The Chariot of Queen Zara
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The Chariot of Queen Zara is the twenty-seventh book in the children's book series, The Secrets of Droon, written by Tony Abbott (author).
[edit] Plot
Eric Hinkle, Neal Kroger, Julie Rubin, Princess Keeah, King Zello, Queen Relna, Max the Spider Troll and Khan, king of the Lumpies are skydiving down to the Dark Lands from Calibaz, a mysterious shadowland that is "next" to Eric's world, the Upper World. They are on a mission to find their old and wise wizard friend Galen Longbeard. Julie, who possesses the ability to fly, attempts to hold them all up, but fails due to the combined weight of all her friends. Keeah and Relna, soon joined by Eric, who was, like them, a wizard, uses magic in an effort to stop their fall, but, too, fails, because of the powerful enchantments imbued in the very air of the Dark Lands. Just as they are about to fall into the volcano of the Dark Lands, Max manages to spin a parachute out of his spider silk that immediately slows their fall and they manage to land safely. Just as they believe they are safe, they hear a spine-tingling howl and see a huge frightening shadow, leading them to believe they are under attack from a monstrous beast. However, it is only the two-headed puppy Kem, pet of the formerly evil Lord Sparr. Kem finds a tangfruit, an enchanted fruit that enables the eater to understand the language of animals, or in animals' case, the language of humans, and instantly devours it. Neal, despite his great reluctance to consume the fruit due to its horrid smell, is finally persuaded to eat it by much coaxing from his friends and discovers that even though the tangfruit smells horrific, it tastes wonderful. Neal and Kem converse, and Neal discovers that Sparr, who was now their ally and secretly trying to destroy the army of the demonic Emperor Ko, who was ruler of all beasts, found out three things while he was acting as double agent— 1. Ko is planning something "really big" in the Serpent Sea that involves numerous aquatic beasts, 2. Agrah-Voor, home to Droon's slain heroes, is apparently in great danger, and 3. There is a great secret that might be able to help them rescue Galen hidden in Sparr's castle, which resides in the Forbidden City of Plud. One type of Ko's beasts, wingsnakes, flying reptiles that can breathe fire, attacks them, but are scared off by Kem and his howls. The nine friends decides it best for them to "split up" and Zello, Relna and Khan chooses to journey to Agrah-Voor to investigate while the others go to Plud to uncover the secret that would find Galen. Soon, they reach Plud and Keeah discovers that Ninns, minions of Sparr, are armed for battle, much to their confusion.
Their confusion soon evaporates when they sight Ko's beasts launching a catapult at the Ninns and conclude the Ninns and the beasts must be at war. Noticing the injustice of the beasts' surprise attack, Eric and his friends decide to help the Ninns. Eric uses magic to disperse the Ninns, and, thus, save them from the catapult attack. A captain of the Ninns, Bludge, finds out that Eric rescued the Ninns and demands to know why. After they explain and strike a bargain— Keeah create a coat of fog to give the Ninns an opportunity to strike the beasts back and the Ninns show the gang where the hidden secret is. Bludge helps the kids, Max and Kem to find the secret, but not before they hear the beginning of a warning a cloaked messenger of Ko gives the beasts a warning and Keeah casts a spell that produces a large layer of mist. The secret appears to be a beautiful silver chariot hooked to the statue of a winged horse. Keeah uses the powerfully magical Moon Medallion to animate the horse, and the chariot takes off into the air at once. Keeah gives the Moon Medallion to Eric and he uses its magic to steer the chariot. They fly higher and higher, until they see the moon— with a large city on it. Soon, they reunite with their old friend Hoja, the Seventh Genie of the Dove. As the kids, spider troll, two-headed dog and genie begin their descent, Hoja explains that the city on the moon is called Parthnoop and a former haven to all kinds of magical creatures, but especially genies. He also reveals that Fefforello, Fifth Genie of the Dove, had one day gone a bit "loony" and conquered Parthnoop, making it a city of darkness where black snow falls. Hoja then says that Fefforello even trapped Galen in his "wizard-proof" palace tower and he plans to attack Droon from the moon tomorrow, which sends everyone to utter shock. Everyone agrees that they should stop Fefforello at once, but fist acquire Galen's assistance. Julie asks Hoja that if he is the youngest of the Seven Genies of the Dove, since he is the seventh, but Hoja corrects her, saying genies "roam" freely through time and are, in a way, reincarnated when they die, so the true age of the Genies of the Dove are hard to determine and they do not come in any particular order. Julie inquires some more, and discovers the names of the second, third, fourth, and sixth genies— Anusa, Galen's lover, River, Stream and Jyme. Neal cuts in, questioning Hoja of the First Genie, but Hoja says it was a long time ago the last time he saw him. Just then, the chariot lands, and the group parks it in a stable. The seven just manage to evade flying urns ridden by impish men with turbans, robes, slippers and whips. Soon after, they encounter the mysterious Second Genie of the Dove, Anusa, who had replicated Galen's feelings for her and took him on a journey to restore his youth. Anusa informs the gang that every attempt to rescue Galen has failed and time is running out. The eight of them succeeds in sneaking in Fefforello's palace by concealing themselves in urns, but are soon discovered by Fefforello, who had gone into the future and anticipated this, and his urn men. Anusa tosses bottles of liquid that would make the drinker invisible until they cough three times to the kids, Max and Kem while she and Hoja dives at the urn men, scattering them. However, the urn men destroys all but one of the potion bottles and only Eric (who did not receive a potion bottle but still managed to escape), Neal, and Kem( who had licked up the liquid from the floor and scampered away on his own) escapes while the others are all captured by Fefforello. Just as the evil genie is about to find the two boys until Neal insists Eric, since he is a wizard, take the potion. Miraculously, Neal evades discovery by merely hiding behind the invisible Eric, and the duo are not found by Fefforello, who reveals his plan to attack Droon by the use of a bird-shaped rocket called the Raven. The boys run away and Neal finds a door that leads to the tower. The two runs up the stairs to the tower, with Eric leading. Eric fires a blast of wizard magic at the door to the cell where Galen is locked, but is unable to break through it, instead nearly "frying" himself and Neal. Neal, however, performs another miracle yet again— he somehow unlocked the door when Eric could not. Galen, who appears younger, is freed, Eric coughs three times and becomes visible, and both boys tell Galen of all their adventures since Anusa took Galen away on his quest. Galen explains in turn that he found a black stone during his long journey and, whil he and Anusa were stopping for rest at Parthnoop, Fefforello saw the stone and was put under its spell, now keeping the stone under his turban. The three confronts Fefforello and Galen, with the help of his enchanted rainbow cutlass, causes the tyrannical genie to twirl so much that he becomes disorientated enough for Galen to remove the black stone from his turban. At once, the dark spell on the genie is lifted, but the spell on the urn men is not, and they chase after Eric, Neal and Galen while Fefforello goes to free the others. Eric, Neal and Galen reunite with all their friends, but are forced to run away again when then the urn riders still pursue them. They reach the chariot and Eric starts it with the Medallion. The urn riders whip through the air, still hot on their heels, but the three genies intervene and break the spell on the urn riders, too, and they are revealed to be Fefforello's doves. The enchantments Fefforello placed on Parthnoop are quickly dispersed and Parthnoop is restored back to normal. Even the Raven is gone. The gang then returns to Droon at long last, and land in Plud. They soon discover that the battle against Ko's beasts is not going well, and riding the chariot, attempts to surprise the beasts five times, but fail in all five. Just then, wingsnakes attack Neal, who was chasing Kem, and both the boy and the dog are forced toward the frozen lake. The wingsnakes' fire blasts succeed in cracking the ice and Neal and Kem falls into the water and apparently perishes, but just then, they reappear soaking wet right next to the gang, to their great astonishment. Even more astonishing is when the beasts got a sight of Neal, they shrieked and rushed away. Neal explains that when he fell into the lake, he "sank like a stone", but then strangely rematerialized in the sewer from yesterday. Neal tells his friends that at first, he thought the tangfruit had somehow caused this, but he then decided that he had gone back in time and thought that perhaps that the messenger of Ko might've been he himself! Neal also said that he wrapped himself in the black cloth covering the chariot and pretended to be a messenger from Ko, telling the beasts to beware the "flying silver light" and "the boy so blond and cute". After that, Neal said, he covered the chariot in the black cloth again and he "poofed" back to the present time. Then, Hoja, Anusa, Fefforello, River, Stream and Jyme appears and declares to Neal that he is actually the First Genie of Dove, since he accomplished the Four Genie Wonders— To give to another, and yet receive (Neal gave the potion bottle to Eric, yet he received invisibility when he needed it) ; to follow another, and yet lead (Neal followed Eric up the stairs to the tower, yet he found the tower) ; to find another and yet be found (Neal found Galen where Eric failed, yet he found himself as a genie); to die for another, and yet live (Neal "died" for Kem, yet he lived).
The six genies also explain Neal can choose a genie name, and Hoja humorously states that he was born with the name Bobba Bobba Bobba Batta, not Hoja. Neal tells the six that he wants the name Zabilac, which is backwards of Calibaz. The genies also explain they only command a hundred doves (that can assume any shape or form), whereas the First Genie possesses a hundred thousand doves. Neal commands all his doves to create a road leading from Calibaz to Droon, freeing all the inhabitants of Calibaz and fulfilling their ancient prophecy that a hero was destined to lead them from their dark life in Calibaz into the light. Galen is very proud of Neal, and says farewell to Anusa and they will only be a whisper away. The magical staircase leading to the Upper World becomes visible, and Eric, Neal and Julie climbs it, with Eric suggesting they race to the top, but Neal and Julie gets there at the same time while Eric is still at the bottom of the stairs. Laughing, Eric follows his friends up to his world.
