Neal swished his robes as he pranced into the giant room with Julie. Keeah and Eric followed close behind.

“Snorfo!” woofed the dog-headed guards lining the walls on either side of the thrones.

Neal turned to Keeah as he plopped into his seat. “Oh, servant, use those big leaves to fan us, PLEASE!”

Keeah grumbled as she picked up a big palm leaf. “Just don’t get used to this, Neal….”

“A little less noise there!” snorted Julie.

Eric saw that next to the thrones was a big globe of Droon. It was the second one he’d seen that day. A large yellow star marked where the city of Ut stood on the Saladian Plains.

The trumpets sounded once more, and an archway at the far end of the room suddenly became filled by the shoulders of three big Ninn warriors.

Eric … whispered the voice.

“And now —” grunted the largest Ninn, “make way for Lord Sparr —”

The room seemed to darken when the sorcerer stepped in. The fins behind his ears burned bright red. So did the scar on his forehead, marking where he was stung by his own Golden Wasp.

His black cloak shone like a raven’s feathers.

As he strode forward, his cloak sweeping across the floor, the mysterious voice kept speaking silently in Eric’s head.

Eric … it’s nearly time! I’m … coming!

Shhhh! Eric hissed back.

Slowly, the sorcerer pulled up to the throne and stopped, his eyes narrowing at Neal.

“You look like someone … I know….”

Neal had a bored look on his face. He looked at his fingernails, then tapped the throne’s armrest with his metal glove. “Flub-de-dub-dub …”

The sorcerer’s lips rose in a cruel smile. “But you seem much more agreeable — Duke of Ut!” Sparr made a deep bow, then looked Eric and Keeah up and down.

“Oh, don’t mind these two,” Julie said to Sparr. “They’re just our servants … Lunko and Bombo!”

Thanks a lot for the names, Keeah said silently to Julie. Ask Sparr why he’s here. What does he want?

The floor shook slightly, and there were sudden cawing sounds from the flying groggles outside. Eric knew then that Sparr and his Ninns must have flown on them to Ut.

The sorcerer stepped closer to the thrones. “You are both probably wondering why I am here.”

Neal shrugged. “You heard what a NIFTY PLACE I have! And you wanted to VISIT?”

Neal! Keeah said silently. Don’t be funny!

Sparr lowered his gaze to the globe by the side of Julie’s throne. He put his hand on it and gave it a push. All the seas and mountains, cities and deserts blurred as it spun around and around.

Eric stared at it. He had been seeing maps of Droon all day long. His heart began to pound.

Sparr stopped the globe, holding his finger on the yellow star. “Ut is a most unusual place,” he said.

“Well, it’s kept inside a bottle,” said Julie. “That’s unusual.”

“And it is very important to me,” said Sparr. “I have been waiting for so very many days. A hundred and eighty-seven days, to be exact —”

Eric gasped.

A hundred and eighty-seven days!

It was the same number of days since Eric had gained powers. Since Keeah had zapped him in the Doom Gate and he became a wizard.

He glanced at Keeah. She frowned. He knew she was trying to figure it out, too.

A hundred and eighty-seven days ago, they were all in the Serpent Sea, battling to imprison the Red Eye of Dawn into the Doom Gate.

Eric’s heart kept thundering in his chest.

“I looked at my charts, consulted the sky, spun my own globe around on its axis,” Sparr went on, turning the globe again. “Of course, I heard the rumbling and quaking of the earth. I saw the storms roar into the Serpent Sea. Then I learned of the bottle and of Ut, and I knew. It would be here.”

What would be here? What?

The ground shook beneath the palace.

The sorcerer smiled. “My wait is over. I have come for what belongs to me. After one hundred and eighty-seven days, I shall have what I want, right from the center of your big blue flower.”

Eric tried to recall what Quill had written about the blue flower.

The flower that booms.

He thought of the cracks across the blue design in the square outside. The rumbling. The quaking. The flower that … booms.

“And Droon will be mine. Droon, and the Upper World, too! Ninns, our time has come!”

Eric’s blood ran cold. This is crazy, he spoke silently to Keeah. Why Ut? Why here —

We need to find Galen, replied Keeah. Now.

Eric tapped Neal and Julie lightly with the palm leaf. Do everything you can to stall Sparr. Keep him here as long as you can. Keeah and I will meet you outside in ten minutes!

Even as he bowed to Neal and edged away, Eric stared at the globe.

He thought of Hoja’s map and of the magic globe turning and turning in the museum.

They all seemed to be saying the same thing.

Sparr spun the orb around slowly. Each time it revolved, Eric saw the Serpent Sea, the deserts of Lumpland, Jaffa City, the Saladian Plains….

The Serpent Sea again … the Saladian Plains.

Keeah nudged Eric’s arm. “It’s time. Let’s go!”

As Eric and Keeah crept to the back of the room, Neal rose from his throne.

“Before you go and get all powerful and stuff, Lord Sparr,” he said, “how about WE PLAY A GAME?”

The fins behind Sparr’s ears flashed deep red, almost black.

“What my brother means to say is …” said Julie, suddenly grabbing the globe from Sparr, “would you like a quick game of basketball?”

“What?” sneered Sparr.

Julie tossed up the globe, caught it, then threw it to Neal.

He grinned. “Yeah! First ten points takes it! You’re not SCARED, are you, Sparr?”

Neal flung the ball to Sparr. It struck him in the chest.

Keeah slipped through the back curtain. “I can’t watch.”

“No,” said Eric as he slid out onto a small balcony. “Besides, I think the real show will be down there in the square —”

Booom! One after another, tiles exploded from the square below. They flew straight up in the air and crashed to the ground in thousands of pieces.