"Hey! What are you doing?" Zann cried.
Zing glanced at his master and then at Boz.
With a burst of smoke, the dragon leaped into the air.
"Oh!" Boz exclaimed as the little dragon flew at him, snatched the stone out of his hand, and swallowed it.
"Give that back or you'll be sorry, you scaly scoundrel!"
Teplo put a hand on Boz's arm. He had already undone Boz's Lip-Zip spell.
"Settle down, old friend," Teplo said soothingly.
"It won't do any harm to let the boy keep his souvenir, eh?"
Boz glared at Zing and sighed. "I suppose you're right," he said, straightening his clothes.
"Come, Teplo. I promised the king I'd fetch those texts from the archives right away."
Teplo nodded and then glanced at the kids.
"See you at Saffa's in an hour."
"We'll be there," Gliss promised.
"What was that all about?" Perda wondered after the two old men zapped away.
"I have no idea." Zann whistled for Zing.
The little dragon flew over and landed in front of him.
Zing shot out a burst of flame. The stone tumbled out with it.
Zann grabbed the stone. "Ow!" he blurted out, juggling it from one hand to the other to keep it from burning his skin.
"Extinguish!" he said, rubbing one leg against the other to create enough friction for the spell.
Instantly the stone felt cool in Zann's hand.
Gliss leaned over to peer at it.
"Hey, it doesn't look burned at all," she said.
"It must be fireproof," Darb said. "I wonder where it came from."
"Me too." Zann turned the stone over in his hand. "Teplo seemed to recognize it."
"So did Boz," Gliss said. "I can't believe he did a Lip-Zip spell on Teplo! He's lucky Teplo didn't get mad."
"Yeah," Perda said. "If they won't tell us about the stone, maybe we can try to research it on our own."
Zann sighed. "We can try. But we're running out of time.
Once we're back in Swamp Bottom, it will be much harder to do anything." He leaned over and scratched Zing.
"Anyway, thanks for getting the stone back for me, little buddy."
Honk! Honk!
Zann jumped back as Teplo's sniffer goose leaped out the front door at him.
"Quit it!" said Zann, dodging the goose's beak.
"Down, girl," Teplo added with a chuckle. "It's just us."
The goose backed down, but her beady little eyes were still trained on Zann.
Zann ignored her as he followed Teplo, Boz, and Darb into the house.
The four of them had just returned from that evening's dinner party, though Zann had been too distracted to enjoy himself much.
"Anyone care for a game of exploding dominoes?"
Teplo rubbed his hands together to trade his party clothes for his usual robe and sandals.
"No thanks," Zann said. "I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go to bed."
"Me too," Darb said.
Zann and Darb headed upstairs to the guest room they were sharing.
When the door shut behind them, Zann spun to face his friend.
"I can't stand this anymore," he blurted out.
"I need to know what happened to my parents!"
"I understand," Darb said. "Maybe Boz—"
"Forget Boz!" Zann interrupted. "I need to come up with a plan to find my parents on my own."
He paced back and forth. "Maybe I should just try jumping into a wormhole like I said before."
Bang! A small explosion came from downstairs.
Boz and Teplo were apparently playing dominoes.
"What?" Darb sounded alarmed. "Zann, that's crazy!
It's no plan at all. You'll end up lost just like your parents!"
"Well, it would be better than doing nothing!"
Zann stopped pacing and glared at his friend.
"Morb and Wyssa both seem to think my parents are still out there somewhere in the vortex!"
Another domino exploded.
"I know," Darb said. "But you need help from someone who knows more about these things.
Why don't you try talking to your grandfather again?"
Zann rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding?
You saw how Boz reacted when he saw the stone."
Darb shrugged. "I think you just took him by surprise.
Boz is a reasonable person, and he cares about you.
Maybe if you ask nicely, he'll talk to you about what's going on."
"Do you really think so?" Zann was dubious.
Boz hadn't seemed very reasonable when he'd snatched the stone earlier.
"It's worth a try," said Darb. "What have you got to lose?"
Zann hesitated. But finally he nodded. He trusted Darb's judgment.
"Okay," he said. "I'll talk to him."
Zann opened the door and headed for the stairs.
At the top he took a deep breath to calm himself.
The dominoes had stopped exploding, and he could hear Boz and Teplo talking quietly.
Feeling curious, Zann leaned forward to listen.
". . . and that doesn't leave much time," Teplo was saying.
"Perhaps not," Boz replied. "But the plan is set. We leave First City tomorrow afternoon."
Zann gasped and backed away from the staircase. Tomorrow afternoon?
It was too late to try to talk to Boz about the stone. Zann had to act now!
He hurried back to the guest room.
Darb looked surprised. "What happened?"
"Nothing. I, uh, decided I'm too tired to argue with Boz right now."
Zann zapped himself into his pajamas and climbed into bed. "I'll talk to him tomorrow."
"Oh. Okay, good-night." Darb got into bed too.
Zann rubbed his fingers to extinguish the light.
Then he lay in the dark, staring at the moonlit ceiling.
He felt guilty about lying to his best friend.
But Zann's plans had changed, and Darb definitely wouldn't approve of what Zann was going to do next.