The Magic Escapes

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1: The Time Before

  2: New Foes, New Friends

  3: Adventure in the Night

  4: The Princess and the Pie

  5: A Trick of Time

  6: Names to Conjure With

  7: Dangerous Waters

  8: Searching for Nobeard

  9: What’s Under the Fortress

  10: A Riddle Among Riddles

  11: Winds of Time

  12: New Friends, New Foes

  The Adventure Continues …

  Also Available

  Copyright

  “Race you to the top!” Eric Hinkle cried suddenly. He grabbed the branch of an apple tree in his backyard and pulled himself up.

  His friends Neal Kroger and Julie Rubin laughed, then clambered up after him.

  “I win!” said Eric when he reached the top.

  A moment later, Julie and Neal were up next to him, clinging to the highest branches.

  “I love climbing this tree,” said Neal, twisting an apple from a branch and biting into it. “You get a reward for climbing it. And I have to say, Eric, your tree has the best apples in town. They remind me of your mom’s awesome apple pie.”

  “That’s Neal, all right,” said Julie with a laugh. “Even food reminds him of food.”

  “Is there anything else?” Neal grinned, showing a bit of apple peel stuck between his teeth.

  From the top branches, the kids looked out at their neighborhood. Their town sat in a valley nestled in the center of three lumpy hills, themselves all covered with blossoming fruit trees.

  Two towns over was the bright blue ocean.

  “It’s almost … magical up here,” said Eric as a warm breeze wafted into the treetop. “You know what it makes me think of?”

  “Yes,” said Julie. “I’m thinking about it, too. And if Neal wasn’t all about apples right now, he’d also be thinking about it.”

  Neal took a noisy bite. “As a matter of fact, I am thinking about it. Droon, right?”

  “Droon,” said Eric.

  “Droon,” said Julie.

  Droon was the magical world they had discovered one day in Eric’s basement.

  It all began when they were playing around and found a small closet hidden under the basement steps. When the light was out and the door closed, the floor of that closet became the top step of a magical staircase.

  Shimmering in every color of the rainbow, those stairs led down from Eric’s house to a land of danger, mystery, and adventure.

  Their first time in Droon, they met Keeah, a young princess who became one of their best friends. Together with the old wizard, Galen Longbeard, and Max, the spider troll, they were trying to keep Droon free from the evil clutches of the sorcerer Lord Sparr.

  But on their last adventure, Sparr had uncovered a long-hidden second way between Droon and the Upper World.

  The Dark Stair.

  Long, long ago, a creepy beast named Ko had built the Dark Stair to enter our world. There, in the Upper World, he kidnapped the powerful and good Queen Zara.

  That was terrible enough, but it got worse.

  Zara’s baby, kidnapped with her, grew up to become none other than Lord Sparr himself.

  “I still can’t believe Sparr is really from our world,” said Neal, licking apple juice from his fingers. “I mean, he’s such a — a —”

  Neal stopped. He sniffed. He gasped. “— pie!”

  Julie laughed. “I’ve heard Sparr called lots of names, but never — pie.”

  “No. I smell pie. Coming from the house —”

  Errrr. There was a squeak from the back door. Mrs. Hinkle popped out and called to the kids. “Time to come in. I just made apple pie!”

  “Woo-hoo!” Neal bellowed. “I knew it! Have I got the nose, or have I got the nose?! It’s almost like I can predict the future!”

  Neal jumped from the tree, bounced across the yard, and dashed for the back steps.

  “Hey, it’s my mom’s pie,” said Eric. “I get the first piece!” Laughing, he raced Julie to the door.

  But the instant Eric hit the steps, something happened.

  Blam! Kkkkk! Boom! Fiery bolts of red lightning crashed and exploded around him.

  “What —!” Eric staggered back.

  The air wiggled and wobbled, a sharp pain struck him behind his eyes, and he found himself leaping, two steps at a time, up a black staircase.

  “Oh, my gosh!” he cried. “The Dark Stair!”

  With the force of thunder, it all came back to him.

  Eric wasn’t at home with his friends on a slow afternoon. He wasn’t chatting about apples and pies. That was just a vision.

  It wasn’t real.

  Eric was really in Droon, rushing up the Dark Stair, trying to stop Lord Sparr from crashing into the Upper World. Into his world.

  “Help!” Eric yelled. “Somebody help me!”

  Far below, on the icy summit of Droon known as Silversnow, his friends Neal and Julie moved as if in a dream. Princess Keeah, her fingertips sparking with power, shouted, “We’re caught in a spell!”

  Even powerful old Galen, his long white beard flying as he turned, could not stop the sorcerer.

  “Then I’m going alone!” Eric yelled. “Sparr’s breaking into our world! I need to stop him!”

  For as long as they’d known him, Sparr had vowed to rule not only Droon but the Upper World as well. And now he was almost there, racing up the stairs, his wicked powers blazing around him.

  “My goal is so near!” Sparr crowed, leaping up to each step.

  Eric hoped he could stop Sparr.

  Ever since he’d been blasted by Keeah’s magic, Eric himself had had powers. Some, at least.

  And right now, he clutched the ancient Wand of Urik tightly in his hand. The wand had been lost in Droon for years until Eric found it. He tried to get rid of it, but the wand kept finding him, until Eric reallized just how fabulous and powerful it was. It was a good thing, too, since now its awesome purple light cut a path through Sparr’s red lightning.

  Blam! Kkkkkk! Booom-boom!

  “I win!” Sparr yelled when he reached the large, jeweled door at the top of the stair. The door swung open, flooding him with a strange golden light.

  Laughing, Sparr leaped into the Upper World.

  “No, no, no!” Eric gasped, staggering up the steps after Sparr. “What if the Dark Stair leads to my neighborhood? What if it goes right to my house — Mom! Dad! Watch out! Sparr’s coming! He’s evil —”

  Bounding up the final three steps — one, two, three — Eric dived through the jeweled door.

  What he saw shocked him.

  “What? What?” he cried. “I mean — what?”

  Eric found himself teetering at the edge of the top stair, looking down on a vast city.

  But it wasn’t his hometown. It wasn’t like any place he had ever seen.

  A crashing sea boomed all around the city.

  “An island!” he gasped. “A weird island!”

  Behind him was the dark outline of a rocky coast. Before him sat an island city of twisted buildings and flaring golden fires. Strange disks floated in the air above, casting light on the wet streets below.

  And towering over the center of the island, surrounded by a maze of silvery canals, was a giant black fortress.

  “This is crazy,” Eric muttered. “This isn’t my world. Where am I?”

  Kkkk! The final crackle of Sparr’s lightning faded, and the sorcerer leaped down the last few steps and into the tangle of watery streets below.

  “Sparr! Stop!” cried Eric. But before he could follow, a sudden light caught him in its glare.

  “There’s one!” shrieked a voice. “And he has magic,
too. A wand!”

  “Uh-oh …” Eric spun around as three bright patches of fabric — rugs — swept over the rooftops. “Magic carpets? In my world? This is nuts.”

  Sitting on each rug was a creature as thin and green as a string bean. They had long faces, pointy ears, and eyes that glowed yellow.

  “Goblins, get him!” shrieked one of the creatures, circling its carpet. “He cannot hide!”

  “I’m sure gonna try!” Eric yelled. Grasping the Wand of Urik tightly, he darted down the black steps and into the streets.

  But the goblins were fast. They skidded their carpets to the ground and jumped off, their feet noisily slapping the damp cobblestones — splot-splot!

  Eric zigzagged into a maze of narrow alleys. Running out the other side, he found the same three goblins waiting for him. “Fast, aren’t you?”

  “We have you now,” said one, its green lips parting in a grin. “And such a powerful wand. It glows! Princess Salamandra will want it —”

  Eric backed up. “Yeah, well, Princess Salawhatsis better get her own — this one’s mine.” He aimed the wand. It had only a handful of petals left, but its purple light was still strong.

  “I don’t want to mess with you,” he said. “I just want to find Sparr and bring him back —”

  Eric suddenly stopped speaking and looked down at the sparkling light. He knew the Wand of Urik possessed awesome power. Long ago, this wand created the rainbow stairs connecting Droon and his world.

  But the first time Eric had used it, weird stuff began to happen.

  First, Julie’s cat, Pinky, began to bark. Then, a bunch of hooded guys with tails appeared in front of her house, chanting strange words. Next, a huge ugly lizard soared overhead. Not to mention the pots and pans flying around his kitchen.

  But the wand was the greatest power he had.

  If he needed to use it … he would.

  The goblins crept closer. “Salamandra must have the magic. Take it, goblins! Take it — now!”

  Suddenly — kla-bamm! — a flash of red light blasted into the street from just behind Eric’s ear.

  “Aggk!” The trio of goblins reeled backward.

  Even before Eric turned, a hand — with an iron grip — clasped him by the arm and dragged him into an alley no wider than a doorway.

  Eric tried to scream but found he couldn’t.

  Silence! hissed a voice in his head. Come with me, if you want to live!

  Eric knew the voice at once.

  His heart leaped into his throat as he looked up into the burning red eyes of Lord Sparr.

  Sparr pulled Eric deep into the shadows. “Make no sound!” he said. He whirled his dark cloak around them both.

  The goblins scrambled to their feet and peered into the alley, their yellow eyes blinking.

  “Not here!” one said. “Let’s try the next one!”

  They splashed on down the street.

  Sparr released Eric, but his eyes remained focused on the boy. “What is this place?” he asked. “What manner of trick is this? Where are we?”

  “What? You’re asking me? I don’t know!” Eric said, his heart pounding like a hammer. “I mean, it’s your Dark Stair. You should know —”

  Sparr glanced up at the huge fortress. “Goblins? Flying carpets? Black towers? Princess Salamandra? Pah! This is not the Upper World! Where are we?”

  “I don’t know …” Eric stopped.

  He was looking up at the fortress, but his eyes were drawn to what was behind it. Tiny, twinkling pinpoints of light. Stars. His gaze followed the shape of a cluster of flickering stars.

  A handle. A cup at the end.

  It was a shape he knew.

  He gasped. “The Big Dipper!”

  “What?”

  “Those stars, I know them. We really are in the Upper World. But —”

  “Shhh!”

  More goblins were gathering, called there by the cries of the others. Now the street was crawling with them.

  Sparr’s red eyes flashed. “What I seek is not here. This is not the day I was hoping for … the hour … I expected something else….”

  “Yeah, well — me, too,” said Eric. “I expected the mall or something…. Man! I can’t believe I’m actually having a conversation with you!”

  Sparr wrapped his cloak around himself, stepped to the corner, and peeked out. Eric wondered if he should use the wand on Sparr or escape. But in a flash, the sorcerer was back.

  “We need to leave here….”

  “We?” said Eric. “No way. My friends are right behind me. And we’re going to bring you back to Droon. Keeah and Galen will —”

  Sparr laughed coldly. “Galen is old, and this is not Keeah’s world. They do not have the power we have. These goblins are after our magic. ”

  “Again with the we. I’m not like you —”

  “Quiet!”

  Another carpetful of goblins landed in the street. The green creatures shrieked loudly for others to join them.

  “They will find us,” said Sparr.

  Eric blinked. “You’re … afraid, aren’t you? That’s it. You’re afraid. The big bad sorcerer —”

  “You should be afraid, too,” said Sparr. “You won’t always have that wand to protect you.”

  “The alley!” shrieked a voice. “In the alley!”

  The sound of slapping feet grew louder.

  “Follow me!” said Sparr.

  Eric didn’t want to follow Sparr. Sparr was evil and cruel and wanted nothing more than to conquer Droon and the Upper World.

  But his friends weren’t around. The goblins didn’t look like lifelong chums. And by the sound of it, there were more and more and more of them.

  “Come!” said Sparr, holding his hand out.

  “As if!” Eric snorted. He didn’t take the sorcerer’s hand, but he did follow him.

  Splashing through ankle-deep puddles, the two flitted into the shadows. Only the red sparks from Sparr’s fingertips lit the way.

  The sorcerer dashed deeper into one twisting street after another. Finally, he stopped.

  “They’re still after us,” said Eric, breathless. “Why are you stopping? They’ll catch us.”

  Scanning both ways, Sparr aimed his hand at the street, muttered a strange word, and — kzzzt! — a blast of red light shot from his fingertips. It struck the cobblestones and blew a hole in the street.

  The sound of water streaming below and a sudden strong smell told Eric what was beneath them.

  “The sewers? Ha! You want to go into the sewers? I don’t think so —”

  “There they are!” a goblin shrieked. Now both ends of the street were blocked.

  “Okay — into the sewers!” cried Eric.

  Sparr slid down the shaft into a round tunnel. Eric jumped in after him. A stream of thick water flowed down the middle of the tunnel.

  Eric pinched his nose. “Nice place you found us. It’s stinky down here. Very stinky.”

  “When you are hunted, you hide,” said Sparr. He took off into the tunnel, the sparks from his fingers lighting the way. After several turns, he stopped, listened, then turned to Eric.

  “Put out your hand.”

  “What?” said Eric.

  “Do it.”

  Eric did what Sparr asked.

  Looking both ways, Sparr pulled a small pouch from under his cloak, unstrung it, and shook it over his own palm. Two small shiny stones dropped out. Light streamed out of them, casting a silvery-blue glow on their faces.

  The gems were carved in the shape of eyes.

  “What are they?” Eric asked.

  “The Eyes of the Coiled Viper,” Sparr said. “It is the Viper I seek in your world. But it is not here.” He took one of the gems and held it up.

  “There is power in this strange city,” he said. “Power that may help me in my quest for the Viper. I must seek out this Salamandra.”

  He dropped the gem in Eric’s palm.

  Eric flinched. The stone felt like ice in
his hand. Or like fire. He couldn’t tell which.

  “Why are you giving this to me?”

  “For safekeeping,” said Sparr.

  “Safekeeping? But this is crazy! We’re — we’re — enemies!”

  Sparr spat out a laugh. “We are much more than that, Eric Hinkle! You and I … our day is coming … the hour, when … but no, not yet.”

  Then, with his gaze still fixed on Eric, Sparr said slowly, “I can tell from the look in your eyes that you will not betray me. This will be … our little secret … our little secret….”

  Speaking that last word, Sparr stared deeply at Eric. It felt as if the sorcerer were drilling all the way to the center of his brain. His head ached, as it did when he had a vision.

  Sparr put the other gem in the pouch and slipped it back under his cloak. “Be careful.”

  He stepped away into the shadows.

  “You’re telling me to be careful?” said Eric. “I’m usually being careful not to be destroyed by you!”

  Whether Sparr heard him or not, Eric wasn’t sure. For the sorcerer had already turned to the watery darkness and was running away through the tunnels. His footsteps echoed until Eric heard them no more.

  “Now that was about as weird as it comes,” he sighed. “Sparr telling me to be careful. And giving me stuff!”

  Holding up the Wand of Urik to the small gem sitting in his palm, Eric saw something deep within the blue stone. Something moving.

  Something, perhaps, alive.

  “This is amazing,” he said softly.

  “I agree!” said a growly voice behind him.

  “Uh-oh,” Eric groaned. “Unless that’s Neal pretending to be a goblin, I’m in trouble.”

  He turned to see a slimy green face peering down at him from a hole in the street above.

  It wasn’t Neal.

  “I think I’m in trouble,” said Eric.

  “Goblins, I found him!” the creature shrieked, plopping down through the hole.

  “Yep, I’m in trouble!”

  Eric turned and ran as a dozen ugly goblins splashed after him through the stinky sewers.

  The very stinky sewers.

  “Get the human boy!”

  His legs aching, his heart pounding, Eric raced through the tunnels, barely keeping ahead of the howling goblins.

  He wasn’t sure why or how, but a whisper in his head seemed to tell him the way.