While the others waited in a circle, Diana walked toward them from the riverbank.  She placed her hand in the center; then, they all did, and—

"AW, GIMME A BREAK!"  Eric had drawn the short straw.

"What are you complaining about, Eric?  You won fair and square."

"Lost fair and square is more like it.  The things I do for you guys," he sighed.  He dropped his shield, unbuckled his cape and took off his boots, then began climbing one of the tall, thick stalks.

The kids were lucky after a long day and a hard march to find a stand of ripe milkpods.  There weren’t many in the Realm, and they weren’t always in bloom, but sometimes the pods were ready for harvest.  The fruit was as big around as a coconut and just as hard, but inside was a liquid that tasted like rich warm cows’ milk back home.  Maybe there was some kind of drug in there as well; all the kids knew was that they were relaxed and content after drinking from the milkpods.  They could almost believe, as they drifted off to sleep, that they were already back home.

Eric tossed the fruit down to Bobby and Sheila, who caught them in Sheila’s cloak.  He should have paid more attention; he had grabbed five milkpods and was reaching for a sixth when he realized it wasn’t a milkpod: it was a spined porcuparrot.

Eric gave a shout, backing away from the bird’s loud squawking and sharp quills.  Unfortunately there was no place for him to back away to, except empty air.  He started falling.

Presto snatched the hat off of his head:

"Magic hat, hear this sound:
Save Eric before he hits the ground."

Smoke rapidly poured from the hat and enveloped one of the milkpods on the ground.  In the blink of an eye the pod opened and grew until it was the size of an aboveground swimming pool.  Eric ended up falling into gallons of pod milk.  He sputtered and coughed as he scrambled out of the giant pod.

"Is this your idea of a joke, Presto?  Because it’s in pretty poor taste."

Diana dipped a finger into the milk of the giant pod, tasted it and gave a mock-shudder.  "You’re right, Eric, it does taste pretty poor, now that you’ve taken a bath in it."

Everyone laughed--except Presto.  "Whaddya want from me, Eric?  At least you didn’t hit the ground."

"Presto, one day that hat and I are going to have a nice long talk, and I’m bringing scissors."

"Maybe you should go soak yourself, Eric," Sheila said, pointing to the river.

"Just what I need—adding insult to injury."

"No, I mean it.  Go soak yourself.  If that pod milk dries on you, you’re going to smell like an old cheese factory."

Eric sighed as he trudged toward the brook.  "Boy, you don’t know how glad I’ll be to get out of this crazy place and back home."  Eric sat in the middle of the shallow part of the river near the bank, then stretched out on his back.  He closed his eyes as he scooped up some water and poured it onto his face and hair.  Then he opened his eyes—and gave a strangled cry as he looked up into the face of—

"DungeonMaster!"  Once again, nobody had seen him arrive, but Bobby rushed to the side of the river, the others following.  Their sometime guide and mentor seemed to be standing on the water’s surface.

"Greetings, pupils.  I bring news of a way home."

"Can it really happen this time, DungeonMaster?" Presto asked.  "It’s been nothing but  near misses so far."

"You are only a day’s journey from the Castle of Clouds, high above the Rainbow Desert.  A portal lies within the castle."

"Don’t tell us; we have to break our necks getting there."

"Getting in the castle will be quite easy, Cavalier.  But leaving it could take you home, or send you to your doom."

A yelp of fear got caught in Eric’s throat.  Hank asked, "We’ll be able to tell the difference, won’t we?"

"Perhaps, Ranger.  Just remember to believe in what is, rather than in what is seen, and that what’s welcome today may be unwelcome tomorrow."

"Speaking of tomorrow, O Low and Mighty One, you said we’re a day away.  Which way?"

"The Rainbow Desert lies to the south, past the Singing Rocks."

"This place has rock groups?" Presto asked.

Eric didn’t say anything.  He simply reached up, grabbed a sleeve of Presto’s robe, and pulled him into the stream.

"Hey!" Presto sputtered.  "What was that for?"

"Rock groups?  That was awful.  You need some new material."

Diana had worked her way behind Eric.  "And you need another bath."  She ducked Eric’s face back into the stream, then backed away.  Eric tried to splash water on her, but missed and got Uni instead.

"Oh no you don’t!"  Bobby took off his helmet, scooped up some water and flung it toward Eric.  He missed Eric, but caught Presto and Diana.  By this time, DungeonMaster was long gone, but they were so busy splashing and laughing that nobody seemed to notice or care.

Hank and Sheila sat on the bank and watched.  "Can you help me round them up, Sheila?  Playtime’s over."

"Not yet, Hank."  Sheila had drawn a handful of water from the stream; now, instead of drinking it, she tossed it in Hank’s face.  "NOW it’s over!" she laughed.  Hank grabbed her cloak; Sheila lost her balance, falling into the stream and pulling Hank off the bank and in with her.

The next few minutes were surrendered to playfulness as the kids splashed each other, laughing the whole time and not caring who the target was.  There was little that they did care about; even though they were perhaps millions of miles from home and families, they were friends who would always look out for each other.  For once, the day was warm, the food would be plentiful, and any danger lay to the south.

As they played, they failed to notice a shadow that detached itself from a tree on the riverbank.  It then drifted like a cloud toward the horizon.

The next morning started out with clear skies.  They filled their water-skins at the stream and went south, where the ground started turning hard and unwelcoming almost immediately.  Plant life soon dried up altogether.

After walking for about two hours, they started down into a narrow pass where the wind constantly whipped around large stone outcroppings.  Time and the elements had worn countless holes, large and small, in the rock, and as the wind danced past and through them, they gave off whistles in every conceivable combination of pitches: some angelic and comforting, some mournful and sinister.

At the end of the pass, as the wind and the noises died down, they stopped to look at what lay before them.

Sheila gasped and involuntarily grabbed Hank’s arm.  "Hank, it’s—beautiful!"

That word wasn’t enough.  Sands of every conceivable color made up this desert, eddying and swirling in breathtaking patterns as far as the eye could see.  It was all barren rock, growing warmer as the four suns rose higher, but it looked glorious.  The sands painted a stormy sunset here, a sea full of whales there; patterns and hues to thrill the eye were everywhere.

Sheila continued her thought: "I could stay here forever!"

"I don’t think so," Hank answered.  "Nothing grows around here, and it doesn’t look like they get much rain.  Everyone keep an eye out for that Castle!"

In the two hours they spent walking from one end of the Rainbow Desert to the other, they saw just about everything except a castle.  The light of the suns made the colors more intense than anything they’d seen on earth, and the constantly shifting visuals began to make them feel light-headed.  Almost all of them had to stop and rub their eyes from time to time.

Presto was the only one who seemed unaffected by the dizzying images in the Rainbow Desert.  "Hey, Presto," Diana asked, "how come this doesn’t bother you?"

Presto had been walking ahead of her.  Now he stopped and turned.  Diana quickly stifled a laugh.  All Presto had done was take off his glasses.

"Don’t laugh; it works."

Hank scratched his head.  "Well, walking through this valley hasn’t worked.  Didn’t anybody see a castle?"

Sheila rubbed her eyes.  "I think I’ve seen just about everything else."

Bobby pointed.  "Hey!  I see Tiamat!"

Eric panicked.  "WHERE??  WHERE??"

"Right over there."  He was pointing to a swirl of color on the canyon wall that was a very good likeness of the five-headed dragon.

"Oh," Eric said, much calmer.  "Now, does anyone see a mallet, or something I can use to flatten this…"

"Watch your mouth, Eric," Sheila warned.

"MNEH!  MNEH!"  Uni started suddenly jumping up and down excitedly.

"What do you see, girl?" Bobby asked.

"Maybe another unicorn," Presto guessed, "or a picture of one."

Diana shaded her eyes and looked down the valley, then pointed with her staff.  "No!  Up there!"

They’d been looking in the wrong place after all; not in the valley but on the cliffs above it.  Diana pointed to the outline of a castle, gray against the blue sky and riotous colors of the valley.

"Good goin’, Uni!"

Five minutes before, they were all hot and tired, but now, with the castle plain before them, they started back down the valley as if the heat of the suns didn’t bother them.  In spite of everything they’d been through in the Realm, they had not yet lost their capacity for hope.

That hope was renewed when they reached the base of the cliff, and saw a flight of steps carved into the rock, apparently going all the way to the castle.

Eric was the only one who hesitated in climbing the stairs.  "It’s probably a trap."

"Not this time," Presto replied.  "Remember DungeonMaster said that getting in would be easy."

An hour later, as they continued climbing the steps, Presto decided that the word "easy" didn’t really apply here.  The steps seemed to go on forever.  By the time Hank called for a rest, they had walked up the equivalent of two Washington Monuments, and the end still wasn’t in sight.

"This is nuts!" Eric complained as he sat down on a step.  "Are these steps ever gonna end?"  He reached for his water skin, but he’d already emptied it in the Rainbow Desert.  He felt a bump against his arm.  Diana sat down next to him, and was offering her water skin.  "Thanks," he smiled.  He started to take a deep drink from it, but noticed that hers didn’t have much left either.  He checked himself after a couple of small swallows and handed back the skin.

"It can’t be much further," Diana was saying.  "Just hang in there."

"Easy for you to say; you’re in better shape than any of us."

As Eric said that, Diana was reaching to take back her water skin.  As she did so, her fingers brushed Eric’s.  It triggered something in her; a memory.  It reminded her of her too few hours with Kosar, but it was different somehow.  Still, she didn’t try to do any more than smile at Eric and say, "Thanks for the compliment."

Bobby, meanwhile, was letting Uni drink from his skin.

"Bobby!  That’s gross!" Sheila scolded him.

Bobby wasn’t fazed.  "But she was thirsty.  And it’s hot; I wish it would rain.  Besides, how do you know it’s gross?"

"You want to handle this one, Presto?" Hank smiled.  "You’re our magic expert."

"Yeah," Presto said, "but I was out the day they taught us about unicorn slobber."

"MRNEH NYEH!?"

"That’s tellin’ ‘em, Uni."

"We still don’t know anything about this place, do we?" Diana asked.  "Just its name, the Castle in the Clouds."

"No," Sheila corrected, "it’s the Castle of Clouds."

"It’s just a name," Presto replied.  "And a rose by any name…"

"Would smell best of all in my mom’s flower garden," Eric interrupted.  "Let’s get to that castle."

"I guess you got all the rest you need," Hank said, standing up.

"Hey, the closer I get to the way home, the better I like it.  And I’ve got a good feeling about this one."

I hope your feelings are right, Sheila thought as they again started up the stairs.

It took another hour before the stairs ended at the top of the butte.  Before them stood the Castle.

"Guys," Presto asked, "is it my glasses, or…"

"Definitely not your glasses," Diana said.  "This castle really is made out of clouds!"

Hank found a stone near the top of the steps and threw it at the castle.  The stone sailed soundlessly through the wall, dropped through the floor into empty air and fell to the desert below.

"Oh, this is great!" Eric moaned.  "How are we supposed to get in there if we can’t walk on the clouds?"

"We don’t know that we can’t," Hank replied.

"Let me try this."  Diana pushed past the others and walked to the edge of the cliff.  First she extended her javelin until it was over six feet long.  She touched the tip of it to the clouds at her feet, and the tip went through.  Then she put one foot out over the edge and onto the clouds.  It held.

"Is that for real?" Sheila asked, as she stopped at the cliff’s edge, looking at Diana supported only by an almost transparent vapor.

Presto reached one foot out as if he were testing icy water.  Then he put his foot down also.  "Hey guys!  It’s a real floor!"

One by one they ventured off the edge of the cliff to stand on a platform of clouds that served as the castle’s drawbridge.  Bobby was the last because Uni was deathly afraid of walking on clouds.  Bobby had to pick her up and carry her on his shoulders.

It was only when they crossed the drawbridge and stepped into the castle itself that they realized its size.  The Castle of Clouds was the equal in sheer size of any of the palaces of medieval Europe.  Not counting the turrets and battlements, there were three stories worth of rooms.

Walking into the Great Hall of the castle was the opposite of their day in the Rainbow Desert.  Everything here was a gray mist, and it was hard to tell how far away the walls were.  Where the desert air was hot and dry, here everything was cool and moist.

"Well, I guess we have to split up," Hank sighed.  "Sheila, you and Eric take that wing," he said, pointing to the eastern half of the castle.

"Bobby, you’re coming with us."  Sheila stood with her arms folded, waiting.

Bobby and Eric looked at each other.  Neither one much relished the idea of being in the same scouting party, but they also both knew that they had more important worries.  They fell in behind Sheila, while Hank, Diana and Presto walked to the western wing.

The magic that created this cloud castle was very strange.  Furniture-shaped clouds occupied most of the rooms they passed through; here and there a cloud shaped like a suit of armor or the trophy head of a wild animal served as decoration.  Even more unnatural was the fact that, even though the floors were solid enough to walk on, their steps made no noise at all.  Even Eric’s metal boots were silent within the castle.

The effect of the castle’s strange magic was to leave all of their nerves on the highest pitch.  Deprived of the usual level of sensory input, the kids were ready to jump out of their skins after the first thirty minutes.  Still, they wandered from room to room, looking for a portal home.

And they didn’t notice the cloud drifting down the valley straight toward the castle.

Hank had tried to keep a catalogue in his head of all the special signals to watch for in the others.  He thought he could tell when memories of terrors in the Realm or longings for home were becoming too acute.  He’d try to level things out if he could.  But there was only so much he could do.  He really couldn’t help Presto "get over" Varla, for instance, and he didn’t think he should even if he could…

Presto?  Where was he?  They were in some kind of nondescript parlor, maybe a bedroom.  But there was only the one door and Hank was still standing in it.  Where was Presto?  And Diana?

"Guys!  Where are you?"

Almost before he finished, Presto answered.  "Hank!  Turn around real slow!"

Hank did, looked down, and saw the Rainbow Desert a thousand feet below.

Involuntarily he threw out his hands, to steady himself in the doorway.  Then he saw Presto and Diana.  Each was in a small cloud-formed cubicle, and the three of them were drifting away from the main body of the castle in different directions.

"What’s happening?!" Diana shouted.

"I don’t know, but we’ve gotta get back!"

Diana calmed a bit when she realized what she had to do.  The section of castle she was in was only about five paces deep.  "I wish I had more room," Diana said to herself, before walking to the far wall.  She extended her javelin until it was slightly shorter than a vaulting-pole.  Then she ran across the room, planted and jumped, landing back in the castle with only a couple of inches to spare.

Presto, seeing Diana, realized that he had his own magic.  He pulled the hat off of his head and started gesturing:

"Abracadabra allakazak
I really need something to get me back!"

He reached into the hat and pulled out a canoe paddle.  "This is no time for games, hat.  I need…"  Presto stopped and took another look at the paddle.  "Well," he sighed, "here goes nothing."  He stepped to the window, stuck out the paddle and began pushing in mid-air.  As he did, the cubicle of cloud he was in slowed, stopped, then moved back toward the castle.  "All right!  Summer camp was worth it after all!"

With Diana safe and Presto almost back in the castle, Hank could think about his own situation.  Raising his bow, he aimed at the castle and let loose a bolt of energy with a golden cord that trailed behind.  The arrow lodged in the floor of the castle.  Hank pulled on the cord, slowly drawing himself back to the castle.

By now the other three had heard the commotion and come to see what they could do.  When Hank stepped back onto the castle floor, Sheila asked, "What happened to you guys?"

"I’m not sure, but this place is made out of clouds and clouds break up.  Maybe we’d all better stick together."

"Yeah," sighed Eric.  "Our luck can’t get any worse than it’s been.  We didn’t see sign one of any portal."

"DungeonMaster said there was one in here," Presto sighed.  "What are we doing wrong?"

"Why not ask the portal?" Eric grumbled.

"Don’t be rude," Diana grumbled back at him.

"Hold it, Diana.  He may be right.  Let’s try calling to the portal."

"We’ve tried everything else," Sheila sighed.

Before anyone else could speak, Bobby let out a yell: "HEY PORTAL!  WHERE ARE YA?!"

At once they heard a distant rumble, like a jet engine warming up.

"Are you kidding me?" Eric moaned.  "You mean all we had to do…"

"Later, Eric," Hank cut him off.  "First we have to find the portal."

They followed the sound as best they could.  After a few false turns, they could hear the noise grow louder and louder, and mixed into it were other noises: shots and screams and the rumble of motors and the music of a carousel.

Finally, they emerged back in the great hall.  There, opposite the entrance to the castle, was the portal.  Within it was the amusement park.

"At last!" Sheila sighed.

Eric started toward the portal.  "Hold it!" Hank stopped him.  "What about our weapons?"

"Can’t we just drop them in a mailbox later?  We’re almost home."

"Forget it, Eric," Diana replied.  "We need to leave them here."

"No we don’t!" Presto gave out a squeal.  "Use ‘em on HIM!"

The others turned to look at Presto, who was pointing back at the entrance.  Making its way across the drawbridge was a ten-foot tall crab.

"Hey!  I didn’t order sushi for lunch!" Eric moaned as he drew his shield.

Bobby handed Uni (who still was deathly afraid of stepping onto the cloud floor) to Sheila.  "I’ll turn him into cat food," he said, brandishing his club.

"Let me do this," Hank said, drawing an arrow on his bow and firing into the drawbridge just in front of the crab.  The drawbridge made of clouds burst into flame, as did the giant crab.

And a tremor went through the entire castle.

"I’ve got a bad feeling about this, guys," Sheila said, looking around.

"Can we worry about that later?" Eric shot back.  "Let’s just get through the—YAAH!"

They all turned back to the portal.  Only now, Venger, mounted on his black horse, was rising through the floor between them and the portal.

"You won’t stop us this time, Venger," Hank began.

"I do not have to," Venger cut him off.  "You have already sealed your fate.  Behold!"  Venger gestured with a skeletal hand toward the entrance.

The cloud around the flaming drawbridge had turned a darker shade or gray.  That shade was spreading throughout the castle.  Worse, the walls and floors were cracking and separating.

"Don’t tell me…" Eric started.

Nobody had to tell Eric.  They all knew.  The fire had triggered a change in the cloud.  It was raining.  And the castle was disappearing around them.

As they watched, a crack opened up on the floor between the six children and the portal.  Worse, they watched it grow wider and wider.  Hank quickly shot off another energy bolt to try to bridge the chasm.  But Venger also let loose a burst of magic, deflecting Hank’s shot.  At that, the portal started to close.

Sheila’s frustrations boiled over.  "You don’t even want us here!" she screamed at Venger.  "Why can’t you just let us go home!"

"It is your weapons that concern me, not you," Venger intoned.  "As the Castle of Clouds dissolves into rain, your weapons will survive the fall to the valley.  Whether you survive does not interest me."  By now the portal had completely closed, and the section of the great hall that contained it had drifted far down the valley.  Venger and his horse rose into the sky.

As bitter as they all felt, Diana tried to lighten things a bit.  "That guy is definitely off my Christmas card list."

"Very funny.  Now, how do we get out of here?!"  The castle roof had already vanished with the rain that fell onto the desert, and the walls were melting before their eyes.

"Cool it, Eric," Presto said, removing his hat.  "I’ve got this one covered.

We don’t want to fall and hit the ground,
So let a ship take us there safe and sound!"

Smoke poured out of the hat and into the widening gap in the floor of the castle.  There was a rumble and a jolt, and up rose an old three-masted schooner.

"Great.  Where’s Captain Hook?"

Hank ignored Eric.  "Get on board, everyone!  The castle is almost gone!"

There was barely floor left for them to stand on as they got on board Presto’s floating ship.  As they did, the last of the Castle of Clouds vanished in rain, and the ship began a gentle descent to the valley.

The children watched their descent from the rails of the ship.

"Oh, Eric."

The Cavalier turned to see Presto reach into his hat again, this time taking out a pair of scissors.  "You had something you wanted to say?"

Even Eric wouldn’t complain about the ship that had just saved his life.  "Glad you found those, Presto, old pal.  I’ve been feeling a little scruffy lately, and there’s no barbershops around here…"

Presto grinned, knowing that this was as close to an apology as Eric was ever going to get.  "Sure thing, Eric; what are friends for?"

None of them noticed the short, red-garbed figure up in the crow’s nest.  "What, indeed?  You have made some unlikely friends, my children, and you shall make many more, before you find your way home."

The ship, and its extra passenger, vanished when it touched the Rainbow Desert.  The six children and the baby unicorn wordlessly headed east, where they had seen a forest.  They hoped that they might find shelter there, and food, and yet another way home.

Next: "The Eyes of Crinn"