“Dun-dun-dun-dun!” sang the urn men as they dived at the friends.

“Nice to have a soundtrack,” Julie called over her shoulder as she ran. “It makes me feel like moving — fast!”

Suddenly, Kem skittered to the edge of one roof and stopped. His right head was pointing one way while his left head looked in the opposite direction.

“Everybody, look what Kem found!” said Neal, screeching to a halt.

In one direction was a monstrous black rocket, complete with wings and a massive beak, rising up from the ground in the distance.

“The Raven!” murmured Keeah.

Kem’s other head pointed across the street to a small alley. At the end of the alley stood a stable with stone arches in front.

“That’s where the chariot is!” said Julie.

Galen peered over the edge of the roof. “Ten feet,” he whispered. “I wonder. I hate to be rude to the urn men but, shall we?” The kids nodded.

“Shall you what?” asked the chief rider, zooming over with his entire troop.

“Too-da-loo!” shouted Max, clutching Galen’s hand. And before the urn men could stop them, the seven friends leaped off the edge of the roof and hit the ground running.

“After them!” yelled the riders, swooping down into the street.

Racing along the alley, the friends charged into the stable. While Eric, Neal, and Max bolted the doors behind them, Galen went to the back of the stable and, holding his breath, pulled away the cloth hiding the chariot.

“Ahhhh …” he gasped, staggering in the glow of his mother’s creation. “I do remember this!” He patted the head of the silver horse and ran his fingers over the carved symbols. “I can’t believe Sparr kept it all these years.”

“Master?” said Max.

The wizard turned to his friend. “I know. Time to ride!” He hopped into the chariot.

“All aboard?” asked Keeah.

“All aboard!” said Julie, making room for Neal and Kem beside her.

“Let’s fly!” said Eric. The moment he slipped the Moon Medallion into its place on the chariot’s railing, the silver horse sprang to life. In a flash, Queen Zara’s chariot burst right through the stable doors, toppling the surprised urn men. It swept through the alley and finally soared up over the streets.

But the urn men raised an alarm instantly. Swooping bands of colorful urns came flying from every part of the snow-swept city.

“Up!” said Eric, moving the Moon Medallion, and the chariot flew up in a wide loop over the heads of the approaching riders. It zoomed between two slanted towers.

“They’re gaining on us!” cried Max.

“Faster!” said Galen, his eyes fixed in front of them.

“More urns ahead!” Keeah called out. “Eric, drive us low. Dip the chariot!”

“I’m dipping!” he answered, twisting the Medallion. The chariot swooped below the oncoming urns and into the street.

Swoosh! Swoosh! No sooner had the chariot swept down than the urns, in a hurricane of swirling black flakes, dived after it.

When the chariot zoomed up once again, the friends saw the great bird-shaped vessel called the Raven looming straight ahead of them. The rocket was sleeker and blacker and more terrifying than any of them had realized. As it stood perched and ready to lift off, another troop of urn men filed inside a giant hatch on the rocket’s tail.

“Brrrr-ump-bump!” sang the little men.

“Oh, my gosh!” said Keeah. “They’re flying that … thing … to Jaffa City?”

“Not if we can help it!” cried several voices together.

All of a sudden, three figures flew down from the swirling, black-flaked sky — Anusa, Hoja, and Fefforello.

“My friends helped me remember the charm I put on my doves!” said Fefforello, resplendent in his blue robes and sparkling slippers. “Be gone, you impish men with bad attitudes. Return, my beautiful white doves!”

Then, whispering all together, and ending with three loud claps — Clap! Clap! Clap! — the genies reversed Fefforello’s evil charm. As everyone watched, the riders quivered and yelped and finally turned into a cooing, fluttering flock of pure-white doves once more.

“Amazing!” chirped Max.

“I remembered more!” said Fefforello.

With a second round of claps, the genies whispered again, and the Raven collapsed into a swirl of black snow and vanished.

“Finally, this is the best part,” said Fefforello. Clapping three more times, the Fifth Genie of the Dove twirled in his slippers. As he did, the city around them began to wobble. It quivered. It wiggled. Then finally it moved, lifting up from the surface and flying all the way from the moon’s dark side into its blazing sunlight. If anyone thought Parthnoop was beautiful before, it was nothing compared to the awesome city that sparkled before them now.

“Ta-da!” said Fefforello.

“A new Parthnoop!” Galen boomed happily. “The ancient city of genies is restored!”

Whatever black snow there was, melted away in the heat and light. The swirling dark flakes were nowhere to be seen.

For a moment.

As everyone stood and gazed upon the great white city, Eric saw one tiny dark flake fall through the air. He caught it in the palm of his hand, but it didn’t dissolve.

“Wait. This isn’t snow,” he said as more flakes began to fall all around them.

“No, not snow,” said Max. “It’s ash. Look.”

Turning, they saw a thin stream of black ash in the sky, leading all the way back from Parthnoop to Sparr’s Forbidden City of Plud.

“Plud’s tower is flaming higher and higher,” said Keeah. “The beasts and the Ninns must be fighting.”

“Guys, I think our adventure might not be over,” said Neal. “We have to go back to Droon. To Plud. And we have to go now.”

Anusa turned to Galen. “Go. We shall meet you in Plud soon,” she said. “There is something we genies must do first.” Then, with a twirl of their colorful robes, all three genies vanished.

The wizard nodded. “Well then, friends, it is time. Shall we go to Plud?”

“To Plud!” said Eric.

In no time, the silver chariot whisked them up from the ground, and away they flew from the sparkling white city of Parthnoop to the dismal, dark, fearful city of Plud.