Kingdom Keepers VI Read online

  “Let’s stay on point, please,” said Professor Philby. “What matters is right now.”

  “Once she returns, Jess is going to be in some serious pain,” Charlene said. “Amanda, you’re going have to be ready for that. She may cry out.”

  “Ice,” Willa said. “We can numb the wound here. When she returns, it’ll still be numb.”

  “Numb or not,” Maybeck said, “that thing’s going to hurt.”

  * * *

  Amanda scratched and clawed at the darkness like she’d had a blanket tossed over her. Pulled herself up and out of a nightmare in which Finn tried to kiss her good-bye and she put her hand up to his face, stopping him like a traffic cop. Pulled at the fabric of her unconscious as it bunched at her feet, still allowing no light to penetrate. Just then, a sound. A thin electronic whine that she knew well but couldn’t place. No, wait! It was their roommate’s CD player, an ancient portable thing that the girl used to listen to “massage music” to help her sleep.

  Amanda was returning.

  She opened her eyes, threw her legs off the upper bunk, and jumped to the floor, arriving at Jess’s side as her sister sat up in pain, her startled eyes wide. She grabbed for her leg. Amanda covered Jess’s lips and signaled quiet. Jess squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, tears running down her face.

  Amanda carefully peeled back the bedding and winced. Even in the dark, she could see the stain on the sheets and the open wound on Jess’s leg. She checked repeatedly to make sure their roommate was sleeping. She helped Jess out of bed, and together they went into the hallway bathroom. Amanda locked the door behind them and ran warm water.

  “The bandages didn’t return,” she told Jess.

  “I sort of figured that out. The ice didn’t work so great either, I’m sorry to say.”

  Amanda touched around the wound. In fact, it was incredibly cold—the ice treatment had worked— which meant it was only going to hurt worse as it warmed up.

  “There’s ointment here,” Amanda said, checking the medicine cabinet. “I’ll wash it. Then we’ll bandage it again.”

  “I’m going to be fine.”

  “It’s nasty.”

  “It’s like a few cuts all together. No big deal.”

  “It is a big deal, and you know it.”

  Jess bit her lips as Amanda washed the wound with soap and water.

  “You’re a lot braver than I am,” Amanda said.

  “We need to get back on the ship.”

  “Chill. We need to get you healed.”

  “I had almost the same dream again. Maleficent and the Evil Queen. Someplace dark. A cave, I think, same as last time. But this time I was inside, and if it was Charlene, I don’t think she was alone. It looked like her from the back, but when she turned…there was a scarf wrapped around her. Maybe a rope around her neck. I couldn’t see her face clearly. I don’t know exactly what was going on, but if it was Charlene, I think they meant to kill her. We have to protect her. We have to tell the Keepers.”

  “I can send Philby an e-mail. You stay still.”

  “It doesn’t feel right. We need to be on the ship with them.”

  “I know, but we’re not. And you’re in no condition to go anywhere.”

  Amanda’s phone vibrated. It was insanely late to receive a text or a call. Driven by curiosity, she checked the device.

  “It’s from Wanda. A text.”

  “Saying?”

  Amanda read, “‘Sorry to hear about current situation. Text me back when you two are able to TAKE A NAP.’ She capitalized that last part. What’s with that?”

  “She probably thought you wouldn’t get it until tomorrow morning.”

  “So?”

  “So someone wants us to cross over.”

  “Well, that’s not going to happen! You’re injured!”

  “Amanda, she knows that. They wouldn’t cross us over if we couldn’t handle it. They must need us.”

  “Need you, you mean,” Amanda said, emphasizing Jess’s importance. For years it had been the same: everyone wanted what Jess had. Her ability to dream the future was more precious than money.

  “I’ll probably feel better crossed over. So if you’re worried about me, don’t. Write her back and tell her we’re going to sleep now.”

  “It’s not right.”

  “It’s Wayne. It’s Wanda. It’s right. They’ll have us back by morning. Remind them of that in the text—that Mrs. Nash will check on us if we’re not down for breakfast.”

  “As if you’ll get downstairs like that,” Amanda said, the phone suddenly heavy in her hand.

  * * *

  Amanda awoke beneath a superstructure of metal beams on an open-air, circular tiled terrace. It took her several seconds to recognize it as the base of Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

  She studied her hand’s peculiar quality—a luminescence that she wished was hers. It was, in fact, her hologram’s. She’d crossed over.

  Jess was to her left. Amanda wore the boxer shorts and spaghetti-strap tank top that she always slept in. Jess still wore the clothes she’d been wearing when she was injured on the ship. Her bandages were blood-soaked and nasty.

  “How are you?” Amanda asked.

  “I don’t think it hurts as much.”

  Amanda took Jess’s hologram hands and began dragging her awkwardly into the shadows. In that moment, a voice called out.

  “Willow?”

  A red-haired girl in a purple clamshell bikini top approached. Amanda froze. It was Ariel!

  Recalling Willa’s stories about Ariel saving her here in the Studios, Amanda smiled and called back.

  “Friends of Willa’s. I’m Amanda. This is Jess.”

  “Ah!” Ariel’s eyes grew larger as she took in Jess. It was obvious she didn’t see the injury, or chose to ignore it. “The sorceress, Jezebel!”

  “Hardly a sorceress,” Jess said, sitting up, but unable to stand.

  “We owe a great debt to you and the others,” Ariel said.

  “It’s the other way around,” Jess said. “We all—everyone who comes to the parks—worship you guys.”

  “Guys?” Ariel said curiously.

  “Characters,” Amanda. “You, the characters. We were sent here by—”

  “The Imagineers,” Ariel said. “The Elder.”

  “Wayne,” Amanda said. She’d never heard him called that.

  Jess couldn’t contain her curiosity. “Is our coming here connected to the theft of the journal from the library?”

  When Ariel smiled, the terrace filled with a soft light. “I believe you may be familiar with my friends.” She gestured into the shadows. Three silhouettes appeared, two of them distinctive. Tigger and Pluto. As they came into the light, Amanda and Jess saw that the sultry female form was Megara, from Hercules.

  None looked exactly like their film animations, but again, each was unmistakable.

  “We wish to help you,” Megara said in a silky voice. She looked directly at Jess’s leg. She was possibly the most beautiful of all the characters the girls had ever encountered in person. “Telephus, son of Hercules, is here in spirit.”

  Amanda looked around the area. The Engineering Base was only a few hundred yards from where they stood. “You’re exposed here. We know our enemies to be in the area.”

  “You forget,” Ariel said in an eerily calm voice. “Long before you and your friends came along, my friends and I were battling these same forces. Every night for decades. Yes, it is more serious now. Yes, the evil ones have organized in ways we never believed possible. But we are quite aware of the dangers.”

  “The battle for Base.”

  “Has subsided, at least temporarily.”

  “The Keepers were told only days ago the final battle was imminent!”

  “The darkness appears to lack leadership.”

  “We know where the leaders are. But there’s a technology that could allow them back here at any moment.”

  “I do not k
now this word tek…”

  “It’s…a form of magic. It comes from the power of lightning. We are trying to prevent the leaders from appearing magically.” Amanda ran her hologram arm through a wooden kiosk stand. Ariel was clearly impressed by the demonstration.

  “You see, Amanda,” she said, “once upon a time—forever, actually—the evil ones’ imagined superiority over one another has prevented them from working together effectively. They have battled each other, rather than us. This gave us an advantage. Now it is different. They have come together unexpectedly. This is why your friends like Willow were summoned. It is why all of you are here.”

  Ariel’s calm, lilting voice affected Amanda.

  It is why all of you are here.

  Tigger jumped up and down. Pluto nuzzled Amanda. She petted him.

  Megara approached Jess, knelt by her side, and kissed Jess on the forehead.

  “You have sacrificed and suffered much, my dear. We wish to thank you.” As Megara ran her hand directly above the wound, she whispered, “The oracle of Delphi once said, ‘He that wounded, shall heal.’ Do you know what this means?” As she asked, she pulled out a small leather purse sack and loosened its drawstring. She reached inside.

  “I suppose,” Jess said through clenched teeth, the pain tightening her throat, “I need to heal this myself?”

  Megara chuckled. “Not exactly, child. To the contrary, it means all one needs is the source of the injury to end the effects of the injury.” She pulled out two small white teeth from the bag. “Hyenas are part cat, part dog. Did you know that?” she mused to herself as Ariel passed her a knife and Megara scraped each tooth with the blade. She collected a tiny amount of tooth dust in her palm.

  “You mustn’t fear this, child,” Megara said. She rubbed the tooth dust into the open wound.

  It was as if two different photos of Jess’s leg had replaced each other: one showing the wound; one, without.

  “There,” Megara said. “That should feel better.”

  The rip remained in Jess’s pant leg, but the wound was closed and clean. Jess flexed her leg effortlessly. “No way…”

  Megara grinned serenely. “They have not defeated us yet, my child! The magic lives, I assure you. There is still much to fight for.”

  “This is why Wanda…” Amanda muttered, her eyes brimming with tears, unable to contain her joy at the healing miracle.

  “We are a team,” Ariel said. “Megara’s powers…well, this is child’s play for her.”

  It might be child’s play, but Megara looked tired and drained. Clearly the healing had taken something out of her.

  Ariel continued, “We ask that you come to believe in us. To rely upon us. We are at your disposal. We ask that you tell the others: you are not alone. You will do this for us? You will tell them about the power of our magic, please?”

  “Yes!” Amanda said.

  “Of course!” echoed Jess.

  It is why all of you are here.

  FINN MET STOREY MING outside the Radio Studio just after three that same morning, the sun far from being even a pink smudge on the horizon.

  Finn had sneaked out of his stateroom, feeling a bit like a traitor for leaving Philby behind.

  “This seems a little cloak-and-dagger to me,” Storey said. “Aren’t we basically going behind Philby’s back?”

  Her concern about Philby made Finn wonder about her motive. Was she interested in Philby?

  All things girl confused Finn. Specifically, Amanda confused him. They hadn’t had a chance to talk the night before. Finn wanted so badly to get things right with her again, but he had no idea how to rewind and reset his life.

  And was he more interested in Storey than he’d admitted?

  Storey challenged him with a take-no-prisoners look. “He put this call through last time, right?”

  Finn hoped the heat he felt in his face wasn’t showing. “Right.”

  Now he got it. She wasn’t suggesting that she and Finn liked each other and were cutting Philby out. Storey feared that Finn was betraying the other Keepers by asking her, not Philby, to connect him with Wayne.

  “It’s just…like a phone call,” he said. “Think of it as a phone call.”

  “But then why couldn’t Philby do it?”

  “Is this about Philby?” Finn said, wondering who had made those words come out of his mouth. What a stupid thing to say!

  “Is what about Philby?” Now Storey was blushing. “I’m not complaining. Am I whining? It’s early, if I’m whining—”

  “You’re not whining.”

  “There aren’t a lot of guys I would get up early for, Finn, if that’s what you’re asking. People,” she said, attempting to correct herself. “Not a lot of people.”

  “I guess we should do this,” he said.

  She stepped to within an inch of him, their faces almost touching. The landing outside the Radio Studio had felt chilly until that moment. “You think?” she whispered. “Me too.”

  If he dropped his chin or leaned forward they would kiss. Until then Finn hadn’t realized how phenomenally perfect her eyes were. They seemed oversized and bottomless. He wanted to dive in there and swim around inside her thoughts and discover what she was really thinking.

  Storey reached up and stroked his neck and ear. He felt shivers rip through him. “You are an incredible person. You know that?”

  “You’re the one who keeps saving us.”

  “I mean as a person. How you care so much about everyone. Think of them first. Put other people first all the time.”

  “That’s not exactly me…” How could she smell so good so early in the morning?

  “And you’re modest, on top of everything else.”

  “You have me confused with a secret agent who looks an awful lot like me.”

  “And funny.”

  This was it. He was supposed to kiss her now. Everything inside him was telling him that; everything but his brain, which was screaming for him to turn an about-face and scram.

  The elevator dinged.

  Storey swiped her crew member ID badge to the left of the door and the Radio Studio unlocked. She grabbed Finn’s hand and pulled. She eased the door shut. Click. She paced her index finger in front of her very full lips and kept him quiet—though Finn hardly needed to be told; he couldn’t think, much less speak.

  Soon, Storey had made contact with Lou Mongello of WDW Radio, whose Web-based radio show served as an interface to shipboard communication with Wayne. Lou, who sounded enthusiastic despite the early hour, patched them through. Soon Finn heard Wayne’s scratchy voice come through the headphones.

  “We have managed to encrypt the transmission this time,” Wayne said. “No need for code speak.”

  “O…kay. Is that why it sounds like you’re on the North Pole?” Finn said.

  “Actually, I’m much closer than that. Much.”

  “You’re on the sub!” Finn said.

  Storey’s eyes went wide. Then she put on her own set of headphones, and Finn could hear she’d cranked up music so as to not eavesdrop. He thought all the more of her for doing that.

  “I cannot confirm or deny my current location,” Wayne said. “What I can tell you—because we haven’t much time—is that your situation has taken a precarious turn.”

  “As in dangerous.” Finn told him about the hyena attack on Jess.

  “I’m sorry to hear about Jezebel,” Wayne said, using a name the girl had once been given by Maleficent. It struck Finn as an odd choice for Wayne; he did not question it. “But I was actually referring to the incident on Castaway Cay. Ship radar has confirmed the landing of a plane.”

  “Yes! Chernabog,” Finn said. “They’ve brought him on board.”

  “Then you must find him. You must work with Bob—Uncle Bob, they call him. Security.”

  “I’ve seen him around.”

  “He may not believe you. That may pose a bit of a problem—”

  “You think?”

  “But now
Tia Dalma’s presence there makes much more sense.”

  “Because?”

  “She’s…clever.” It wasn’t often Wayne was at a loss for words. “She’s powerful and cunning and, as you found out, no one to tangle with.” He paused. “To resist her power is futile. With her you must lose yourself to win.”

  “What does that even mean?” Finn asked.

  Finn heard noises in the background. Wayne rushed his next words. “How’s your mother?”

  The question hit Finn as awkward. “My mother? I…ah…haven’t seen her. I afraid she may have…vanished.”

  “No, actually, she hasn’t. Worry not. Certain factions loyal to our cause have hidden her. They are taking care of her.” Wayne often spoke cryptically. Whether to overdramatize or to motivate, Finn wasn’t sure. But it bothered Finn because it worked. His heart sped up.

  “You won’t see much of her on this voyage,” Wayne continued, “if at all. But don’t let that worry you. She’s resting. Recovering. She’s going to be fine.”

  Finn knew better than to argue, but couldn’t help himself.

  “If it’s all the same, I’d really like to see her,” he said.

  “It’s not advisable. We have concerns. Threats…”

  “We always have concerns,” Finn countered. “She’s not involved.”

  “But she was seen as being part of it. She drove you to your meeting at Typhoon Lagoon. That made her part of it.”

  “I want to see my mom.”

  “And put her at risk? At additional risk? You saved her, Finn. Leave it at that for now. Allow her to fully recover.”

  Finn didn’t want his mother to be any part of this. As much as he wanted to see her—needed to see her—he wouldn’t forgive himself he put in danger again.

  “We have more pressing matters,” Wayne said. “First is the Base. We have signs that our friends are regrouping, possibly for a major offensive.”

  The Overtakers had been attempting a siege on Disney World’s Engineering Base for some time. Seizing control of Base would give them not only full control of the attractions and electronic security at all the major parks, but access to the DHI servers, which had recently undergone a software upgrade. DHI 2.0 eliminated bugs and exponentially increased hologram performance. Like going from a bicycle to a Porsche. Loss of the Base would cripple Wayne and the Imagineers in their efforts to keep the parks functioning as usual; it might also put the Keepers out of business for good.