5 The Vanishing Tower

CHAPTER Five The Vanishing Tower "Oww!" Neal whined, cupping his hands over his face. Then he stared at the empty space in front of him. "Wait. I bumped into… nothing?" Eric stood next to Neal and put his hands out. "No, there's something here. Something hard." "Hard?" Neal grumbled. "Tell me about it." "It's over here, too," Julie said as she walked to the other side of the clearing. Eric went around the other way. "It's round. It must be some kind of—whoa!"

As the three of them stood there, a giant tower shimmered into view. A wooden tower. In fact, it was a tree. But when they touched it, the bark was as hard as stone. "Hmm," Julie said, biting her lip. "This tree has petrified. It turned to stone because it's so old. We learned about petrified trees at camp." "I don't remember that," said Neal. "You were too busy eating snacks," Julie said. "All that hiking made me hungry," Neal said. "Guys!" Eric interrupted. "Can you please—" "Who dares approach the tower of Galen Longbeard!" cried a voice above them. They all looked up and gasped. Crawling slowly down the side of the tower was a large spider with eight long arms and legs. Only it wasn't an ordinary spider. It had a big, round face with large eyes and a pug nose. And bright orange hair. Neal nudged Julie. "I sure don't remember anything like him at camp," he whispered. "You aren't Ninns!" the creature squeaked. "Uh, that's true," Julie said. "Very true." "In fact, the Ninns are after us," Eric said. "And we have a message from Princess Keeah."

"From the princess?" said the spider. "Then come inside quickly!" Ploink! A door-sized section of the stony bark swung open. "I'm Max, a spider troll," he said, jumping into the tree ahead of them. "We must go to the top!"

The three friends piled into the tree.

Together, they crawled up a winding passage and into a large, round room. The room was cluttered beyond belief. "Looks like your basement, Eric," Neal said. Old leather books were stacked up everywhere. Hundreds of tiny colored bottles were collecting dust on deep wooden shelves. A big, ancient mirror leaned against one wall. And in the center of everything stood a man. He was tall and thin and very old. He wore a long blue robe and a high cone-shaped hat. His white beard hung down to his belt. "Behold!" cried Max. "Galen Longbeard, first wizard of Droon! He's more than five hundred years old." The old man coughed. "Yes, well, welcome to my tower," he said. Then he stroked his beard. "By the way, did anyone see Leep on the way up? Leep is my pilka." "Uh, what's a pilka, sir?" Julie asked. Galen cleared his throat. "Well, it's a… it has a… it goes like…" He waved his arms about, trying to describe the lost thing. "Oh, never mind. Leep will turn up somewhere. Now, what brings three Upper Worlders to my tower?" Eric told Galen what had happened in the forest. "Here is Keeah's message." Eric handed the paper to Galen. "It doesn't make sense to us."

The wizard frowned. "Nor to me. Hmm…" "I was thinking," Julie said, looking at the message again. "Maybe it's code. So if the Ninns captured us, they wouldn't understand it." Galen laughed. "Princess Keeah knows that the Ninns are quite simple. Brains like walnuts. You might even say they are backward." "Backward?" Neal said. "That's it! I bet Keeah's message is written backward. My sister tries that all the time. But she can't trick me!" Neal scribbled out the message again, reversing the order of the letters from front to back. "So…" he said" 'Thginot Dekcatta Eb Lliw Frodnefroz' becomes 'Zorfendorf Will Be Attacked Tonight.' Does that make sense?" Galen's eyes flashed suddenly. "Zorfendorf Castle! Lord Sparr plans to attack it tonight. I must warn King Zello immediately!" Before another word was spoken, a blue mist rose around the wizard. Sparks of light streaked through it. Then he mumbled strange sounds. "Kolo… bembo… zoot!" An instant later— zamm! He wasn't there! "Whoa!" Eric gasped. "Where did he