7 Written in Stone

CHAPTER Seven Written in Stone The Tower of Memory was a huge spiral of stones coiling up from the ground. Eric and Keeah entered a vast inner courtyard, looked up, and saw it. "It's huge," Eric whispered. Row upon row of rough gray blocks circled higher and higher into the starlit sky. "Do you have the papers with our name symbols?" Keeah said, spotting a narrow opening in the tower. "Yes." Eric clutched Neal's square of paper, along with his own and Julie's. "Let's do it."

They slipped through the opening. The inside of the tower was empty and very quiet. The only noise was a faint scratching sound from above. Eric squinted up. There, on the very top row of stones, barely visible in the mist and moonlight, was the magic feather, Quill. It scratched word after word into the stones, writing quickly, then stopping, then writing faster than ever.

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Whenever it filled one stone with the strange words and symbols, another stone mysteriously appeared next to it. Quill filled that one and went on to another. And another. "This is so weird," Eric said softly. "The Tower is building itself. It keeps getting taller." "Quill writes what happens to everyone," Keeah said. "Everything that has ever happened in Droon is right here." "And some things that haven't happened yet." Eric turned a complete circle as he followed the rows of silvery gray stones, looking for the strange symbols the Guardians had given them. Keeah breathed out suddenly. "What?" Eric said, turning to her. "My mother's symbol!" she said, running to the wall nearest her. "And Sparr's! I see them. That must be it! What happened to her at Plud!" She began scratching down the strange words with the pencil Bodo had given her. Then Eric saw his own name among the carvings. "Oh, wow!" Next to it were Julie's and Neal's names. He scanned the lower rows to see if the names appeared before then. No, they didn't. But their names were written many times after that. He looked up as far as he could. Their names were still there, curving into the upper rows.

All the way into the future? Would he and his friends do many things in Droon? Eric wished he could read the top row, to find out what the future might bring. He, too, started scribbling down the strange words for the Guardians to decipher. Keeah uttered something softly. Eric turned to see her slip quietly out of the Tower. He was about to call out to her, then stopped. The hair on the back of his neck stiffened. He knew someone else was in the Tower with him. Slowly, Eric turned his head. There, standing in the exact center of the room, was a tall, dark figure. A man. Eric gasped to himself. The man was Lord Sparr. Sparr stood motionless, reading the walls of the Tower and mumbling the words to himself. As he did, tears welled in his eyes, glinting in the moonlight from the Tower's top opening. One tear trickled down Sparr's cheek. He flicked it away instantly. The teardrop hit the stone floor, hissing on the cold stones. Ssss! "Oh, whoa!" Eric breathed. Suddenly Quill began scratching on the stones more speedily than before. Eric remembered what the Guardians had said.

Sometimes Quill writes so fast, he writes what hasn't happened yet. Sparr raised his eyes toward a single spot on the upper walls. As Eric watched, the sorcerer lifted off the ground and flew up to the top of the Tower. Quill kept scratching faster and faster. He filled one stone after another. Eric knew. Quill was writing the future. An instant later, Sparr was back. Eric could not move, could not breathe. It seemed like hours that Sparr just stood there. Then, a strange sound came from the sorcerer. A sound like all his breath leaving him. And out of that breath came a single word. "Ice." Sparr began to laugh softly. Eric felt as if he would explode. He needed to sneeze. Then cough. He felt as if he couldn't hide a second longer. And yet he had to be quiet. Or Sparr would see him and hurt him. Splat! Just then, a white shaft of moonlight suddenly fell into the Tower from the opening above. Eric pressed himself back against the stones, but the shaft of light moved across the floor to him.