The Chariot of Queen Zara Read online

  “What is the stone all about?” asked Eric. “It looks like a regular old rock to me.”

  His eyes darting both ways, Galen crept down the passage to the main hall. “Every genie journey ends by finding something of great value. My quest took me to this stone. At once, I knew it had great power, for either good or evil. I also knew that it was not meant for me, but for someone else.”

  “For who?” asked Eric.

  The wizard turned to him. “That, my friend, is a question I hope my books and scrolls will answer. Before consulting the old legends, however, this stone must remain a mystery. But what happened to Fefforello is not a mystery. Once Anusa brought me here to Parthnoop to rest after my journey, Fefforello saw the stone and — zoop! — he was conquered by its raw power.”

  “How will we get it back?” asked Neal. “Fight him and force him to give it to us?”

  “Force him?” said Galen, pausing at a corner where two passages crossed. “I don’t think so. Trick him, perhaps. I like that better. But know this, his little urn men are really his doves under an evil charm. When we have the stone again, Fefforello will be free, but he may not remember the charm to turn his riders back into doves. So they will still be against us —”

  Galen stopped short, his staff sizzling in the hallway’s dim light. “And here they are.”

  And there they were, a dozen urns flying around the corner, each with six little urn riders perched on top. The urns lined up and parted. Then the Sultan floated between them, carrying a long sword.

  “Sssso, Galen!” the Sultan said, snarling like a snake. “Your little friends helped you escape my wizard-proof tower? Should we battle now? Urn riders, watch and learn!”

  “Dun-dunnnn!” the riders chanted.

  Eric drew his sword and stepped forward. Neal huddled behind him.

  “Wait for my signal, boys,” Galen whispered over his shoulder, “then run for the stone. And remember, the urn riders are good creatures under a bad spell. No hurting them —”

  “Enough mumbling!” shouted the Sultan. He jumped toward Galen with his sword straight out in front of him. The wizard leaped aside and swung his colored staff with incredible speed, cutting intricate designs in the air.

  Fwish-fwish-fwish! Each time the Sultan could have struck Galen, the wizard whirled his staff like lightning, causing the genie to twirl dizzily on his heels. Again and again he did this until, finally, the Sultan tumbled into the hovering urn riders, gasping for breath. “Wait … stop … can’t breathe …”

  When the dark genie pulled off his turban to wipe his brow, Galen yelled, “Boys, now!”

  At once, Eric and Neal leaped out from behind the wizard, snatched the Sultan’s turban, and yanked the black stone from it.

  There was a flash of light in the hall. The Sultan screamed, “Ohhhh!”

  Suddenly, the black of his genie robes seemed to drain away, leaving him standing in an outfit of sparkling blue with pale yellow stripes.

  Fefforello dropped his sword to the ground with a clang, then jumped back from it, surprised. “Oh! A sword? Please tell me I was slicing bread! Have I been bad or something?”

  “Let’s just say or something,” Galen answered. “But no, Fefforello, you could never be bad!”

  “Well, we’re bad!” cried one of the urn men. “We’re still evil! And we’ll still get you!”

  “What did I tell you?” said Galen, pulling Eric and Neal away from the advancing riders. “Fefforello, we’ll deal with the riders. You try to free our friends and your fellow genies.”

  “I will!” said Fefforello. Pooof! In a flash of light and smoke, he was gone.

  “Now,” said Galen, leaping down the hall, “let’s use the smoke to escape. Climb out the window and onto the roof, boys. Our adventure’s not over!”

  “I love the sound of that!” said Eric, clambering through the window.

  The three friends tore across the roof, jumped down to the next roof, then climbed up a balcony to a third one. From one roof to another they raced, putting more distance between themselves and the main palace.

  All of a sudden, they heard the sound of feet pattering across the roof tiles in front of them.

  “Careful,” said Eric, slowing.

  There was a tiny cough. Then another, and finally a third. Plink! Kem was standing on the edge of the roof, wagging his tail. Both of his tongues were hanging out.

  “Roo-eee-rrrooww!” he wailed.

  “Kem!” said Neal, running to him and scooping him up in his arms as the puppy continued to howl. “Wait. What? Guys, Kem says he found the biggest chew toy ever. It’s shaped like a big black bird.”

  “Rooo!” wailed the puppy.

  “The Raven!” said Galen. “Take us to that rocket, little Kem. We shall follow you!”

  “And we’ll follow you!” yelled a familiar voice as Keeah climbed over a neighboring rooftop, followed by Julie and Max. She smiled widely when she saw Galen. “Fefforello just freed us —”

  “Master!” cried Max. He leaped across the air to Galen, and the two hugged.

  But the reunion didn’t last long.

  “There they are!” snarled the chief urn man, finally tumbling out the smoky window in front of a troop of flying riders. “Get them!”

  “Oh, man!” said Eric. “Run!”

  As the six friends and Kem tore across the rooftops of Parthnoop, the turbaned riders swooped after them, their chants growing louder and louder.

  “Dun-dun. Dun-dun! DUN-DUNNNN!”

  “Dun-dun-dun-dun!” sang the urn men as they dived at the friends.

  “Nice to have a soundtrack,” Julie called over her shoulder as she ran. “It makes me feel like moving — fast!”

  Suddenly, Kem skittered to the edge of one roof and stopped. His right head was pointing one way while his left head looked in the opposite direction.

  “Everybody, look what Kem found!” said Neal, screeching to a halt.

  In one direction was a monstrous black rocket, complete with wings and a massive beak, rising up from the ground in the distance.

  “The Raven!” murmured Keeah.

  Kem’s other head pointed across the street to a small alley. At the end of the alley stood a stable with stone arches in front.

  “That’s where the chariot is!” said Julie.

  Galen peered over the edge of the roof. “Ten feet,” he whispered. “I wonder. I hate to be rude to the urn men but, shall we?” The kids nodded.

  “Shall you what?” asked the chief rider, zooming over with his entire troop.

  “Too-da-loo!” shouted Max, clutching Galen’s hand. And before the urn men could stop them, the seven friends leaped off the edge of the roof and hit the ground running.

  “After them!” yelled the riders, swooping down into the street.

  Racing along the alley, the friends charged into the stable. While Eric, Neal, and Max bolted the doors behind them, Galen went to the back of the stable and, holding his breath, pulled away the cloth hiding the chariot.

  “Ahhhh …” he gasped, staggering in the glow of his mother’s creation. “I do remember this!” He patted the head of the silver horse and ran his fingers over the carved symbols. “I can’t believe Sparr kept it all these years.”

  “Master?” said Max.

  The wizard turned to his friend. “I know. Time to ride!” He hopped into the chariot.

  “All aboard?” asked Keeah.

  “All aboard!” said Julie, making room for Neal and Kem beside her.

  “Let’s fly!” said Eric. The moment he slipped the Moon Medallion into its place on the chariot’s railing, the silver horse sprang to life. In a flash, Queen Zara’s chariot burst right through the stable doors, toppling the surprised urn men. It swept through the alley and finally soared up over the streets.

  But the urn men raised an alarm instantly. Swooping bands of colorful urns came flying from every part of the snow-swept city.

  “Up!” said Eric, moving the Moon Medallion, a
nd the chariot flew up in a wide loop over the heads of the approaching riders. It zoomed between two slanted towers.

  “They’re gaining on us!” cried Max.

  “Faster!” said Galen, his eyes fixed in front of them.

  “More urns ahead!” Keeah called out. “Eric, drive us low. Dip the chariot!”

  “I’m dipping!” he answered, twisting the Medallion. The chariot swooped below the oncoming urns and into the street.

  Swoosh! Swoosh! No sooner had the chariot swept down than the urns, in a hurricane of swirling black flakes, dived after it.

  When the chariot zoomed up once again, the friends saw the great bird-shaped vessel called the Raven looming straight ahead of them. The rocket was sleeker and blacker and more terrifying than any of them had realized. As it stood perched and ready to lift off, another troop of urn men filed inside a giant hatch on the rocket’s tail.

  “Brrrr-ump-bump!” sang the little men.

  “Oh, my gosh!” said Keeah. “They’re flying that … thing … to Jaffa City?”

  “Not if we can help it!” cried several voices together.

  All of a sudden, three figures flew down from the swirling, black-flaked sky — Anusa, Hoja, and Fefforello.

  “My friends helped me remember the charm I put on my doves!” said Fefforello, resplendent in his blue robes and sparkling slippers. “Be gone, you impish men with bad attitudes. Return, my beautiful white doves!”

  Then, whispering all together, and ending with three loud claps — Clap! Clap! Clap! — the genies reversed Fefforello’s evil charm. As everyone watched, the riders quivered and yelped and finally turned into a cooing, fluttering flock of pure-white doves once more.

  “Amazing!” chirped Max.

  “I remembered more!” said Fefforello.

  With a second round of claps, the genies whispered again, and the Raven collapsed into a swirl of black snow and vanished.

  “Finally, this is the best part,” said Fefforello. Clapping three more times, the Fifth Genie of the Dove twirled in his slippers. As he did, the city around them began to wobble. It quivered. It wiggled. Then finally it moved, lifting up from the surface and flying all the way from the moon’s dark side into its blazing sunlight. If anyone thought Parthnoop was beautiful before, it was nothing compared to the awesome city that sparkled before them now.

  “Ta-da!” said Fefforello.

  “A new Parthnoop!” Galen boomed happily. “The ancient city of genies is restored!”

  Whatever black snow there was, melted away in the heat and light. The swirling dark flakes were nowhere to be seen.

  For a moment.

  As everyone stood and gazed upon the great white city, Eric saw one tiny dark flake fall through the air. He caught it in the palm of his hand, but it didn’t dissolve.

  “Wait. This isn’t snow,” he said as more flakes began to fall all around them.

  “No, not snow,” said Max. “It’s ash. Look.”

  Turning, they saw a thin stream of black ash in the sky, leading all the way back from Parthnoop to Sparr’s Forbidden City of Plud.

  “Plud’s tower is flaming higher and higher,” said Keeah. “The beasts and the Ninns must be fighting.”

  “Guys, I think our adventure might not be over,” said Neal. “We have to go back to Droon. To Plud. And we have to go now.”

  Anusa turned to Galen. “Go. We shall meet you in Plud soon,” she said. “There is something we genies must do first.” Then, with a twirl of their colorful robes, all three genies vanished.

  The wizard nodded. “Well then, friends, it is time. Shall we go to Plud?”

  “To Plud!” said Eric.

  In no time, the silver chariot whisked them up from the ground, and away they flew from the sparkling white city of Parthnoop to the dismal, dark, fearful city of Plud.

  Swoosh! The chariot wound down through the smoky air of the Dark Lands and circled behind the Ninn encampment.

  “I see things are changing in Droon,” said Galen as they landed. “We have new friends to help us fight against the beasts now. This is good!”

  Captain Bludge hustled right over to them. He and the wizard bowed to each other. “It got worse,” Bludge said, pointing to the fortress. “More beasts come. Look.”

  More gray beasts than they could have imagined were ranged across Plud’s walls. Every inch of the fortress was alive with them. Their red eyes gleamed in the light of many flaming torches.

  The chief of the Ninns groaned and turned away from his former home. “Our Plud —”

  “Will be yours again,” said Galen firmly, “if we have anything to say about it.”

  The red warrior looked at the wizard. “You are Galen. For long time we are enemies.”

  Galen shook his head. “Not today, my friend. But we’ll discuss all that later. For now, turning back the beasts is turning back Ko. And Ko must go!”

  “But how will we get into the fortress?” asked Julie. “I’ve never seen so many beasts.”

  Captain Bludge looked thoughtful. “We attack front gate,” he grunted. “You attack there.” He pointed a stubby finger far to the east. Near where the walls of the fortress met the cliffs was a small, round pipe.

  Bludge continued, “Beasts not ready for attack there. That is kitchen pipe.”

  “Kitchen?” said Neal, perking up at the word. “Do you think the beasts eat lunch?”

  “Neal!” snapped Julie. “You can’t eat until we’re done here. Kem, either!”

  Neal gave the dog a pat on each head. “Life is tough, isn’t it, boy?” he grumbled.

  “Rrrr!” Kem agreed.

  “Bludge, that is an excellent plan,” said Galen. “We’ll enter Plud and battle the beasts from inside.”

  While the Ninns massed in a single army to charge the heavily guarded front gate, the kids, Max, and Kem, under Galen’s stealthy lead, rode the chariot carefully through the surrounding forest until they were close under the high cliffs. There, they waited among the black trees for the red warriors to begin the attack. They didn’t have to wait long.

  “To Plud!” came the battle cry of the Ninns as they charged across the plain to the fortress’s front gate.

  “To Plud!” repeated Galen. “Eric, fly us straight inside the fortress!”

  Except that he couldn’t. The instant Eric drove the chariot near the fortress, the kitchen pipe echoed with a high shriek — eeeee! — and ten wingsnakes swooped right out at them.

  “Eric, get us out of here!” cried Keeah. “The beasts must have expected us!”

  “That way!” said Julie, pointing to the unmanned upper walls of the fortress.

  Eric turned the Medallion and flew the chariot unseen through the smoke, only to find a second band of wingsnakes swooping over the high walls at them there.

  Four more attempts to surprise the beasts led to four more failures. Meanwhile, the Ninns were forced back across the plains.

  “They know exactly what we’re going to do!” grumbled Eric, finally driving the chariot back to the forest as the battle came to a pause.

  “How could the beasts know?” asked Keeah. “It’s like someone’s telling them —”

  Neal gasped suddenly. “No. Not telling them. Told them! Fefforello! Eric, don’t you remember? Back when he was the bad Sultan, Fefforello said he would help Ko. This must be what he meant. He’s a genie, so he must have gone ahead in time to see what we would do. Then he went back in time and told the beasts.”

  “You mean the Sultan was that shadowy figure we saw in Plud?” asked Eric.

  “I’m pretty sure,” said Neal.

  “If only the genies were with us now,” said Galen, pacing back and forth in front of the chariot. “It might be our only chance —”

  “Too late!” cried Julie. “Catapult!”

  Blammm! A fireball exploded nearby, sending everyone for cover in the chariot. As a second fireball zoomed toward them, Eric spun the Medallion and drove the silver vehicle back over the dark tr
ees. He zigzagged across the sky until they were safely back in the Ninn camp.

  Captain Bludge, his sword at his side, hurried over to them. “Plud is lost. The beasts have won.” Suddenly, he paused. “Wait,” he said. “Where is other boy?”

  Galen whirled around on his heels. His eyes widened. “Neal. Neal! Where’s Neal? We couldn’t have left him in the forest!”

  “Not in the forest! There!” said Max.

  Everyone turned to see the tiny figure of a boy with blond hair chasing a two-headed dog across the open ground beneath the walls. Five wingsnakes were closing in on him, their fiery breath nipping at his heels.

  “Neal!” cried Eric, feeling his knees go weak. The wingsnakes drove Kem and Neal toward the lake. A moment later, Eric heard the ice crack and the water splash. The two figures vanished under the surface of the lake. “No! No! Neal —”

  “Yeah, what?” said a familiar voice.

  Everyone turned to see Neal standing behind them. He was soaking wet but smiling, and he had a wet Kem wrapped in his arms. “Hey, guys.”

  Keeah gasped. “Neal, you were just down there! But now you’re here. How … how …”

  Neal held up his hand. “Hold on … five … four … three … watch this …”

  He pointed to Plud.

  All of a sudden, a wild shriek echoed from the main tower and across the plains, getting louder by the second. The next moment, the main gates burst open and the beasts — every last one of them — rushed away from Plud.

  They leaped, they flew, they crawled, they ran. From the walls and the towers, from the halls and the sewers, from the dungeons and weapon rooms, the army of Ko’s beasts fled the giant fortress of Plud.

  It was over in a matter of minutes.

  Before there were any more blasts, before an arrow was fired, before a single Ninn or beast yelled, “Ouch!” the vast legion of beasts had run away, far away, into the deepest, darkest distance of the Dark Lands.

  The Forbidden City of Plud was empty.

  “Pretty cool, huh?” said Neal.