The Knight in Screaming Armor Read online

  If she returns in a flash, zoom to PAGE 102.

  The bird turns right. “Where are you taking us?” you call to the black hawk.

  “Aawwk! Aawwk!” squawks the giant, feathered bird.

  “We shouldn’t leave this place,” Kip says worriedly. “If Abbey comes back she won’t know where we went.”

  “And if we stay in the bell tower,” you reason, “we won’t be there when she gets back anyway. That beast looked pretty hungry.”

  As the flying speed increases, the flapping of the big bird’s wings drowns out your voices. You fly in silence now. But you’re just as worried about finding Abbey as Kip is. Your worry time is cut short when you look over the bird’s shoulder and see a rocky side of a mountain straight ahead.

  “Look out!” you scream as the bird heads right for it. “We’re going to crash!”

  The bird speeds up. The mountainside is directly in your flight path. “Stop!” you scream with all your might. “Don’t you hear me? We’re going to crash!”

  Turn to PAGE 125.

  You are dizzy from the heat and the force of the sword against your helmet. The Sorceress’s shouts are echoed by the other evil creatures in the dungeon. “Fight! Fight!” they all cry at once.

  “They want a fight? I’ll give them a fight!” you say.

  The Evil Knight raises his sword again and prepares to slash your suit in half. This is the hit that is aimed to destroy you.

  You take one heavy step backward. You raise your battle-ax high over the Evil Knight’s black-armored helmet. He swings his steel-bladed sword right at your stomach.

  Think fast! With the heavy battle-ax raised over your head, you can’t exactly duck! Instead, you pull your stomach back, as far as it will go. You turn yourself into a human question mark.

  The mighty blow of the Evil Knight scratches across your armor with a ring. But it doesn’t cut you.

  You still have the ax raised over your head. You lower it now with all your strength. CRASH! In one swift motion you bring the ax down on the head of your evil enemy.

  “AAAaaaaaaahhhh!” the Knight in Screaming Armor screams. But this time he falls to the dungeon floor.

  He lies there motionless.

  Quick! Find out if he’s still alive on PAGE 111.

  SPLAT!

  THWAAAAAT!

  SOOOWAAACK!

  The Mud Slingers throw their mud faster than you can wipe it away.

  Abbey gives up. She stands facing one muddy wall with her hands up over her mud-covered eyes. The monsters stand in front of her like a firing line. They scoop up new mud and pelt her.

  You watch in horror as the flung mud covers every inch of her clothing, hair, and skin. In no time Abbey is completely flattened into the mud-covered wall. In another second it is impossible to see where Abbey ends and the wall begins. She is the wall!

  “Kip!” you shout. “Kip, where are you?”

  While you were watching Abbey being mudified, Kip was being plastered to another wall. Only his eyes peer out at you. Then, SCHWAAAAAAP! he’s gone.

  You lunge toward the wall where Kip was. You scrape at the hardening mud. You try to say “Kip,” but all that comes out of your mouth is a burbling mud burp.

  SWAAAAAAAAAT! A warm mudball plasters you in the back. You fall face first into the wall of muck.

  Hold your breath until you get to PAGE 17!

  Then it hits you. You recognize that voice! “The cottage!” you exclaim. “It’s the old man’s voice from the cottage.”

  Now you can see him sitting in a rocking chair. He’s hideous! He has THREE HEADS sprouting from his neck! And all six eyes are focused on you.

  “Aawwk!” a black bird screeches from a cage above you. “Aawwk!”

  The squawking bird looks familiar. There’s hardwood beneath you now, so you step closer to examine the bird. It reaches up with its claw and flicks the feathers on the back of its head. An eerie feeling comes over you.

  “It’s Abbey!” Kip shrieks. “Abbey turned into a bird!”

  The black bird screeches back at you.

  “Birds of a feather flock together,” the old man cackles as he wiggles one bony finger in your direction.

  That’s all it takes. Feathers burst through every pore of your skin. Your nose and mouth fuse together and harden. You scream, but all that comes out is an “Aaawwwk!”

  “Aaaawwwk!” the three of you squawk.

  “That’s it, my fine-feathered friends,” croaks the old man. “Sing for me, my pretties! Sing!”

  “Aaaawwk!” you all sing, which, when translated, means

  THE END

  THAT WHAT IS NOW IS NOT WHAT’S REAL! you repeat in your head. Louder! Harder! Concentrate! THAT WHAT IS NOW IS NOT WHAT’S REAL!

  Then … a miracle happens.

  The shrinking room starts getting bigger again. Slowly it returns to normal size. The lightning bolt outlines around each cousin fade to a dim glow and then disappear!

  “Just like the Mud Slingers,” you declare. “Another trick of our imaginations! This Evil Knight likes to play mind games, I’m afraid.”

  “You’re afraid!” Abbey sputters. She tries to smooth down her flyaway hair. “I’m terrified! I may never get my hair to curl after this!”

  As if in response to Abbey’s complaint, the only remaining door swings open. By itself. Out comes a voice that makes the blood curdle in your veins. It’s the voice of the Evil Knight. And he’s whispering your name….

  You must answer. Go to PAGE 31.

  You don’t always agree with Abbey, but this time you decide to take her advice. “You’re right,” you say. “Only a fool would go in there!”

  Before you can say another word, you feel yourself being pulled against your will. “COME FORWARD, FOOL!” the Evil Knight commands.

  “Who-o-o-o? M-m-m-me?” you stammer.

  Yes, you! Turn to PAGE 128.

  Kip decides the right door is the left one. He reaches for the handle on the left. When his hand is only inches from it, sparks fly off the handle. Kip jumps back. “Whoa! It’s electrically charged!” he cries.

  You stop holding the walls apart long enough to reach for the door handle. More sparks shoot into the air. A rapid-fire zapping noise crackles around you. It sounds like the bug zapper on the roof of the Dairy Queen on a muggy summer night.

  You try the door one more time. ZZZZAPPPPPPP! A charge of electrical current sputters and sparks first around Abbey, then around you, and finally around Kip.

  The three of you light up like electric lawn ornaments at Christmastime. Abbey’s long blond hair stands straight up. Sparks fly from each individual strand. She’s a human firecracker, and so are you and Kip!

  You try to turn back and escape the shock treatment, but you have no choices here.

  Go to PAGE 24.

  Abbey rushes toward the wall of doors. She’s just about to reach the handle on the first door when her foot slips on something. “Another piece of parchment!” she cries out.

  You and Kip run to join her. She holds a jagged-edged scrap of parchment in her hands. It’s just like the other one you found. She reads it to you:

  “… beware his deadly charge and feel …

  That’s it. That’s all it says.”

  “There’s got to be more,” you insist.

  “Deadly charge,” Abbey repeats. “I know about charging things. Sounds like someone’s going to be doing some killer shopping!”

  “Very funny,” Kip says sarcastically.

  “Maybe not to a jerk like you,” Abbey shoots back.

  “Oh, yeah?” Kip threatens.

  “Good comeback,” Abbey taunts.

  “Hey, hold it. Hold it,” you say. “We need to work together here. These scraps of paper are obviously meant to be clues. I’ve got a feeling they’ll lead us to the missing armor, if we pay attention. Until then anything could happen.”

  Go to PAGE 62.

  Kip turns and sees the beast creeping up the stairs. “Sta
y still and maybe it won’t see us,” you whisper.

  Slowly, you and Kip press yourselves into a corner of the bell tower and watch the beast. You’ve never seen anything like it.

  It’s as large as the biggest lion and as black as night. It has short ears set back on a small doglike head. A long, swishing tail hits the crumbling wall, knocking stones to the ground.

  The beast growls. Rows of shiny white teeth drip with saliva. It turns its fierce eyes in your direction. It sniffs the air. It smells you! A long red tongue licks its drooling black lips. It sees you!

  “It’s going to pounce!” you cry.

  The beast jumps for you, but you jump, too. Right over the wall of the bell tower with Kip right behind you!

  “Oh, nooooooooo!” you both scream on your way down.

  “Aawwk! Aawwk!” you hear. A giant nighthawk passes you as you fall. “Aawwk!” the bird squawks again as it swoops down beneath your falling bodies.

  Fall down to PAGE 95.

  You take the other scrap of parchment out of your pocket and try to fit the two pieces together. None of the edges match up.

  “Never mind that stupid puzzle!” Abbey bursts out. “I want out of here now!”

  Without waiting another second, Abbey runs to the other side of the room and tries the knob on the first door. But as she turns it, the door disappears and becomes solid white wall again!

  She tries the next door. Gone!

  And the next one. And the next one. And the next one.

  Gone. Gone. Gone. Right from under her hand!

  “If the doors keep disappearing, we’ll be stuck in here forever!” Kip says in a panic.

  “We have to get out,” you shout. “And fast! Look! These walls are closing in on us! We’ll be crushed!”

  Inch by inch the floor space narrows. The walls are grinding in on your little group.

  “Try another door, Abbey!” Kip screams, as the wall behind him pushes against his back. “The room is shrinking! We’ll be squashed like bugs!”

  Evil laughter booms through the shrinking room. “He’s here!” Abbey shrieks. “The Knight in Screaming Armor. He’s here!”

  Squeeze through to PAGE 89.

  Your hunch is right! When you hold the muddy glop up to the light, it disappears! You grab another Mud Slinger, hold it up, look right through it, and it too is gone!

  Now Kip and Abbey are snagging Mudmen, too. One by one the grubby gremlins are grabbed and held up to the light. Soon the whole muddy mass of them disappears and the walls turn white.

  You and your cousins fall in a heap on the floor. “Whew!” Kip tries to catch his breath. “Was that close, or what?”

  “And totally disgusting!” Abbey adds. “I appreciate a good mud facial as much as the next girl, but that was ridiculous.”

  “It was a pretty dirty trick.” You actually agree with Queen Abbey for a change. “But now what? We still haven’t found that missing armor. Do we just walk on out of here and go home?”

  “You said it, cousin!” Abbey’s not too worried about any missing suits of armor.

  “I don’t know,” Kip says. “Dad is going to go berserk when he finds out we lost the Sir Edmund suit! He’ll be here next week. If we don’t find it, I don’t want to be the one to open the door for him!”

  “Speaking of doors,” Abbey interrupts, “look over there! There’s a whole wall of doors. One of them has to be the way out of this stuffy room.”

  Turn to PAGE 60.

  Everything’s ready. The fight of the ages is about to begin. Wearing the armor of the Good Knight should give you courage. Instead it’s giving you a rash. You start to itch like crazy. I must have an allergy to silver polish, you think to yourself.

  You hear the wretched voice of the Sorceress echoing inside your armored suit. Is she casting some kind of wicked itching spell on you?

  “When spells come from a Sorceress’s kitchen

  The silver knight shall start to itchin’!

  A suit of armor will not stay

  The rash that never goes away!”

  You rip your steel gloves off as fast as you can. You fumble at the hinge to your breastplate and manage to swing it open. You start to scratch but it doesn’t seem to help. You’re itching all over now. Just then you hear a horrible scream. “AAAAaaahhh!”

  “Uh-oh,” you say to yourself. “Here comes trouble!” The Evil Knight is here to fight. But all you can do is scratch! You might be itching for a fight, but it looks like this fight’s been scratched!

  THE END

  You and your cousins are desperate. You’ve tried for days to find your way out of the maze of hedges. No luck.

  You’re weak. Tired. And, most of all, hungry. That’s when you kind of lose it.

  You never make it out of the hedges alive.

  And years later, your bodies are absorbed into the fertile soil. The roots of the hedges find you very tasty.

  Basically, you’re PLANT FOOD!

  THE END

  “Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” You don’t know who’s screaming louder, you or the Evil Knight. You stare into his glowing eyes! You feel the steam of his breath on your face! And then he reaches out, lifts you up, and flings you over the mountainside.

  Down, down, down you tumble.

  Your arms and legs bash against the sharp rocks. You can feel the bumps and bruises starting to swell even before you reach the rocky bottom of the mountain.

  At last you tumble to a stop next to the motionless figures of Kip and Abbey. You don’t move a muscle — because you can’t. You’re stiff all over and you’re getting stiffer. And stiffer…. And stiffer….

  THE END

  “Yeah. It’s the middle of the night to be exact,” the shadow answers.

  You recognize her voice. “Abbey!” you gasp. “What are you doing in my room?”

  “I heard you screaming,” she says, holding her hands over her ears. “Horrible, horrible screams. What’s going on here? I’m trying to get some sleep!”

  “Evil,” Kip whispers as he peeks through the doorway behind Abbey. “That’s what’s going on here.” In the dim rays of the hall night-light you see panic on Kip’s face.

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” Abbey scolds her brother. “The only evil going on here is that I’m losing my beauty sleep! This screaming simply has to stop! Now shut your mouth and go back to bed!”

  “It won’t stop,” Kip insists. “It’s the curse. I know it. We shouldn’t have brought that rusty old armor. Now we’ve woken the spirit of the Evil Knight. There’s no escaping it. Not for the Saxtons!”

  You don’t know about this whole curse thing. But one thing you do know. There’s no way you can go back to sleep and pretend you don’t hear the screams. The Knight in Screaming Armor cannot and will not be ignored.

  Turn to PAGE 19.

  The middle clock face has no hands so you can’t reset the time. You study this orange clock face for a moment and decide not to play with it now. Instead you slip the whole clock under your sweatshirt. “This might come in handy later,” you say to Kip and Abbey. “You never know when we might need more time.”

  As soon as you say the word time every clock in this clock-filled room strikes the hour: BONG! BONG! CUCKOO! TICKTOCK BONG! TOCK TICKTOCK CUCKOO! CUCKOO! BONG! BONG! BONG!!!!

  The noise is almost unbearable. You try to cover your ears, but you only have one hand free. It’s like the clocks are striking back! It’s like they’re angry at you for taking one of them! You tighten your grip on the three-faced clock and head for the exit door. “Let’s get out of here!” you shout to the others. “Hurry!”

  Turn to PAGE 7.

  “Wheeeeeeee!” Abbey yells. Her hair flies out behind her as you zoom faster and faster down the spiraling slide.

  The force of the wind in Kip’s face pulls his cheeks back in a permanent smile. Faster and faster you go. Around and around. “Wheeeee!” changes to “Whoa!” You’re starting to feel sick. You wonder if this ride will ever end!

&
nbsp; You try to keep your chin against your chest so the wind doesn’t toss your head back. You try to swallow so you won’t throw up. It’s almost more than you can take! Then you notice that the spirals are getting tighter. Two more vicious spins and then WHAM! You slam to a stop.

  Your head is spinning. Your ears are ringing. Your nose is pressed up against a wall of glass.

  “Where are we now?” Kip manages to say. You’re not sure you want to know the answer. But above you, you see two buttons. One says HEADS. The other says TALES.

  “I guess we’ve got to choose,” you announce.

  “I’m not choosing,” Kip declares.

  “Leave me alone,” is all Abbey can say.

  You reach into your pocket and pull out a coin.

  Flip a coin to help you decide which button to push. If you push HEADS, turn to PAGE 103.

  If you push TALES, turn to PAGE 26.

  You bend down and pick up the jagged-edged piece of parchment. There’s writing on it. “Hey, look what I found!” you exclaim. “It’s a note. Or a piece of one.” You read it:

  “Only a knight, and Saxton born

  Can break the curse that now we mourn.

  But they who wear Sir Edmund’s steel

  Must prove their courage and strength are real.

  Before the break of day brings light

  One Good shall fight one Evil Knight….

  That’s funny. It sounds like a challenge.”

  “How boring,” Abbey complains.

  “They who wear Sir Edmund’s steel,” you read again. “What do you think that means?”

  “The armor,” Kip replies. “Sir Edmund’s armor.”