City in the Clouds Read online

  Ice. That was the other thing Sparr had said the last time they were in Droon. Sparr was going to do something bad with ice.

  “We’ll defeat Princess Keeah,” the Sparr in Eric’s mind continued. “And the old wizard, Galen. You will help me….”

  “No way!” Eric cried, dropping the bat. “I’ll never do it! Never!”

  “Are you going to play or not?” Neal said.

  Eric turned to his friends. “Sorry, guys. But something weird is going on. I keep seeing Sparr in my mind. He’s telling me how I’m going to help him. It’s like a nightmare, only it’s daytime.”

  “A daymare!” Julie said. Then she gasped. “Wait a second. Do you think the daydreams mean we need to go to Droon?”

  Their friend Princess Keeah had told them that when they dreamed about Droon, it meant the magic was working.

  It meant they needed to return.

  Eric nodded slowly. “This might be some kind of message or something.” He started for the back steps. “We need to return. Now.”

  “What? No!” Neal jumped up and down. “I need to show you my new twisty throw — hey!”

  But Julie and Eric were already in the house.

  “Oh, man!” said Neal. “I knew we ­weren’t going to play this game. I just knew it!”

  By the time Neal caught up with them, Eric and Julie were halfway down the base­ment stairs.

  “We’ll play when we get back,” Julie said. “It’s not as if Droon takes any time. No matter how long our adventure is, we come back around the same time we left. It’s so neat that way.”

  This was true. One of the very coolest things the kids discovered was that it took no time at all to have a full adventure in Droon.

  “Time is strange there,” Eric said. “It’s different from here in the Upper World.”

  The Upper World was Droon’s name for where the kids lived.

  Neal set the softball on the workbench. Julie and Eric pushed aside a large box.

  Behind it was the door to a small empty room under the basement stairs.

  Carefully, they went inside the room. Eric closed the door behind them. Julie clicked off the light.

  For an instant the room was dark, then —

  Whoosh! A set of rainbow-colored stairs appeared where the floor used to be.

  “I love that!” Julie whispered.

  Eric took the first step. “Let’s go.”

  They began their descent.

  “I can’t see anything but the stairs,” Eric whispered. “It’s totally dark all around.”

  Julie took a deep breath. “Do you think the stairs can lead us to someplace bad?”

  “Thanks for scaring me,” Neal mumbled, clutching the stair rail.

  “I’m not sure,” said Eric. “I guess that’s one of Droon’s many secrets — whoa!”

  “What is it?” asked Neal, huddling closer.

  “That was the bottom step,” said Eric.

  No sooner had they stepped off than the stairway began to fade. A moment later, it was gone.

  “No turning back now,” said Julie.

  They stepped forward. Eric stuck his hands out. “I think it’s some kind of cave. The walls are rough. So is the floor. Be careful.”

  “It smells like animals,” Julie added.

  Grrrr!

  Everyone stopped.

  “Is somebody going to say ‘Excuse me,’ or are we in deep trouble?” Neal asked.

  Grrrr! The growling noise was closer this time.

  “I hear breathing,” Julie whispered.

  “And I s-s-see … eyes!” Neal stammered. “Red eyes! Lots of them!”

  Eric shivered again, then whispered, “Everyone who agrees we should run, say ‘Run.’”

  “RUN!” they all cried.

  They ran.

  Text copyright © 1999 by Robert T. Abbott.

  Illustrations copyright © 1999 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

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  First Scholastic printing, October 1999

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-41852-2

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