The Isle of Mists Page 5

  King Zello laughed. “Are you saying we need to leave the island now?”

  Nelag nodded. “Exactly wrong!”

  With a sharp rumble, the ground beneath them shuddered. Then a large, spiky head burst out of the sea offshore. It wrinkled its scaly neck and turned away. The Isle of Mists turned with it.

  “Ko wasn’t the only thing to wake up!” yelped Djambo. “This whole island is on the back of a serpent!”

  Zello boomed. “Come, everyone, to the Jaffa Wind. And hurry!”

  “Before the island swims away!” chirped Max.

  With a great rush, everyone raced down the misty hill to the shore. Once they charged on board the Jaffa Wind, the ship rose on a giant wave. No sooner did it crash straight through the storm and into daylight, than the Isle of Mists itself slithered away, taking its fierce twisting winds with it.

  “Buh-bye, hurricane!” said Neal. “See you never. I hope!”

  As the ship drove north over the waves, they left the Serpent Sea for the great ocean of Droon, sailing past a world of glistening valleys, ice-topped mountains, and silvery rivers.

  Eric sighed. “Ko wants to turn all this into his rotten Empire of Shadows? To make this beautiful world as stinky as the Isle of Mists?”

  Neal shrugged. “Makes you wish for the good old days of Sparr, doesn’t it?”

  “Maybe that’s the thing about shadows,” said Keeah. “You can’t have them without the sun!”

  As if on cue, the bright pink and blue domes of Jaffa City peeped over the distant horizon, gleaming in the sun of the new day.

  Max chuckled. “We turned Ninns into Orkins today. Wouldn’t it be great if for every bad thing that Ko does, a good thing might happen, too?”

  “Many good things!” said Djambo. “Just look at those climbing ropes. Up, my brothers! Up!”

  The new Orkins whooped as they climbed the rigging and hoisted the Droon flag high.

  “We must keep Droon safe,” said Relna. “Happily, we have more friends in Droon right now than ever before —”

  A sudden whimper sounded behind them.

  Everyone turned to see a small dog pop its head out of the shadows at the back of the ship.

  A second head lifted up and joined it.

  “Oh, my gosh, it’s Kem,” gasped Keeah. “And he’s a puppy! The Viper must have zapped him!”

  Neal crouched to the deck. “Here, boy, here —”

  But Kem turned back to the shadows and sniffed at a heap of twisted cloth lying there. Pulling hard, he tugged the covering away.

  Eric felt his blood go cold.

  Underneath the cloth was a small boy. His eyes blinked in the sunshine. His face was as pale as snow, his features wrinkled in fear. He huddled inside a long black tunic that was smeared and torn.

  And he wiggled the two small fins behind his ears.

  “I can’t believe it!” said Keeah. “Sparr? Is that … you?”

  “This can’t be true,” said Julie. “It’s not possible —”

  For what seemed like forever, the boy said nothing. Finally, he whispered. “Take me with you … please … help me….”

  Eric’s heart thundered in his chest. “It is possible. Nelag’s old firework exploded at the very moment the Viper was waking up Ko —”

  “Quite right!” said the pretend wizard. “Fizzling Fizzlers are the best!”

  “The explosion must have turned Sparr back to the age he was when Ko put himself to sleep …” said Eric.

  The boy shivered. “Take me away from Ko…. I know what he will do…. I know his plans…. I can help you…. please!”

  His fins were as small as if they had just started to grow.

  Sparr! As a child! thought Eric.

  All of a sudden — whoosh! — the air lit up.

  The rainbow-colored steps of the magic staircase appeared near the ship, floating over the waves.

  “Children, you’d better go now,” said Queen Relna solemnly, still staring at the boy. “We must get Sparr to Jaffa City at once.”

  “Home!” boomed the king. “The sail, there! Ho! Quickly! Quickly!”

  Eric turned to Keeah. “This changes everything,” he whispered.

  “We’ll be back soon,” said Julie.

  “Sooner than soon!” added Neal.

  “I’ll need you,” said Keeah.

  Even as the three friends jumped to the stairs, and the ship raced away over the waves, they couldn’t take their eyes off Sparr, looking up at Keeah in fear.

  Or off Keeah, staring back in stunned surprise.

  Eric remembered then what Sparr had told them.

  “A great new adventure begins.”

  It sure does, he thought. But where it will end, no one knows.

  As his friends ran up the stairs ahead of him, Eric remembered something else, too. Shoving his hand in his pocket, he pulled out what he had put there when no one was looking.

  The little wooden bird he found in Ko’s palace.

  Eric stared at the bird.

  It stared right back at him.

  Errrricccc!

  Eric Hinkle wasn’t alone as he hopped around his room, trying to pull on his left sock.

  “That might be easier if you sat down,” squeaked a high voice.

  Eric flopped on his bed and stared.

  On his dresser stood a small bird carved of black wood. Its wings were folded. It had two green dots for eyes.

  It was talking to him.

  “I still can’t believe it,” said Eric. “A magical bird is talking to me!”

  “Droon has lots of magic,” said the bird.

  Eric knew that, of course.

  Droon was a vast realm of magic, a land of wizards and sorcerers, of enchanted castles and floating cities, of serpent-filled seas and misty islands. Droon was the secret world Eric and his friends Julie and Neal had discovered one day under his basement stairs.

  On their first adventure there, the three friends had met Keeah, an awesome princess just learning her wizard powers.

  She had become their best Droon friend.

  Since then, Eric and Julie had gained powers of their own. Julie could fly, and Eric could shoot silver sparks from his fingers, speak silently to his friends, and even cast weird ancient spells.

  And Droon was where Eric had found the strange talking bird.

  “If you’re magical, do you know the future?” he asked it.

  “I don’t even know the past!” said the bird. “Someone must have put a memory spell on me. It’s all a mystery. I think I’m on a mission, but I know only two things about it —”

  “My name,” said Eric. “You called to me.”

  “Yes. Your name,” said the black bird.

  It had happened in a place called the Isle of Mists. Eric remembered how stunned he had been when the bird had first spoken his name. Then he remembered how he had slid the bird into his pocket without telling anyone and how he had brought it home.

  “And one other thing,” said the bird. “ ‘The hands of the sorcerer.’ I have no idea what that means!”

  “It sounds to me like a warning,” said Eric, sliding his feet into his sneakers. “ ‘The hands of the sorcerer?’ It probably means Sparr. Sparr is the worst sorcerer I know!”

  That was true. Since just about forever, Keeah and her parents, King Zello and Queen Relna, along with their spider troll friend, Max, had been trying to keep Droon free from the clutches of the wicked and powerful Lord Sparr. Eric, Julie, and Neal had joined them many times to battle the sorcerer.

  Then, on their latest adventure, while Sparr was using his Coiled Viper to wake the Emperor Ko from his ancient sleep, something unbelievable happened.

  Ko, the four-armed, bull-headed ruler of beasts, did come alive and was now back in modern Droon. But Sparr himself got zapped back to when he was a child.

  The sorcerer was now their age!

  “Talk about mystery,” said Eric. “Sparr is now in Jaffa City. With Keeah! He asked us to help him. But
maybe it’s a trick. Maybe your mission is to warn us — to warn me — against him.”

  “That would mean I’m on a dangerous mission!” said the bird.

  Eric frowned. “We’re all pretty much in danger now, since I broke the first rule of the stairs.”

  That was true, too. From the very beginning, the wizard Galen had told the kids not to bring anything from Droon into their world. If they did, things would start moving between the worlds.

  Things.

  Or people.

  “That rule was broken once before,” said Eric, shivering to remember it. “And my dad got zapped into Droon! I have to take you back before something like that happens again. And as soon as Neal and Julie get here, I will —”

  A sudden burst of laughter came from outside. Running to his window, Eric saw Julie and Neal heading across his backyard.

  “Finally!” he said, his heart thumping. “Come on, mystery bird!” He slipped the small figure carefully into his pocket and ran downstairs.

  When he got to the kitchen, his mother was stirring something in a mixing bowl. His father was bending over, peering into the oven.

  Eric stopped. He sniffed. “I smell —”

  “Cookies!” said Neal, bursting in the back door and sticking out his hands. “Two, please!”

  Julie closed the door behind him, laughing.

  “Sorry, kids,” said Mrs. Hinkle with a smile. “These cookies aren’t for us.”

  “We want to welcome the new family up the street,” said Mr. Hinkle. “They’re moving in today —”

  Neal grinned. “Then I’m just in time. You can’t give new neighbors bad cookies. As the person with the most cookie experience, I have to test them.”

  Eric felt the bird flutter in his pocket. “Guys,” he said, “I really need to show you something.”

  “And what I really need,” said Mrs. Hinkle, “is the big cookie jar from the attic. Can you kids run upstairs and find it?”

  “Upstairs?” said Eric. The bird was still fluttering.

  “Our first mission of the day,” said Julie. “I mean … wow! A mission? Great!”

  “All right,” said Eric with a low grumble. He quickly led his friends upstairs, past his room and up a second set of steps to the top of the house. The attic was filled with dusty cartons, old suitcases, exercise equipment, bags of clothes, and lots of baby toys.

  “Kind of a mess,” said Julie, looking around.

  Eric drew in a breath. “Guys, we’ll hunt for the jar in a minute. First, take a look at this —” He pulled the bird from his pocket. It sat in his hand for a second, then flew up to the rafters.

  “Holy crow!” Neal gasped. “It looks like a toy. Where did you get that?”

  “Eric!” said Julie, her eyes wide. “Don’t tell me that bird is from Droon! You shouldn’t have —”

  “I know, I know. I broke the rules,” said Eric. “But I couldn’t help it. The bird spoke to me!”

  “I did speak to him!” chirped the bird. “I’m on a mission. But I can’t remember anything, except that I was sent to get Eric to help me.”

  “And something about ‘the hands of the sorcerer,’” said Eric. “I’m pretty sure it’s a warning about Sparr —”

  “Uh-oh.” Neal’s eyes were fixed on a round brown jar next to a stack of suitcases. Written in big blue letters on it was the word COOKIES.

  The jar was wobbling back and forth, ever so slightly. Then it began to spin faster and faster until, with a quiet plink, it vanished.

  The three friends stared at the spot.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have come?” said the bird.

  Julie put her hand out to where the jar had been and waved it around. “It’s gone. The spell has already started. Guys, we need to —”

  “Right now!” said Neal.

  “Oh, this is not a good thing!” said Eric.

  “Don’t forget me!” cried the bird. It flew down, Eric slipped it carefully into his pocket again, and they charged downstairs together.

  When they got to the kitchen, Mr. Hinkle was stacking cookies on a plate. “Did you find the jar?”

  “Uh, I think we’ll look in the basement,” said Julie.

  “Yeah, maybe the jar is under some stuff down there,” added Neal.

  Yeah, Eric spoke silently to his friends. Under the house. All the way — in Droon!

  They jumped down the basement steps and quickly pushed away some cartons stacked in front of a door under the stairs. Opening the door, they crowded into a small closet and turned on the light dangling from the ceiling.

  Eric shut the door behind them.

  “Guys,” he said, “I know I broke a major rule. But maybe we can stop stuff from moving between the worlds before anything else goes. Just let me tell Keeah, all right?”

  “Of course,” said Julie.

  “You bet,” said Neal. He switched off the light.

  An instant later — whooosh! — the floor vanished, and the kids found themselves on the top step of a staircase curving away from the house.

  Twenty steps below drifted the gauzy pink clouds of the sky of Droon.

  Together the three friends circled down the steps, slowly at first, then more quickly.

  When they pushed through the clouds, they spied a patch of dark woods surrounded by fields. Far in the distance rose the bright towers and gleaming walls of Jaffa City. The afternoon sun shone orange on the palace’s great dome.

  “It’s always amazingly beautiful here,” said Julie. “Keeah is so lucky.”

  “I hope we’re lucky,” murmured Eric.

  Suddenly — shoooom! — a bright green carpet darted down through the clouds and flew toward them.

  On it sat Keeah herself, clutching the carpet’s front edge. Next to her was their spider troll friend, Max.

  Julie waved. “Keeah, Max —”

  “Hurry!” said Keeah, slowing the carpet next to the stairs. “It’s Sparr. He’s gone!”

  “Gone?” Eric shot a look at his friends. “Oh, no!”

  Without another word, the kids leaped from the stairs to the carpet, and it lifted up and away over the shadowy woods.

  Text copyright © 2004 by Robert T. Abbott.

  Illustrations copyright © 2004 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

  SCHOLASTIC, LITTLE APPLE, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First printing, July 2004

  Cover art by Tim Jessell

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-41835-5

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