Journey to the Volcano Palace (2 page)

“We’ve all been waiting for you!” Max chirped happily. Max was a spider troll. He had eight legs and could spin sticky webs and climb up walls. But his face was pudgy like a troll’s, and his bright orange hair sprouted straight up.

Eric smiled as he and his friends entered the tent. “How did you know we were coming?”

“I can see the future!” Keeah said.

Julie gasped. “You can?”

“Keeah,” said Galen sternly, “you must respect your real magic powers. You should not invent others you don’t have…yet.”

The princess made a face. “I’m sorry.” She turned to the three friends. “Actually, I can’t see the future. I just dreamed about all of you, and I guessed you we on your way.”

Eric shot looks at Julie and Neal. “We had dreams, too. But we didn’t understand them.”

“In Droon, wizards – and sorcerers – can use dreams as messengers,” Galen said. “Sometimes they foretell what will happen. We may understand more at dawn, when we begin –”

Neal tugged a purple pillow over to the rug.

“Hey!” the pillow snarled. “You pinched me! I was having the nicest nap, too!”

Neal jumped up. “Whoa…sorry!” He looked around. “Wait, did that pillow just talk to me?”

Max chirped in laughter. “That’s a Lumpy!”

Neal made a face. “Lumpy or not, in the Upper World, pillows don’t talk!”

Keeah smiled. “Max means it’s not a pillow you sat on. It’s a Lumpy. A purple Lumpy!”

It was then that the kids noticed small round faces on the chubby pillows. Their cheeks bulged, and their noses were like purple tennis balls.

One of the creatures stood up, stretched, and yawned. It had short, fat arms, and squat legs.

“I am Khan,” he said. “King of the purple Lumpies of Lumpland. Just over the last dune on your left. We Lumpies are the best desert trackers in Droon. We sniff out trouble.” He paused to sniff the air. “Danger is everywhere!”

“Uh…pleased to meet you!” Eric said.

Galen rose, wrapping his long blue robe around him. Now, come outside. We must talk about tomorrow.”

The air outside the tent was cool and sweet.

“It sure is peaceful here,” Julie said.

“It wasn’t yesterday,” Keeah told them. “That’s the reason we’re here.”

“What happened?” Eric asked.

“Lord Sparr,” Khan said, shaking his purple fist in the air. “He nearly destroyed one of our villages with his red jewel. Luckily, the terrible flame burned his hand, and he fled.”

Eric remembered the red jewel. It was called the Red Eye of Dawn. The sorcerer Sparr had stolen it from Keeah and was planning to use it to take over Droon.

“The Eye of Dawn commands the forces of nature,” Galen said. “Fire, wind, wave, and sky. It is
very
powerful. Yesterday, Droon was lucky. Tomorrow, we may not be.”

Keeah pointed across the desert. “We think Sparr fled to his secret palace. It’s in a hidden land called Kano.”

Galen turned grim. “A terrible place, dangerous and deadly. Sparr will not expect us to go.”

Neal nodded. “We’d be dumb to do that.”

“And because he doesn’t expect it,” Keeah added, “that’s exactly what we’ll do!”

The three kids were silent.

Eric blinked. “Dangerous and deadly?”

Khan nodded. “And the Lumpies shall lead you right to it!”

“We must find the Eye before Sparr uses it again,” Galen said. “Droon itself is at stake.”

“Are you in?” Keeah asked.

Eric looked at Julie, then at Neal. He knew they were just as afraid as he was.

“I guess we’re in,” Julie said.

“Get the maps,” Neal asked. “I’d like to see exactly where we’re going.”

Max chuckled. “Maps will be of no help! Lord Sparr lives in a volcano!”

Three
The Oasis at Noon

Moments later, the sun began to rise over the distant dunes.

“It’s time!” Keeah said.

They all climbed to the rim of a tall, curving sand dune. Galen pointed to the sandy plains where the sun was rising.

“The door to Kano lives in the East,” the wizard said. “According to legend, it can be seen where it is not.”

Eric nodded slowly. “Okay. Got it. Great. Um…could you say that again?”

“It’s a riddle,” Max said, scurrying back and forth in the sand. “No one knows exactly where Sparr’s palace is.”

Julie began biting her lip again. “Then how are we going to find the door to Kano?”

But Galen was already walking back down the dune. “By finding the answer to the riddle!”

“First things first,” Khan said. “Our journey of many miles begins with a single sniff!” He sniffed the air, then pointed. “East is that way!”

Within moments, Khan and his Lumpies packed up the tent and supplies.

“Into the East!” Max chirped.

Hrrr!
Galen’s shaggy pilka, Leep, whinnied in excitement as the kids piled onto her back.

“We’re off!” cried Julie.

They rode for hours over the hot dunes.

Mile after mile, they saw nothing but burning white sand.

“I think we’re lost,” Neal said, wiping his forehead. “I mean, I guess we’re in the East, but I don’t see any doors. All I see are two things. Sand, and more sand.”

Eric pointed into the distance. “What’s that?”

It looked like a shadow against the faraway dunes, a grove of trees waving in the breeze.

“Is it a mirage?” Julie said. “You know, the imaginary things you see in the desert that aren’t really there?”

“Imaginary,” Eric sighed. “Right now I’m imagining the town pool filled with cool water.”

“You want water, you got it,” Neal said. “I’m gonna be a puddle in about three minutes.”

“No, you won’t,” Keeah said. “That’s an oasis! We can rest there and get some real water!”

They rode quickly and soon reached a group of tall palm trees sprouting up from the dunes.

In the center was a pool of doom, blue water.

Eric and his friends slid down from Leep and moved into the shade of the waving palm trees.

“This isn’t the pool in my dream,” Julie said. “There’s nothing yucky about this.”

“Good!” Neal exclaimed. “Because I’m
way
past thirsty.” He and Julie and Keeah went to the near side of the pool and began to drink.

The Lumpies led the pilkas over. They all bent their heads to the water.

“Drink up,” Khan said. “It may be many miles before we find water again.”

Eric scrambled to an open spot on the side of the pool. He breathed in the sweet air under the trees, then bent down, cupping his hands together. The shimmering water looked so refreshing.

He stooped to take a sip.

He froze solid at what he saw.

“What is it?” Keeah said, looking up.

Eric stared into the pool. “My reflection –”

Neal laughed. “Yeah, you look pretty grimy!”

“We all do,” Julie added.

“No, that’s not it,” Eric mumbled. In the surface of the pool he saw his face. Behind his head were the tops of the palm trees that he knew were waving in the wind behind him.

And behind the palm trees…was an enormous gate! A gate made of black iron, towering up behind the palms.

Eric whirled around and looked up.

There was no gate behind the palm trees.

He turned back to the pool. The gate was there, in the reflection, standing as huge and as plain as day!

“An invisible gate!” he gasped. “Like the riddle says – It can be seen where it is not!”

“What?” Neal said, slurping from his hands.

“We’re here!” Eric cried. “I see it in the pool. The door to Kano. But it’s
not
in the pool. It’s
there
!” He pointed up behind him, beyond the palm trees. “The entrance to Kano is right there!”

Galen rushed over. Max scurried across the sand. Keeah, Neal, and Julie ran to Eric.

They all stared at the open air behind the palms, then at the pool.

“It’s there, all right,” Keeah said. “But it’s still invisible. How do we get in?”

“I have an idea.” Neal stooped to the pool and filled his hands with water. He hurried through the palm trees to where the gates would be.

He tossed the water across the air.

Sssss!
The water struck something in midair and spilled down it.

Suddenly, there it was! A patch of black iron!

Julie tried it next.

Sssss!
More of the black gate appeared.

Everyone joined in, even the Lumpies. They cupped their hands. They used buckets. They even filled their boots with water.

Splish! Splosh! Splursh!

Soon, the entire gate dripped into shape before them. It stood huge and glistening behind the tall palm trees of the oasis.

Galen stood back in awe. “Behold! We have discovered the way to Sparr’s secret realm! This is the door to Kano!”

Four
Into Sparr’s Realm

The iron gate towered high above the dunes, casting its dark shadow over the oasis.

“Quickly! Quickly!” Khan shouted to the pilkas. The shaggy creatures nudged the black gate. Again and again they pushed against it.

Max sat on Leep’s head, urging her on. “Hurry, the water is drying! The gate will disappear!”

Errr, errr!
The giant door began to creak open.

“Yes!” Eric gulped. “We’ve done it.”

Everyone slipped through.

Klang!
The gate closed loudly behind them.

Right away, the air was hotter. It was hazy and brown and bad-smelling. Not clear and pinkish-blue like over the rest of Droon.

“We’ve entered Sparr’s hidden empire,” Max chirped. “This is the nasty land of Kano!”

“Stinky,” Khan mumbled to his fellow Lumpies. “As I expected.”

Galen nodded to himself and smiled as he looked around at the smoky brown air. “Yes, this is good. Very good!”

Neal coughed. “Excuse me, sir, but what’s so good? This place is so smelly I can hardly breathe!”

“There are no Ninns at the gate,” the wizard replied. “That means that Lord Sparr does not yet know we are here. But we must hurry.”

They climbed back on the pilkas and rode ahead. Before long the small band found itself standing on a steep ridge. A sudden wind swept across them. The dark air cleared for a second.

They stood above a deep, black valley.

The ground was dark and burnt for miles. It was easy to see the reason why. In the middle of the valley was a giant black cone.

It looked like a tall mountain, except that its top was torn open. And a huge pool of lava splashed and spurted and bubbled in the middle.

“A volcano!” Julie hasped.

“That is the heart of Kano, the black mountain home of Lord Sparr,” Galen told them. “Come.”

The wizard galloped into the lead. Max clung to his pilka’s mane, while Leep, with the children on her back, trotted alongside. Khan and his purple Lumpies rode close behind them all.

They made their way quietly but quickly to the center of the valley.

“Maybe Sparr’s not home,” Neal whispered. “That would be pretty good.”

“I hope Sparr
is
here,” Keeah said as they rode closer. “I want to fight him as he fought my mother. Besides, wherever he is, the Eye is, too.”

Neal, Eric, and Julie knew Keeah blamed Sparr for the disappearance of her mother, Queen Relna. Two years before, the queen had fought Sparr in a fierce battle. She was never seen again.