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carry him across to the forested side. This time he passed about a half mile to the south of Hercules and Geekus and disappeared into the woods.
    â€œIf we could only hitch a ride on his back, that would solve the problem of how to get over to the castle,” Hercules mused.
    Suddenly Geekus began scratching his head and drawing numbers in the dirt.
    â€œNo need to do that,” he announced, taking Hercules’ suggestion seriously. “I think I might have an even better way for us to get across.”
    Hercules rolled his eyes again and lay down in the weeds to rest. He knew there was no way they were going to get across. No way they were ever going to use Brooma’s enchantment and get inside the fortress vault.
    This quest would end in failure—and the death of Queen Xumonia.
    It will be a long journey back,
he thought as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
    Maybe,
Brooma’s voice answered inside his head.
Maybe not. . . .

Chapter 13
Wings
    When Hercules woke up again, it was almost dusk and Geekus was nowhere to be seen.
    Hercules turned to XL, who was feeding nearby.
    â€œWhere is he now?” he playfully asked the horse.
    In the clearing, twenty paces that way,
another voice answered, followed by a slight breeze.
    Hercules just shook his head.
    â€œAnd what is he up to, Brooma?” he asked.
    I cannot figure that out,
she replied.
Something about how the dragon flew.
    Hercules picked himself up and then patted XL.
    â€œEat plenty, my friend,” he said. “We must start the long journey back very soon.”
    Then Hercules made his way through the dense growth and came upon the clearing.
    Sure enough, there was Geekus, moving in a hundred different directions at once.
    He’d constructed something. It was made of bamboo-like sticks and twigs and tied together with hemp and vines. It was probably eleven feet long in all.
    And it had wings. . . .
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Hercules finally asked him.
    â€œWe need to get across the chasm, right?” Geekus replied. “Well, we can go across . . . on this.”
    Hercules laughed so hard he had to cover his mouth. He didn’t want the dragon to hear him, but he couldn’t help it—it was too funny!
    â€œWhat is it?” Hercules asked Geekus, his words having trouble coming out because he was snickering so hard.
    â€œWell . . . I’m not sure,” Geekus said, stopping for a moment. “I mean, I don’t know what you could call it. But if my calculations are correct, it will carry us across the chasm to the Castletop, using the wind, just like the dragon.”
    Hercules was laughing so hard now, he couldn’t catch his breath.
    â€œYou expect me to climb on that thing with you? And actually go off the side of this cliff?” he asked.
    â€œYes,” Geekus answered as he went back to securing the rope vines that held the long fragile wing to the body of the thing. “In fact, your weight will be essential for this to work properly. You see, the two of us have to be on board to balance it. If not, who knows where we’ll wind up.”
    â€œI know exactly where we’ll wind up,” Hercules huffed at him. “Right at the bottom of that gorge—in a million tiny pieces—both of us!”
    â€œThe probability of that happening is low,” Geekus said.
    â€œLook, Geeky,” Hercules began again tensely. “Maybe I’m not as smart as you when it comes to science or whatever you want to call it. But I do know that if we get on this thing and go off the edge—we’ll drop. It’s called gravity.”
    To demonstrate, he took a rock and threw it out over the chasm. It fell all the way to the bottom—and took a long time to do so!
    â€œYes, well, you see, the difference between us and that rock is that we will have a means of propulsion,” Geekus said.
    Hear him out,
Brooma was telling Hercules.
    â€œJust like the dragon,”