City in the Clouds Read Online Free Page A

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.”
    Span 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.
    Sparr turned instantly. His eyes flashed red.
    He saw Eric. He stared right at him!
    Clomp! Clomp! A troop of Ninns tramped into the tower. “It is time, Lord Sparr,” one said.
    The moonlight dimmed behind a cloud and Eric was in shadow once more.
    Sparr nodded. “I have seen what I came here for.”
    Sparr was still staring at Eric. He could destroy Eric in a second!
    Then why?
    Why?
    Why did Sparr simply wrap his long black cloak around him and walk out of the Tower?
     

Eight
Neal and Company
     
    Clomp! Clomp! The Ninns tramped through the halls and out of the palace.
    Sparr went with them.
    “Eric!” Keeah ran back into the tower. “I was so scared when you didn’t follow me.”
    Eric nodded slowly. “I couldn’t move,” he said. “Sparr saw me, but… he let me go.”
    Keeah’s eyes widened. “Eric, we need to get back to the Guardians. Ro will disappear soon, and well disappear with it.”
    They rushed back to the Guardians’ room. The Ninns had gone. Vasa and Bodo were free.
    “Neal and Julie have gone to see where Sparr is taking the diamonds,” Vasa said quickly. “What did you find in the Tower?”
    Trembling, Keeah handed her paper to them.
    “Ah, the secrets of Droon’s past,”‘ Bodo said.
    Vasa peered over his shoulder and began to translate what Keeah had written. “At the city of Plud, Lord Sparr nearly killed Queen Relna.”
    “But; you see,” Bodo went on, “the witch Demither put a curse on Relna. Instead of suffering death, the queen assumed an animal form.”
    Keeah gasped. “An animal? Is it…”
    “Yes,” Bodo said, squinting at the words. “A white bird. A falcon.”
    “I knew it!” Keeah cried, jumping for joy. “That’s why the falcon is always there! It’s my mother following me, watching over us!”
    “But Demither told us the queen was in prison,” Eric said.
    “True,” Vasa went on. “Such a curse is a kind of prison. But now the queen needs your help if she is ever to be human again.