to eat.”

  All of a sudden, the dog guards bowed toward a door at the far end of the room.

  “Be careful, people,” Eric whispered. “Bazra could be … be … huh?”

  Bazra wasn’t what he had expected.

  She was short and round and wore a dazzling pink crown, a furry pink robe, and pink shoes. Even her cheeks were pink. They bulged as if they were filled with nuts.

  “What a day! What a day!” Bazra chirped in a high voice as she pranced into the room. “Magic traders and more magic traders! Come forward, everyone! Show me what you have!”

  The Ninns pushed rudely past the kids. On the count of three, they placed their hands over their chests, pointed their feet out, and began to sing.

  We hope you like our fancy dress,

  Because we bring to your fortress

  The greatest magic ever seen —

  It’s all for you, Droon’s treasure queen!

  As the Ninns finished their song and everyone bowed, Julie and Keeah nudged Eric from both sides. Following their eyes, he looked through the giant window behind the throne. He stiffened as he saw a small, dark figure tiptoe across the courtyard.

  Sparr! said Keeah silently.

  As they watched, Sparr paused and looked up. Not more than a second later, a four-winged dragon swooped silently down from the sky and landed next to him. They seemed to be talking to each other

  Sparr … and Gethwing! added Eric, unable to take his eyes away.

  Bazra saw the children staring past her and turned her head quickly toward the window. “What is going on —”

  Suddenly, the bird in Eric’s pocket quivered and tried to make its way out.

  Quickly pulling it out, Eric yelled, “Queen Bazra! Look here! Magic!”

  The queen jerked her head back. “Magic? Magic! I do love magic!”

  As Gethwing flew up and Sparr scampered away across the courtyard, the little black bird flew around the room, spelling the name BAZRA in twinkling letters across the air.

  “I love it!” cried Bazra. “Oh, show me more!”

  “I can talk, O great Queen Bazra!” said the bird.

  The queen’s face lit up. “Excellent, excellent!”

  “But we have better!” shouted one Ninn, glaring at the children. “Look!”

  The two warriors carrying the golden chest stepped forward. With a flourish, they removed a single object and held it high for the queen to see.

  The Ninns were holding an old brown jar with big blue letters painted on the side.

  COOKIES

  “We found it just this morning!” said the Ninn. “We knew you would like it!”

  Eric couldn’t breathe. He felt his heart leap. “My jar! It is here! It’s mine!”

  At once, Bazra stood, her eyes widening at the children. “I know magic things! That jar is from the Upper World! Which means you are from the Upper World! Upper Worlders in my fortress! Upper Worlders in my treasure collection!”

  “Us? In her collection?” whispered Neal. “How’s that going to work —”

  Suddenly, Bazra began to change.

  Her round pink cheeks shriveled as if she had sucked in all her breath. Her skin turned the color of ash. Her eyes, large and bright just a second before, now dwindled to shifty black dots in a sea of red. She became as gray as a ghost.

  Julie made a face. “I think I liked her better before!”

  The queen jerked up her hand. In it was a twisted wand, glowing with jagged black sparks. She waved it at the children.

  Keeah backed up. “Uh … what does that do exactly?”

  Bazra gave them all a cold grin. “Exactly? It freezes things. And people. Like you! Guards! Take the jar, take the bird, take it all! And block those doors. I’m gonna freeze me some magic traders!”

  “Grrrr-rooo!” growled the guards.

  “But our song!” protested the Ninns. “We thought you liked it!”

  “I’ll like you in my collection!” cried Bazra. A beam of black sparks crackled from the wand. It missed the Ninns by inches but covered the floor with thick black ice.

  “That’s our cue to leave!” yelled Keeah. She pulled Max to her, then flipped the green cloth from her robe and the flying carpet hovered before them.

  “Come on, Eric, get on!” said Julie, running and sliding for the carpet.

  “But my bird!” Eric shouted.

  “I’ll find you later!” chirped the bird. “I’m magical, remember!” It looped straight out of the hall, chased by several guards with a big net.

  Watching until the bird was safely away, Eric scrambled onto the carpet. At the same time, he sent a bolt of silver light at the door. Blam! It scattered the queen’s guards.

  Instantly, the Ninns slid across the ice and out of the room, holding the jar high.

  “We’re right behind you!” said Keeah. “Carpet — go!”

  “And I’m right behind you!” yelled Bazra. She jumped back to her antler throne. With a roaring sound, the throne lifted off the ground and shot into the hallway after them.

  “Take your time!” Eric shouted back at her. He shot a blast at the queen. Kkkkk! In a bright burst of silver sparks, the queen tumbled off her throne and slid back into the room across the icy floor.

  She toppled some guards, then struck the far wall with her head. Thud!

  “See ya later, Bazra!” shouted Neal. “Or maybe never!”

  Keeah shot the carpet down the hall outside the throne room.

  “Princess, go left!” said Max.

  “I’m going!” cried Keeah. She steered the carpet left into a stairway curving down from the main floor. Right away, they entered a series of twisting narrow passages. Keeah banked the carpet out of one corner and into another.

  “They’re trapped in the maze!” echoed one of the guards following them.

  “Trapped?” said Julie. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Maze?” said Neal. “I don’t like the sound of that!”

  “Keeah, watch out!” said Eric. “A wall. A wall! A wall!”

  Keeah jerked the carpet up, stopping inches from a stone wall. “Guys, there’s only one chance to escape the guards. The old-fashioned way. Run!”

  The kids tumbled off the carpet, tore off their costumes, and darted ahead into the winding tunnels. Eric ran as fast as he could, listening to the guards behind him and trying to follow the sound of Neal and Julie hustling ahead of him. Through one tunnel after another, he followed their steps until, slowing to catch his breath, he realized it wasn’t his friends but the echo of his own footsteps that he had heard. He stopped.

  “Julie?” he whispered.

  No answer.

  “Neal? Keeah? Max? Anyone?”

  No answer.

  Eric’s heart pounded in his chest. Oh, great! he thought. No bird. No
cookie jar. No submarine. Sparr talking to Gethwing. And, oh, yeah, I’m lost in the maze of the treasure palace of a nutty, freezing queen! Could it get any worse —

  The passage behind him suddenly thundered with stomping feet.

  Guards! He gasped. I guess so! Suddenly, two hands grabbed him and pulled him into a shallow alcove in the tunnel wall. “Hey —”

  “Shhh!” hissed a voice.

  The Ninns hustled by, still holding the jar high. They were chased by a dozen growling dog-headed guards. After they passed, a red spark flickered in the alcove, and Eric saw the outlines of a boy with fins.

  “Sparr!” he whispered. “Did you know my jar was here? We saw you getting all chatty with Gethwing! Are you planning to give it to him —”

  “No!” Sparr hissed. He looked at Eric in the light of the spark, then peered into the passage. “I knew the Ninns found the jar. When Gethwing saw me, I was terrified, but I tried to find out if he knew about the jar. He wanted to take me back to Ko! He tried to turn me to his side. I said no and had to make a run for it. You have to trust me.”

  Eric watched as Sparr shone his red sparks into the empty passage.

  Trust you?

  It was true that Sparr had told them about the sub and helped them get into the fortress. And just now, he had pulled Eric to safety when the guards were near.

  Maybe. But what about the bird’s warning?

  “Come on!” whispered Sparr. Using his sparking fingers to guide the way, he was down the passage in an instant. He trotted up another tunnel, then stopped. “Oh!”

  Eric moved up next to Sparr.

  Before them was a treasure room. At the far end was an opening to another passage. In between stood rows and rows of twisted spears and staffs with gnarled tips. There were piles of dented helmets and shields. A mound of broken wands stood waist high. Against one wall was a great heap of yellow metal that Eric recognized as the remains of Sparr’s car.

  In the middle of all of it stood the tall black statue of a man with a spiked helmet and large jagged fins sticking up behind his ears.

  Even as the distant echoes of guards came and went, Sparr gasped softly. “That’s … me…. That’s what I become!”

  Stooping, he picked up a scroll that lay on the floor as if the black statue had dropped it. He turned to Eric. “I keep remembering more and more of the things I did. I fought you, didn’t I?”

  Eric stared at the helmets and armor, the spears and wands. He nodded. “Your mother was a great wizard. They called her the Queen of Light. But Ko … he taught you to use your powers for, you know, bad things.”

  Sparr touched his ear fins gently, then looked at the red sparks coming from his fingertips.

  Eric looked, too.

  The hands of the sorcerer, he thought.

  Sparr turned his face to Eric. “Is it too late for me? To be good, I mean? I wasn’t bad to begin with, was I?”

  Eric swallowed hard to hear Galen’s old words. “Well, I —”

  All at once, the tunnels exploded with barking and growling.

  Then came the sound of Neal shouting, “Back off! I’m not a collectible!”

  “Get away from me, you thing!” cried Max.

  “You should be in the Droon dog pound!” yelled Julie.

  His friends charged into the treasure room, followed almost instantly by the queen’s guards. In a flash, they were surrounded. The guards grinned, showed their long teeth, and aimed their spears at the kids.

  “This is crazy,” said Keeah, backing up next to Eric and eyeing the opening at the far end of the room. “We’ll never get out of here unless we split up!”

  Sparr’s face beamed suddenly. “Split up? Wait a second. I can do that!”

  Taking a deep breath, he began to spin on his heels. An instant later, it looked as though he had fallen apart in a flash of violet light. When he stopped spinning, there were two of him standing there.

  “Not bad, eh?” one of them said.

  “If you do say so myself!” said the other.

  The guards stared at both boys.

  “Follow me, guards!” said one Sparr, holding up the scroll he had found. “I’m taking this!” He dashed off into one of the side tunnels.

  “Don’t forget me!” snapped the other, tearing out the opposite way.

  “Get him!” yelled the chief guard. “And him!”

  Some troops charged down one passage, some down the other. The guards split up so completely that soon the children found themselves alone in the treasure room.

  Eric couldn’t believe what had just happened. “Sparr helped us again.”

  “That’s, like, the fifth time,” said Julie. “Maybe we should look for the jar now.”

  “And the bird?” said Neal.

  “And the ship,” said Keeah.

  “And save ourselves while we’re at it!” chirped Max. “Let’s go —”

  “Not so fast!” cackled a hollow voice.

  Floating into the treasure room, clutching her antler throne, was the ghostly Queen Bazra herself. Her pink crown was tilted on her head, and her pink cloak was still smoking from Eric’s earlier blast, but her thin white lips were curling into a cruel grin.

  She raised the sparking black wand. “So, then. Anyone for — freezing?”

  As tiny jets floated the queen’s throne toward the children and the wand sprinkled sparks, Bazra’s ghostly eyes blazed. “Who wants to be first?”

  Neal backed up. “You really do like to fly around in that thing, don’t you? Instead of bothering us, why don’t you take a trip in it? A very long trip —”

  The queen snorted. “The question is, where will you go? In my collection, I mean? I think maybe in the main hall. I’ll call you … Frozen Wizards and Friends! Now, strike a nice pose. Say cheese —”

  Suddenly — KA-WHOOOM! — the wall next to Bazra exploded into the room, blowing her right out of her throne. She crumpled to a heap on the floor, and her wand flickered out. Her head hit the far wall again. Thud!

  A giant bronze-tipped submarine pushed right into the treasure room. Water rushed across the floor from a channel just outside the wall.

  “The Sword of Jaffa!” cried Max, staggering to his feet and helping Julie up.

  “It looks like … a monster!” Keeah said.

  It did look like a monster. Huge metal claws jutted out on either side of the hull. Sharp fins, like rows of iron teeth, ran the entire length of the submarine, from its glass-covered snout to its many-bladed tail.

  Vrrrrt! A hatch on the top of the bronze ship slid open, and a small head popped out.

  A head with glowing little fins behind the ears.

  “Sparr!” cried Julie. “Yes!”

  The boy did a little bow. “Still think I’m working with Gethwing? I’m here to save you! But you have to hurry. More guards are coming. Well, they’re always coming. But they’re really coming now. Get in!”

  The kids and Max rushed to the submarine. They clambered up the hull to a large upper deck, then down a hatchway to a cabin surrounded by glass.

  “Whoa!” said Neal. “I never thought I’d be glad to see one of Ko’s magical ships. But is this awesome or what?”

  “It’s awesome all right,” Eric said softly, staring at everything.

  The cabin was filled with strange-looking controls — dials with odd markings, big buttons, iron wheels, and great levers — all surrounding two very large seats. A weird glow from the controls bathed the whole cabin in a bright green light.

  But perhaps weirdest of all were the two Sparrs standing there side by side.

  Eric blinked at both boys. He noticed for the first time that one was a tiny bit shorter than the other and had darker fins. And while the one who had poked out of the hatch had a grin on his face, the shorter Sparr was not smiling.

  “Neat trick, splitting myself!” said the taller Sparr, plopping into one of the seats. “We finally made the guards attack themselves!”

  “Can you … get back tog
ether?” asked Keeah.

  “Later,” snapped the shorter Sparr, not taking his eyes off the channel ahead. “Ko has four arms, remember? It’ll take both of us to run this thing — now!”

  Both boys pulled two large S-shaped levers at the same time.

  VRRRRM! The sub jerked backward out of the room, sloshing once more into the water. Behind the sub, a narrow channel snaked away into the shadows under the fortress. But looking through the cabin’s front window, the children could see the crisscrossing searchlights and the swamp beyond.

  “We need to go that way,” said Julie.

  “Just a little detour first,” said the shorter Sparr. He tugged on his giant lever, and the sub went suddenly into reverse, puffing out a huge cloud of gray smoke. “While trying to find the sub, we came across something else. Right … here!”

  The Sword of Jaffa swerved and — blammm! — it crashed straight into the side wall of the channel. Stones tumbled forward into a cramped cell. Inside was the band of frightened Ninns in fancy costumes.

  The moment the shorter Sparr crawled up through the top hatch and waved, the Ninns jumped. “Little Sparr. Little Sparr!” they cheered. “You saved us!”

  “Remember this,” the boy said, “whenever I … whenever we … need you! Now — escape!” He jumped quickly back into the cabin.

  The sub reversed itself, and the Ninns poured into the channel after it, sloshing along its edge toward the distant opening.

  “Now we save ourselves!” said the smiling Sparr. “Let’s get out of here!”

  “We’ll need someone to save us in a minute,” said Neal, running forward from the back of the ship. “Take a look out that rearview window thingy —”

  “The porthole?” said Julie.

  “Whatever!” shouted Neal. “I can’t believe it, but — it’s Ms. Freezy!”

  “Why doesn’t she just give up?” chirped Max.

  Bazra zoomed up the channel behind them, then shot overhead and hovered before the cabin’s window. Her dark eyes blazed wildly, her ghostly hair flew in every direction, her crown sat lopsided on her head. With a crazy grin, she raised her black wand again and — zinnnnng! — a powerful beam of black light shot out.