As the princess stood there, silent, unmoving, Sparr pulled the black orb from his cloak and tossed it in the air above her.

"What's he doing now?" Max whispered.

"I don't know." Eric still felt the pain in his head where the orb had struck him with its light. "But I am really getting to not like that thing."

Eric stepped forward. "Sparr, let Keeah go! You can't harm her here, so why even try?"

"Yeah," Neal snarled, moving up behind Eric. "Why not crawl back where you came from?"

The sorcerer turned slowly. The fins behind his ears became black with anger. "You will not talk so bravely when I march into your Upper World to fulfill my mission!"

Mission? thought Eric. What mission?

Sparr then pointed his fingers at the hovering ball and muttered some words under his breath.

"Leave our princess alone, Sparr!" the queen shouted.

Sparr's eyes flashed. "Oh, yes! I'll leave your princess alone. She'll be all alone. Inside!"

"Inside what?" Eric demanded.

"Inside...this!"

With that, the ball flooded its light around Keeah.

Suddenly — fwang! A wall burst up from the ground behind the princess. It was ten feet high and jagged across the top.

Sparr laughed. "Keeah...awake!"

The princess blinked, then looked around her. "Where am I?"

"In your new home!" Sparr replied. "Orb...continue!"

Fwang! A second wall burst up next to her. Another shot up on the other side. A fourth wall in front closed her off.

"Stop!" said the queen.

But the walls kept coming.

Some walls curved in, some bent out, but all of them twisted and tangled around Keeah until she was entirely hidden by them.

"A maze!" Julie gasped. "Sparr is building a maze. Keeah will never find her way out!"

Fwang! As the last jagged wall jolted into place, the square fell into silence. The maze was complete. Its walls filled the square.

Sparr laughed. I may not be able to harm your princess. But there is only one path through this maze. Only the orb knows what it is. It will take her days to find it. Weeks, maybe. Perhaps never! If your princess ever stumbles out, she will be...a ghost!"

"We'll get her out!" Julie said firmly. "You can't stop us!"

Sparr's lips curled into a nasty smile. "I have no intention of stopping you. You'll stay to help your friend. And you will become ghosts, too! Ha-ha! I can see you getting pale already!"

His fat soldiers gargled with laughter.

Then the sorcerer whirled around. "With these troublemaking children out of the way, I am free to find my Wasp. Ninns! Tear this city apart! Queen Hazad, you will wish you had given me what I seek."

At Sparr's command, the Ninns began breaking everything in sight, trying to find the hidden Wasp. The ghosts tried to stop them, but the Ninns tore fiercely through the streets beyond the square.

The children stood alone before the maze.

"Keeah-eeah-eeah!" Julie shouted, her voice echoing inside the black walls.

The sounds of fighting echoed in their ears, too. Max began to whimper as he paced in front of the maze. "What to do? What to do?"

Eric felt his spirits sink. Without even checking Galen's hourglass, he knew. There was no way to get Keeah out in time. Sparr would find the Wasp and become even more powerful. And their friend would be stuck in the Land of the Lost forever.

And yet, something about the huge maze seemed...familiar to Eric.

How could that be?

The maze was huge. Sparr said there was only one way to the center, but no one knew the way.

No one.