The Chariot of Queen Zara by Tony Abbott

Author:Tony Abbott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

When Eric and Neal were halfway up the tower stairs, they realized that the stairs curved around in an ever tighter spiral, and the ceiling lowered with each step closer to the top.

“It’s getting a little cramped here,” said Eric, bumping his head and scraping his shoulders against the stones. “I’ll have to crawl.”

Neal looked up at where Eric’s voice was coming from. “I can’t tell you how weird it is to be talking to an empty space.”

“I wish I were an empty space,” said Eric. “Then maybe I could fit in here!”

When they had finally inched up the last few steps on their stomachs, they stopped. At the top of the stairs stood a solid wall.

Eric blinked. “What is this, a joke? I’m going to blast it —”

“Eric, don’t,” said Neal. “Crazy Feffy said the tower is wizard-proof.”

“We’ll see about that!” Eric aimed up at the wall and shot a single blast at it. Blammm! It bounced off the wall, ricocheted off the ceiling, and exploded over the boys’ heads, nearly frying them.

Neal groaned. “Well, that didn’t work.”

“Sorry,” said Eric. “I thought nothing was wizard-proof.”

“If it wasn’t wizard-proof, would Galen have stayed locked up in there for so long?”

Eric made a face. “You with the questions. Maybe we should just go back down —”

“Except that when you blasted the wall, I think I saw something. Let me try….” Neal reached up and moved his hand over the wall. Then he chuckled. “Ah, yes. The door.”

“The door?” said Eric, annoyed. “Cut it out. There is no door. That’s the whole problem.”

“Oh, yeah?” said Neal. He turned his hand with a slight twist. There was a soft click, a squeak — errrr! — and a door-shaped opening appeared on the wall. “Ta-da!”

Eric gasped. “How did you do that?”

“Doorknobs turn,” said Neal.

Eric shook his head. “No, really, how did you —”

“Maybe it’s the tangfruit helping me. You should eat more fruit, Eric. It’s good for you.”

“Uh-huh,” said Eric, squirming up in front of the door. “Or maybe it’s because this tower is wizard-proof, and I’m a wizard?”

Neal looked thoughtful. “So we’re saying that sometimes it’s good not to be a wizard?”

Eric shrugged, pulled open the door, and walked into a room blazing with light. Neal followed closely behind his invisible friend.

“Neal!” said a voice. “You found me!”

There, in the middle of a small room, stood a tall man in a blue robe.

The man was Galen.

Or rather, it was Galen as he might have looked a hundred years earlier.

The wizard was younger. His face was hearty and smiling. He seemed taller. His beard, while still white, was shorter, as was his hair. He wore his familiar wizard cloak and hat, but they looked new, as if they had just come from the cleaners. Around his waist was a short, curved staff, softly shimmering in green, then in blue, then red, then silver.

He grinned. “Neal! After all this time, it was you! I’m so happy to see you —”

“Hey, I’m here, too!” said Eric.

Galen blinked.

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