Eric yanked off his mustache. “Let’s find Galen.”

Keeah tossed away her cloak and her mask. “If anyone can mix up Sparr, it’s Neal. I wouldn’t tangle with Julie, either. Come on, Bombo.”

He stopped. “I thought you were Bombo.”

“That makes you Lunko.”

Eric frowned. “Never mind. Let’s go!”

The two friends climbed over the balcony onto the palace roof, then down to the square.

As Keeah scanned the alleys for signs of Galen, Eric watched more and more tiles burst from the center of the square. Spirals of red flame shot up from the middle of the flower, while the whole ground shuddered.

Eric, I’m nearly here….

The voice was louder now. Closer.

“Oh, my gosh, Eric!” gasped Keeah. “Look!”

He whirled around to see the bent figure of a man, his robe tattered and soiled, shuffling toward them down a narrow alley.

Eric’s mouth dropped.

It was Galen, but as he’d never seen him before. The wizard was so very old. His hair was no more than wisps of white dangling from his head. His skin was deeply wrinkled and as pale as moonlight. His eyelids drooped over squinting eyes.

Galen looked as if he had aged a hundred years in a single day.

“How is this possible?” whispered Eric.

“There!” whispered Galen, pointing to a corner before them. “There … there!”

Eric turned.

And in the shadows he saw her.

It was a woman all in white. Eric couldn’t tell whether she was old or young, but she was beautiful. Her hair hung to her shoulders in a thousand braids, each strand sparkling with innumerable tiny jewels.

Looking back at Eric, she seemed to silently speak a name to him. It was a name he’d heard before. Gasping, he spoke it aloud.

“Anusa!”

Her eyes met his for a second, then, as if she were no more than a ghost, she drifted back into the shadows soundlessly, a thing of smoke.

She was gone.

“It is Anusa!” said Galen. “I must follow her.”

“Anusa? The genie?” said Keeah. “But, Galen, we need you now! You can’t follow anyone. Sparr is here!”

Galen gazed into the princess’s eyes. “Keeah, your great moment is nearly here. I will return for the battle to come. Until then, your love of Droon will guide you.” His eyes lifted to the city wall in the distance. “As for today, some mysteries are no mystery at all. Sometimes, the truth is right before your eyes. Or under your feet. Anusa!”

Eric and Keeah turned to see the vision in white leaping along the top of the city wall. Even as they watched, the wizard vanished from where he was standing. He reappeared moments later on the distant wall, rushing after Anusa.

“Galen!” yelled Keeah. “I can’t believe he’s leaving us here. What are we going to do without him?”

“I don’t know,” said Eric. “I wish I could —”

Neal and Julie came rushing from the palace.

“Sparr’s coming!” Neal yelled, out of breath.

“And he’s a lousy sport!” shouted Julie, hobbling in her tall shoes. “He tried to blow up our globe!”

She tossed the globe of Droon to Eric.

And in that moment, everything came together. It was as if all that had happened that day finally made sense.

“I can’t believe it,” Eric said. “Sometimes the truth is right before your eyes!”

“What do you mean?” asked Keeah.

Eric held up the globe of Droon. “I know why Sparr came here today. He’s gathering his three great Powers. He wants them all together.”

The ground quaked again. A wave of heat rushed up from the earth.

“But what does it have to do with Ut?” asked Julie. “Sparr already has the Golden Wasp and the Coiled Viper. The Red Eye of Dawn is in the Doom Gate halfway around the world —”

Eric remembered how the Red Eye of Dawn, the blazing hot jewel, could control the forces of sky and water and earth.

The Red Eye created huge storms and fires.

And earthquakes.

“The Doom Gate is halfway around the world,” said Eric. “Exactly halfway. It’s like Hoja’s note in the dungeon. If you can’t escape — you dig down. It couldn’t escape the Doom Gate by bursting out, so …”

Taking the globe, Eric held a finger on the Serpent Sea and another on the yellow star where Ut lay.

His fingers were pointing at each other.

“You mean the Eye isn’t in prison?” asked Neal.

Ninns burst into the courtyard, clacking over the tiles toward the children.

“Not anymore,” said Eric. “The Red Eye of Dawn burned all the way through the earth. It dug down from the Doom Gate and it’s coming out here. Today. Right in Ut. That’s why Sparr is here. He’ll have his three Powers — Wait! There’s Max!”

“Keeah, Eric!” The spider troll scurried to them from a nearby street. “I lost Hoja in the streets. But, I saw my master. Poor Galen, he was so old. Then he vanished!”

“We saw him, too,” said Keeah. “He said he had to follow the genie named Anusa —”

Booooom! More blue tiles shot up into the air, fell, and crashed at their feet.

Eric … get ready….

“Enough!” said Eric. “All day I’ve been hearing a voice whispering of doom. Until now, I didn’t know who it was. Now I do. It’s Om. The spirit in the Red Eye of Dawn. He’s … here —”

“So is he!” cried Neal. “Take a look. Here comes Sparr!”

As the ground heaved and quaked, Sparr marched into the square. “Ninns!” he yelled.

Pooom! The square rippled, sending more blue tiles buckling across the ground.

The earth shuddered. The palace shook. Tiles burst higher and higher, clattering to the street and crashing over the roofs of the city.

“My great plan!” cried Sparr. “Come to me, Om! Come, my Red Eye of Dawn! Come! Come!”

And it did come, bursting free from the earth, the great red jewel, the Red Eye of Dawn.

It blasted up with a terrific explosion, and the air filled with the whisperings of the dark spirit Om.

Free! it cried. I am — FREE!