9 The Tower Riddle

CHAPTER 9 THE TOWER RIDDLE Sandor led Drake, Bo, Worm, and Shu to a narrow staircase. He turned to Drake and Bo. "Your dragons are too big to fit on these stairs. Because Phantom can float through walls, he can get into the tower. But Worm and Shu will have to wait here."

Phantom vanished. Drake and Bo followed their new friend up the staircase. People with cold, sharp eyes stared out at them from wall paintings. Drake shivered as he walked past a portrait of a man with wild, white hair. Then he noticed something. "The eyes in that painting are following me!" Drake exclaimed. "The ghosts make the portraits do that," Sandor said. "Don't let it scare you."

They climbed farther up the twisty stairway. Ahead, they could hear a faint squeaking sound. "Get down!" Sandor yelled. The boys all ducked. The sound of flapping wings filled the air as a group of bats swooped down and flew toward them! "The bats are harmless," Sandor assured them. "They just don't like being disturbed."

The three friends entered a round tower room at the top of the staircase. Phantom floated through the wall to meet them. A clock ticked away the time in this room. There were paintings on these walls, too. But they all showed the same person—a wizard with a patch on one eye and a long black beard. "Why are there so many paintings of Maldred?" Bo wondered out loud. "Zoltan has never met Maldred, but he wants to be just like him," Sandor explained. Drake pointed. "There's the spell book," he said.

The book sat on a wooden pillar, covered by a glass dome. Moonlight shone directly on it. "Hurry and grab it," Sandor replied. "At midnight, Zoltan will send Creak and Sneak up here to get it." Drake reached for the dome, but he couldn't lift it. "It won't come off," he said.

Bo pointed to the wooden pillar. "Look, there are words here," he said. He read aloud: "Where you go, I will pursue. I will always copy you. But hugging me is something you can't do." "It's a riddle," Sandor said. "I bet the answer will release the dome!" Bong! The clock chimed once.