Graduation Day Read online

  Some of the crowd laughed—but the rest groaned. Jestro knew he had to step it up.

  He moved on to his spinning plate trick, where he kept six spinning plates balanced on top of six spikes. A good plate spinner could keep it up for a long time—but Jestro’s plates crashed after only a few seconds of spinning.

  Next, he tried his tablecloth trick. In the center of the arena was a table topped with a tablecloth and all the ingredients of a royal feast. To impress the crowd, all he had to do was remove the tablecloth without disturbing any of the food.

  Jestro yanked the tablecloth—and the food went flying! Apples, carrots, and a pumpkin pie bonked him on the head. Then a roast turkey slipped right over his head! He stumbled around with a turkey on his head, and the crowd booed him.

  King Halbert was fond of Jestro and wanted him to do well.

  “Do the juggling!” he called out. “Everyone loves juggling!”

  Jestro grabbed a sword, a mace, and a spear and began to juggle them, humming as he tossed the weapons above his head. Backstage, the knights and Merlok watched the action on a big screen.

  “Does he know that’s a power mace?” Macy asked.

  “Does that make a difference?” Lance wondered.

  “It might,” Macy replied.

  Clay was worried for his friend. “You can do it, Jestro,” he said under his breath.

  The unimpressed crowd started to boo, so Jestro tried to juggle faster and faster. Sweat broke out on his forehead. He gripped the mace as it came back down, and the weapon powered on.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaah!” Jestro cried as the charge shocked him. He let go of the mace, and it flew across the arena. The crowd gasped and ducked as the electrically-charged mace flew over their heads.

  Then … bam! It hit the power grid on the arena wall.

  The area lights flickered, then turned off. Soon the power outage surged throughout the city. All of Knightonia was in darkness!

  Wow, Alice! Jestro finishes his act with a power outage!” Herb announced, looking around the darkened arena.

  “I’ve heard of bringing the house down, but bringing the power down?” Alice asked, laughing. “Get it?”

  “Yeah, I get it,” Herb said, shaking his head.

  Back on the arena floor, Jestro ran toward the entrance—and banged right into Clay.

  “Oh, I’m a horrible failure!” Jestro moaned. “I can’t do anything right!”

  “Come on, nobody thinks that,” Clay assured him.

  “You’re a horrible failure!” yelled a Squirebot from the stands.

  “You can’t do anything right!” chimed in another Squirebot.

  Jestro burst into tears and ran off.

  “Jestro, wait! I want to talk to you!” Clay called after him.

  King Halbert knew he had to calm down the frightened crowd. “All is well! Even though darkness falls across the land!”

  His words had the opposite effect. The crowd started to panic.

  “Uh, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “It is dark, but not evil, world-ending, soul-sucking darkness.”

  That did it. Everyone began to scream and run.

  “You’re not helping, dear,” said the queen gently.

  Jestro had already fled to the dark castle. He walked down the deserted halls, feeling miserable.

  “Another big chance, and I blew it!” he scolded himself. “I’m just bad at everything!”

  Then a voice came out of nowhere.

  “I bet you could be good at being bad, jester!”

  Jestro gasped. “Are you talking to me?”

  “See any other jesters around?” the voice asked. “No, you’re not hearing things. And you’re not talking to yourself, either. Come find me. I’m in Merlok’s library.”

  Curious, Jestro walked to the wizard’s library and pushed open the big doors. He cautiously stepped inside.

  “This place is usually locked up,” he said out loud.

  “Yeah, your little power outage trick unlocked the door,” the voice explained.

  Jestro walked toward the sound of the voice. It was close. Was it coming from that chair?

  He jumped in front of the chair. “Aha!” he cried. But nobody was sitting in it.

  “No, no, no,” the voice said. “Over here.”

  Jestro looked around and spotted a large, open book on a stand all by itself. Golden light sparkled around it.

  Jestro reached through the light, and it flickered out. He picked up the book and closed it.

  “Boo!”

  “Aaah!” shrieked Jestro.

  There was a face on the cover of the book! Not a picture, but a living face. Two yellow eyes with red pupils glowed above a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth.

  “Ha! I love doing that,” the book said. “You shoulda seen your face.”

  “You’re a book?” Jestro asked. He still couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “I’m THE book—The Book of Monsters,” the book replied. “And I think I could make you the baddest baddie in the realm.”

  Jestro shook his head. “I don’t know …”

  “You want to have everybody laugh at you? You want to be a joke?” the book asked. “How many more times do you want to be the laughingstock of the whole kingdom?”

  The book’s words hit home for Jestro. He thought about all of the people and Squirebots in the stands, laughing at him. His eyes filled with tears again.

  “Ah, quit living in the past!” the book said, and then chomped on Jestro’s hands.

  “Hey, you bit me!” Jestro cried.

  “I had to snap you out of sad-face clown-boy mode,” said The Book of Monsters. “I can make you somebody! A guy who’s respected. I can make you the most feared guy in the whole land. That’s gotta be better than spinning plates, right?”

  Jestro slowly nodded. “Okay. I’m listening.”

  “Look around: There’s lots of power in these books,” the book said. “I know them all. Grab as many as you can and let’s jailbreak this musty old place.”

  Jestro looked around at the shelves and shelves of books. Did they really hold the power the book said they did? And could he really change his life? Stop being the jester who everyone laughed at?

  Maybe. Just maybe.

  He started to frantically grab books from the shelf.

  “That’s it, kid, grab them all,” The Book of Monsters instructed. “And you’ll need a magic staff to make my pages come to life. Merlok has a dozen of them lying around.”

  Jestro spotted a staff with a spiked circle on the top. He grabbed it just as Clay walked into the library.

  “Jestro? You in here?” Clay called into the dark library. “I wanted to talk to you.”

  “It’s that goody-goody knight!” fumed the book. “Quick, page 205! Wave the magic staff over me and conjure a monster.”

  “But it’s Clay,” Jestro said. “He’s, like, my friend.”

  “Nobody’s your friend but me, joke-boy! Remember that! Now quick, page 205!”

  Jestro quickly paged through The Book of Monsters. When he found page 205, he saw that it was filled with pictures of monsters. They were all moving, struggling to get out of the book.

  Clay spotted him. “Jestro, what are you doing?”

  “Do it!” The Book of Monsters hissed.

  Jestro pointed the staff at the page. He jumped back as a glowing red arm thrust out of the book. Then another arm. Then a huge, monster body with spiked shoulders, horns, and one enormous eye in its head.

  “Roooooaaaaar!” bellowed the monster.

  “It’s Sparkks!” cried The Book of Monsters.

  Jestro looked up at the huge creature. Like the monster in Merlok’s trick, its body looked like it was sculpted from molten rock. Lava flowed through its veins. But this was no trick.

  This was real.

  “What have I done?” Jestro cried.

  The Book of Monsters laughed. “This is gonna be one monstrous takedown,” he said gleefully. “S
ee, kid? You’re good at something. You’re good at being bad!”

  Sparkks growled, and Clay charged toward him with his sword raised. He jumped in the air and swung the sword down hard toward the monster.

  Clunk! It bounced harmlessly off the monster’s rock-hard head.

  Then Sparkks kicked Clay. The knight flew across the room and slammed into a bookshelf.

  Clay tumbled to the floor, picked himself up, and grabbed his sword.

  “Rooaaaaar!” Sparkks charged him again.

  Clay thought quickly. He looked up and saw the heavy wooden chandelier hanging from the ceiling. He jumped onto a hover disc used to reach the tall library shelves. He rode it until he reached the chandelier. The huge fixture was as big as the monster.

  “Aaaargh!” With all his might, Clay swung his sword at the metal pole connecting the chandelier to the ceiling. He jumped to the floor as the heavy, wooden fixture landed right on Sparkks’s head.

  Sparkks was floored. But he got back up again, growling, and smashed the chandelier into toothpicks.

  “More monsters! Make more monsters!” The Book of Monsters cried.

  Jestro waved his wand over the book again. From the book sprung Globlins—bouncing fireballs. Then came Bloblins—bigger, bouncing fireballs. Finally came Scurriers—little red creatures with arms and legs that looked like they were made of pure flame.

  Giggling with evil glee, the Globlins and Bloblins bounced at Clay. He batted them aside with his sword. Then came the Scurriers. He swiped at them, too, but there were just too many.

  Sensing a moment of weakness, Sparkks swung at Clay with a mighty fist.

  Bam! The blow sent the knight flying across the room and crashing to the floor. This time, he couldn’t get up.

  The library doors swung open, and Merlok stepped inside.

  “That crazy ol’ Merlok. I hate him!” complained The Book of Monsters. “Now here’s our chance—destroy them both!”

  The smaller Magma Monsters advanced toward Merlok and the fallen Clay.

  “Jestro, stop this!” Merlok cried, pointing his staff at the jester.

  He raised the staff over his head and twirled it like a baton. The globe at the end of the staff began to glow with yellow light.

  “You … shall not … be monstrous!” Merlok cried with great effort, and then slammed the end of the staff onto the floor.

  Whoosh! A wave of golden light swept all of the monsters back, even Sparkks. But as soon as the light faded, the monsters charged forward again.

  Merlok slowly backed up. Behind him, Clay rose to his feet.

  The wizard pointed a hand at Clay. A beam of golden light shot out, zapping him. Clay went flying out of the library doors, and then they slammed shut, locking him out.

  “Yes! Finish him!” The Book of Monsters cried.

  The monsters ran at Merlok. He began to twirl his staff again, this time over his head.

  “Owah! Tagu! Siam!”

  His voice got louder with each magic word. When he finished the chant, a tornado of magical golden light swirled around him, growing larger and larger.

  Boom! The light exploded, blowing off the roof of the library tower.

  The monsters vanished. Jestro and The Book of Monsters went hurtling through the windows and out of the castle. Outside the library door, the vibrations of the explosion knocked Clay out cold.

  When he woke up, the other knights were gathered around him.

  “Wh-what happened?” Clay asked.

  “You tell us, buddy,” said Aaron.

  Clay got up and forced open the library door. All of the books had been sent flying in the explosion. Stray pages floated in the air like birds.

  “Must be the maid’s day off,” joked Lance.

  Then Clay saw it—Merlok’s hat, still glowing with scorch marks from the explosion.

  The wizard was nowhere in sight.

  “Merlok’s gone!” Clay cried. “It was Jestro and he had monsters and a magical book. And he was going to crush us!”

  “Jestro? What’s wrong with him?” asked Macy.

  “He’s always been more than a little out there,” said Lance.

  Clay fell to his knees. “Merlok used some big spell and … boom. I couldn’t save him. I was helpless. I … I don’t deserve to be a knight.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Clay,” Macy said, trying to console him. “None of us are ready for whatever this is.”

  “We’d better be,” said Clay. “And fast!”

  Clay took a deep breath. He knew he had to stay calm. He told the knights everything he could remember about the monsters he had seen. He explained how Merlok had saved him—and sacrificed himself.

  He picked up the battered hat. “I still can’t believe he’s gone,” said Clay. “I’m a knight. I should be saving people. Maybe I don’t deserve my shield.”

  Macy put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  In the castle’s computer room, Ava was frantically typing on the main console to try to repair the castle’s electronic systems.

  Robin walked in. “The Squirebots are getting the power back on all over Knighton. It shouldn’t take long.”

  Ava nodded, but she was frowning. “The power failure totally fried the servers. I’ve got to find a way to get the castle grid up and running.”

  The digital blue holo screens were up working, but Ava hadn’t been able to get any of the programs to function. Then, without warning, one of the screens began to glow and hum.

  “Looks like you did something,” Robin said.

  “Can’t take credit for this,” Ava told him.

  A mechanical voice came from the screen. “Je-je-je-jes-tro …”

  “Wait, what was that?” Ava asked. “Jestro?”

  * * *

  At that moment, the jester was walking through the dark forest, carrying The Book of Monsters. They had both survived the blast, but they looked a little battered.

  “I can’t believe we got blown up,” Jestro complained. “I mean, look at me! I’m a wreck. This is awful. How long have we been walking?”

  “Ten minutes, bad boy,” The Book of Monsters replied.

  “That long?” asked Jestro.

  “Moan, moan, moan,” the book teased. “You’re the most delicate evil jester I’ve ever met. You need to stay focused on your revenge.”

  “You’re getting heavy,” Jestro said. “You’re a pretty fat book.”

  He stopped and set the book down on a tree stump.

  “I’m not fat, I just have big binding!” the book protested. But he knew that Jestro couldn’t go on carrying him forever. “Okay, open to page three and get out the Book Keeper.”

  Jestro cautiously opened the book. “I’m not too sure about this. The last time I tried this I got blasted across the kingdom.”

  “Oh, don’t be such a baby,” snapped the book.

  Jestro waved the staff over the page and a streak of purple light shot from the book. The light transformed into a small creature. About half as tall as Jestro, the monster was red, with black hair and one yellow eye larger than the other.

  Jestro backed away nervously. The little monster walked over to the book, shut it, and hoisted it into his arms. Then he tottered over to Jestro.

  “See?” the book said. “Now this little Book Keeper can carry me around. Happy?”

  “Fine, but who’s going to carry me?” Jestro whined.

  “Look, you kooky clown! I told you, I’d make you into the best evil force this realm has ever seen, so stop all your complaining or I’m out. Book Keeper, turn me around! I don’t want to look at him.”

  The Book Keeper turned the book around—all the way around, in a complete circle, so that the book was face-to-face with Jestro again.

  “No, no! Turn me halfway around! I’m turning my back cover on him!”

  The Book Keeper did it right this time.

  “All right,” said Jestro. “I’ll stop moaning. Now tell me again, what’s the plan?”

 
The Book of Monsters outlined his wicked plot.

  “It’s simple,” he said. “We hunt down those evil books that magic Mer-loser blasted all over the kingdom. The more evil books we get, the more evil we’ll be.”

  “You mean the more evil I’ll be, right?” asked Jestro.

  “Yeah, yeah, right. Now let’s go.” He sniffed the air. “I smell nasty.”

  “Actually, you do have a pretty musty odor,” Jestro said.

  The book got defensive. “I’ve been on a shelf for a hundred years! Without any deodorant!”

  Then the three of them headed farther into the dark, spooky forest.

  Inside the Joustdome, Squirebots worked to try to restore power. Others were cleaning up after the Graduation Battle-bration.

  Macy walked into the training room and found Clay angrily hacking a wooden target to pieces with his sword.

  “Clay, we need a plan. We need to be ready for anything,” she told him.

  “I know,” Clay said, not taking his eyes off his next target. “I think better when I’m training.”

  He threw a broken piece of target in the air and jumped up to reach it.

  Whack! He sliced it right in two.

  Nearby, Lane was facedown on a massage table as a Squirebot karate-chopped his back.

  “A little to the left, Dennis,” Lance instructed.

  Clay glared at Lance. With a cry, he angrily hurled his sword at a target just above Dennis’s head. The sword hit the bull’s-eye, and the Squirebot ran away, screaming.

  Lance looked up. “Hey! You ruined my midday massage.”

  Clay marched up to Lance. “Most of the city’s without power! Merlok is gone! Dark magic may be loose! You realize we’re dealing with epic, life-altering events here?”

  “Of course. You know how tense I am right now?” Lance asked, sitting up. “I have a knot in my shoulder the size of a grapefruit.”

  “I don’t have time to massage your ego. We need to train!” Clay said.

  In one swift motion, he pulled the sword out of the target and sliced through the legs of the massage table. Lance jumped off as the broken table clattered to the floor.

  Angry now, Lance pressed a button on the handle of his lance. The pole slid out and he charged toward Clay.